Acts 15:20

Young's Literal Translation (1862/1898)

but to write to them to abstain from the pollutions of the idols, and the whoredom, and the strangled thing; and the blood;

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

Ἀλλὰ ἐπιστεῖλαι αὐτοῖς, τοῦ ἀπέχεσθαι ἀπὸ τῶν ἀλισγημάτων τῶν εἰδώλων, καὶ τῆς πορνείας, καὶ τοῦ πνικτοῦ, καὶ τοῦ αἵματος.

Transliteration

But to episteilai to them, to apechesthai apo tōn alisgēmatōn tōn eidōlōn, and tēs porneias, and the pniktou, and the haimatos.

Grammar Details

• *alla*: conjunction - but/rather
• *episteilai*: aorist, infinitive, active - to write/send [a letter]
• *autois*: dative, masculine, plural - to them
• *tou apechesthai*: present, infinitive, middle, articular - the abstaining
• *apo*: preposition + genitive - from
• *tōn alisgēmatōn*: genitive, neuter, plural - the pollutions/defilements
• *tōn eidōlōn*: genitive, neuter, plural - of idols
• *tēs porneias*: genitive, feminine, singular - sexual immorality
• *tou pniktou*: genitive, neuter, singular - what is strangled
• *tou haimatos*: genitive, neuter, singular - the blood

Word Meanings

• *episteilai*: to write/send [a letter]/instruct
• *apechesthai*: to abstain/keep away/refrain
• *alisgēmatōn*: pollutions/defilements/contaminations
• *eidōlōn*: idols/images
• *porneias*: sexual immorality/fornication
• *pniktou*: what is strangled/strangled meat
• *haimatos*: blood

