The Word for Teeth

Galatians 5:15 · Rare or unique word · 2026-09-14

εἰ δὲ ἀλλήλους δάκνετε καὶ κατεσθίετε βλέπετε μὴ ὑπ’ ἀλλήλων ἀναλωθῆτε

But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.

The English reader hears 'bite and devour one another' as a vivid but general metaphor for quarreling — sharp words, mutual harm, nothing more specific than that.

The verb is δάκνετε (dakno), from δάκνω — the ordinary Greek verb for the physical bite of an animal's teeth. Paul uses it nowhere else in his letters, and it appears only here in the whole New Testament. It is not the polite word for 'criticize' or 'oppose.' It is the word you'd use for a dog, a snake, a wolf. Paired with κατεσθίετε — 'eat up, consume entirely' — the image is not two people sparring but two animals tearing at flesh until it is gone.

Paul chooses this word exactly once, and he chooses it here, in a letter otherwise devoted to grace, freedom, and the fruit of the Spirit. That rarity is the point: he reaches outside his normal vocabulary because normal words won't do. The Galatians' quarreling — likely over law-keeping, status, whose obedience counted more — had become something feral. Calling it 'biting' rather than 'disagreeing' strips away the dignity people give their own arguments. He wants them to see the teeth.

It is precisely because God does not speak to us in euphemism that we can trust him to speak to us in love. A God who only ever said 'you disagree' would leave us safe in our self-justification. The God who says 'you bite' is the God who sees exactly what is happening in the body of Christ and still does not walk away from it — he sends a letter, he sends a Spirit, he sends fruit to grow where fangs had been. That a single rare word can carry this much precision is itself a small witness to a God who does not deal with us in vague terms. He names the wound before he heals it.

Today

Before your next disagreement with someone in your church or family, ask yourself honestly: am I aiming to persuade, or to wound? Choose one sentence you were about to say, and don't say it.