Bible Dictionary: Defilement

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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary

1. (n.) The protection of the interior walls of a fortification from an enfilading fire, as by covering them, or by a high parapet on the exposed side.

2. (n.) The act of defiling, or state of being defiled, whether physically or morally; pollution; foulness; dirtiness; uncleanness.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

DEFILE; DEFILEMENT

de-fil', de-fil'-ment (Anglo-Saxon, afylau, etc.; Middle English, defoulen, "make foul," "pollute," render (the King James Version) 9 Hebrew roots (the Revised Version (British and American) six): ga`al, "defile"; chalal, "defile" (from "untie, loosen, open," i.e. "make common," hence, "profane"); chaneph, "incline away" (from right or religion), hence, "profane," "defile" (Jeremiah 3:9, the American Standard Revised Version "pollute"); Tame', the principal root, over 250 times translated "defile" 74 times "to become, or render, unclean"; Tanaph, "to soil" (Songs 5:3); `alal, "deal severely, or decidedly, with," "roll" (Job 16:15, the King James Version, the American Revised Version, margin); `anah, "humble" (Genesis 34:2 the King James Version, the American Standard Revised Version "humble"); qadhash, "separate," "sanctify," "devote to religious use," hence, "forfeit" (Deuteronomy 22:9 the King James Version, the American Standard Revised Version "forfeit," margin "consecrated"). They also render 6 (the King James Version) Greek roots (American Revised Version, 4): koinos, etc., "common" or "unclean," because appertaining to the outside world and not to the people of God, opposite of katharos, "clean," used 13 times; miaino, miasma, miasmos, "stain," "tinge," "dye": "In their dreamings defile the flesh," Jude 1:8; moluno, "stain," "contaminate": "not defile their garments" (Revelation 3:4); spiloo, "spot," "stain": "defile the whole body" (James 3:6); phtheiro, "corrupt," "destroy": the temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:17 the King James Version, the American Standard Revised Version "destroyeth"); arsenokoites: "defile themselves with men" (1 Timothy 1:10 the King James Version, the American Standard Revised Version "abusers of")):

1. Defilement in the Old Testament:

Defilement in the Old Testament was physical, sexual, ethical, ceremonial, religious, the last four, especially, overlapping.

(1) Physical: "I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?" (Songs 5:3).

(2) Sexual: which might be ceremonial or moral; of individuals by illicit intercourse (Leviticus 18:20), or by intercourse at forbidden times (Leviticus 15:24 1 Samuel 21:5); of the land by adultery: "Shall not that land be greatly defiled?" (Jeremiah 3:1 the American Standard Revised Version "polluted," usually substituted where the moral or religious predominates over the ceremonial).

(3) Ethical: "Your hands are defiled with blood" (Isaiah 59:3); "Neither shall they defile themselves any more with. any of their transgressions" (Ezekiel 37:23).

(4) Ceremonial: to render ceremonially unclean, i.e. disqualified for religious service or worship, and capable of communicating the disqualification.

(a) Persons were defiled by contact with carcasses of unclean animals (Leviticus 11:24); or with any carcass (Leviticus 17:15); by eating a carcass (Leviticus 22:8); by contact with issues from the body, one's own or another's, e.g. abnormal issues from the genitals, male or female (Leviticus 15:2, 25); menstruation (Leviticus 15:19); by contact with anyone thus unclean (Leviticus 15:24); copulation (Leviticus 15:16-18); uncleanness after childbirth (Leviticus 12:2-5); by contact with unclean persons (Leviticus 5:3), or unclean things (Leviticus 22:6), or with leprosy (especially defiling; Leviticus 13:14), or with the dead (Numbers 6:12), or with one unclean by such contact (Numbers 19:22), or by funeral rites (Leviticus 21:1); by contact with creeping things (Leviticus 22:5), or with unclean animals (Leviticus 11:26).

(b) Holy objects were ceremonially defiled by the contact, entrance or approach of the defiled (Leviticus 15:31 Numbers 19:13); by the presence of dead bodies, or any remains of the dead (Ezekiel 9:7 2 Kings 23:16: Josiah's defilement of heathen altars by the ashes of the priests); by the entrance of foreigners (Psalm 79:1; see Acts 21:28); by forbidden treatment, as the altar by being tooled (Exodus 20:25); objects in general by contact with the unclean. Ceremonial defilement, strictly considered, implied, not sin, but ritual unfitness.

