What Does Titus 1:15 Mean in the King James?
Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.
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
The verse places the stain, or cleanness, not only in what is encountered, but in the mind and conscience of the one encountering it.
THE MEANING
Purity is not located only in the things around you; the verse connects it to the condition from which you receive them. When defilement and distrust take hold, nothing seems pure, because the stain reaches both mind and conscience. What you discern and what you carry within are bound together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that sorting the world into clean and unclean things can leave your own mind and conscience untouched.
THE ROOT
καθαροῖς
katharois
GROWS FROM
καθαρ-
kathar-
Clean, pure, free from contamination.
The word for “pure” belongs to the same family as “to cleanse” and “cleansing,” holding a clean state and the removal of stain together. The verse sets this cleanness beside the inner person, whose mind and conscience are named as defiled.
ALSO GROWS
katharizō: to cleanse, make clean
καθαρίζω
The cleansing verb shows the action related to the state called pure; the verse’s contrast turns on whether cleanness or stain is present.
katharismos: cleansing, purification
καθαρισμός
This noun names the process of cleansing, keeping the idea of purity connected to what is removed.
μεμιαμμένοις
memiammenois
GROWS FROM
μιαν-
mian-
The word family of μιαίνω (miainō): to stain, pollute, or defile.
The verse repeats this verb family when it says the mind and conscience are defiled. The stain reaches the faculties by which a person thinks and discerns; it is not confined to an outside object.
ALSO GROWS
miasma: pollution, a defiling stain
μίασμα
This branch gives the stain a name, making visible the pollution implied by being defiled.
miasmos: defilement, pollution
μιασμός
This branch names the condition or act of pollution that the verse says reaches mind and conscience.
ἀπίστοις
apistois
GROWS FROM
πιστ-
pist-
Trust, confidence, and the quality of being firm or reliable.
“unbelieving” in this verse is apistois. The negative form means “without trust,” and Titus places it alongside defilement. The word points to a stance of distrust, not simply a lack of information.
ALSO GROWS
pistis: trust, confidence
πίστις
The positive form clarifies what is absent in “unbelieving”: trust.
pisteuō: to trust, believe, or entrust oneself
πιστεύω
This verb shows trust as reliance, a way of receiving rather than merely knowing information.
pistos: firm, steady, reliable
πιστός
This related word carries the sense of steadiness that stands opposite to being without trust.
THE PATTERN
Scripture links cleanness and defilement to the inner condition of a person, not simply to the objects around them.
Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.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.THE THREAD
Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.John uses the same Greek word family behind “pure” when Jesus calls the disciples “clean.” Titus names the mind and conscience as places where defilement is present; John shows cleanness received through the spoken word.
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