Impurity (the quality), physically or morally
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G167 names impurity or uncleanness, especially moral and bodily disorder before God. Paul uses it in sober contexts: God gives sinners over to impurity, the works of the flesh include impurity, and God's call is not to impurity but to holiness.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἀκαθαρσία (G167) · Open the biblical lexicon
G167 names impurity or uncleanness, especially moral and bodily disorder before God. Paul uses it in sober contexts: God gives sinners over to impurity, the works of the flesh include impurity, and God's call is not to impurity but to holiness.
The BSB source-word alignment has 10 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include impurity (6), of impurity (2), to impurity (1), ulterior motives (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 23:27. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 Thessalonians (2), Ephesians (2), Romans (2), 2 Corinthians (1).
G167 names impurity or uncleanness, especially moral and bodily disorder before God. Paul uses it in sober contexts: God gives sinners over to impurity, the works of the flesh include impurity, and God's call is not to impurity but to holiness. The word helps teachers speak plainly about sin without reducing holiness to shame management.
For preaching and teaching, this companion keeps the term tied to its cited Pauline settings before moving toward doctrine or application. The aim is not to turn a Greek gloss into a sermon by itself, but to help readers notice how the word functions inside Paul's argument, relationships, warnings, and gospel-centered exhortation with patient clarity.
G167 carries Paul's warning language about impurity and his positive summons to holiness. It diagnoses bondage and points toward God's calling.
Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity for the dishonoring of their bodies with one another.
Romans 1 treats impurity as part of God's giving-over judgment when worship is exchanged and desires are disordered.
The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery;
Galatians 5 includes impurity among the acts of the flesh, setting it against life led by the Spirit.
For God has not called us to impurity, but to holiness.
First Thessalonians 4 states the positive call: God has not called His people to impurity but to holiness.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. Moral corruption and sexual vice in Paul's ethics, not merely ritual defilement
Moral corruption and sexual vice in Paul's ethics, not merely ritual defilement
(ἀκάθαρτος), [in LXX chiefly for טֻמְאָה, טָמֵא ;] uncleanness, impurity,
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
10 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
uncleanness, impurity
Read verseuncleanness, impurity
Read verseuncleanness, impurity
Read verseuncleanness, impurity
Read verseuncleanness, impurity
Read verseuncleanness, impurity
Read verseuncleanness, impurity
Read verseuncleanness, impurity
Read verseuncleanness, impurity
Read verseuncleanness, impurity
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 4 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 3 selected witnesses from 10 lexical occurrence verses.
ἀκαθαρσία is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
G167 helps teachers speak with moral clarity and gospel aim. Paul does not treat impurity as merely private preference or social embarrassment. It belongs to the disorder that follows idolatry and the flesh. Yet the goal is not humiliation for its own sake. The call of God is holiness, and holiness is the positive direction of a redeemed life.
Rom.1.24
Impurity or uncleanness is the reviewed display gloss for G167. In this Pauline-focused companion, local STEP TAGNT evidence shows about 9 Pauline use(s), with common forms including N-DSF 3, N-ASF 2, N-NSF 2. Treat these form signals as support for reading the passage, not as a replacement for context.
Paul's impurity language keeps holiness embodied. The gospel does not despise the body; it calls the whole person away from impurity and toward God.
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Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain