Greek word · G3436

μολυσμός

molysmos

defilement

Staining, soiling, pollution. In Jewish usage it meant religious and moral defilement, the kind of contamination that made a person or a land unfit to come near God. It was tied especially to idolatry and to mixing with pagan worship.

Appears once in the Greek New Testament. · Updated October 22, 2026

What it means

μολυσμός, -οῦ, ὁ

(μολύνω), [in LXX: Jeremiah 23:15 (חֲנֻפָה), I Est.8:83, 2Ma.5:27 * ;]

defilement: with genitive obj., 2 Corinthians 7:1 (Plut., FlJ).†

(AS)

From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of 2 Corinthians 7:1

Range of meaning: Staining, soiling, pollution. In Jewish usage it meant religious and moral defilement, the kind of contamination that made a person or a land unfit to come near God. It was tied especially to idolatry and to mixing with pagan worship.
Against the English: KJV "filthiness" and YLT "pollution" now suggest dirt, obscenity or environmental damage. "Defilement" (WEB, NASB, ESV) and "what defiles" (BSB) keep the religious sense better. NIV's "contaminates" is close, though it sounds clinical.
How it drifted: "Filthiness" in 1611 English could carry a moral sense. Today it mainly suggests physical dirt or crude talk, so the link to the Temple and to holiness is lost.
Used elsewhere in the period: Rare. In the Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament): Jer 23:15, where molusmos spreads from Jerusalem's prophets "to all the land"; 1 Esdras 8:80 (8:83 in some numbering), the defilement of the foreign peoples of the land; and 2 Maccabees 5:27, where Judas Maccabeus withdraws to the hills "so as not to share in the defilement" of the pagan-controlled city. The related verb molynō appears in 1 Cor 8:7, where a weak conscience is "defiled" by eating food offered to idols, and in Rev 3:4 and 14:4.

Where it appears

2 Corinthians · 1

2 Corinthians 7:1 μολυσμοῦ defilement

Therefore, beloved, since we have these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that defiles body and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

Here: A stain or pollution that makes a person unfit to come near the holy. In Jewish Greek it was used especially of contamination from idolatry and pagan practice. This is its only use in the New Testament.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.