Pollution
Pollution
(, only found as noon in Act 15:20; as verb in Dan 1:8, Mal 1:7; Mal 1:12, Sir 40:29 [LXX_])
is probably from a root meaning smear with fat or blood (cf. , Lat. linere), and is therefore a natural word for Jews to use of idol offerings (Lev 3:17). It is a real Jewish Greek word, very rare, and is a translation of (gal, root-meaning loathe, afterwards pollute). Possibly it is also a partial transliteration of i, combining this and the Greek root -. 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 Jer 9:5, A. Edersheim, LT_4 i. 448, n._ 3; cf. also as a sound- as well as sense-translation of ). 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 (Dan 1:8, Sir 40:29) as well as to idol offerings. The Council did not adopt it, and changed it to the more colourless , 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 (Gal 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.
Fuente: Dictionary of the Apostolic Church
Pollution
po-lushun (, ga’al, to pollute; , alsgema, contamination): In Mal 1:7, Ye offer polluted bread, i.e. not actually unclean, but worthless, common (compare Ezr 2:62), bread here being used metonymically for sacrificial offerings generally (compare Lev 21:6; Mat 6:11). The phrase in Act 15:20, the pollutions of idols, is explained in Act 15:29 by things sacrificed (the King James Version meats offered) to idols.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Pollution
akin to a late verb alisgeo, “to pollute,” denotes “a pollution, contamination,” Act 15:20, “pollutions of idols,” i.e., all the contaminating associations connected with idolatry including meats from sacrifices offered to idols.
Note: For miasma, AV, “pollutions,” in 2Pe 2:20, see DEFILEMENT, B, No. 1.