Tag Archives: akrasia in the Bible

The Greek word akrasia

Found just twice in the New Testament (Mt. 23:25; 1 Cor. 7:5), the Greek noun “akrasia” described a lack of self-control or self-indulgence. Jesus said the “scribes and “Pharisees” were “full of “excess” (the New Living Translation renders this “self-indulgence”). In 1 Cor. 7:5 Paul used this term to describe a lack of self-control in sexual matters (“Defraud ye not one the other, except it be by consent for a season, that ye may give yourselves unto prayer, and may be together again, that Satan tempt you not because of your incontinency”).