(5) Religious: not always easily distinguished or entirely distinguishable from the ceremonial, still less from the ethical, but in which the central attitude and relationship to Yahweh as covenant God and God of righteousness, was more fully in question. The land might be defiled by bloodshed (Numbers 35:33), especially of the just or innocent; by adultery (Jeremiah 3:1); by idolatry and idolatrous practices, like sacrificing children to idols, etc. (Leviticus 20:3 Psalm 106:39); the temple or altar by disrespect (Malachi 1:7, 12); by offering the unclean (Haggai 2:14); by any sort of unrighteousness (Ezekiel 36:17); by the presence of idols or idolatrous paraphernalia (Jeremiah 7:30).

2. Defilement in New Testament:

The scope of defilement in its various degrees (direct, or primary, as from the person or thing defiled; indirect, or secondary, tertiary, or even further, by contact with the defiled) had been greatly widened by rabbinism into a complex and immensely burdensome system whose shadow falls over the whole New Testament life. Specific mentions are comparatively few. Physical defilement is not mentioned. Sexual defilement appears, in a figurative sense: "These are they that were not defiled with women" (Revelation 14:4). Ceremonial defilement is found in, but not approved by, the New Testament. Examples are: by eating with unwashed, "common," not ceremonially cleansed, hands (Mark 7:2); by eating unclean, "common," food (Acts 10:14; Peter's vision); by intimate association with Gentiles, such as eating with them (not expressly forbidden in Mosaic law; Acts 11:3), or entering into their houses (John 18:28; the Pharisees refusing to enter the Pretorium); by the presence of Gentiles in the Temple (Acts 21:28).

But with Christ's decisive and revolutionary dictum (Mark 7:19): "This he said, making all meats clean," etc., and with the command in Peter's vision: "What God hath cleansed, make not thou common" (Acts 10:15), and with Paul's bold and consistent teaching: "All things indeed are clean" (Romans 14:20, etc.), the idea of ceremonial or ritual defilement, having accomplished its educative purpose, passed. Defilement in the New Testament teaching, therefore, is uniformly ethical or spiritual, the two constantly merging. The ethical is found more predominantly in: "The things which proceed out of the mouth come forth out of the heart; and they defile the man" (Matthew 15:18); "that did not defile their garments" (Revelation 3:4); "defileth the whole body" (James 3:6). The spiritual seems to predominate in: "defiled and unbelieving" (Titus 1:15); "conscience being weak is defiled" (by concession to idolatry.) (1 Corinthians 8:7); "lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby the many be defiled" (Hebrews 12:15). For the supposed origins of the idea and details of defilement, as from hygienic or aesthetic causes, "natural aversions," "taboo," "totemism," associations with ideas of death, or evil life, religious symbolism, etc., see POLLUTION; PURIFICATION; UNCLEANNESS. Whatever use God may have made of ideas and feelings common among many nations in some form, the Divine purpose was clearly to impress deeply and indelibly on the Israelites the ideas of holiness and sacredness in general, and of Yahweh's holiness, and their own required holiness and separateness in particular, thus preparing for the deep New Testament teachings of sin, and of spiritual consecration and sanctification.

Philip Wendell Crannell

Greek

3436. molusmos -- defilement
... defilement. Part of Speech: Noun, Masculine Transliteration: molusmos Phonetic Spelling:
(mol-oos-mos') Short Definition: staining, defilement, pollution ...
//strongsnumbers.com/greek2/3436.htm - 6k

3393. miasma -- a stain, defilement
... a stain, defilement. Part of Speech: Noun, Neuter Transliteration: miasma Phonetic
Spelling: (mee'-as-mah) Short Definition: pollution, defilement Definition ...
//strongsnumbers.com/greek2/3393.htm - 6k

53. hagnos -- free from ceremonial defilement, holy, sacred
... free from ceremonial defilement, holy, sacred. Part of Speech: Adjective
Transliteration: hagnos Phonetic Spelling: (hag-nos') Short Definition: pure, chaste ...
//strongsnumbers.com/greek2/53.htm - 7k

48. hagnizo -- to purify, cleanse from defilement
... to purify, cleanse from defilement. Part of Speech: Verb Transliteration: hagnizo
Phonetic Spelling: (hag-nid'-zo) Short Definition: I cleanse, purify Definition ...
//strongsnumbers.com/greek2/48.htm - 6k

