Clean (literally or figuratively)
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Katharos means clean, pure, clear, or free from defilement in the respect the context names. Jesus blesses the pure in heart, Paul describes love flowing from a pure heart, and the Pastoral Epistles speak of a clear conscience and of perception corrupted by defiled minds.
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Full entry for καθαρός (G2513) · Open the biblical lexicon
Katharos means clean, pure, clear, or free from defilement in the respect the context names. Jesus blesses the pure in heart, Paul describes love flowing from a pure heart, and the Pastoral Epistles speak of a clear conscience and of perception corrupted by defiled minds.
The BSB source-word alignment has 27 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include clean (7), pure (4), a pure (3), [and] pure (2), a clear (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 5:8. Its strongest book concentrations include Revelation (6), John (4), Matthew (3), Titus (3).
This entry includes 2 verse guides that explain exact original-language forms in context.
Katharos means clean, pure, clear, or free from defilement in the respect the context names. Jesus blesses the pure in heart, Paul describes love flowing from a pure heart, and the Pastoral Epistles speak of a clear conscience and of perception corrupted by defiled minds. The adjective may address inward moral integrity, conscience, or ritual and relational categories; it does not teach that mature believers are sinless or that personal feelings automatically certify purity.
Titus 1:15 especially cannot make evil morally neutral: the following clause exposes minds and consciences that corrupt perception. Christian purity is received through Christ's cleansing and expressed through undivided love, truthful conscience, repentance, and conduct open to God's searching light.
Katharos describes cleanness or purity of heart, conscience, and perception. Its contexts join promised vision of God, love's inward source, ministerial integrity, and warning against corrupted judgment.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Matthew 5:8 blesses the pure in heart with the promise that they will see God. Purity concerns the inward center of desire and allegiance before God's presence.
The goal of our instruction is the love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and a sincere faith.
First Timothy 1:5 says the goal of the charge is love from a pure heart, good conscience, and sincere faith. Purity is a source of other-serving love.
They must hold to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.
First Timothy 3:9 requires deacons to hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. Confessed truth and moral integrity belong together.
I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience as did my forefathers, as I constantly remember you night and day in my prayers.
Second Timothy 1:3 says Paul serves God with a clear conscience as his ancestors did, while remembering Timothy constantly in prayer.
To the pure, all things are pure; but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. Indeed, both their minds and their consciences are defiled.
Titus 1:15 contrasts the pure with those whose minds and consciences are defiled. The verse exposes corrupt perception; it does not declare all conduct permissible.
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.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Greek word. Purity spanning physical cleanliness through ceremonial requirements to moral/spiritual integrity of heart and conscience.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 28 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
clean, pure, unstained
Read verseclean, pure, unstained
Read verseclean, pure, unstained
Read verseclean, pure, unstained
Read verseclean, pure, unstained
Read verseclean, pure, unstained
Read verseclean, pure, unstained
Read verseclean, pure, unstained
Read verseclean, pure, unstained
Read verseclean, pure, unstained
Read verseclean, pure, unstained
Read verseclean, pure, unstained
Read verseclean, pure, unstained
Read verseclean, pure, unstained
Read verseclean, pure, unstained
Read verseclean, pure, unstained
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 10 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.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 4 selected witnesses from 26 lexical occurrence verses.
καθαρός is of uncertain origin - no further derivation.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Katharos reaches beneath polished behavior to the inward source from which love, service, and perception flow. Jesus promises sight of God to the pure in heart, while Paul links a pure heart to good conscience and sincere faith. Deacons must hold gospel truth with a clear conscience because orthodox words cannot excuse concealed misconduct. Titus warns that defilement can reach mind and conscience so deeply that judgment itself becomes unreliable.
Purity therefore cannot be self-certified by intensity or reputation. Believers depend on Christ's cleansing, submit desires and reasoning to Scripture, confess sin, repair harm, and welcome accountable light. A clear conscience is precious, but it is a conscience instructed by truth rather than one made quiet through denial or rationalization.
Matt.5.8
Katharos can mean physically clean, ritually clean, morally pure, unmixed, or clear. The noun it modifies and the surrounding contrast determine the relevant kind of cleanness.
Psalms pray for a clean heart, priestly washings teach the seriousness of defilement, and prophets promise cleansing joined to a new heart and Spirit-given obedience.