Clean

King James Dictionary

Clean a. In a general sense, free from extraneous matter, or whatever is injurious or offensive hence its signification depends on the nature and qualities of the substances to which it is applied.

1. Free from dirt, or other foul matter as clean water a clean cup a clean floor. 2. Free from weeds or stones as clean land a clean garden or field. 3. Free from knots or branches as clean timber. In America, clear is generally used. 4. Free from moral impurity innocent.

Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?  Job 14 .  Acts 18 .

5. Free from ceremonial defilement.  Leviticus 10;  Numbers 19. 6. Free from guilt sanctified holy.  John 13 .  Psalms 51 . 7. That might be eaten by the Hebrews.  Genesis 7;  Genesis 8 . 8. That might be used.  Luke 11 . 9. Free from a foul disease cured of leprosy.  2 Kings 5 . Math. 8. 10. Dextrous adroit not bungling free from awkwardness as a clean feat a clean boxer. 11. Free from infection as a clean ship. A clean bill of health is a certificate that a ship is clean, or free from infection.

CLEAN, adv.

1. Quite perfectly wholly entirely fully indicating separation or complete removal of every part. The people passed clean over Jordan.  Joshua 3 . Is his mercy clean gone forever?  Psalms 77 . This use of clean is not now elegant, and not used except in vulgar language. 2. Without miscarriage dextrously.

Pope came off clean with Homer.

CLEAN, To remove all foreign matter from to separate from any thing whatever is extraneous to it, or whatever is foul, noxious, or offensive, as dirt or filth from the hands, body or clothes, foul matter from a vessel, weeds, shrubs and stones from a meadow to purify. Thus, a house is cleaned by sweeping and washing a field is cleaned by plowing and hoeing.

Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types

 Job 11:4 (b) This word is used to indicate a life that was not soiled by sinful or selfish actions.

 Job 17:9 (a) These hands have not been soiled with sinful and wicked practices.

 Psalm 19:9 (b) The Lord is telling us that the Word of GOD produces in the life purity and godliness.

 Psalm 51:7 (a) David uses the word to inform us that he wanted to be pure in GOD's sight. All his sins, iniquities, guilt. trespasses and transgressions would be blotted out from the sight of GOD if GOD cleansed him. (See  Psalm 51:10).

 Psalm 73:1 (b) This describes the condition of a heart that has been washed by the Blood and made white before the Lord.

 Proverbs 14:4 (b) There are those who are more interested in formalism than they are in results. They want solemnity without life, The Lord is condemning the program.

 Proverbs 16:2 (b) This indicates that a man has examined his own way of living and has come to the conclusion that his way is quite right for both man and GOD. This man is his own judge and jury. He decides his own character and comes to the conclusion that he is quite fit for GOD's presence. He is not interested in GOD's thoughts about himself nor GOD's judgment upon himself. (See also  Proverbs 14:12).

 Matthew 8:2 (a) Lepers are made "clean," they are not said to be "healed." Leprosy is evidently a type of the defiling influence of sin. After being cleansed he no longer defiled others, but can mingle freely with others, without injuring them.

 Luke 11:41 (b) The term indicates that things which are used for the glory of GOD and for the blessing of His people are acceptable to GOD.

 John 15:3 (b) Here is revealed that the life of a man is attractive to GOD when he believes and practices the Word of GOD.

 Acts 18:6 (b) Paul asserts that he has properly warned the people, earnestly presented the Gospel to them, and therefore cannot be blamed if any are lost.

Webster's Dictionary

(1): (superl.) Free from dirt or filth; as, clean clothes.

(2): (superl.) Free from that which is corrupting to the morals; pure in tone; healthy.

(3): (superl.) Free from that which is useless or injurious; without defects; as, clean land; clean timber.

(4): (superl.) Free from awkwardness; not bungling; adroit; dexterous; as, aclean trick; a clean leap over a fence.

(5): (superl.) Free from errors and vulgarisms; as, a clean style.

(6): (superl.) Free from restraint or neglect; complete; entire.

(7): (superl.) Free from moral defilement; sinless; pure.

(8): (superl.) Free from ceremonial defilement.

(9): (superl.) Well-proportioned; shapely; as, clean limbs.

(10): (adv.) Without limitation or remainder; quite; perfectly; wholly; entirely.

(11): (adv.) Without miscarriage; not bunglingly; dexterously.

(12): (a.) To render clean; to free from whatever is foul, offensive, or extraneous; to purify; to cleanse.

