Greek word · G856

ἀφεδρών

aphedrōn

latrine

Latrine, privy, toilet, cesspit (BDAG; LSJ). Probably formed from ἀπό ("away") + ἕδρα ("seat"): a place for sitting apart.

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

ἀφεδρών, -ῶνος, ὁ

(cf. ἄφεδρος, Leviticus 12:5) = cl. ἄφοδος (MM, see word),

a privy, drain: Matthew 15:17, Mark 7:19 (ὀχετόν, WH, mg.).†

**ὀχετός, -οῦ, ὁ

(ὀχέω, to carry) [in Sm.: Job 22:24, Psalms 65:10 al. ;]

1. a water-pipe, channel.

2. the intestinal canal: Mark 7:19, WH, mg. (for ἀφεδρών).†

(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 Matthew 15:17

Range of meaning

Latrine, privy, toilet, cesspit (BDAG; LSJ). Probably formed from ἀπό ("away") + ἕδρα ("seat"): a place for sitting apart.

Against the English

KJV "draught" (an old word for a privy or cesspool) and YLT "drain" keep the noun. BSB "is eliminated," ESV "is expelled," NIV/WEB "out of the body" drop the place and turn it into a polite process. NLT "the sewer" keeps a destination.

How it drifted

Modern translations soften it for public reading, and the KJV's accurate word "draught" has fallen out of use, so the bluntness of the Greek has mostly disappeared from English.

Used elsewhere in the period

Rare in surviving Greek. Lexicons know it chiefly from Mark 7:19 and this verse. A related LXX word, ἄφεδρος ("sitting apart"), is used of a woman's menstrual separation in Leviticus 12 and 15, which shows the same root idea of withdrawing to a separate place. On latrines and purity: Deut 23:12–14 required excrement to be buried outside Israel's war camp because God walked within it, and the Qumran Temple Scroll (11QT 46:13–16) and Josephus on the Essenes (War 2.147–149) show how seriously some Jews treated toilet arrangements as a purity matter.

Where it appears

Matthew · 1

  1. Matthew 15:17 ἀφεδρῶνα [the] sewer

    “Do you not yet realize that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then is eliminated?

    Here: A blunt, everyday word for the toilet or cesspit, probably meaning "a place for sitting apart." Jesus deliberately uses earthy speech: food ends up in the privy.

Mark · 1

  1. Mark 7:19 ἀφεδρῶνα sewer

    because it does not enter his heart, but it goes into the stomach and then is eliminated.” (Thus all foods are clean.)

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