SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS. Not a Biblical term as such, but a concept derived primarily from a negative picture of the Pharisees found in the gospels (cf. the Fr. pharisaïsme, which is the equivalent of the Eng. self-righteousness and the Ger. Selbstgerechtigkeit). It refers to an attitude whereby a religious person considers himself either morally upright or in right standing with God because of his adherence to the letter of legal requirements without regard to their spirit.

Technically, the term may be applied in a religious sense to the person who tries to make himself right with God by his own “rightness,” or by keeping the divine statutes. Thus Paul speaks of the Jews as “being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking to establish their own” (Rom 10:3), and further testifies of himself as “not having a righteousness of my own, based on law” (Phil 3:9). In a more distant way this kind of “self-righteousness” is the burden of Elihu’s complaint against Job (cf. Job 32:2; 33:8-12).

More often the concept has moral implications. Jesus refers to the Pharisees as “the righteous” in contrast to tax-collectors and sinners (Mark 2:15-17 and parallels); almost certainly there were some Pharisees who held the same view (Luke 18:9). But Jesus clearly implied that “the righteous” were not really so: “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 5:20). Their “righteousness” was external, with an emphasis on conformity and quantity (cf. Matt 23:1-36, esp. 23:28: “So you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity”); the righteousness Jesus called for was internal, with an emphasis on quality (cf. Matt 5:21-48), although it also involved action (cf. Matt 7:21, 24; 25:31-40).

Thus the self-righteous person is righteous neither in the religious nor the moral sense. He does not have right standing with God through self-effort or adherence to the law; nor is he morally upright, since only his conduct is affected and not his attitudes.