Pure, Purely, Purity
pur, purli, puri-ti: This group of words has in the Old Testament and the New Testament an almost exclusively ethical significance, though the word pure is of course used also in its literal sense of freedom from alloy or other alien matter (Exo 25:11, etc.). Pure in the Old Testament represents many Hebrew words, most frequently , tahor; purely, occurs once only in the King James Version, as the translation of , bor, properly that which cleanses (compare Job 9:30, the Revised Version margin Hebrew ‘cleanse my hands with lye,’ i.e. alkali for soap) in Isa 1:25, the Revised Version (British and American) thoroughly (margin as with lye, the King James Version purely) purge away thy dross; pureness is the King James Version translation of the same word in Job 22:30, the Revised Version (British and American) cleanness. In the New Testament pure is the translation chiefly of , katharos (Mat 5:8, Blessed are the pure in heart, etc.), but also of , hagnos (Phi 4:8; 1Ti 5:22; Jam 3:17; 1Jo 3:3 – always in an ethical sense). A different word (eilikrines) is used in 2Pe 3:1, the Revised Version (British and American) sincere. Purity (hagnea) occurs only in the King James Version in 1Ti 4:12; 1Ti 5:2; in the Revised Version (British and American) in 2Co 11:3 (as the translation of tes hagnotelos). See CLEAN; PURITY.