Pollution
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament [1]
(ἀλίσγημα, only found as noon in Acts 15:20; as verb in Daniel 1:8, Malachi 1:7; Malachi 1:12, Sirach 40:29 [LXX_])
ἀλίσγημα is probably from a root meaning ‘smear with fat or blood’ (cf. ἀλίνειν, Lat. linere), and is therefore a natural word for Jews to use of idol offerings ( Leviticus 3:17). It is a real ‘Jewish Greek’ word, very rare, and is a translation of (gâ’al, root-meaning ‘loathe,’ afterwards ‘pollute’). Possibly it is also a partial transliteration of âÌÈàÅi, combining this and the Greek root ἀλιν-. It would then be a similar formation to Eng.-Fr. ‘crayfish,’ ‘Rotten Row’ (for instances of this principle see F. J. A. Hort, 1 Peter I. 1-II. 17, 1898, p. 77, LXX_ translation of Jeremiah 9:5, A. Edersheim, LT_4 i. 448, n._ 3; cf. also ἀγαπή as a sound- as well as sense-translation of àÇäÂáÈä). This would make St. James use a peculiarly biting word, ‘a loathed smearing.’ Its use in the LXX_ suggests also that it referred to the ordinary food of Gentiles ( Daniel 1:8, Sirach 40:29) as well as to idol offerings. The Council did not adopt it, and changed it to the more colourless εἰδωλόθυτον, ‘idol offering,’ wishing perhaps to avoid a racial word which might suggest a separation in the matter of ordinary food between Jew and Gentile, such as afterwards actually happened ( Galatians 2:9) under the influence of those who ‘came from James.’
Literature.-R. J. Knowling, in EGT_, ‘Acts,’ 1900, p. 324; Conybeare-Howson, The Life and Epistles of St. Paul, new ed., 1889, ch. vii. esp. pp. 162, 172.
Sherwin Smith.
Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words [2]
akin to a late verb alisgeo, "to pollute," denotes "a pollution, contamination," Acts 15:20 , "pollutions of idols," i.e., all the contaminating associations connected with idolatry including meats from sacrifices offered to idols.
2—Peter 2:20Defilement
King James Dictionary [3]
POLLU'TION, n. L. pollutio.
1. The act of polluting. 2. Defilement uncleanness impurity the state of being polluted. 3. In the Jewish economy, legal or ceremonial uncleanness, which disqualified a person for sacred services or for common intercourse with the people, or rendered any thing unfit for sacred use. 4. In medicine, the involuntary emission of semen in sleep. 5. In a religious sense, guilt,the effect of sin idolatry, &c.
Webster's Dictionary [4]
(1): ( n.) The emission of semen, or sperm, at other times than in sexual intercourse.
(2): ( n.) The act of polluting, or the state of being polluted (in any sense of the verb); defilement; uncleanness; impurity.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [5]
po - lū´shun ( גּאל , gā'al , "to pollute"; ἀλίσγημα , alı́sgēma , "contamination"): In Malachi 1:7 , "Ye offer polluted bread," i.e. not actually unclean, but worthless, common (compare Ezra 2:62 ), bread here being used metonymically for sacrificial offerings generally (compare Leviticus 21:6; Matthew 6:11 ). The phrase in Acts 15:20 , "the pollutions of idols," is explained in Acts 15:29 by "things sacrificed (the King James Version "meats offered") to idols."
