Common: unsanctified
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G2839, koinós, is a Greek adjective whose range begins with what is common, shared, or held in common. Acts uses it for possessions shared among believers; Jude speaks of shared salvation, and Titus of common faith.
Reader summary
Full entry for κοινός (G2839) · Open the biblical lexicon
G2839, koinós, is a Greek adjective whose range begins with what is common, shared, or held in common. Acts uses it for possessions shared among believers; Jude speaks of shared salvation, and Titus of common faith.
The BSB source-word alignment has 14 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include impure (3), unclean (3), . . . (1), [it is] unclean (1), [our] common (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Mark 7:2. Its strongest book concentrations include Acts (5), Romans (3), Mark (2), Hebrews (1).
G2839, koinós, is a Greek adjective whose range begins with what is common, shared, or held in common. Acts uses it for possessions shared among believers; Jude speaks of shared salvation, and Titus of common faith. When common is contrasted with what is set apart as holy, the word can mean profaned, defiled, or regarded as unclean. Mark applies it to hands called defiled, Acts and Romans use it in food and table-fellowship disputes, Hebrews applies it to covenant blood treated as ordinary, and Revelation excludes what is unclean from the holy city.
Acts 10 and 11 move carefully from food imagery to people. Peter initially refuses food he has never treated as common or unclean. When he enters Cornelius's house, he states the revelation's human implication: God has shown him not to call any person common or unclean. The episode exposes a barrier to Gentile fellowship while honoring that Peter's inherited practice was covenantally serious, not irrational prejudice. Romans 14 likewise says nothing is common in itself within a dispute over food, yet requires believers to protect conscience, stop judging, and pursue peace rather than using freedom to injure another.
The positive and negative senses must remain visible. Shared goods and shared faith can serve communion, while treating Christ's covenant blood as ordinary is grave profanation. Mark's handwashing controversy concerns defilement, tradition, and the heart; it is not permission to mock Jewish practice or neglect hygiene. Revelation's holy-city vision excludes defiling practice and falsehood, not ethnic or disabled people labeled dirty by a majority. Pastoral teaching should welcome persons, test uses of holy/common language, and join freedom with conscience, truth, generosity, and reverence.
G2839 moves from shared possessions, salvation, and faith to hands regarded as defiled, food disputes, Gentile table fellowship, covenant blood treated as ordinary, and the exclusion of defilement from the new Jerusalem.
All the believers were together and had everything in common.
Common describes possessions made available for shared need within the new community. The practice expresses generosity and belonging without supplying every later detail of economic administration.
The multitude of believers was one in heart and soul. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they owned.
Unity becomes material care as resources are held for the community's good. Later judgment of deception shows that shared life requires truth and voluntary integrity, not coerced display.
“No, Lord!” Peter answered. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”
Peter's refusal reflects sustained Jewish covenant practice. The vision challenges him, but interpreters should not portray his obedience as ignorance or use the scene to ridicule Jewish food discipline.
He said to them, “You know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with a foreigner or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean.
Peter states the vision's interpersonal conclusion: no person is to be labeled common or unclean. Gentile inclusion requires crossing a fellowship barrier while recognizing God's initiative and Cornelius's agency.
‘No, Lord,’ I said, ‘for nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’
Peter retells his initial objection while defending Gentile baptism and table fellowship to Jewish believers. Repetition makes the process of communal discernment visible rather than silencing their questions.
I am convinced and fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean.
Paul addresses food and conscience inside a command to welcome one another. Freedom is real, but love refuses to grieve or destroy a sibling for the sake of food.
And they saw some of His disciples eating with hands that were defiled—that is, unwashed.
Mark explains the disputed label as unwashed hands within a tradition controversy. The passage concerns ritual defilement and the heart, not a rejection of sanitation or an attack on Jewish people.
To Titus, my true child in our common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.
Common is positive: Paul and Titus share one faith across difference in role and background. What is common here binds relationship rather than profaning holiness.
How much more severely do you think one deserves to be punished who has trampled on the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and insulted the Spirit of grace?
Treating covenant blood as common means denying its holy, sanctifying significance. The warning addresses apostasy and must not be redirected into anti-Jewish accusation.
Beloved, although I made every effort to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt it necessary to write and urge you to contend earnestly for the faith entrusted once for all to the saints.
Shared salvation grounds Jude's appeal for faithful discernment. Contending protects a received trust and cannot excuse abusive argument, conspiracy, or treating opponents as contaminated people.
But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who practices an abomination or a lie, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
The holy city's exclusion is tied to abomination and falsehood, while the Lamb's book identifies belonging. The vision cannot authorize human purity policing by ethnicity, disability, poverty, or social familiarity.
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. Shifts from "shared by all" to "ritually unclean" depending on religious context, never merely ordinary.
Shifts from "shared by all" to "ritually unclean" depending on religious context, never merely ordinary.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
12 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
common, shared, unclean
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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 8 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 1 selected witness from 14 lexical occurrence verses.
κοινός is built from this root:
The declaration of cleansing signals expanded covenant inclusion.Acts 10:1-23
G2839 can celebrate communion or warn against profanation. Acts 2 and 4 describe goods held for shared need, while Titus and Jude name common faith and salvation. In Acts 10 the same adjective enters a purity vision: Peter refuses food he has never regarded as common, then learns not to call any person common or unclean as God opens Gentile fellowship. Romans 14 joins freedom from food defilement with serious protection of conscience and peace.
Hebrews warns against treating Christ's sanctifying blood as ordinary, and Revelation imagines a city free from defiling falsehood. Churches shaped by this range share resources freely, revere what God has made holy, welcome people across inherited barriers, and refuse both anti-Jewish contempt and coercive use of conscience.
Acts.10.28
G2839 is an adjective appearing in masculine, feminine, and neuter, singular and plural forms. Its positive sense is common or shared; its negative cultic sense arises when what is ordinary stands opposite what is holy, producing renderings such as defiled, impure, unclean, or profaned. Romans 14:14 uses three tokens in one verse to mark both objective conviction and conscience-bound regard. The modified noun or supplied context controls the sense.
Israel's Scriptures distinguish holy/common and clean/unclean within covenant worship, food, and community. Jesus and the apostles argue from within that world as they address heart defilement, Gentile inclusion, and table fellowship. The New Testament's developments depend on Israel's categories and God's promises, so Christian reading must reject supersessionist caricature while confessing Christ's covenant work.