ῥυπόω

μολύνω molýnō · G3435 · to soil, to make dirty, to defile

μολύνω is a near synonym referring to defilement or pollution, often used in moral contexts in the New Testament. While ῥυπόω emphasizes becoming dirty/filthy, μολύνω emphasizes staining or polluting, but both can describe moral corruption.

μιαίνω miaínō · G3392 · to defile, to contaminate, to cause to be morally filthy

μιαίνω is another verb for defilement, particularly moral and ceremonial pollution. It overlaps significantly with ῥυπόω in describing moral corruption, though μιαίνω may carry slightly more ceremonial connotations while ῥυπόω emphasizes filthiness.

καθαρίζω katharízō · G2511 · to make clean, to cleanse, to clean

καθαρίζω (to cleanse, purify) is the lexical opposite of ῥυπόω (to become dirty/defiled). Where ῥυπόω describes becoming morally filthy, καθαρίζω describes the process of becoming or being made clean, whether physically or morally.

טָמֵא ṭâmêʼ · H2930 · to become unclean, to defile oneself

The Hebrew verb טָמֵא (ṭāmēʾ) covers both ritual and moral defilement/uncleanness, making it a natural translation equivalent for the Greek ῥυπόω, which denotes becoming morally defiled or dirty. Both verbs describe the process of becoming impure.

גָּאַל gâʼal · H1351 · to redeem oneself, to reclaim oneself, to redeem

The Hebrew verb גָּאַל (gāʾal) in its Niphal and Pual forms means to be defiled or polluted, particularly in moral and religious contexts. This provides a close semantic equivalent to ῥυπόω's sense of becoming morally dirty.

To live in moral filth, to live a completely bad life88.258

The verb describes a person's moral condition worsening. John writes of the unrepentant at the end, “and the one who is filthy still be filthy” (Revelation 22:11).

Words formed from the same root. They share a form, not always a meaning.

Meanings adapted from the UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament, © United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0 and the UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (from the Semantic Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew), © United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0; MACULA Greek Linguistic Datasets, available at https://github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-greek/, licensed CC BY 4.0; MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets © 2022-2024 by Biblica, Inc., CC BY 4.0. Westminster Leningrad Codex (tanach.us). OpenScriptures Hebrew Bible morphology (hb.openscriptures.org), CC BY 4.0.