What Does Mark 7:2 Mean in the King James?
And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Here, “defiled” names hands treated as common: the accusation turns what is ordinary into grounds for blame.
THE MEANING
Unwashed hands become grounds for finding fault. The verse exposes how a purity boundary can make ordinary contact look like contamination before anything else is considered.
THE ROOT
κοιναῖς
koinais
GROWS FROM
κοιν-
koin-
Common, shared, ordinary; in this setting, treated as ritually defiled.
“defiled” in this verse is koinais. The Greek calls the hands “common” and clarifies that they are unwashen. The same word family gives κοινωνία (koinōnia), “sharing in common”: what is common can name shared life, yet here that category becomes grounds for blame.
ALSO GROWS
koinos: Common, shared, ordinary; also ritually unclean in some contexts.
κοινός
This is the adjective describing the disciples’ hands, revealing the idea beneath “defiled.”
koinoō: To make common or treat as defiled.
κοινόω
This verb shows how something can acquire the status of common or polluted through how it is regarded.
koinōnia: Sharing in common, participation.
κοινωνία
It carries the same word-family seed, showing that “common” can also name shared participation.
THE PATTERN
A distinction between the common and the clean can become a judgment when commonness is treated as contamination.
And that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean;I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean.And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.THE THREAD
And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.Acts uses the same Greek word family as Mark’s “defiled”: κοινός (koinos), “common.” The shared root reveals the hinge in both verses: what is named common can be treated as polluted, or it can be named cleansed.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us