Pride

Pride (Hebrew ga'avan, geva; Greek hyperephania, alazoneia) denotes the vice of arrogant self-exaltation that sets itself above God and others, and is consistently identified in Scripture as the foundational human sin. It entered the world through the temptation to be "like God" (Gen. 3:5), and is associated with the fall of the adversary himself (Isa. 14:13–14; Ezek. 28:17). Proverbs states the principle plainly: "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall" (Prov. 16:18), and "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble" (Prov. 3:34; Jas. 4:6; 1 Pet. 5:5). The OT records the downfall of proud kings — Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar (Dan. 4:30–37), Herod Agrippa (Acts 12:21–23) — as paradigms of divine judgment on human arrogance. Jesus declared "every one who exalts himself will be humbled, and everyone who humbles himself will be exalted" (Matt. 23:12; Luke 14:11; 18:14). Paul lists pride among the vices of the unregenerate (Rom. 1:30; 2 Tim. 3:2) and roots it in a disordered self-assessment that ignores the grace from which all gifts come (1 Cor. 4:7).