Grafted Biblical Concept · Concept

Clean

טָהוֹר · Tahor · H2889

Clean in biblical ritual terminology refers to a state of ritual fitness or purity that allows appropriate participation in sacred life.

90 Scripture references1 lexical sources14 supporting resources

Primary Study

Grafted Bible Dictionary

Definition

Clean in biblical ritual terminology refers to a state of ritual fitness or purity that allows appropriate participation in sacred life.
It does not automatically mean morally righteous, hygienic, or physically healthy.

Torah Context

Clean and unclean distinctions appear in:
• food
• childbirth
• skin conditions
• bodily discharges
• contact with corpses
• sanctuary access
See:
• Leviticus 11–15
• Numbers 19

Ritual and Moral Categories

Ritual purity should not be equated automatically with moral purity.
A person could become ritually unclean through ordinary events such as childbirth or contact with the dead without committing a sin.

Food

Leviticus 11 classifies animals as clean and unclean for food.

Prophetic Usage

The prophets sometimes use clean/unclean imagery symbolically for moral or spiritual conditions.
Context determines the category.

Hebrew and Greek Word Study

Hebrew Word Study

טָהוֹר

ṭâhôwr · H2889

Original Word: טָהוֹר
Transliteration: ṭâhôwr
Strong’s: H2889
Pronunciation: taw-hore'

Unified Lexical Definition

pure (in a physical, chemical, ceremonial or moral sense)

Lexical Sources

BDBOpen Scriptures Hebrew Bible lexical data / BDB-Strong mapping

pure (in a physical, chemical, ceremonial or moral sense)

View original lexicon entry

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    "exhaustive_concordance": [],
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Hebrew Bible Usage

95 occurrences

First listed reference: Genesis 7:2

View All Hebrew Occurrences

Biblical Usage

Concordance and Scripture Usage

88Exact Lemma2Translation Match145Conceptual Relationship

Torah · 64

Prophets / Historical Books · 7

1 Samuel 20:26Exact Lemma 1 Chronicles 28:17Exact Lemma 2 Chronicles 3:4Exact Lemma 2 Chronicles 9:17Exact Lemma 2 Chronicles 13:11Exact Lemma 2 Chronicles 30:17Exact Lemma Ezra 6:20Exact Lemma

Writings / Wisdom · 12

Job 14:4Exact Lemma Job 17:9Exact Lemma Job 28:19Exact Lemma Job 33:9Translation Match Job 37:21Translation Match Psalms 12:6Exact Lemma Psalms 19:9Exact Lemma Psalms 51:10Exact Lemma Proverbs 15:26Exact Lemma Proverbs 22:11Exact Lemma Proverbs 30:12Exact Lemma Ecclesiastes 9:2Exact Lemma

Prophets · 7

Isaiah 66:20Exact Lemma Ezekiel 22:26Exact Lemma Ezekiel 36:25Exact Lemma Ezekiel 44:23Exact Lemma Habakkuk 1:13Exact Lemma Zechariah 3:5Exact Lemma Malachi 1:11Exact Lemma

Reference Works

Bible Dictionary, Encyclopedia, and Names

Unified Dictionary Summary

Clean in biblical ritual terminology refers to a state of ritual fitness or purity that allows appropriate participation in sacred life.

Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897)

The various forms of uncleanness according to the Mosaic law are enumerated in Lev. 11-15; Num. 19. The division of animals into clean and unclean was probably founded on the practice of sacrifice. It existed before the Flood (Gen. 7:2). The regulations regarding such animals are recorded in Lev. 11 and Deut. 14:1-21. The Hebrews were prohibited from using as food certain animal substances, such as (1) blood; (2) the fat covering the intestines, termed the caul; (3) the fat on the intestines, called the mesentery; (4) the fat of the kidneys; and (5) the fat tail of certain sheep (Ex. 29:13, 22; Lev. 3:4-9; 9:19; 17:10; 19:26). The chief design of these regulations seems to have been to establish a system of regimen which would distinguish the Jews from all other nations. Regarding the design and the abolition of these regulations the reader will find all the details in Lev. 20:24-26; Acts 10:9-16; 11:1-10; Heb. 9:9-14.

