Tool Beta
Is It Actually in the Bible?
Phrases people quote as Scripture. The real verse, or the honest answer that there is not one.
"Emulations" listed among the works of the flesh means admiring someone and trying to live up to their good example
"Emulations" translates a Greek word for jealousy or rivalry, a vice, not admiration.
Galatians 5:20, in every translation this tool compares.
Galatians 5:20 lists "emulations" right alongside "hatred, variance… wrath, strife" as a work of the flesh. The underlying Greek word is "zelos," which can mean either good zeal or, in a bad sense, jealousy and envious rivalry, and Paul clearly means the bad sense here, grouped with obviously destructive sins.
Modern English "emulation" is almost always positive, copying someone worth imitating, striving to match their excellence, so on a first read it looks strange sitting in a list of vices. Once you know it's translating "jealousy," the verse makes sense again.
