With a varied vocabulary, both in Hebrew and Greek, the Bible describes a spiritual attitude that is the opposite of *godliness: to the contempt of God and his law it adds a nuance of hostility and bravado. Paul announces the coming of the “man of impiety” par excellence, who in the last times “will rise above everything and present himself as God” (2 Thess 2,3s.8); he adds that “the mystery of impiety is already at work” in the world (2,7). In fact, it is in action from the beginning of history, since *Adam despised the commandment of God (Gen 3,5.22).
AT. 1. The wicked before God. Impiety is a universal fact in sinful humanity: impiety of the generation of the flood (Gen 6,11; cf. Job 22,15ss), of the builders of Babel (Gen 11,4), of the inhabitants of Sodom (Sab 10,6)… But it is affirmed with special clarity in the pagan peoples enemies of Israel, from the persecuting Pharaoh (cf. Wis 10,20; 11,9) to the idolatrous Canaanites (Wis 12,9), from Sennacherib the blasphemer ( Is 37, 17) to the proud *Babylon (Is 13,11; 14,4) and to the persecutor Antiochus Epiphanes (2Mac 7,34). However, the very people of God are not exempt from it: the rebels in the desert are impious (Ps 106, 13-33) like the unfaithful inhabitants of the promised land (Ps 106, 34-40); impious, the sinful nation against which God sends the pagans who are to punish it (Is 10,6; cf. 1,4). Despite the national conversion, the psalmists and the sages will denounce even after the exile the existence of impiety in the faithful people, and the Maccabean crisis will bring certain lost Jews to the fore (cf. lMac 3,15; 6, 21, etc).
2. The wicked and the righteous. In wisdom literature the human race appears divided into two categories: against the just and the wise, the impious and the *crazy. Between the two, an opposition and a fratricidal struggle that already announces the drama of the two cities. This drama, which began in the origins with Cain and Abel (Gen 4,8…), is updated at all times. The impious man gives free rein to his instincts: cunning, violence, sensuality, pride (Ps 36, 2-5; Wis 2,6-10); he despises God (Sal 10.3s; 14,1); rages against the just and the poor (Ps 10, 6-11; 17, 9-12; Wis 2, 10-20)… Apparent success, which can sometimes last and causes real anguish to religious souls (Ps 94,1-6; Job 21,7-13); At first, out of concern for *justice, the persecuted ask God for the loss of such misguided criminals (Ps 10,12-18; 31,18s; 109,6…) and they savor in advance a *revenge that surprises us (Ps 58 ,eleven).
3. The retribution of the wicked. The faithful of the covenant know well that the wicked go to ruin (cf. Ps 1,4ss; 34,22; 37,9s.12-17.20). But this calm affirmation of *retribution, which is still represented in a temporal perspective, runs up against scandalous facts. There are wicked people who prosper (Jer 12,1s; Job 21,7-16; Sal 73,2-12), as if divine sanction did not exist (Ecl 7,15; 8,10-14). Prophetic eschatology assures, yes, that in the last times the king *messiah will cause the impious to perish (Is 11,4; Ps 72,3), and that God will exterminate them when his *judgment arrives (cf. Is 24,1 -13; 25.1s). But the question must be settled for everyone at the individual level, and we must wait for a late date for it to be clarified. At the time of the Maccabees it is finally known that all the wicked will personally appear before the tribunal of God (2Mac 7,34s) and that there will be no *resurrection to life for them (2Mac 7,14; cf. Dan .2, two). Thus the book of Wisdom can trace the picture of his *final punishment, beyond *death (Wis 3,10ss; 4, 3-6; 5,7-14). This solemn testimony is the source of a saving reflection. Indeed, God does not want the wicked to die, but rather that they convert and live (Ez 33,11; cf. 18,20-27 and 33,8-19). A similar merciful perspective is to be discovered in the NT.
NT. 1. True wickedness. In the Greek vocabulary of the NT, the spiritual attitude stigmatized by the OT is designated even more precisely: it is impiety (asebeia), injustice (adikía), repudiation of the law (anomia). However, through the discussions of Jesus with the Pharisees, it is not long before two conceptions of this contempt of God confront each other. For the *Pharisees, the touchstone of *piety is the practice of the legal prescriptions and the *traditions that surround them; ignorance in this matter is already impiety (cf. Jn 7:49); thus, Jesus acts badly by eating with sinners (Mt 9,11 p), being his friend (Mt 11,19 p), lodging in his house (Lk 19,7). But Jesus knows very well that every man is a sinner and that no one can call himself pious and just; the *gospel that he brings gives precisely to sinners a possibility of *penance and salvation (Lk 5,32). The touchstone of true piety will therefore be the attitude adopted towards this gospel.
2. The call of the wicked to salvation. The problem is exactly the same since Christ consummated his * sacrifice by dying “by the hand of the wicked” (Act 2, 23). He died, “just for the unjust” (lPe 3.18), even though he wanted to “be reckoned among the evildoers” (Mk 15,28 p). He died for the wicked (Rom 5,6) so that they might be justified by faith in Him (Rom 4,5). Such are the *righteous of the NT: impious justified by *grace. Having recognized in the Gospel the call to salvation, they renounced impiety (Tit 2:12) to turn to Christ. Now the truly impious are the men who reject this message or who corrupt it: the false doctors who disturb the faithful (2Tim 2,16; Jds 4.18; 2Pe 2,1 ss; 3,3s) and deserve the name of * antichrists (1Jn 2,22); the indifferent who live in voluntary ignorance (2Pe 3,5; cf. Mt 24,37; Lk 17,26-30); even more so the pagan powers that will stir up the impious par excellence against the Lord (2Thess 2,3.8).
Such is the context in which the mystery of impiety is henceforth revealed.
3. The wrath of God on the wicked. Now, even more than in the OT, the punishment of this impiety is now a certainty. The wrath of God against all impiety and human injustice is permanently revealed (Rom 1,18; cf. 2,8); this is all the more true in the perspective of the end times and of the *final judgment. Then the Lord will annihilate the wicked with the splendor of his coming (2Thess 2,8), and all who participate in the * mystery of wickedness will be confounded and punished (Jds 15; 2Pe 2,7). If the punishment takes time, it is because God uses patience to allow the wicked to convert (2Pe 2,9).
-> Hypocrite – Sin – Pharisee – Piety.
LEON-DUFOUR, Xavier, Vocabulary of Biblical Theology, Herder, Barcelona, 2001
Source: Vocabulary of the Pauline Epistles