noun · feminine
mataiotas
Strong’sG3153
vanity, purposelessness
stem mataiot-3 times in the New Testamentin 3 of 27 books2 of 10 forms occur
What it means
What the word means, in the words of the lexicons out of copyright — Abbott-Smith, Strong's, and Liddell-Scott-Jones, wherever each has an entry for it.
† ματαιότης, -ητος, ἡ
(< μάταιος), [in LXX for הֶבֶל, Ps 30 (31):6 38 (39):5 61 (62):9, al., and nearly 40 times in Ec; for שָׁוְא, Ps 25:4, al.; רִיק, etc.;]
G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, 1922 — public domain. References open in the reader.
Strong’s G3153 — the 1890 definition, and where the word comes from
Saidmat-ah-yot'-ace
inutility; figuratively, transientness; morally, depravity
Fromfrom G3152;
King Jamesvanity.
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
vanity, purposelessness, ματαιότης ματαιοτήτων LXX+1st c.AD+; folly, ἀνθρώπων Refs 5th c.BC+
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 | one singular | more than one plural |
|---|---|---|
| subject nominative | mataiotas | mataiotais |
| object accusative | mataiotan | mataiotain |
| direct address vocative | mataiotar | mataiotair |
| of, belonging to genitive | mataiotau1×ματαιότητος | mataiotaiu |
| to, for dative | mataiota2×ματαιότητι | mataiotai |
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
mataiota 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.
3 occurrences, every one of them listed
mataiotau“empty words”of, belonging togenitive singular1×
2 Peter 2:18huperonkeim gar mataiotau fthengorōntois deleazalō en epithumiai sarkau aselgeiai …With lofty but empty words, they appeal to the sensual passions …
mataiota“futility”to, fordative singular2×
Romans 8:20ta gar mataiota tas ktisias hupotassita, ouk hekōnas alla …For the creation was subjected to futility, not by its own will, but …
Ephesians 4:17… kathōs kai teim ethneim peripatatō en mataiota tou nouou auteiu,… as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.