Greek word · G947

βδελυκτός

bdelyktos

abominable

Abhorrent, detestable, what makes one recoil; from the verb bdelyssomai, 'to feel disgust, abhor'. In the Greek Old Testament (the Septuagint, the Jewish translation used by early Christians) the word group renders Hebrew to'ēvah and shiqqutz/sheqetz, 'abomination'.

Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

βδελυκτός, ή, -όν

(βδελύσσω), [in LXX: Proverbs 17:15 (תּוֹעֵבָה), Sirach 41:5, 2Ma.1:27 * ;]

abominable, detestable: Titus 1:16 (Cremer, 137).†

(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 Titus 1:16

Range of meaning

Abhorrent, detestable, what makes one recoil; from the verb bdelyssomai, 'to feel disgust, abhor'. In the Greek Old Testament (the Septuagint, the Jewish translation used by early Christians) the word group renders Hebrew to'ēvah and shiqqutz/sheqetz, 'abomination'. These are what God finds abhorrent: idols, unclean animals, perversions of justice.

Against the English

'Abominable' (KJV, WEB) and 'detestable' (BSB, NIV, ESV, NASB, NLT) are both fair. Modern 'detestable' sounds like strong personal dislike. The original carries a cultic and religious charge: abhorrent to God, the opposite of clean.

How it drifted

English 'abominable' and 'detestable' have weakened into everyday intensifiers ('abominable weather'), which loses their link to the purity system.

Used elsewhere in the period

Prov 17:15 LXX: whoever acquits the guilty and condemns the righteous is 'unclean and abominable (bdeluktos) before God'. Sir 41:5 and 2 Macc 1:27 also use it. Related: bdelygma for unclean foods (Lev 11:10–13), idols (Deut 7:25–26), and 'the abomination of desolation' (Dan 9:27; Mark 13:14). Rom 2:22: 'you who abhor (bdelyssomenos) idols, do you rob temples?'

Where it appears

Titus · 1

  1. Titus 1:16 βδελυκτοὶ detestable

    They profess to know God, but by their actions they deny Him. They are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for any good deed.

    Here: Used only here in the NT. The word belongs to the Greek Old Testament's vocabulary for what is abhorrent to God: unclean things and idols. Coming right after verse 15's talk of purity and defilement, it is pointed. The people fussing over what is unclean are themselves what God finds abhorrent.

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