Sources: Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897)

Unclean

Unclean refers to a ritual condition that may restrict participation in sacred space or activities until purification occurs.

Kosher

Kosher is a later Jewish term meaning fit or proper, commonly used for food that conforms to Jewish dietary requirements.

Holiness

Holiness refers fundamentally to being set apart, sacred, or belonging uniquely to God.

Torah

Torah means instruction, teaching, or direction.

Temple

The Temple was the central sanctuary associated with God's covenantal presence and Israel's worship in Jerusalem.

Purification

Purification is the process by which ritual uncleanness, contamination, or defilement is removed so that a person or object may return to an appropriate state of cleanness.

The Truth About Pork

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CLEAN AND UNCLEAN ANIMALS

Nave’s Topical Bible references for CLEAN AND UNCLEAN ANIMALS.

CLEAN

Nave’s Topical Bible references for CLEAN.

Animal

An organized living creature endowed with sensation. The Levitical law divided animals into clean and unclean, although the distinction seems to have existed before the Flood (Gen. 7:2). The clean could be offered in sacrifice and eaten. All animals that had not cloven hoofs and did not chew the cud were unclean. The list of clean and unclean quadrupeds is set forth in the Levitical law (Deut. 14:3-20; Lev. 11).

Ashes

The ashes of a red heifer burned entire (Num. 19:5) when sprinkled on the unclean made them ceremonially clean (Heb. 9:13). To cover the head with ashes was a token of self-abhorrence and humiliation (2 Sam. 13:19; Esther 4:3; Jer. 6:26, etc.). To feed on ashes (Isa. 44:20), means to seek that which will prove to be vain and unsatisfactory, and hence it denotes the unsatisfactory nature of idol-worship. (Comp. Hos. 12:1).

Bird

Birds are divided in the Mosaic law into two classes, (1) the clean (Lev. 1:14-17; 5:7-10; 14:4-7), which were offered in sacrifice; and (2) the unclean (Lev. 11:13-20). When offered in sacrifice, they were not divided as other victims were (Gen. 15:10). They are mentioned also as an article of food (Deut. 14:11). The art of snaring wild birds is referred to (Ps. 124:7; Prov. 1:17; 7:23; Jer. 5:27). Singing birds are mentioned in Ps. 104:12; Eccl. 12:4. Their timidity is alluded to (Hos. 11:11). The reference in Ps. 84:3 to the swallow and the sparrow may be only a comparison equivalent to, "What her house is to the sparrow, and her nest to the swallow, that thine altars are to my soul."

Clean

Hart

(Heb. ayal), a stag or male deer. It is ranked among the clean animals (Deut. 12:15; 14:5; 15:22), and was commonly killed for food (1 Kings 4:23). The hart is frequently alluded to in the poetical and prophetical books (Isa. 35:6; Cant. 2:8, 9; Lam. 1:6; Ps. 42:1).

Hoof

A cleft hoof as of neat cattle (Ex. 10:26; Ezek. 32:13); hence also of the horse, though not cloven (Isa. 5:28). The "parting of the hoof" is one of the distinctions between clean and unclean animals (Lev. 11:3; Deut. 14:7).

