Greek word · G234
ἀλίσγημα
alisgēma
defilement
Ritual defilement or contamination, especially through food. The noun appears nowhere else in Greek literature before this verse, but its verb ἀλισγέω ('to pollute, defile') is a Jewish Greek word for cultic uncleanness.
Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·
What it means
From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
- Range of meaning
Ritual defilement or contamination, especially through food. The noun appears nowhere else in Greek literature before this verse, but its verb ἀλισγέω ('to pollute, defile') is a Jewish Greek word for cultic uncleanness.
- Against the English
KJV and YLT have 'pollutions of (the) idols', which sounds abstract, as though it meant idolatry or spiritual corruption in general. BSB and NIV ('food polluted by idols') and NASB ('things contaminated by idols') make it concrete.
- How it drifted
In modern English 'pollution' means environmental or moral corruption, not ritual uncleanness passed on by contact.
- Used elsewhere in the period
In the Greek Old Testament (the Septuagint), the verb is used for defiled food on God's altar ('polluted bread', Malachi 1:7, 12). In Daniel 1:8, Daniel resolves not to be 'defiled' by the Babylonian king's food and wine. Sirach 40:29 uses it of defilement from another man's food. So the word belongs to the language of Jews avoiding food bound up with pagan cult.
Where it appears
Acts · 1
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Acts 15:20 ἀλισγημάτων pollutions
Instead, we should write and tell them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals, and from blood.
Here: A rare word, used only here in the New Testament, for the defilement that comes from contact with something unclean, especially food. In the letter itself (15:29) it is spelled out as 'things sacrificed to idols'.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.