Bible Dictionaries
Filthiness, Filthy

Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words

"baseness" (from aischos, "shame, disgrace"), is used in Ephesians 5:4 , of obscenity, all that is contrary to purity.

denotes "dirt, filth" (cp. No. 2, under FILTH), and is used metaphorically of moral "defilement" in James 1:21 .

"a soiling, defilement," is used in 2 Corinthians 7:1 . See DEFILEMENT.

"wantonness, licentiousness, lasciviousness," is translated "filthy (conversation)," in 2 Peter 2:7 , AV; RV, "lascivious (life)." See LASCIVIOUSNESS , WANTONNES.

Notes: (1) Broadly speaking, aischrotes signifies "whatever is disgraceful;" rhuparia, "that which is characterized by moral impurity;" molusmos, "that which is defiling by soiling the clean;" aselgeia, "that which is an insolent disregard of decency." (2) In Colossians 3:8 aischrologia, which denotes any kind of "base utterance," the utterance of an uncontrolled tongue, is rendered "filthy communication" in the AV; but this is only part of what is included in the more comprehensive RV rendering, "shameful speaking." In the papyri writings the word is used of "abuse." In general it seems to have been associated more frequently with "foul" or "filthy," rather than abusive, "speaking" (Moulton and Milligan).

"base, shameful" (akin to A, No. 1), is used of "base gain," "filthy (lucre)," Titus 1:11 , and translated "shame" in 1 Corinthians 11:6 , with reference to a woman with shorn hair; in 1 Corinthians 14:35 , of oral utterances of women in a church gathering (RV, "shameful"); in Ephesians 5:12 , of mentioning the base and bestial practices of those who live lascivious lives. See SHAME.

"greedy of base gain" (No. 1, and kerdos, "gain"), is used in 1 Timothy 3:8; Titus 1:7 , "greedy of filthy lucre;" some mss. have it also in 1 Timothy 3:3 .

akin to A, No. 2 (see also FILTH , No. 2), "dirty," is said of shabby clothing, James 2:2 : metaphorically, of moral "defilement," Revelation 22:11 (in the best mss.).

Note: For akathartos see UNCLEAN , No. 1.

"eagerness for base gain" (akin to B, No. 2), is used in 1 Peter 5:2 , "for filthy lucre."

"to make filthy, defile" (from A, No. 2), is used in the Passive Voice, in an ethical sense, in Revelation 22:11 (cp. B, No. 3, in the same verse), "let him be made filthy," RV. The tense (the aorist) marks the decisiveness of that which is decreed. Some texts have rhupareuomai, here, with the same meaning; some have rhupoo, in the Middle Voice, "to make oneself filthy."