Envy
Sorrow at another’s good: the one vice that gives its owner nothing to enjoy.
- InvidiaIn Latin
- KindnessIts opposite
- Terrace 2Dante’s Purgatory
Picture: Joseph’s Coat Brought to Jacob, Diego Velázquez, 1630. El Escorial, Madrid.
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- Envy
A short bar is a pull your answers barely found. That is a description of your answers, not a certificate.
What is envy, as one of the seven deadly sins?
Envy is sorrow at another person’s good: the sinking feeling when a friend gets the job, the house, the praise. It is not wanting what they have, which is ordinary, but minding that they have it. Of the seven it is the only one with no pleasure in it at all.
Why it matters
Envy is quiet and it is common, and it spoils the good things in your life by measuring them against someone else’s. The questions on it ask the plain question: when someone you know does well, do you get smaller or glad? Most people know the honest answer before they finish reading.
Where does the Bible name it?
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A tranquil heart is life to the body, but envy rots the bones.
Proverbs 14:30
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For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every evil practice.
James 3:16
Berean Standard Bible
Did you know?
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The word comes from the Latin invidia, looking upon someone with ill will, and Dante took the picture literally: in the Purgatorio the envious sit in grey cloaks with their eyelids sewn shut with wire, because the eye is where envy begins.
Dante, Purgatorio, canto XIII
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The Gospels give envy as the reason Jesus was handed over. Matthew and Mark both say Pilate knew the chief priests had delivered Him up out of envy.
Matthew 27:18; Mark 15:10
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Gregory the Great listed what each vice gives birth to. From envy, he wrote, come hatred, whispering, running people down, gladness at a neighbor’s misfortune and grief at his success.
Gregory the Great, Moralia in Job, Book XXXI