Easton's Bible Dictionary

 Leviticus 1115-15 Numbers 19 Genesis 7:2 Leviticus 11  Deuteronomy 14:1-21

The Hebrews were prohibited from using as food certain animal substances, such as (1) blood; (2) the fat covering the intestines, termed the caul; (3) the fat on the intestines, called the mesentery; (4) the fat of the kidneys; and (5) the fat tail of certain sheep ( Exodus 29:13,22;  Leviticus 3:4-9;  9:19;  17:10;  19:26 ).

The chief design of these regulations seems to have been to establish a system of regimen which would distinguish the Jews from all other nations. Regarding the design and the abolition of these regulations the reader will find all the details in  Leviticus 20:24-26;  Acts 10:9-16;  11:1-10;  Hebrews 9:9-14 .

Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary

The Scripture sense of one clean deserves our particular notice. Solomon demands, ( Proverbs 20:9) "Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?" None among the sons of Adam can lay claim to this cleanness, much less, that any have made themselves so. But the apostle John, commissioned by God the Holy Ghost, tells the church in a sweetness and fulness of expression indescribably blessed, that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin. ( 1 John 1:7) Here is the laver, the fountain, for sin and for all uncleanness, which Jehovah hath opened. ( Zechariah 13:1) And hence, the Scripture sense of cleanness, is the sinner freed from the filth of sin, and the guilt of sin, and the dominion of sin, by the blood of Christ, and the sanctifying influences of the Holy Ghost. ( Ezekiel 36:25;  John 13:10)

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

klēn (Anglo-Saxon cloene , "clear," "pure"): Rendering four Hebrew roots: בּר , bar , etc., "purify," "select," "make shining"; זך , zakh , etc., "bright," "clean" "pure"; נקי , nāḳı̄ , "free from," "exempt"; טהר , ṭāhēr , "clean," "pure," "empty," "bright" (?) The principal root, rendered "clean" 80 times (the King James Version); occurring in all its forms in various renderings about 200 times; also one Greek root, καθαρός , katharós , etc., akin to castus , "chaste," "free from admixture or adhesion of anything that soils, adulterates, corrupts" (Thayer's Lexicon ). The physical, ritual, ethical, spiritual, figurative uses continually overlap, especially the last four.

1. Physical

The physical use is infrequent: "Wash ... with snow water, and make my hands never so clean" ( zākhakh ,  Job 9:30; figurative also); "clean provender" ( hāmı̄c , the Revised Version (British and American) "savory"; the Revised Version, margin "salted"); "Cleanse ... inside of the cup and of the platter, that the outside thereof may become clean also" ( katharos ,  Matthew 23:26 ); "arrayed in fine linen, clean ( katharón ) and white" ( Revelation 19:8; the American Standard Revised Version "bright and pure").

2. Ceremonial

The principal use was the ceremonial; applied to persons, places or things, "undefiled," "not causing defilement," or "from which defilement has just been removed"; ṭāhēr , almost exclusively ceremonial, being the chief Hebrew root. Katharos (New Testament), or derivatives, has this use clearly in  Mark 1:44;  Luke 5:14 : "Offer for thy cleansing the things which Moses," etc.;   Hebrews 9:13 ,  Hebrews 9:12 ,  Hebrews 9:23 : "the cleanness of the flesh," etc. "Clean" is applied to animals and birds: "of every clean beast" (  Genesis 7:2 ); "of all clean birds" ( Deuteronomy 14:11 ); (for list of unclean creatures see Lev 14-20); to places: "Carry forth ... unto a clean place" ( Leviticus 4:12 ); to buildings: "Make atonement for the house; and it shall be clean" ( Leviticus 14:53 ); to persons: "A clean person shall take hyssop" ( Numbers 19:18 ); to clothing: "garment ... washed the second time, and shall be clean" ( Leviticus 13:58 ); and to objects of all sorts, free or freed from defilement.

3. Ethical or Spiritual

The ethical or spiritual meaning, either directly or figuratively, is found in the Old Testament chiefly in Job, Psalms, the Prophets, whose interest is ethico-religious, rather than ritual, but the predominant uses are found in the New Testament: "Cleanse yourselves ( bārar ) ye that bear the vessels of Yahweh" ( Isaiah 52:11 ); "How can he be clean ( zākhāh ) that is born of a woman?" ( Job 25:4 ) (principally moral, perhaps with allusion to the ceremonial defilement of childbirth); "The fear of Yahweh is clean" ( Psalm 19:9 ), that is, the religion of Yahweh is morally undefiled, in contrast to heathen religions; "He that hath clean ( nāḳı̄ ) hands, and a pure heart" ( Psalm 24:4 ); "Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean" ( ṭāhēr ,  Psalm 51:7 ); "Therefore said he, Ye are not all clean" ( katharos ,  John 13:11 ). Here, as in  Psalm 51:7 and many others, the ritual furnishes a figure for the spiritual, illustrating the Divine purpose in the ritual, to impress, prefigure and prepare for the spiritual. A somewhat similar figurative moral use is found in   Acts 18:6 : "Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean" ( katharos , "guiltless," "unstained"). See also Unclean; Purification; Defilement .