Referenced Verses

• Lev 3:17 : 17 `A statute age-during to your generations in all your dwellings: any fat or any blood ye do not eat.'
• Acts 15:29 : 29 to abstain from things offered to idols, and blood, and a strangled thing, and whoredom; from which keeping yourselves, ye shall do well; be strong!'
• Rev 2:14 : 14 `But I have against thee a few things: That thou hast there those holding the teaching of Balaam, who did teach Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the sons of Israel, to eat idol-sacrifices, and to commit whoredom;
• Rev 2:20 : 20 `But I have against thee a few things: That thou dost suffer the woman Jezebel, who is calling herself a prophetess, to teach, and to lead astray, my servants to commit whoredom, and idol-sacrifices to eat;
• Gen 9:4 : 4 only flesh in its life -- its blood -- ye do not eat.
• Deut 12:16 : 16 `Only, the blood ye do not eat -- on the earth thou dost pour it as water;
• Deut 15:23 : 23 Only, its blood thou dost not eat; on the earth thou dost pour it as water.
• Ezek 4:14 : 14 And I say, `Ah, Lord Jehovah, lo, my soul is not defiled, and carcase, and torn thing, I have not eaten from my youth, even till now; nor come into my mouth hath abominable flesh.'
• Lev 17:10-14 : 10 `And any man of the house of Israel, or of the sojourners, who is sojourning in your midst, who eateth any blood, I have even set My face against the person who is eating the blood, and have cut him off from the midst of his people; 11 for the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar, to make atonement for your souls; for it `is' the blood which maketh atonement for the soul. 12 `Therefore I have said to the sons of Israel, No person among you doth eat blood, and the sojourner who is sojourning in your midst doth not eat blood; 13 and any man of the sons of Israel, or of the sojourners, who is sojourning in your midst, who hunteth venison, beast or fowl, which is eaten -- hath even poured out its blood, and hath covered it with dust; 14 for `it is' the life of all flesh, its blood is for its life; and I say to the sons of Israel, Blood of any flesh ye do not eat, for the life of all flesh is its blood; any one eating it is cut off.
• Acts 21:25 : 25 `And concerning those of the nations who have believed, we have written, having given judgment, that they observe no such thing, except to keep themselves both from idol-sacrifices, and blood, and a strangled thing, and whoredom.'
• 1 Cor 6:9 : 9 have ye not known that the unrighteous the reign of God shall not inherit? be not led astray; neither whoremongers, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor sodomites,
• 1 Cor 6:18 : 18 flee the whoredom; every sin -- whatever a man may commit -- is without the body, and he who is committing whoredom, against his own body doth sin.
• Exod 34:15-16 : 15 `Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitant of the land, and they have gone a-whoring after their gods, and have sacrificed to their gods, and `one' hath called to thee, and thou hast eaten of his sacrifice, 16 and thou hast taken of their daughters to thy sons, and their daughters have gone a-whoring after their gods, and have caused thy sons to go a-whoring after their gods;
• 1 Cor 7:2 : 2 and because of the whoredom let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her proper husband;
• 1 Cor 8:1 : 1 And concerning the things sacrificed to idols, we have known that we all have knowledge: knowledge puffeth up, but love buildeth up;
• 1 Cor 8:4-9 : 4 Concerning the eating then of the things sacrificed to idols, we have known that an idol `is' nothing in the world, and that there is no other God except one; 5 for even if there are those called gods, whether in heaven, whether upon earth -- as there are gods many and lords many -- 6 yet to us `is' one God, the Father, of whom `are' the all things, and we to Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom `are' the all things, and we through Him; 7 but not in all men `is' the knowledge, and certain with conscience of the idol, till now, as a thing sacrificed to an idol do eat `it', and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. 8 But victuals do not commend us to God, for neither if we may eat are we in advance; nor if we may not eat, are we behind; 9 but see, lest this privilege of yours may become a stumbling-block to the infirm, 10 for if any one may see thee that hast knowledge in an idol's temple reclining at meat -- shall not his conscience -- he being infirm -- be emboldened to eat the things sacrificed to idols, 11 and the brother who is infirm shall perish by thy knowledge, because of whom Christ died? 12 and thus sinning in regard to the brethren, and smiting their weak conscience -- in regard to Christ ye sin; 13 wherefore, if victuals cause my brother to stumble, I may eat no flesh -- to the age -- that my brother I may not cause to stumble.
• 1 Cor 10:7-8 : 7 Neither become ye idolaters, as certain of them, as it hath been written, `The people sat down to eat and to drink, and stood up to play;' 8 neither may we commit whoredom, as certain of them did commit whoredom, and there fell in one day twenty-three thousand;
