The Greek noun agnōsia (Ἀγνωσία) is the opposite of gnōsis (knowledge), meaning "ignorance, lack of knowledge," and specifically in its New Testament contexts, ignorance of God. It appears in 1 Corinthians 15:34 ("some are ignorant of God") and 1 Peter 2:15 ("the ignorant talk of foolish people"). The word implies not merely absence of information but culpable moral and spiritual blindness.
Paul's use of agnōsia in 1 Corinthians 15:34 — "there are some who are ignorant of God" — is a stunning indictment embedded in his defense of the resurrection. Some in the Corinthian church were denying the resurrection, and Paul traces this theological error to its root: they do not truly know God. True knowledge of God — the relational gnōsis that Paul celebrates — necessarily includes faith in the resurrection, because God is a God of life and power. Agnōsia is not innocent confusion; it is the spiritual condition that produces ethical and theological failure. The antidote to agnōsia is not more information but encounter — the knowledge of Christ crucified and risen (Philippians 3:10). Peter similarly links agnōsia to foolish speech, suggesting that ignorance of God produces a disordered tongue and life.