# Sin-wise what’s the difference between wrath/ anger? Greed/Covetousness **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 25, 2025, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sin-wise-what-s-the-difference-between-wrath-anger-greed-covetousness/1017513 "2025-04-25T23:55:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sin-wise-what-s-the-difference-between-wrath-anger-greed-covetousness/1017513/1 "2025-04-25T23:55:50Z")
I recently picked up a set of shot glasses at an estate sale. Each one has the name of a Deadly Sin, except for one that just says “Sins” on it. I was slightly puzzled that “Wrath” , “Anger”, “Greed”, and “covetousness” each got their own spot. Is there a difference? Or were they just trying to pad out the set? ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2025, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sin-wise-what-s-the-difference-between-wrath-anger-greed-covetousness/1017513/2 "2025-04-26T00:03:37Z")
Lust, gluttony and pride would be the remaining seven deadlies. Greed isn’t one of them. Sloth is missing ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2025, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sin-wise-what-s-the-difference-between-wrath-anger-greed-covetousness/1017513/3 "2025-04-26T00:50:07Z")
I believe there is a sloth one. Lemme check. Yep! ---
**Author:** ![fedman1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e495f1/32.png) [@fedman1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fedman1)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2025, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sin-wise-what-s-the-difference-between-wrath-anger-greed-covetousness/1017513/4 "2025-04-26T00:50:48Z")
based on your heading, i thought the question was about difference between wrath and anger biblically, not seven sins ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2025, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sin-wise-what-s-the-difference-between-wrath-anger-greed-covetousness/1017513/5 "2025-04-26T01:03:05Z")
The seven mortal sins are the result of some centuries of theological thought. I believe Pope Gregory the Great, circa 600, promulgated the seven as we know them today: Pride, Envy, Wrath, Sloth, Wrath, Avarice, Gluttony, Lust. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2025, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sin-wise-what-s-the-difference-between-wrath-anger-greed-covetousness/1017513/6 "2025-04-26T01:54:14Z")
He really liked Wrath, eh? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2025, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sin-wise-what-s-the-difference-between-wrath-anger-greed-covetousness/1017513/7 "2025-04-26T04:46:05Z")
Well played; I laughed. Next you know they won’t be issuing badges to the inquistion any more. Being unexpected and all, they don’ need no steenkin’ badges. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2025, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sin-wise-what-s-the-difference-between-wrath-anger-greed-covetousness/1017513/8 "2025-04-26T04:49:42Z")
I laughed out loud too. Then I looked back to make sure it wasn’t wraith(a sin I never heard of but my religious studies were lax). That would be a deadly…something or other. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2025, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sin-wise-what-s-the-difference-between-wrath-anger-greed-covetousness/1017513/9 "2025-04-26T04:52:01Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > I was slightly puzzled that “Wrath” , “Anger”, “Greed”, and “covetousness” each got their own spot. Greed and covetousness have a lot of overlap, but there’s some distinction. Greed is about wanting _more and more,_ while covetousness both means being overly focused on gain, and on wanting things that belong to other people. > You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female slaves, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. > > — [Exodus 20:17](https://www.biblica.com/bible/?osis=niv:Exodus%2020:17) ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2025, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sin-wise-what-s-the-difference-between-wrath-anger-greed-covetousness/1017513/10 "2025-04-26T04:58:59Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > Greed isn’t one of them Yes it is. Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Lust, Pride, Wrath & Envy. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2025, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sin-wise-what-s-the-difference-between-wrath-anger-greed-covetousness/1017513/11 "2025-04-26T07:54:18Z")
I just looked again and one glass says: “Picking the wrong side.” Not sure what that one means. ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2025, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sin-wise-what-s-the-difference-between-wrath-anger-greed-covetousness/1017513/12 "2025-04-26T09:36:06Z")
You say they have the name of a “Deadly Sin”, but that one glass just says “Sins”, so maybe it’s nothing to do with “the 7”. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2025, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sin-wise-what-s-the-difference-between-wrath-anger-greed-covetousness/1017513/13 "2025-04-26T10:16:03Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > “Picking the wrong side.” The only sin is picking the wrong side. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2025, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sin-wise-what-s-the-difference-between-wrath-anger-greed-covetousness/1017513/14 "2025-04-26T10:39:03Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > He really liked Wrath, eh? He wasn’t wrong about wrath being a source of much evil in this world. I notice that smoldering resentment causes a lot of wars. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2025, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sin-wise-what-s-the-difference-between-wrath-anger-greed-covetousness/1017513/15 "2025-04-26T11:40:49Z")
Y’all do realize this is a list originally hammered out by theologians writing in _Greek and Latin_, and that the same word can be translated into English in various ways? Arguing over whether “greed,” “covetousness,” or “avarice” is one of the sins is missing the point. They’re all valid translations of _avaritia_. Similarly, Geoffrey Chaucer, writing around 1400, translates _ira_ as “ire”; Christohper Marlowe, two centuries later, calls the same sin “wrath”; a modern writer trying to use everyday twenty-first-century English would probably go for “anger.” So I think the likeliest explanation for the shot glasses is that the person who designed them was simply confused – they had _heard_ different versions of the seven deadly sins at different times, wrote down the ones they remembered rather haphazardly, and didn’t stop to check a list or consider whether some of the terms might be synonyms. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2025, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sin-wise-what-s-the-difference-between-wrath-anger-greed-covetousness/1017513/16 "2025-04-26T11:51:14Z")
Wrath and anger are two translations of the same sin. But the list does include both “greed” and “envy”. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2025, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sin-wise-what-s-the-difference-between-wrath-anger-greed-covetousness/1017513/17 "2025-04-26T12:13:47Z")
Right, _invidia_ (envy) and _avaritia_ (avarice / greed / covetousness) are separate sins, but (as far as I can tell), nobody translates _invidia_ as “greed” or “covetousness” – the dispute upthread about whether “greed” is a sin or not are all about the various translations of _avaritia_. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2025, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sin-wise-what-s-the-difference-between-wrath-anger-greed-covetousness/1017513/18 "2025-04-26T12:26:24Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > Sloth is missing Nah, just late to the game. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2025, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sin-wise-what-s-the-difference-between-wrath-anger-greed-covetousness/1017513/19 "2025-04-26T13:01:50Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female slaves, his ox or donkey, When I was in junior school, we had an American priest teaching RE. He read this out but in that version it was “ox or ass” and he read _ass_ as _arse_. Much hilarity ensued. ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2025, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sin-wise-what-s-the-difference-between-wrath-anger-greed-covetousness/1017513/20 "2025-04-26T15:52:40Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > The only sin is picking the wrong side. It’s a commandment rather than a sin, but the important one is: Don’t Get Found Out and Caught.At It.