adjective
afronos
Strong’sG878
senseless, foolish, inconsiderate
stem afron-11 times in the New Testamentin 6 of 27 books6 of 26 forms occur
What it means
A plain-English reading of the word, with the lexicons it draws on — Abbott-Smith, Strong's, and Liddell-Scott-Jones — right below it, in full.
AI Summary
Without reason, senseless, foolish — describing someone who lacks sound judgment, sober-mindedness, or careful thought, showing a reckless and inconsiderate habit of mind rather than genuine mental derangement 1. Strong's similarly describes it as properly mindless or stupid, and by extension ignorant, self-centered, rash, or (in a moral sense) unbelieving 2. Dodson glosses it simply as senseless, foolish, inconsiderate 4. Older Greek usage also applies the word to persons acting foolishly or without sense 3.
In earlier Greek literature the word could also describe someone crazed or frantic, and was even used of lifeless statues in the sense of "senseless" — uses not found in the biblical text 3.
A separate, unrelated use of the same word-form in later Greek names a poisonous plant, hemlock 3.
Sources: 1 Abbott-Smith 2 Strong's 3 LSJ 4 Dodson. Condensed by anthropic/claude-sonnet-5 on 2026-09-23 — it may still misstate what these say; check them yourself if it matters to you.
The lexicons it was drawn from, in full:
Abbott-Smith — the 1922 lexicon entry, in full
ἄφρων, -ον gen. -ονος
(< φρήν), [in LXX for כְּסִיל, נָבָל, etc.;]
G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, 1922 — public domain. References open in the reader.
Strong’s G878 — the 1890 definition, and where the word comes from
Saidaf'-rone
properly, mindless, i.e. stupid, (by implication) ignorant, (specially) egotistic, (practically) rash, or (morally) unbelieving
Fromfrom G1 (as a negative particle) and G5424;
King Jamesfool(-ish), unwise.
James Strong, Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, 1890 — public domain. The numbers in it link to the entries here.
Liddell-Scott-Jones — the classical dictionary this word appears in
genitive ονος, (φρήν) senseless, of statues, Refs 5th c.BC+:— and so, crazed, frantic, ἄφρονα κούρηνRefs 8th c.BC+; silly, foolish, Refs 8th c.BC+; τὸ ἄ., ={ἀφροσύνη}, Refs 5th c.BC+; τῶ φρονίμῳ τῆς γνώμης παύοντες τὸ ἄ. [τῆς ῥώμης] Refs 5th c.BC+: comparative -έστεροςRefs 5th c.BC+: superlative -έστατοςRefs 5th c.BC+. adverb -νως senselessly, Refs 5th c.BC+; opposed to νοῦν ἐχόντως, Refs 5th c.BC+: comparative -εστέρωςRefs 5th c.BC+ -έστερον Refs 4th c.AD+
2 ἄφρων, ={κώνειον}, Ps.-Refs 1st c.AD+
H. G. Liddell, R. Scott, H. S. Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon (9th ed., 1925–1940) — digitised by the Perseus Digital Library and corrected and expanded by Tyndale House, Cambridge, via STEPBible-Data's TFLSJ table, CC BY 4.0. Covers all of Greek literature, not just the Bible.
Translated as
Every occurrence, sorted by the English it was actually given — the evidence for what the word means, not a gloss of it.
Berean Standard Bible (BSB), dedicated to the public domain — berean.bible.
Biblang forms
Every form this word takes in Biblang, with the Greek it corresponds to and how often the New Testament uses it.
| Job in the sentence case | masculine singular | feminine singular | neuter singular | masculine plural | feminine plural | neuter plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| subject nominative | afronos2×ἄφρων | afronas | afronem | afronois1×ἄφρονες | afronais | afroneim |
| object accusative | afronon2×ἄφρονα | afronan | afronoin | afronain | ||
| direct address vocative | afronor2×Ἄφρων | afronar | afronoir1×ἄφρονες | afronair | ||
| of, belonging to genitive | afronou | afronau | afroneu | afronoiu3×ἀφρόνων | afronaiu | afroneiu |
| to, for dative | afrono | afrona | afrone | afronoi | afronai | afronei |
Tinted cells are forms the New Testament never uses, so there is no Greek to show against them — but they are still correct Biblang, built from the slots below like any other.
Why these forms, and no others — the slots that make them
afron is this word in every one of its forms. The slots after it make all the rest.
same in every form varies — every value shown
Where it appears
Every verse the word appears in, filed under the form it takes there.
11 occurrences, every one of them listed
afronos“fool”subjectnominative singular2×
2 Corinthians 12:6ean gar thelameia kauchera, ouk emi afronos, alētheian gar legami; feidomō de, mē …… boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the …
2 Corinthians 12:11Genamē afronos; vis min anankazava; mis gar ofeilame …I have become a fool, but you drove me to it …
afronon“fool”objectaccusative singular2×
2 Corinthians 11:16Palin legamō, mē tinos min dokateia afronon arō ei de mē ge, kan …… no one take me for a fool. But if you do, then receive …
2 Corinthians 11:16… ei de mē ge, kan hōs afronon dechevar min, hina kamis mikrem tinem …… do, then receive me as a fool, so that I too may boast …
afronor“fool”direct addressvocative singular2×
Luke 12:20legata de auto tos theos; Afronor, houta ta nukta tan psuchan su …But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will …
1 Corinthians 15:36“foolish”afronor, sis hem sperasō, ouk zōopoiotō ean …You fool! What you sow does not come to life unless it …
afronois“foolish”subjectnominative plural1×
Ephesians 5:17dia houtem mē genovōr afronois, alla suniēkavōr tinem tem thelēmem tou …Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will …
afronoir“fools”direct addressvocative plural1×
Luke 11:40afronoir, ouk tos poiarantos tem exōthen kai …You fools! Did not the One who made …
afronoiu“foolish”of, belonging togenitive plural3×
Romans 2:20paideuton afronoiu, didaskalon nēpioiu, echarōnton tan morfōsian tau …an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you …
2 Corinthians 11:19hēdeōs gar anechovō toiu afronoiu fronimois arōntois;For you gladly put up with fools, since you are so wise.
1 Peter 2:15… tou theou, agathopoiarōntoin fimarō tan toiu afronoiu anthrōpoiu agnōsian;… you should silence the ignorance of foolish men.