Word study

Clean

2 Hebrew and 3 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “clean”. English often uses one word where Hebrew or Greek has several, each with its own shade of meaning. Under each word are verses where it is translated this way; choose the word itself for its full study: every verse, how else it is translated, the forms it takes and what the dictionaries say.

At a glance

How often each original word is translated “clean” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side Compare the Greek words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • טָהוֹר ṭâhôrclean, puretranslated this way 46 times of its 89 uses · Strong’s H2889Adjective  ·  Translated: pure 37, clean 31, ceremonially clean 11, unclean 3

    Genesis 7:2 You are to take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate; a pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate;

    Leviticus 4:12 all the rest of the bull— he must take outside the camp to a ceremonially clean place where the ashes are poured out, and there he must burn it on a wood fire on the ash heap.

    Full study and all 84 verses →
  • טָהֵר ṭâhêrbe clean, puretranslated this way 35 times of its 94 uses · Strong’s H2891Verb  ·  Translated: clean 25, cleansed 22, cleanse 16, purified 6

    Leviticus 11:32 When one of them dies and falls on something, that article becomes unclean; any article of wood, clothing, leather, sackcloth, or any implement used for work must be rinsed with water and will remain unclean until evening; then it will be clean.

    Numbers 8:6 “Take the Levites from among the Israelites and make them ceremonially clean.

    Full study and all 79 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • καθαρίζω katharízōI make cleantranslated this way 12 times of its 31 uses · Strong’s G2511Verb  ·  Translated: cleansed 9, clean 7, cleanse 4, make me clean 3

    Matthew 8:2 Suddenly a leper came and knelt before Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”

    Mark 1:40 Then a leper came to Jesus, begging on his knees: “If You are willing, You can make me clean.”

    Full study and all 30 verses →
  • καθαρός katharósclean, pure, unstainedtranslated this way 9 times of its 27 uses · Strong’s G2513Adjective  ·  Translated: pure 14, clean 9, innocent 2, clear 2

    Matthew 23:26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, so that the outside may become clean as well.

    Luke 11:41 But give as alms the things that are within you, and behold, everything will be clean for you.

    Full study and all 23 verses →
  • σαρόω saróōI sweeptranslated this way 2 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s G4563Verb  ·  Translated: swept clean 2, sweep 1

    Matthew 12:44 Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ On its return, it finds the house vacant, swept clean, and put in order.

    Luke 11:25 On its return, it finds the house swept clean and put in order.

    Full study and all 3 verses →
How to study a word well
  1. Start from the verse, not the dictionary. Find which Hebrew or Greek word stands in the verse you are studying. One English word often translates several different original words.
  2. Read every place the word is used. A word means what its writers used it to mean. The list of verses and the count by book show its range, and who uses it most.
  3. Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
  4. Notice the form. A command is not a statement, and a passive verb is something done to the subject. The form in your verse is part of the meaning.
  5. See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
  6. Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
  7. Come back to the verse. Context decides. A word does not carry every one of its meanings into every verse, and where a word came from does not settle what it means in a sentence written centuries later.

Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Full entry: Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906, public domain), in the digital edition Brown-Driver-Briggs Enhanced by unfoldingWord (Joel Ruark, J. de Joode), based on data by Eliran Wong and Stephen Ku; its additions are used under CC BY 4.0. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, CC BY 4.0. Hebrew-to-English verse numbering: original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb, CC BY 4.0. We reformatted the data, linked the references to this site’s Bible text and left out words in other scripts that the source holds only as images. These are historical reference works; an entry gives its authors’ view, and a word’s meaning in any verse depends on how it is used there.