[B-Greek] AKAQARSIA?

George F Somsel gfsomsel at yahoo.com
Wed Jun 7 06:11:54 EDT 2006


LSJ indicates that AKAQARSIA has three different usages:
   
  1. Uncleanness -- dirt, filth
  2. Depravity (moral)
  3. Impurity (ceremonial)
   
  These seem to be present in non-Christian, non-Jewish writings from before the rise of Christianity as well as later.  In the LXX the word is primarily referring to ceremonial impurity though without an understanding of the usage of the word AKAQARSIA as denoting moral impurity many of the figures would be nearly meaningless.  I note particularly Lam 1.9 where the figure illustrates moral impurity but is used analogously for ceremonial  impurity
   
  AKAQARSIA AUTHS PROS PODWN AUTHS, OUK EMNHSQH ESXATA AUTHS
   
  This is used to describe Jerusalem and compares moral impurity to the worship of other gods.  The "feet" here referenced is a euphemism for the private area.  In the Hebrew the word is B.:$W.LeYHF which combines the preposition and the pronoun together with the root word $W.L which in this context refers to the female pubic area.  This is obviously a figure rather than a literal description since cities do not have pubic areas.  It is an extension of the frequently used comparison of idolatry to moral impurity (For an extended illustration of this, read the prophecies of Hosea).  It is interesting that in Zech 3.3-4 where it speaks of Joshua's clothes it does not use AKAQARSIA but hRUPAROS which has a similar usage.  The Hebrew here is CoW)iYM which seems to be a hapax. Therefore, while the moral usage of AKAQARSIA is not simply used in the LXX and NT in a moral sense, it is based upon a moral sense of uncleanness and exhibits all three usages mentioned in LSJ.
   
  ____________

Craig J <newsgroupstuff at gmail.com> wrote: 
  I'm just wondering regarding the Greek word AKAQARSIA or 'uncleanness'. In
the NT it seems to have an idea of moral impurity. Is this how it was
understood in common Greek usage (non-Jewish, non-Christian), or is it a
carry over from eg LXX usage?

Thanks in advance,

Craig Johnson
Brisbane, Australia
Blog Experiment: http://bloggledegook.blogspot.com/

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george
gfsomsel
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