Exploring the Meaning of Kakos in Greek

κακός describes what is evil or harmful, whether in deeds, inner thoughts, or the experience of “bad things.” In these passages it appears in parables, courtroom exchanges about Jesus and Paul, warnings about a corrupt servant, and descriptions of concrete harm.

Occurrences

Matthew 21:41 — “They told him, ‘He will miserably destroy those miserable men, and will lease out the vineyard to other farmers, who will give him the fruit in its season.’”

In the conclusion of the vineyard story, κακός functions as a moral description of the tenants as “miserable” in a way that warrants judgment. The line joins their character with the outcome: destruction is presented as fitting because the men themselves are portrayed as evil/harmful in the story’s moral logic.

Matthew 24:48 — “But if that evil servant should say in his heart, ‘My lord is delaying his coming,’”

Here κακός marks a servant whose inner reasoning (“say in his heart”) has turned corrupt. The word frames the servant’s outlook as evil/harmful before any outward act is named, showing that κακός can attach to a person’s settled disposition as revealed by internal speech.

Matthew 27:23 — “But the governor said, ‘Why? What evil has he done?’ But they cried out exceedingly, saying, ‘Let him be crucified!’”

κακός appears as the category of charge—an “evil” deed—that the governor asks to have specified. The question presses for evidence of harmful wrongdoing, and the crowd’s insistence on crucifixion contrasts with the lack of a stated evil act in the exchange.

Mark 7:21 — “For from within, out of the hearts of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, sexual sins, murders, thefts,”

In this list, κακός qualifies “thoughts” that originate “from within… out of the hearts of men.” The adjective points to evil/harm as a quality of inward deliberation, setting “evil thoughts” as the source from which a series of destructive behaviors can proceed.

Mark 15:14 — “Pilate said to them, ‘Why, what evil has he done?’ But they cried out exceedingly, ‘Crucify him!’”

As in Matthew’s account, κακός is the kind of wrongdoing Pilate asks them to identify. The adjective keeps the discussion anchored to the issue of harmful guilt—what evil act would justify the demanded sentence—while the response is again an intensified cry rather than an articulated charge.

Luke 16:25 — “But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that you, in your lifetime, received your good things, and Lazarus, in the same way, bad things. But here he is now comforted, and you are in anguish.”

κακός here describes “bad things” as the bitter counterpart to “good things” received in life. The word points to harmful experience—what Lazarus endured—without framing it as a moral accusation against him; it functions as a descriptor of adversity that stands in stark contrast to comfort and anguish in the afterlife scene.

Luke 23:22 — “He said to them the third time, ‘Why? What evil has this man done? I have found no capital crime in him. I will therefore chastise him and release him.’”

In Luke’s rendering, κακός is explicitly weighed against the legal conclusion: “no capital crime.” The repeated “Why?” and “third time” sharpen the demand for an evil/harmful act that would merit death; κακός is treated as the alleged substance of guilt, which the speaker denies finding at a level deserving execution.

John 18:23 — “Jesus answered him, ‘If I have spoken evil, testify of the evil; but if well, why do you beat me?’”

κακός is applied not to a deed in general but to speech: “spoken evil.” The challenge sets up a courtroom-like test: if the speech was evil/harmful, it should be evidenced (“testify of the evil”); if it was “well,” the beating is exposed as unjustified. The word thus names a moral and social injury that speech could inflict, and it becomes the hinge for calling witnesses.

John 18:30 — “They answered him, ‘If this man weren’t an evildoer, we wouldn’t have delivered him up to you.’”

Here κακός is built into a label for the accused—an “evildoer”—used as a substitute for a detailed accusation. The logic is circular: the delivery itself is offered as proof of evil/harm. The adjective therefore functions rhetorically, attempting to establish culpability by naming the person with a charged moral category.

Acts 9:13 — “But Ananias answered, ‘Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he did to your saints at Jerusalem.’”

κακός describes concrete harm done by “this man” to “your saints.” The phrase “how much evil he did” presents evil/harm as measurable in extent (“how much”), emphasizing the severity and breadth of injury attributed to him and explaining the speaker’s reluctance and fear in the narrative.

Acts 16:28 — “But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, ‘Don’t harm yourself, for we are all here!’”

In this urgent warning, κακός takes the form of “harm” directed toward oneself. The word’s sense fits the immediate physical danger implied by “Don’t… yourself,” and Paul’s reason—“for we are all here”—aims to stop a self-inflicted harmful act triggered by a mistaken assumption about escape.

Acts 23:9 — “A great clamor arose, and some of the scribes of the Pharisees’ part stood up, and contended, saying, ‘We find no evil in this man. But if a spirit or angel has spoken to him, let’s not fight against God!’”

Here κακός is the evaluative verdict sought in a dispute: “no evil in this man.” The statement positions the accused as lacking evil/harm worthy of condemnation, and it shifts the debate toward the possibility of divine communication (“a spirit or angel has spoken to him”) with the caution not to oppose God. κακός thus marks the line between punishable harmfulness and a scenario that demands restraint.

Sense and Usage

Across these texts κακός consistently names what is evil or harmful, but it does so in several distinct angles. It can label people in a morally charged way (“those miserable men,” “that evil servant,” “evildoer”), characterizing them as agents whose inward stance or outward behavior threatens others. It also attaches to specific domains: inner life (“evil thoughts,” “say in his heart”), spoken words (“spoken evil”), deeds done to others (“how much evil he did to your saints”), and even self-directed injury (“Don’t harm yourself”).

Several occurrences show κακός operating in legal and quasi-legal questioning. Pilate’s repeated inquiry—“What evil has he done?”—treats evil as an identifiable act that should be articulated as grounds for a sentence. Jesus’ reply in John similarly demands evidentiary procedure: if the speech was evil/harmful, witnesses should testify. Acts 23:9 again uses the term as an evaluative finding (“We find no evil”), where the absence of evil/harm becomes an argument against prosecution and against “fight[ing] against God.” In these settings κακός functions as a standard of accusation and proof.

At the same time, Luke 16:25 displays a different, experiential use: “bad things” received in life. Here κακός describes adversity itself—harmful circumstances endured—set in contrast with “good things” and followed by a reversal into “comforted” versus “anguish.” This use broadens the word’s scope from moral wrongdoing to the harmful realities that can be suffered, while still keeping the core idea of evil/harm in view.

Finally, the passages repeatedly connect κακός with outcomes. Evil tenants are “miserably destroy[ed].” The evil servant’s inner excuse begins the portrait of a servant headed toward betrayal of duty. Alleged evil becomes the contested justification for crucifixion. Harm is something to be prevented in a moment of crisis. In each case, κακός is not merely a label; it is a morally and practically weighty assessment that drives judgment, punishment, restraint, or rescue.

Imagery

The word’s imagery in these scenes is concrete and often judicial: a governor demanding a charge, a beaten prisoner calling for testimony, disputing scribes weighing a man’s guilt. Alongside that courtroom atmosphere, κακός also reaches inward to the “hearts of men” and outward to tangible injury—harm done to saints, and harm a person might do to himself in a desperate moment.

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).