pure and undefiled: morally clean and free from anything that would disqualify a person from coming before God, often with an overtone of chastity or sincerity
In everyday Greek this began as a temple word. It described a worshipper who had been cleansed of anything that would bar them from the sanctuary, whether the stain of bloodshed, contact with a corpse, or sexual defilement, and who was therefore fit to draw near to the god. The New Testament keeps that picture but moves it inward: what now makes a person fit to approach God is a clean heart and an honest life.
Because purity can be measured in more than one way, the word stretches across a small family of related shades:
- It can mean broad moral integrity, a life with nothing corrupt in it (Philippians 4:8).
- It can narrow to chastity, sexual faithfulness in marriage or in one's whole manner of life (Titus 2:5).
- It can mean innocence, being cleared of any guilt in an affair (2 Corinthians 7:11).
- At its height it describes the flawless purity of Christ himself, the standard believers are meant to grow toward (1 John 3:3).
It is easy to blur this word with its close cousin ἅγιος, "holy." The two grew from the same root but divided the work between them: "holy" points to being set apart and belonging to God, while this word points to being free of defilement. It also differs from καθαρός, "clean," which pictures dirt that has been washed away; this word names an inward quality of being unstained in the first place.
Nuances
Whether ἁγνή in James 3:17 means inner moral purity in a broad sense or specifically single-hearted, undivided devotion to God.
- contestedBroad inner moral purity and moral excellence, the foundational uprightness from which the other listed qualities of heavenly wisdom flow.; D. Moo, The Letter of James (Pillar, 2nd ed., 2000), 134-136; L. T. Johnson, The Letter of James (Anchor Bible 37A, 1995), 273-274
- contestedSingle-heartedness or undividedness, purity as the opposite of the double-minded person (δίψυχος) of James 1:8 and 4:8.; P. H. Davids, The Epistle of James (NIGTC, 1982), 153-154; S. McKnight, The Letter of James (NICNT, 2011), ad loc.
Whether ἁγνήν in 1 Peter 3:2 describes a wife's whole reverent, morally upright conduct or specifically her sexual faithfulness.
- majorityWhole-person reverent conduct that includes marital fidelity but is not limited to it.; P. Achtemeier, 1 Peter (Hermeneia, 1996), 208-210; K. Jobes, 1 Peter (BECNT, 2005), ad loc.
- minorityChastity and marital fidelity specifically, reflecting the Greco-Roman ideal of the virtuous wife that the domestic instruction addresses.; J. Elliott, 1 Peter (Anchor Bible 37B, 2000), 555-575; L. Goppelt, A Commentary on 1 Peter (Eerdmans, 1993), ad loc.