TR: rasha → asebes (Wicked/Ungodly)¶
The Chain¶
Hebrew OT LXX (Greek OT) Greek NT
─────────── ─────────────── ────────
רָשָׁע (rasha) → ἀσεβής (asebes) → ἀσεβής (asebes)
H7563, 248v 137x as translation 8v in NT
"wicked, guilty" of rasha "ungodly, impious"
OT Usage (Hebrew)¶
| Strong's | Word | Occurrences | Primary Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| H7563 | רָשָׁע (rasha) | 248v | wicked, guilty — morally wrong person |
| H7561 | רָשַׁע (rashaʻ) | 35v | verb: be wicked, act wickedly, condemn |
| H7562 | רֶשַׁע (reshaʻ) | 29v | wickedness, wrong (abstract noun) |
Key OT passages: - Gen 18:23 — "Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?" - Psa 1:1, 4-6 — "the ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff... the way of the ungodly shall perish" - Eze 33:11 — "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live"
Library: H7563-rasha.md
LXX Bridge¶
| Hebrew | Greek Translation | Co-occ | PMI | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| rasha (H7563) | ἀσεβής (G765) | 137 | 30.00 | Primary equivalent |
| rasha (H7563) | ἁμαρτωλός (G268) | 69 | 26.26 | "sinner" — when moral failure emphasized |
| rasha (H7563) | ἄνομος (G459) | 28 | 16.05 | "lawless" — when law-breaking emphasized |
| rasha (H7563) | ἄδικος (G94) | 14 | 10.88 | "unjust" — when injustice emphasized |
Other Hebrew words also mapped to asebes (G765):
| Hebrew Source | Strong's | Co-occ | PMI |
|---|---|---|---|
| רָשָׁע (rasha) | H7563 | 137 | 30.00 |
| צַדִּיק (tsaddiyq) | H6662 | 63 | 22.04 |
| חָנֵף (chaneph) | H2611 | 6 | 11.57 |
| חַטָּא (chatta) | H2400 | 6 | 10.28 |
| עָרִיץ (ariyts) | H6184 | 6 | 10.14 |
The tsaddiyq co-occurrence (63x) reflects asebes appearing in the same verse as the antithetical pairing, not as its translation.
Semantic shift in translation: Hebrew rasha covers the full range of moral wrongdoing, legal guilt, and active wickedness. Greek asebes narrows the focus to impiety — the alpha-privative a- + seb- ("reverence") literally means "without reverence [toward God]." The LXX translation thus frames OT wickedness primarily as a failure of proper orientation toward God, rather than as generic moral evil.
NT Usage (Greek)¶
| Strong's | Word | Occurrences | Primary Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| G765 | ἀσεβής (asebes) | 8v | ungodly, impious |
| G763 | ἀσέβεια (asebeia) | 6v | ungodliness, impiety (noun) |
| G764 | ἀσεβέω (asebeo) | 1v | to live ungodly, act impiously (verb) |
Key NT passages: - Rom 4:5 — "But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." - 1 Pet 4:18 — "And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" - 2 Pet 2:5 — "spared not the old world, but saved Noah... bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly" - Jude 1:15 — "to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds"
Library: TODO(need G765 study)
Direct OT→NT Quotations¶
| NT Verse | Quotes OT | Shared Word | Significance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Pet 4:18 | Prov 11:31 (LXX) | rasha → asebes | "if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly... appear?" — direct chain |
| Rom 4:5 | cf. Exo 23:7, Prov 17:15 | rasha → asebes | Paul's "justifieth the ungodly" deliberately inverts the OT prohibition "I will not justify the wicked" — God does what human judges must never do |
Continuity and Shifts¶
What stays the same across testaments: - The rasha/asebes figure is consistently the opposite of the tsaddiyq/dikaios — both testaments maintain this fundamental moral binary - The wicked face certain judgment and destruction — OT Psalms/Proverbs and NT Jude/2 Peter echo identical themes - The link between wickedness and persecution of the righteous carries through (Psa 37:32 → 2 Pet 2:5-9)
What shifts: - Forensic reversal in Paul: The OT insists God will not justify the rasha (Exo 23:7). Paul uses the same LXX vocabulary (dikaioo + asebes) to declare that God does justify the ungodly through faith (Rom 4:5) — the cross-testament chain makes this inversion maximally visible - Eschatological intensification: NT usage concentrates asebes in judgment/eschatological contexts (2 Pet 2-3, Jude), while OT usage spans wisdom, legal, prophetic, and narrative contexts more broadly - Frequency collapse: From 248 OT verses to just 8 NT verses — the concept narrows and concentrates in final-judgment passages
Generated from: gather_trace_data.py, search_strongs.py (--lxx-map, --hebrew-source, --lookup, --lexicon) Last updated: 2026-05-11