Faith & RitualGreek → English
Antinomian
/ˌæntɪˈnoʊmiən/adjective
Holding that Christians saved by grace are released from obedience to moral law.
The Greek roots
ἀντί
antí
against, opposite
νόμος
nómos
law, custom
Literally: “against the law”
The story of the word
Luther aimed the label at Johannes Agricola in the 1530s, arguing that a preacher who drops the law from his sermons leaves the gospel with nothing to save anyone from. It crossed to New England with Anne Hutchinson, whose 1637 trial is still filed under the Antinomian Controversy. Nómos is the busiest legal root Greek handed English, sitting inside autonomy, economy and astronomy.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Modern Latin → English
- First recorded
- 17th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
autonomyeconomyantinomyDeuteronomy
In a sentence
Critics read the sermon as antinomian and said so in print within a week.