Exploring the Meaning of Homilia in Greek

ὁμιλία refers to “association,” and it appears once in the New Testament, in Paul’s warning in 1 Corinthians 15:33. In that single setting the term is framed as a powerful influence that can either preserve or damage a person’s moral character.

Root and Related Words

ὁμιλία (Homilia) is related to ὅμιλος (homilos), “crowd” (Strong’s G3658). The connection to “crowd” places the idea of association in the realm of concrete social grouping: the people one is with, the company one keeps, the circle in which one moves.

Occurrences

“Don’t be deceived! “Evil companionships corrupt good morals.”” (1 Corinthians 15:33)

In this line, ὁμιλία is the hinge of the warning. The statement is shaped as a blunt principle: “companionships” have a moral effect. The word sits between two strongly evaluative terms—“evil” on one side and “good morals” on the other—so the association in view is not neutral. It is a kind of social bond or involvement that can carry moral quality and moral consequence.

The verse also gives ὁμιλία a particular force by introducing it with “Don’t be deceived!” This makes the warning more than a general observation about social life. The reader is told that self-deception is a danger here: one can misjudge the effect of one’s associations, perhaps thinking they are harmless, manageable, or compartmentalized, when in fact they work like a corrupting agent. The verb “corrupt” frames the association as something that acts over time and changes what it touches. In that frame, ὁμιλία is not merely the fact of being around others; it is association understood as a channel of influence.

Finally, the plural “companionships” presents the matter as potentially multiple and varied. The warning is not limited to a single relationship or a single momentary encounter, but to associations in the plural—patterns of company, networks of connection, recurring contexts where shared life happens. In this sentence, ὁμιλία is portrayed as something with real weight: it can be “evil,” and when it is, its effect is to corrode “good morals.”

Sense and Usage

With the definition “association,” ὁμιλία in 1 Corinthians 15:33 refers to the lived reality of social connectedness—who one associates with and what kind of shared company that becomes. The verse treats association as morally freighted. The adjective “evil” does not describe “morals” in the line; it describes the associations themselves (“Evil companionships…”). That grammatical placement makes association the primary locus of evaluation: the company can be characterized as evil, and then the moral outcome follows.

The proverb-like structure also shows how “association” works in practice. It is not described as a single decisive act but as an environment that shapes character. “Corrupt” depicts a process of deterioration: association has the capacity to affect the quality of “morals,” moving them away from what is “good.” In that usage, ὁμιλία is the social medium through which corruption spreads. The verse thus draws a line from the social to the ethical, insisting that the two are not separable.

Because ὁμιλία is expressed as “companionships” in the quotation, the term’s “association” is relational rather than merely institutional. It is about the kind of company one keeps—companions, social circles, the community one spends time with—rather than a formal alliance. The related word ὅμιλος (“crowd”) reinforces this social dimension: association is pictured as being part of a group, near enough to be influenced by it, bound to it in ways that are practical and habitual.

The verse also suggests that association is evaluable not only by intention but by effect. The warning is not phrased as “evil people teach evil morals,” but “evil companionships corrupt good morals.” That shift of emphasis places attention on the association itself—its shared practices, assumptions, speech, and pressures as they function in the life of those within it. Association becomes the setting in which moral formation happens, for better or for worse.

In the single attested usage, then, ὁμιλία carries the sense of association as an active influence. The moral direction of the association (“evil”) is presented as sufficient to predict its outcome (“corrupt”). The line does not argue this point; it asserts it with the force of a maxim, and it frames rejecting deception as the first step in receiving the warning.

Imagery

Although ὁμιλία is an abstract noun, the imagery in 1 Corinthians 15:33 is concrete: association is like contact that changes what it touches. “Corrupt” casts evil companionships as a degrading force working against “good morals,” so the term evokes the picture of character being worn down through ongoing company. Paired with the related idea of a “crowd,” ὁμιλία suggests the moral atmosphere of the group as something a person enters and breathes, with consequences that the verse presents as real and predictable.

Sources: Lexical data from Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance and the Translators Brief Lexicon of Extended Strongs for Greek (STEPBible, CC BY). Occurrence data from the Translators Amalgamated Greek New Testament (STEPBible, CC BY). Scripture quotations from the World English Bible (public domain).