Clean . - A dverb (in one case adjective): "utterly," "wholly"; usually rendering an intensive use of the Hebrew verb as  Joel 1:7 : "He hath made it clean bare" (lit. "stripping he will strip");   Zechariah 11:17 : "Arm ... clean dried up";   Isaiah 24:19 the King James Version :"Earth is clean dissolved." Twice it renders a principal verb:   Joshua 3:17 : "Passed clean over the Jordan" (literally, "finished with regard to J.");   Leviticus 23:22 King James Version: "Shall not make a clean riddance" (literally, "shall not finish the corners"; the American Standard Revised Version "shalt not wholly reap"). Once it renders a noun:   Psalm 77:8 : "Is his lovingkindness clean gone for ever?" ("end," he - 'āphēṣ , "has his lovingkindness come to an end?"); and once an adverb "clean (ὄντως , óntōs , "actually," "really") escaped" ( 2 Peter 2:18 ); but the American Standard Revised Version, following the reading " olı́gōs ," "a little," "scarcely," renders "just escaping."

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

( טָהוֹר , Tahor', Καθαρός ) and UNCLEAN ( טָמֵא , tame', Ἀκάθαρτος ). These words are of frequent occurrence and obvious meaning in the sacred writings; but it is in their peculiar application, by the Mosaic law, to persons, animals, and things, that they are now to be considered. In order to partake of the privileges of the Jewish Church, and to engage acceptably in its outward worship, the individual must not only be circumcised, but he must bet ceremonially pure or clean; that is, he must be free from uncleanness. How the various kinds of uncleanness were contracted, what time it continued, and what was the process of purification, we find particularly described in Leviticus 11-15; Numbers 19. (See Purification).

The division of animals into clean and unclean existed before the Flood ( Genesis 7:2), and was probably founded upon the practice of animal sacrifice. The regulations concerning clean and unclean animals are chiefly recorded in Leviticus, ch. 11, and Deuteronomy, ch. 14, where the following animals are pronounced unclean, and are consequently interdicted to be used as food:

(1.) Quadrupeds which do not ruminate, or which have uncloven feet.

(2.) Serpents and creeping insects; also certain insects which sometimes fly and sometimes advance upon their feet; but locusts, in all their four stages of existence, are accounted clean.

(3.) Certain species of birds; but no particular characters are given for dividing them into classes, as "clean" or "unclean." Judging from those that are specified, as far as the obscure character of the Hebrew names will admit, it will be found that birds of prey generally are rejected, whether they prey on lesser fowls, or on animals, or on fish; while those which eat vegetables are admitted as lawful; so that the same principle is observed, in a certain degree, as in distinguishing quadrupeds.

(4.) Fish without scales, and also those without fins.

(5.) Animals of any kind which had either died of disease, or had been torn by wild beasts ( Exodus 22:31). (See Animal).

The animal substances interdicted to the Hebrews were:

(1.) Blood ( Leviticus 17:10;  Leviticus 19:26;  Deuteronomy 12:16;  Deuteronomy 12:23;  Deuteronomy 15:23).

(2.) The fat covering of the intestines, termed the net or caul.

(3.) The fat upon the intestines, called the mesentery, etc.

(4.) The fat of the kidney.

(5.) The fat tail or rump of certain sheep ( Exodus 29:13;  Exodus 29:22;  Leviticus 3:4-9;  Leviticus 9:19). (See Food).

What was the design of these distinctions, and how they were abolished, may be learned with sufficient accuracy from a comparison of various passages of Scripture ( Leviticus 20:24-26;  Acts 10:9-16;  Acts 11:1-28;  Hebrews 9:9-14). (See Decree) ( Of The Apostles ) . It has been observed that one object of these appointments may have been to-make the Jews suspicious of Gentile customs and entertainments, and so induce them to abstain from all intercourse with them. We find in the New Testament that eating with Gentiles was regarded as a peculiar aggravation of the offense of associating with them ( Matthew 9:11;  Acts 11:3). It may be remarked, also, that the flesh of many of the animals interdicted was unwholesome, and others were objects of idolatrous worship among the heathen. The chief design of the regulation, however, appears to have been, to establish a system of regimen which should distinguish the chosen people from all other nations. See the treatises De animalibus esu interdictis, by Danz (Jen. 1687) and Munster (in Menthenii Thes. diss. 2, 477 sq.); also Neumann, Ueb. d. Kastenl Noah (Wittenb. 1741). (See Uncleanness).