Pondering

[kerravonsen]

The difference between envy and jealousy is this: with envy, you see something that someone else has, and you want to have it as well; with jealousy, you see something that someone else has, and you want to take it away from them.

I remember being jealous of someone's attention once; it was an ugly feeling. I did not like the me that I was when I was feeling it.

I suspect/speculate that the Fall was caused by Lucifer being jealous of God's attention to these puny beings called mankind.

Though the problem with using jealousy as an explanation is that it is often used as an excuse; that is, "You're just jealous" is a counter-accusation used by party B when party A has a grievance with party B, and party B does not want to acknowledge that party A has any right to this grievance. This is used for anything from terrorism (Isama Bin Laden was apparently jealous of America) to negative fanfic reviews (yes, I was accused of jealousy by someone whom I gave a negative review to, which was completely illogical, because by that logic, I would give negative reviews to any story that was good).

Comments

[phaea]

that's an interesting distinction between jealousy and envy! i've never heard that before, although i've always thought envy was somehow better than jealousy. just couldn't articulate why.

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

Hm, I think I'd define jealousy and envy rather differently than you suggest here, as I'm thinking about the OT references to God as "a jealous God" and also Paul saying he was jealous for the Corinthians, wanting them to be pure and wholly devoted to Christ. So Biblically speaking it sounds as though that jealousy can be a legimate and even good thing (at least in its proper context), whereas envy is always presented as bad and sinful.

With that in mind, it seems to me that jealousy is the desire to keep exclusive possession of something that you consider belongs rightfully to you (i.e. a wife being jealous of her husband's attention to another woman, for instance), whereas envy or covetousness is the desire to take possession of something that belongs to someone else, whether you're entitled to it or not.

However, it's true that in common usage the term "jealous" is most commonly used to refer to a selfish, mean-spirited attitude that wants to hurt and humiliate others for having skills, possessions or privileges you wish you had yourself. I just don't tend to use it that way because I think "envious" is more accurate.

[kerravonsen]

(argh!) I think one reason it's difficult to discuss the difference between "envy" and "jealousy" is that they are so often used synonymously!

as I'm thinking about the OT references to God as "a jealous God"

I was actually thinking of that too, and I think it still fits, if one can consider that there are two forms of jealousy: one where one has the right to feel it, and one where one does not have the right to feel it; that is "righteous/unrighteous" or "legitimate/not-legitimate". God is righteously jealous of our worship; it is not enough that we give our worship to him, we also need to have our worship of other things taken away. That is, righteous jealousy is "the desire to keep exclusive possession of something that you consider belongs rightfully to you", and unrighteous jealousy is the desire to keep exclusive possession of something that doesn't belong to you at all.

Now, maybe I have it backwards, but... I think my brain would scramble if I tried to swap "envy" and "jealousy" in my mental dictionary. It's my ideolect, I suppose.
Though I just checked wikipedia, and it defines envy to cover either/or: "an emotion which occurs when a person lacks another's superior quality, achievement, or possession and either desires it or wishes that the other lacked it".
(throws hands in air)

[dreamflower]

This is the explanation our pastor gave in her sermon on "Envy" last week.

The thing is both words are often used in ways that don't reflect their Biblical meanings, and so they naturally get confused.

But Envy often leads to covetousness, and Jealousy frequently leads to wrath.

[kerravonsen]

But Envy often leads to covetousness, and Jealousy frequently leads to wrath.

Now that's worth pondering. Hmmmm.