WICKED BIBLE. See Bible Versions, B, IV., § 9.

WICKEDNESS: A term which has varied connotations in dogmatics according to its general or individual application. In the former sense it implies the destruction caused by sin in its active aspect (Gen. vi. 5; Ps. xciv. 23; Isa. siii. 11; Jer. ii.

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19) and merits condemnation and death (Jer. xviii. 8; xxxv. 17; Ezek. xviii. 26; xxxiii. 13). Wickedness is essentially the active aspect of sin, and connotes a false tendency of the reason and the will which is persistent and determined in its course (Jer. ix. 3; Rom. i. 29). It is the self-centered pride in which the natural man identifies himself with his sinful impulses (Jer. viii. 6; I Cor. v. 8), and despite its reprehensibility and condemnation (Pa. xciv. 23; Isa. xiii. 11), it is ineradicable (Jer. vi. 7; viii. 6, ix. 3; Nah. iii. 19). Naturally the term "wickedness" can be applied in this sense to individuals, since the sinfulness of each man may be regarded either as particular or general, according as preeminence is given to personal responsibility or to the universal corruption of sin (Wild. of Sol., ii. 21; I Pet. ii. 1).

As applied to the individual, wickedness connotes unholy delight in the intentional infliction of injury on others (Esther viii. 3; Ps. liv. 5), as well as pride at success in working harm (Matt. xxii. 18; Eph. iv. 31; Col. iii. 8). Ferocity, cruelty, revenge, and calumny are forms in which wickedness is manifested, while destructiveness and malice often receive modifications from it.

The ancient classification of sins as those of ignorance, weakness, and malice, current since St. Augustine, finds its justification in the general concept of wickedness, though it is inadequate. Johann Gerhard divided sins into involuntary, or those committed from ignorance and weakness, and voluntary, or those done with malice prepense. From the point of view of ethical religion, a distinction may be drawn between sins of ignorance and those committed knowingly, the latter being divisible into sins of weakness and of malice, and it is also permissible to distinguish between conscious and unconscious sins as well as between those which are voluntary and such as are involuntary.

(L. Lemme.)