Locust

There are ten Hebrew words used in Scripture to signify locust. In the New Testament locusts are mentioned as forming part of the food of John the Baptist (Matt. 3:4; Mark 1:6). By the Mosaic law they were reckoned "clean," so that he could lawfully eat them. The name also occurs in Rev. 9:3, 7, in allusion to this Oriental devastating insect. Locusts belong to the class of Orthoptera, i.e., straight-winged. They are of many species. The ordinary Syrian locust resembles the grasshopper, but is larger and more destructive. "The legs and thighs of these insects are so powerful that they can leap to a height of two hundred times the length of their bodies. When so raised they spread their wings and fly so close together as to appear like one compact moving mass." Locusts are prepared as food in various ways. Sometimes they are pounded, and then mixed with flour and water, and baked into cakes; "sometimes boiled, roasted, or stewed in butter, and then eaten." They were eaten in a preserved state by the ancient Assyrians. The devastations they make in Eastern lands are often very appalling. The invasions of locusts are the heaviest calamites that can befall a country. "Their numbers exceed computation: the hebrews called them the countless,' and the Arabs knew them as the darkeners of the sun.' Unable to guide their own flight, though capable of crossing large spaces, they are at the mercy of the wind, which bears them as blind instruments of Providence to the doomed region given over to them for the time. Innumerable as the drops of water or the sands of the seashore, their flight obscures the sun and casts a thick shadow on the earth (Ex. 10:15; Judg. 6:5; 7:12; Jer. 46:23; Joel 2:10). It seems indeed as if a great aerial mountain, many miles in breadth, were advancing with a slow, unresting progress. Woe to the countries beneath them if the wind fall and let them alight! They descend unnumbered as flakes of snow and hide the ground. It may be like the garden of Eden before them, but behind them is a desolate wilderness. At their approach the people are in anguish; all faces lose their colour' (Joel 2:6). No walls can stop them; no ditches arrest them; fires kindled in their path are forthwith extinguished by the myriads of their dead, and the countless armies march on (Joel 2:8, 9). If a door or a window be open, they enter and destroy everything of wood in the house. Every terrace, court, and inner chamber is filled with them in a moment. Such an awful visitation swept over Egypt (Ex. 10:1-19), consuming before it every green thing, and stripping the trees, till the land was bared of all signs of vegetation. A strong north-west wind from the Mediterranean swept the locusts into the Red Sea.", Geikie's Hours, etc., ii., 149.

Salt

Used to season food (Job 6:6), and mixed with the fodder of cattle (Isa. 30:24, "clean;" in marg. of R.V. "salted"). All meat-offerings were seasoned with salt (Lev. 2:13). To eat salt with one is to partake of his hospitality, to derive subsistence from him; and hence he who did so was bound to look after his host's interests (Ezra 4:14, "We have maintenance from the king's palace;" A.V. marg., "We are salted with the salt of the palace;" R.V., "We eat the salt of the palace"). A "covenant of salt" (Num. 18:19; 2 Chr. 13:5) was a covenant of perpetual obligation. New-born children were rubbed with salt (Ezek. 16:4). Disciples are likened unto salt, with reference to its cleansing and preserving uses (Matt. 5:13). When Abimelech took the city of Shechem, he sowed the place with salt, that it might always remain a barren soil (Judg. 9:45). Sir Lyon Playfair argues, on scientific grounds, that under the generic name of "salt," in certain passages, we are to understand petroleum or its residue asphalt. Thus in Gen. 19:26 he would read "pillar of asphalt;" and in Matt. 5:13, instead of "salt," "petroleum," which loses its essence by exposure, as salt does not, and becomes asphalt, with which pavements were made. The Jebel Usdum, to the south of the Dead Sea, is a mountain of rock salt about 7 miles long and from 2 to 3 miles wide and some hundreds of feet high.

Zaccheus

pure; clean; just

Definition

Torah Context

Ritual and Moral Categories

Food

Prophetic Usage

Hebrew and Greek Word Study

Unified Lexical Definition

Lexical Sources

Hebrew Bible Usage

Unified Dictionary Summary

Unclean

Kosher

Holiness

Torah

Temple

Purification

The Truth About Pork

The Food Law Myth Christians Still Believe

CLEAN AND UNCLEAN ANIMALS

CLEAN

Animal

Ashes

Bird

Clean

Hart

Hoof

Locust

Salt

Zaccheus

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