3394. miasmos -- the act of defiling
... Part of Speech: Noun, Masculine Transliteration: miasmos Phonetic Spelling:
(mee-as-mos') Short Definition: the act of pollution, defilement Definition: the ...
//strongsnumbers.com/greek2/3394.htm - 6k

3741. hosios -- righteous, pious, holy
... rather to human statutes and relations; from hieros, which denotes formal consecration;
and from hagios, which relates to purity from defilement), ie Hallowed ...
//strongsnumbers.com/greek2/3741.htm - 7k

4507. rhuparia -- to make filthy
... Noun, Feminine Transliteration: rhuparia Phonetic Spelling: (hroo-par-ee'-ah) Short
Definition: filth, pollution Definition: filth, pollution, defilement. ...
//strongsnumbers.com/greek2/4507.htm - 6k

234. alisgema -- pollution
... pollution. From alisgeo (to soil); (ceremonially) defilement -- pollution. (alisgematon)
-- 1 Occurrence. 233, 234. alisgema. 235 . Strong's Numbers.
//strongsnumbers.com/greek2/234.htm - 6k

Strong's Hebrew

1352. goel -- defiling, defilement
... 1351, 1352. goel. 1353 . defiling, defilement. Transliteration: goel
Phonetic Spelling: (go'-el) Short Definition: defiled. Word ...
/hebrew/1352.htm - 6k

2930. tame -- to be or become unclean
... 1), become defiled (3), become unclean (6), becomes unclean (13), becoming unclean
(1), been defiled (2), defile (25), defiled (38), defilement (1), defiles (5 ...
/hebrew/2930.htm - 6k

Library

But one Sometimes Comes to a Case of this Kind...
... The third, which so profits one as to hurt another, but not in corporal defilement. ...
For even to eat with unwashen hands the Jews thought defilement. ...
//christianbookshelf.org/augustine/on lying/section 24 but one sometimes.htm

Twenty-Fourth Day. Holiness and Cleansing.
... Twenty-fourth Day. Holiness and Cleansing. 'Having therefore these promises, beloved,
let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit ...
/.../murray/holy in christ/twenty-fourth day holiness and cleansing.htm

Out of St. Luke's Fifth ChapterAre Found Proofs of Christ's ...
... be meant for Him, that He was bound to observe the law and not touch the unclean
person, seeing that contact with the unclean would not cause defilement to Him ...
/.../tertullian/the five books against marcion/chapter ix out of st lukes.htm

Whether the Seminal Loss that Occurs During Sleep Hinders Anyone ...
... Therefore it seems that much less should he be debarred through defilement
resulting from a dream against the Sixth Commandment. ...
/.../aquinas/summa theologica/whether the seminal loss that.htm

A Solemn Warning for all Churches
... My first point will be general defilement"there were but "a few names" in Sardis
who had not "defiled their garments;" secondly, special preservation"there ...
/.../spurgeon/spurgeons sermons volume 2 1856/a solemn warning for all.htm

List of Abbreviations Used in Reference to Rabbinic Writings ...
... Meil. The Talmudic Tractate Meilah, on the defilement of things consecrated. Menach. ...
Tohar. The Talmudic Tractate Toharoth, on minor kinds of defilement. ...
/.../the life and times of jesus the messiah/list of abbreviations used in.htm

Thus Has the Question Been on Both Sides Considered and Treated...
... Wherefore, if cause have arisen that a Christian man should choose to burn incense
to idols, that he might not consent to bodily defilement which the ...
//christianbookshelf.org/augustine/on lying/section 12 thus has the.htm

Of the Agreement of the Evangelists Matthew and Luke in the ...
... already said at other times, that if He had avoided the womb of a woman, it might
have betokened, as it were, that He could have contracted defilement from her ...
/.../sermons on selected lessons of the new testament/sermon i of the agreement.htm

Then Further it is to be Observed that no Creature Can be Such as ...
... And just as in the sanctification of the Holy Ghost no thought of imperfection is
to be admitted, so in the Virgin-birth no defilement is to be imagined. ...
/.../8 then further it is.htm

Jesus Fails to Attend the Third Passover.
... These uncleannesses worked no spiritual defilement, but were merely typical of such;
for the food in no way touched or affected the mind or soul, the fountains ...
/.../mcgarvey/the four-fold gospel/lxv jesus fails to attend.htm

Thesaurus

Defilement (12 Occurrences)
... morally; pollution; foulness; dirtiness; uncleanness. Int. Standard Bible
Encyclopedia. DEFILE; DEFILEMENT. de-fil', de-fil'-ment ...
/d/defilement.htm - 21k

