Language is never innocent.
It is a weapon, a field of war, a fire upon the tongue. In the case before us, the word equality has done more to wound the Church of Christ than perhaps any other term smuggled into our English Bibles. For Paul did not speak of equality when he wrote to the Corinthians; he spoke of ἰσότης—isotēs—a fair measure, a just proportion, a symmetry of provision like manna in the wilderness. He spoke of a grace-economy where abundance circulates to need, not of a Platonic ideal floating above the earth. And yet, through the treacherous transmission of Latin and the ideological fire of the French Revolution, equality has become the end of both fraternity and liberty. This is not a mistake; it is an assault.
I. From Isos to Isometry
The Greek word ἴσος (isos) means equal only in the sense of balance, proportion, and fittingness. From it come our living words: isobar (equal weight), isometric (equal measure), isosceles (equal legs), isotope (equal place), isonomy (equal law), isostasy (equal standing). These are not abstractions; they are measurements of relation. They are geometry, earth, and physics. Isos lives in the body.
Paul’s isotēs (2 Cor 8:14; Col 4:1) is exactly this: a state of fair measure, a condition of right proportion. Today you have abundance; tomorrow you may lack. Therefore, supply now, that others may supply later. It is manna logic, covenantal logic, body logic. No one is flat. No one is the same. But each is straightened by the other so that the whole is upright.
To translate this as equality is to betray Paul.
II. Latin Distortion
The Romans gave us aequus—level, even, impartial. This passed into aequalitas and thence into English through French. At first it meant fairness, still close to the Hebrew מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat) and מֵישָׁרִים (mesharim). But already a slippage had begun. What was once proportional judgment became formal parity. The scales tipped toward abstraction.
III. Platonic Poison
Plato’s “Equal Itself” (to ison auto) is a Form, an ideal, a metaphysical abstraction. It is not a measurement in hand but a perfection beyond reach. To make “equality” a virtue is to leave the world of bread, fish, and measure, and to enter the mist of Forms. This is the first betrayal. Paul did not write as a Platonist; he wrote as an apostle of the Incarnation.
IV. Revolutionary Ruin
The second betrayal came in 1790s France: Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité. Here “égalité” was weaponized as an axe against the Father. No more hierarchy of source, no more fountain of deity, no more begetting of the Son, no more proceeding of the Spirit.
If all are “equal,” then all must be flat. If all are flat, then there is no Father. If there is no Father, there is no Son. If there is no Son, there is no Spirit binding brethren, only fraternity—bloodless, sexless, faithless.
Thus “equality” became an anti-Trinitarian idol, paraded as justice while destroying the very categories of justice.
V. The Assault on the Trinity
1. Fatherhood of God: equality erases origin, denying the Father as source and fountain of deity.
2. Godhood of the Son: equality denies begottenness, turning Christ into a co-partner instead of true God from true God.
3. Spirit of Brotherhood: equality supplants Spirit-bond with revolutionary fraternity, an imitation of Pentecost without fire.
This is no accident. It is the devil’s parody, speaking the language of fairness while smuggling in rebellion against Father, Son, and Spirit.
VI. The Recovery of Isometry
Against this false coin we place Paul’s true word: isotēs = isometry.
• Fair measure.
• Harmonized proportion.
• Just reciprocity.
• Symmetry, not sameness.
• Uprightness, not flatness.
This is the biblical concept, echoing Proverbs 1:3 (mesharim). It is the way of the manna, the way of the body, the way of the Cross. Christ, though rich, became poor that by His poverty we might be made rich. Not equal, but made fair. Not flat, but straightened.
Be done with false “equality” in an age of misanthropy
It is not Paul’s word. It is not the Spirit’s word. It is a Platonic abstraction that metastasized into a revolutionary slogan, and it has cut at the roots of Fatherhood, Sonship, and Brotherhood in the Church. Our word is isometry—fair measure in Christ.
Where there is isometry, there is justice. Where there is symmetry, there is beauty. Where there is fair measure, there is the Trinity—Father above all, Son given for all, Spirit binding all.
Anything less is treason to the Logos.
