Greek word · G4508

ῥυπαρός

ryparos

filthy

Dirty, filthy, soiled. Used literally of clothes, bodies or places, and by extension of moral filth.

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Greek New Testament. · Updated October 31, 2026

What it means

ῥυπαρός, -ά, -όν

(ῥύπος), [in LXX: Zechariah 3:4-5, (3-4) (צוֹא)* ;]

filthy, dirty: of old, shabby clothing (Za, l.with), James 2:2; metaphorically, of moral defilement, Revelation 22:11.†

(AS)

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

Range of meaning: Dirty, filthy, soiled. Used literally of clothes, bodies or places, and by extension of moral filth.
Against the English: 'Shabby' (BSB, ESV), 'filthy old clothes' (NIV), 'dirty clothes' (NASB, NLT), 'filthy clothing' (WEB), 'vile raiment' (KJV, YLT). 'Shabby' is milder than the Greek, which means actually dirty, not just worn. KJV's 'vile' has drifted (see drift).
How it drifted: KJV's 'vile' once meant cheap or lowly, from Latin vilis, 'cheap.' Today it means morally disgusting, which suggests something the text does not say.
Used elsewhere in the period: In Zechariah 3:3–4 (Septuagint), Joshua the high priest stands before the angel in 'filthy garments' (himatia rhypara), which are taken away and replaced with clean robes. In Revelation 22:11 the word is used morally: 'let the filthy still be filthy.' In everyday Greek it describes grimy clothing, typical of manual laborers or beggars who owned a single garment and could not keep it clean.

Range of meaning: From rhypos, 'dirt, grime'. The adjective means dirty, soiled, squalid or shabby, and is used especially of clothing and of unwashed bodies. Used as a metaphor it means morally or ritually polluted. The verb means 'to soil, make dirty, defile', so its passive means 'be soiled, become filthy'.
Against the English: KJV, WEB, ESV and NASB have 'filthy'; BSB and NIV have 'vile'. 'Filthy' keeps the literal picture of dirt but now suggests obscenity to modern ears ('filthy talk'). 'Vile' loses the picture entirely and becomes a general 'disgusting, wicked'.
How it drifted: In modern English 'filthy' has narrowed toward sexual or crude content, and 'vile' is just a word of strong disapproval. The Greek gives a picture of soiled clothing that ties into Revelation's language of garments and washing.
Used elsewhere in the period: Zechariah 3:3–4 (LXX) describes Joshua the high priest standing before the angel in himatia rhypara, 'filthy garments', which are taken off him as a sign that his guilt is removed. James 2:2 uses rhypara esthēs for the 'shabby clothing' of a poor man. 1 Peter 3:21 speaks of washing away 'dirt' (rhypos) from the body. In Revelation garments are a running image: some 'have not soiled their garments' (3:4); there are white robes (3:5, 18; 6:11; 7:9); robes are 'washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb' (7:14); the fine linen 'is the righteous deeds of the holy ones' (19:8).

James · 1

James 2:2 ῥυπαρᾷ shabby

Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in.

Here: Literally dirty: grimy, stained clothes, the kind a laborer or beggar would own if he had only one garment. Here it describes his clothes, not his morals. It is the exact opposite of 'bright.'

Revelation · 1

Revelation 22:11 ῥυπαρὸς filthy

Let the unrighteous continue to be unrighteous, and the vile continue to be vile; let the righteous continue to practice righteousness, and the holy continue to be holy.”

Here: Literally dirty or soiled, used of grimy clothes. Here it is moral pollution pictured as stained garments, the opposite of the white robes that run through Revelation.

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