Defile (63 Occurrences)
... debauch; to violate. 9. (vt) To make ceremonially unclean; to pollute. Int.
Standard Bible Encyclopedia. DEFILE; DEFILEMENT. de-fil', de ...
/d/defile.htm - 38k

Purify (39 Occurrences)
... 1. (vt) To make pure or clear from material defilement, admixture, or imperfection;
to free from extraneous or noxious matter; as, to purify liquors or metals ...
/p/purify.htm - 19k

Cleanse (75 Occurrences)
... the land"). (3) To remove ceremonial defilement, the principal use, for which
the chief root is Taher: "Take the Levites. and cleanse ...
/c/cleanse.htm - 36k

Purge (35 Occurrences)
... permitting escape. 5. (vt) To clear from guilt, or from moral or ceremonial
defilement; as, to purge one of guilt or crime. 6. (vt ...
/p/purge.htm - 22k

Clean (298 Occurrences)
... complete; entire. 6. (superl.) Free from moral defilement; sinless; pure.
7. (superl.) Free from ceremonial defilement. 8. (superl ...
/c/clean.htm - 44k

Impurity (42 Occurrences)
... 1. (n.) The condition or quality of being impure in any sense; defilement; foulness;
adulteration. ... 3. (n.) Want of ceremonial purity; defilement. Int. ...
/i/impurity.htm - 21k

Uncleanness (56 Occurrences)
... 1. In the Old Testament (Hebrew): Tum'ah, "uncleanness," "defilement," occurs 26
times (Leviticus 7:20, 21; Leviticus 14:19; Leviticus 15:3, 15, 26, 30, 31, etc ...
/u/uncleanness.htm - 38k

Foot (193 Occurrences)
... 1 Samuel 25:41), probably because the youngest and least trained servants were charged
with the task, or because of the idea of defilement connected with the ...
/f/foot.htm - 48k

Nazarite (8 Occurrences)
... Nazarites retired to the temple during the last period of seven days, because they
could be secure there against any accidental defilement" (Lindsay's Acts). ...
/n/nazarite.htm - 13k

Bible Concordance

Defilement (12 Occurrences)

John 18:28 So they brought Jesus from Caiaphas's house to the Praetorium. It was the early morning, and they would not enter the Praetorium themselves for fear of defilement, and in order that they might be able to eat the Passover.
(WEY)

2 Corinthians 7:1 Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
(WEB WEY ASV NAS RSV)

Hebrews 9:13 For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have contracted defilement make them holy so as to bring about ceremonial purity,
(WEY)

1 Peter 3:21 And, corresponding to that figure, the water of baptism now saves you--not the washing off of material defilement, but the craving of a good conscience after God--through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
(WEY)

2 Peter 2:10 but chiefly those who walk after the flesh in the lust of defilement, and despise authority. Daring, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries;
(WEB ASV)

2 Peter 2:20 For if, after they have escaped the defilement of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in it and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.
(WEB ASV NAS RSV)

Leviticus 14:49 And he shall take, to purge the house from the defilement, two birds, and cedar-wood, and scarlet, and hyssop;
(DBY)

Leviticus 14:52 and he shall purge the house from the defilement with the blood of the bird, and with the running water, and with the living bird, and with the cedar-wood, and with the hyssop, and with the scarlet;
(DBY)

2 Chronicles 29:5 and said to them, Hear me, you Levites; now sanctify yourselves, and sanctify the house of Yahweh, the God of your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place. Esther
(See NIV)

Job 31:7 if my step has turned out of the way, if my heart walked after my eyes, if any defilement has stuck to my hands,
(WEB)

Ezekiel 22:3 and thou hast said: Thus said the Lord Jehovah: The city is shedding blood in its midst, For the coming in of its time, And it hath made idols on it for defilement.
(YLT NAS)

Micah 2:10 Arise ye, and depart; for this is not the resting-place, because of defilement that bringeth destruction, even a grievous destruction.
(DBY)

Subtopics

Defilement

Defilement Defile

Defilement of Priests

Defilement of Sin

Defilement of Unholy Doctrines

Defilement: Caused by Childbirth

Defilement: Caused by Copulation

Defilement: Caused by Gonorrhea

Defilement: Caused by Killing in Battle

Defilement: Caused by Leprosy

Defilement: Caused by Menses