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katharos

καθαρός

GreekG2513clean, pure, ...

Appears 28 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 5:8Mat 23:26Mat 27:59Luk 11:41Jhn 13:10 (2×)Jhn 13:11Jhn 15:3Act 18:6Act 20:26Rom 14:201Ti 1:51Ti 3:92Ti 1:32Ti 2:22Tit 1:15 (3×)Heb 10:22Jas 1:271Pe 1:22Rev 15:6Rev 19:8Rev 19:14Rev 21:18 (2×)Rev 21:21Rev 22:1
Root family
Word studykah-thah-ROSSadjective

What katharos means

clean or pure: free of anything that stains, defiles, or disqualifies, from literal dirt to inner corruption

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintySettled

At its root the word means free of whatever would stain or spoil something. It can describe a thing with no dirt on it, a person the ritual law counts as fit to come before God, or a heart with nothing false or corrupt in it. One word carries all three, and the Bible moves easily from one to the next.

In the New Testament the weight falls on the inside. Jesus calls the pure in heart blessed, and warns that scrubbing the outside of a cup while the inside stays greedy misses the whole point. Paul and the other writers speak again and again of a pure heart and a clean conscience, meaning a person whose motives are undivided and whose record leaves nothing weighing on them before God.

The word also keeps the older idea of ceremonial cleanness: being in a state that lets one draw near to God rather than being shut out. The early church came to say that all foods are now clean, so the word marks a real shift in how God's people thought about purity.

A quieter use means simply innocent, or not to blame. When Paul says he is clean from the blood of everyone, he means no one's ruin can be laid at his feet.

Nuances

1afree of dirt or flaw: a clean cloth, pure metal, clear water
Mat 23:26Mat 27:59Heb 10:22Rev 15:6Rev 19:8Rev 19:14Rev 21:18 (2×)Rev 21:21Rev 22:1
1bceremonially clean: acceptable to come before God, not ruled off-limits by ritual impurity
Luk 11:41Rom 14:20Tit 1:15 (3×)
1cmorally pure: free from sin, guilt, or divided motives within
Mat 5:8Jhn 13:10 (2×)Jhn 13:11Jhn 15:31Ti 1:51Ti 3:92Ti 1:32Ti 2:22Tit 1:15 (3×)Jas 1:271Pe 1:22
1dinnocent: not answerable or to blame for something
Act 18:6Act 20:26

What scholars say about katharos

Standard lexicography treats καθαρός as a single adjective spanning a coherent range: free from dirt, cultically clean, and morally or religiously pure, with a further idiomatic use meaning free from liability (καθαρὸς ἀπό, clean from). BDAG organizes the entry along these lines, and no separate homonym is required. Hauck's TDNT article traces the movement from the physical and cultic sphere in classical and Septuagint usage to the strong New Testament emphasis on inward, ethical purity, especially of the heart and the conscience. EDNT and Louw and Nida concur that the senses are extensions of one concept rather than distinct words. The Septuagint regularly uses καθαρός to render Hebrew טָהוֹר (tahor), which anchors the cultic sense; the New Testament writers, following Jesus, decisively relocate the center of gravity to the inner person.

Sources

  • BDAG (Bauer-Danker-Arndt-Gingrich), s.v. καθαρόςlexicon
  • F. Hauck, "καθαρός κτλ.," in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT) 3:413-431dictionary
  • H. Balz, "καθαρός," in Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament (EDNT) 2:218-220dictionary
  • J. P. Louw and E. A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, 2nd ed. (1989), 53.28-53.33lexicon

All attested forms of καθαρός

accusative n s

καθαρόν, καθαρὸν

Rev 19:8, Rev 19:14, Rev 15:6, Rev 22:1

nominative m p

καθαροί, καθαροὶ

Jhn 13:10, Jhn 13:11, Jhn 15:3, Mat 5:8

nominative n s

καθαρόν, καθαρὸν

Mat 23:26, Tit 1:15, Rev 21:18, Rev 21:21

dative f s

καθαρᾷ

Mat 27:59, 1Ti 3:9, 2Ti 1:3

genitive f s

καθαρᾶς

1Ti 1:5, 2Ti 2:22, 1Pe 1:22

nominative m s

καθαρὸς, καθαρός

Jhn 13:10, Act 18:6, Act 20:26

nominative n p

καθαρὰ

Luk 11:41, Rom 14:20, Tit 1:15

dative m p

καθαροῖς

Tit 1:15

dative m s

καθαρῷ

Rev 21:18

dative n s

καθαρῷ

Heb 10:22

nominative f s

καθαρὰ

Jas 1:27