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NASB | Acts 10:15 Again a voice came to him a second time, "What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy." |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Acts 10:15 And the voice came to him a second time, "What God has cleansed and pronounced clean, no longer consider common (unholy)." |
Bible Question:
I have a question about the Greek word used in Rom. 14:14. Hoping not to cause trouble here, I simply want to get further clarification from someone who knows Greek more than I. I've studied some the word koinos(G839) and akathartos(G169. koinos, from what I can tell, means common. Akathartos means ritually (Levitically) unclean. The LXX uses akathartos in Lev 11 and elsewhere, but uses koinos when describing things that are made common based on their use. To explain further: If I spoke of a Cray fish, I would use akathartos every time, because this is clearly unclean by Lev. 11 standards. There is no disputable issue with that. But if I were to speak of Lamb purchased at the market, I may uses koinos (common) because the Lamb is suspect; it could have been used in Idol worship. If it were known to be used in Idol worship, then it would certainly be koinos, or common. Therefore, if I speak of something that would otherwise be perfectly fine, but something renders it otherwise, it would be koinos. Am I right in that? A search of the words in the NT shows that in each case, koinos is used like I describe above. And akathartos is used as I describe above. Why then do nearly all translations use the word "unclean" in Rom. 14:14 rather than the word "common" as would be more literal? MJH |
Bible Answer: Greetings MJH! I haven't had time to do any extensive research on this excellent question, but I have noticed a couple of things. It certainly is true that the LXX only uses akathartos in Lev. 11. Koinos is only found a couple of times in Proverbs in the LXX. So, I am not sure there is enough evidence to decide if there is a clear cut difference in meaning between the two words. However, in the NT, the two words are used together quite often. Are they synonymous or not? The clearest indication that they may be synonymous appears to be Acts 10:15 where Peter is told not to call anything 'koinos' that God has 'katharizo'. I'll try to do some more checking on this question. Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |