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koinoō

κοινόω

GreekG2840defile, call common, ...

Appears 14 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 15:11 (2×)Mat 15:18Mat 15:20 (2×)Mrk 7:15 (2×)Mrk 7:18Mrk 7:20Mrk 7:23Act 10:15Act 11:9Act 21:28Heb 9:13
Word studykoy-NO-ohverb

What koinoō means

to make common: to render or treat something as ritually unclean, stripping it of clean or holy standing; to defile

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

This verb is built on the adjective κοινός, "common." In ordinary Greek "common" simply meant shared or everyday, but in Jewish religious life the everyday stood opposed to the holy: what was common was not fit to come near God. So "to make common" came to mean "to defile," to pull a person or place out of the clean, holy category and into the profane.

Two shades run through its New Testament uses. In the Gospels Jesus turns the idea inward, arguing that food entering the body does not defile a person; what defiles comes out of the heart. In Peter's rooftop vision the sense is declarative: God tells him not to call common what God has made clean, so the word means to label something unclean rather than to actually pollute it.

Across both shades the concern is ritual status, not physical dirt. To defile in this sense is to treat as ordinary and off-limits what should be counted clean or holy, whether by an act, by a false verdict, or by breaking a boundary God set.

Nuances

1ato make ritually unclean; to defile a person or sacred place so it loses its clean or holy standing
Mat 15:11 (2×)Mat 15:18Mat 15:20 (2×)Mrk 7:15 (2×)Mrk 7:18Mrk 7:20Mrk 7:23Act 21:28Heb 9:13
1bto declare or regard something as common, and so as unclean
Act 10:15Act 11:9

What scholars say about koinoō

The verb κοινόω is denominative from the adjective κοινός, "common," and its cultic sense ("make common" = "defile") develops within Second Temple Judaism, where the common (profane) stands opposed to the holy and the clean. BDAG distinguishes two senses: to cause something to be ritually impure (the Synoptic controversy over hand-washing and food, Matt 15 / Mark 7; the charge that Paul defiled the temple, Acts 21:28; the ceremonially defiled in Heb 9:13) and to consider or declare something ritually impure (Acts 10:15; 11:9). Hauck (TDNT) traces the same trajectory for the κοινός word group, and Louw-Nida classifies the verb under both making and regarding as unclean.

Sources

  • BDAG, s.v. κοινόωlexicon
  • F. Hauck, "κοινός, κοινόω, κτλ.," TDNT 3:789-809dictionary
  • Louw-Nida, Greek-English Lexicon Based on Semantic Domains, s.v. κοινόωlexicon

All attested forms of κοινόω

present active indicative 3s

κοινοῖ

Mat 15:11, Mat 15:11, Mat 15:18, Mat 15:20, Mrk 7:20, Mrk 7:23

aorist active infinitive

κοινῶσαι

Mrk 7:15, Mrk 7:18

present active imperative 2s

κοίνου

Act 10:15, Act 11:9

present active participle nominative n p

κοινοῦντα

Mat 15:20, Mrk 7:15

perfect active indicative 3s

κεκοίνωκεν

Act 21:28

perfect passive participle accusative m p

κεκοινωμένους

Heb 9:13