Dictionaries :: Foul

International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia

Foul:

foul (raphas; akdthartos): The verb "to foul" (defile) occurs as the translation of raphas, "to trample" or "muddle" (streams) (Eze 32:2; 34:18); of chalmar, "to burn," "to be red" (Job 16:16, "My face is foul with weeping," the American Standard Revised Version and the English Revised Version, margin "red"); of mirpas, "a treading" (Eze 34:19). The adjective is the translation of akathartos, "unclean," "impure," "wicked" (Mr 9:25; Re 18:2, "foul spirit," the Revised Version (British and American) "unclean"), and of cheimon, "winter," "stormy or foul weather" (Mt 16:3). the Revised Version (British and American) has "The rivers shall become foul" (Isa 19:6) instead of the King James Version "They shall turn the rivers far away," the English Revised Version "The rivers shall stink."

Written by W. L. Walker

Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words

Foul:

denotes "unclean, impure" (a, negative, and kathairo, "to purify"),

(a) ceremonially, e.g., Act 10:14, 28;

(b) morally, always, in the Gospels, of unclean spirits; it is translated "foul" in the AV of Mar 9:25; Rev 18:2, but always "unclean" in the RV. Since the word primarily had a ceremonial significance, the moral significance is less prominent as applied to a spirit, than when poneros, "wicked," is so applied. Cp. akatharsia, "uncleanness."
See UNCLEAN.

Note: In Rev 17:4 the best mss. have this word in the plural, RV, "the unclean things" (akathartes, "filthiness," in some mss.).