καθαρός, καθαρά, καθαρόν; (akin to Latincastus, incestus, English chaste, chasten; Curtius, § 26; Vanicek, p. 177); from Homer down; the Sept. mostly for èÈäåø; clean, pure (free from the admixture or adhesion of anything that soils, adulterates, corrupts);

a. physically: Mat 23:26; Mat 27:59; Heb 10:22 (23); Rev 15:6; Rev 19:8; Rev 19:14, and Rec. in Rev 22:1; χρυσίον, purified by fire, Rev 21:18; Rev 21:21; in a similitude, like a vine cleansed by pruning and so fitted to bear fruit, Joh 15:3; ὁ λελουμένος ... καθαρός ὅλος (where the idea winch Christ expresses figuratively is as follows: ’he whose inmost nature has been renovated does not need radical renewal, but only to be cleansed from every several fault into which he may fall through contact with the unrenewed world’), Joh 13:10.

b. in a levitical sense; clean, i. e. the use of which is not forbidden, imparts no uncleanness: πάντα καθαρά, Rom 14:20; Tit 1:15.

c. ethically; free from corrupt desire, from sin and guilt: Tit 1:15; ὑμεῖς καθαροί, Joh 13:10 (11); οἱ καθαροί τῇ καρδία (as respects heart (Winer’s Grammar, § 31, 6 a.)), Mat 5:8 (καθαρός χεῖρας, Herodotus 1, 35; κατά τό σῶμα καί κατά τήν ψυχήν, Plato, Crat., p. 405 b.); free from every admixture of what is false, sincere, ἐκ καθαρᾶς καρδίας, 1Ti 1:5; 2Ti 2:22, and R G in 1Pe 1:22; ἐν καθαρά συνειδήσει, 1Ti 3:9; 2Ti 1:3; genuine (joined with ἀμίαντος) θρησκεία, Jas 1:27; blameless, innocent, Act 18:6. Hebraistically with the addition of ἀπό τίνος, pure from, i. e. unstained with the guilt of, anything (Winers Grammar, § 30, 6 a.; Buttmann, 157f (137f)): ἀπό τοῦ αἵματος, Act 20:26; Susanna 46 Alex., cf. Gen 24:8; Tob 3:14; καθαρᾶς ἔχειν τάς χεῖρας ἀπό τοῦ φόνου, Josephus, Antiquities 4, 8, 16; in classical Greek with a simple genitive, as φόνου, Plato, legg. 9, p. 864 e.; cf. Passow, under the word, p. 1528{a}; (Liddell and Scott, under the word, 3); Kühner, § 421, 4 ii., p. 344.

d. in a levitical and ethical sense: πάντα καθαρά ὑμῖν, Luk 11:41, on which see ἔνειμι. (Synonym: see εἰλικρινής; cf. Westcott on 1Jn 3:3.)