רָשָׁע

חָנֵף chânêph · H2611 · godless

Both describe wicked or morally corrupt persons. The other word emphasizes hypocrisy or profanity, whereas רָשָׁע (râshâʻ, H7563) emphasizes general wickedness or guilt.

צַדִּיק tsaddîyq · H6662 · righteous, just, right

רָשָׁע (râshâʻ, H7563) רָשָׁע "wicked, ungodly, guilty" and צַדִּיק (tsaddîyq, H6662) צַדִּיק "righteous, just, lawful" form a canonical antonym pair in Hebrew moral vocabulary. The wicked person (רָשָׁע) is characterized by guilt, condemnation, and ungodliness, while the righteous person (צַדִּיק) embodies justice, lawfulness, and moral uprightness—representing opposite poles of ethical and covenantal standing before God and community in biblical literature.

ἀσεβής asebḗs · G765 · ungodly

Greek ἀσεβής denotes active irreverence/impiety toward God as the core semantic, while Hebrew רָשָׁע encompasses broader moral wickedness and legal guilt beyond specifically religious impiety, though the LXX translators consistently employed ἀσεβής to render this Hebrew term in contexts where covenant-breaking wickedness overlapped with impiety.

ἁμαρτωλός hamartōlós · G268 · sinful, sinning, sinner

Greek ἁμαρτωλός emphasizes the state or character of being sinful/a sinner as a moral identity, while Hebrew רָשָׁע focuses on wickedness as active wrongdoing and guilt before divine or legal judgment; both denote moral culpability but differ in whether sin is treated as character-trait or condemnable act.

ἄνομος ánomos · G459 · lawless, without the Law

Greek ἄνομος (ánomos, G459) focuses specifically on lawlessness (violation of Torah/law), whereas Hebrew רָשָׁע (râshâʻ, H7563) denotes wickedness/guilt more broadly without inherent reference to law; the overlap occurs where covenant violation manifests as wickedness.

Evil002001002007

Genesis 18:23 asks whether God will "sweep away the righteous with the wicked," directly attesting this word's use for a person characterized as evil, in contrast to the righteous.

Words formed from the same root. They share a form, not always a meaning.

Meanings adapted from the UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament, © United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0 and the UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (from the Semantic Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew), © United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0; MACULA Greek Linguistic Datasets, available at https://github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-greek/, licensed CC BY 4.0; MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets © 2022-2024 by Biblica, Inc., CC BY 4.0. Westminster Leningrad Codex (tanach.us). OpenScriptures Hebrew Bible morphology (hb.openscriptures.org), CC BY 4.0.