Meaning
denotes "ambition, self-seeking, rivalry," self-will being an underlying idea in the word; hence it denotes "party-making." It is derived, not from eris, "strife," but from erithos, "a hireling;" hence the meaning of "seeking to win followers," "factions," so rendered in the RV of 2Co 12:20, AV, "strifes;" not improbably the meaning here is rivalries, or base ambitions (all the other words in the list express abstract ideas rather than factions); Gal 5:20 (ditto); Phi 1:17 (RV; AV, Phi 1:16, "contention"); Phi 2:3 (AV, "strife"); Jam 3:14, Jam 3:16 (ditto); in Rom 2:8 it is translated as an adjective, "factious" (AV, "contentious"). The order "strife, jealousy, wrath, faction," is the same in 2Co 12:20, Gal 5:20. "Faction" is the fruit of jealousy. Cp. the synonymous adjective hairetikos, Tit 3:10, causing division (marg., "factious"), not necessarily "heretical," in the sense of holding false doctrine.
