Mark 7:22

πλεονεξίαι. Efforts to get more than one’s due, forms of selfishness; see on 2 Corinthians 9:5 and cf. Luke 12:15; Colossians 3:5. In Romans 1:29 we have πλεον. coupled with πονηρία.

δόλος. Conspicuous in Christ’s enemies (Mark 3:6; Mark 3:22; Mark 14:1); the true Israelite has none of it (John 1:48).

ἀσέλγεια. Unblushing licentiousness defying public opinion, such as was seen at the court of Antipas (Mark 6:22 f.). Like ὕβρις, it cares nothing for the feelings of others. Vulg. has impudicitia here.

ὀφθαλμὸς πονηρός. A belief in the “evil eye,” which brings ill to the person or thing on which it rests, seems to be almost universal in savage and half-civilized nations. But belief in a person whose look blighted without his willing it, the Italian jettatore, is not found in Scripture. There the ἀνὴρ βάσκανος (Proverbs 23:6; Proverbs 28:22) is envious, jealous, and grudging, and his “evil eye” is φθόνος and πλεονεξία combined; ὀφθαλμὸς πονηρὸς φθονερὸς ἐπʼ ἄρτῳ, “an evil eye is envious over bread” (Sir 14:8; Sir 14:10; cf. Sir 31:12-14; Tob 4:7; Deuteronomy 15:9; Deuteronomy 28:54; Deuteronomy 28:56). see on 2 Corinthians 9:6-7, and on the whole subject F. T. Elworthy, Evil Eye (1895); Lightfoot on Galatians 3:1.

βλασφημία. Not “blasphemy” (A.V.), but railing (R.V.), or “backbiting,” καταλαλία. see on 2 Corinthians 12:20. In 1 Peter 2:1 we have φθόνους καὶ πάσας καταλαλίας, which is much the same as ὀφθ., πον. and βλασφημία.

ὑπερηφανία. Here only in N.T., but freq. in LXX. See esp. Sir 10:7; Sir 10:12; Sir 10:18. It is the sin of the “superior” person, who loves to make himself conspicuous and “sets all others at nought” (Luke 18:9). The ὑπερήφανοι are condemned Luke 1:51; Romans 1:30; 2 Timothy 3:2; 1 Peter 5:5; James 4:6, the last two being quotations from Proverbs 3:32. In the Psalms of Solomon, ὑπερηφανία is often used of the insolent pride of the heathen as opponents of Jehovah.

ἀφροσύνη. The fool in Scripture (ἄφρων, μωρός, ἀνόητος, ἄσοφος) is one who does not know the moral value of things; he thinks that sin is a joke, and mocks at those who treat it seriously. Hence the severity with which he is condemned. In the Shepherd of Hermas there is much about ἀφροσύνη, Man. v. ii. 4, Sim. vi. Mark 7:2-3, ix. xv. 3, xii. 2, 3. It renders other vices incurable.