Is φθόνος ever found in an unambiguously favorable sense? Or even in a morally neutral sense? Isn’t it typically used pejoratively or at least with implied disapproval, just as “envy” is used in English? In the NT it occurs several times as one item in a catalog of sins, e.g. in Romans 1:29. In the Passion narrative (Matt 27:18, Mark 15:10) it is given as the chief priests’ motive for handing Jesus over to Pilate.I take it that he’s deploring φθόνος among his addressees. This fits with his inveighing against their internal dissensions (4.1 πόθεν πόλεμοι και πόθεν μάχαι εν ὑμιν; etc., 2 ζηλοῦτε etc., cf. 3.14 ει δε ζῆλον ...) and with the rest of the letter. ζῆλος is very close to φθόνος, and I take him to be saying that φθόνος is alien to the spirit that God housed within them (or among them) and yearns to be realized. I very much doubt that the φθόνος is to be understood as God’s; I think the context precludes that.
Statistics: Posted by BrianB — Sun Jul 07, 2024 12:25 pm