• 1 Cor 10:14-28 : 14 Wherefore, my beloved, flee from the idolatry; 15 as to wise men I speak -- judge ye what I say: 16 The cup of the blessing that we bless -- is it not the fellowship of the blood of the Christ? the bread that we break -- is it not the fellowship of the body of the Christ? 17 because one bread, one body, are we the many -- for we all of the one bread do partake. 18 See Israel according to the flesh! are not those eating the sacrifices in the fellowship of the altar? 19 what then do I say? that an idol is anything? or that a sacrifice offered to an idol is anything? -- 20 `no,' but that the things that the nations sacrifice -- they sacrifice to demons and not to God; and I do not wish you to come into the fellowship of the demons. 21 Ye are not able the cup of the Lord to drink, and the cup of demons; ye are not able of the table of the Lord to partake, and of the table of demons; 22 do we arouse the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than He? 23 All things to me are lawful, but all things are not profitable; all things to me are lawful, but all things do not build up; 24 let no one seek his own -- but each another's. 25 Whatever in the meat-market is sold eat ye, not inquiring, because of the conscience, 26 for the Lord's `is' the earth, and its fulness; 27 and if any one of the unbelieving do call you, and ye wish to go, all that is set before you eat, nothing inquiring, because of the conscience; 28 and if any one may say to you, `This is a thing sacrificed to an idol,' -- do not eat, because of that one who shewed `it', and of the conscience, for the Lord's `is' the earth and its fulness:
• 2 Cor 12:21 : 21 lest again having come, my God may humble me in regard to you, and I may bewail many of those having sinned before, and not having reformed concerning the uncleanness, and whoredom, and lasciviousness, that they did practise.
• Gal 5:19 : 19 And manifest also are the works of the flesh, which are: Adultery, whoredom, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
• Eph 5:3 : 3 and whoredom, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as becometh saints;
• Col 3:5 : 5 Put to death, then, your members that `are' upon the earth -- whoredom, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and the covetousness, which is idolatry --
• 1 Thess 4:3 : 3 for this is the will of God -- your sanctification; that ye abstain from the whoredom,
• 1 Tim 4:4-5 : 4 because every creature of God `is' good, and nothing `is' to be rejected, with thanksgiving being received, 5 for it is sanctified through the word of God and intercession.
• Heb 12:16 : 16 lest any one be a fornicator, or a profane person, as Esau, who in exchange for one morsel of food did sell his birthright,
• Heb 13:4 : 4 honourable `is' the marriage in all, and the bed undefiled, and whoremongers and adulterers God shall judge.
• 1 Pet 4:3 : 3 for sufficient to us `is' the past time of life the will of the nations to have wrought, having walked in lasciviousnesses, desires, excesses of wines, revelings, drinking-bouts, and unlawful idolatries,
• 1 Cor 6:13 : 13 the meats `are' for the belly, and the belly for the meats. And God both this and these shall make useless; and the body `is' not for whoredom, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body;
• 1 Cor 5:11 : 11 and now, I did write to you not to keep company with `him', if any one, being named a brother, may be a whoremonger, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner -- with such a one not even to eat together;
• Rev 9:20 : 20 and the rest of men, who were not killed in these plagues, neither did reform from the works of their hands, that they may not bow before the demons, and idols, those of gold, and those of silver, and those of brass, and those of stone, and those of wood, that are neither able to see, nor to hear, nor to walk,
• Rev 10:2 : 2 and he had in his hand a little scroll opened, and he did place his right foot upon the sea, and the left upon the land,
• Rev 10:8 : 8 And the voice that I heard out of the heaven is again speaking with me, and saying, `Go, take the little scroll that is open in the hand of the messenger who hath been standing upon the sea, and upon the land:'
• Num 25:2 : 2 and they call for the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people eat, and bow themselves to their gods,
• Lev 7:23-27 : 23 `Speak unto the sons of Israel, saying, Any fat of ox and sheep and goat ye do not eat; 24 and the fat of a carcase, and the fat of a torn thing is prepared for any work, but ye do certainly not eat it; 25 for whoever eateth the fat of the beast, of which `one' bringeth near a fire-offering to Jehovah, even the person who eateth hath been cut off from his people. 26 `And any blood ye do not eat in all your dwellings, of fowl, or of beast; 27 any person who eateth any blood, even that person hath been cut off from his people.'
• Gen 35:2 : 2 And Jacob saith unto his household, and unto all who `are' with him, `Turn aside the gods of the stranger which `are' in your midst, and cleanse yourselves, and change your garments;
• Exod 20:3-5 : 3 `Thou hast no other Gods before Me. 4 `Thou dost not make to thyself a graven image, or any likeness which `is' in the heavens above, or which `is' in the earth beneath, or which `is' in the waters under the earth. 5 Thou dost not bow thyself to them, nor serve them: for I, Jehovah thy God, `am' a zealous God, charging iniquity of fathers on sons, on the third `generation', and on the fourth, of those hating Me,
• Exod 20:23 : 23 ye do not make with Me gods of silver, even gods of gold ye do not make to yourselves.
• Ezek 20:30-31 : 30 Therefore, say unto the house of Israel: Thus said the Lord Jehovah: In the way of your fathers are ye defiled? And after their detestable things go a-whoring? 31 And in the offering of your gifts, In causing your sons to pass through fire, Ye are defiled by all your idols to this day, And I am sought by you, O house of Israel! I live -- an affirmation of the Lord Jehovah, I am not sought by you.
• Ezek 33:25 : 25 Therefore say unto them: Thus said the Lord Jehovah: With the blood ye do eat, And your eyes ye lift up unto your idols, And blood ye shed, and the land ye inherit!
• Dan 1:8 : 8 And Daniel purposeth in his heart that he will not pollute himself with the king's portion of food, and with the wine of his drinking, and he seeketh of the chief of the eunuchs that he may not pollute himself.
• 1 Sam 14:32 : 32 and the people make unto the spoil, and take sheep, and oxen, and sons of the herd, and slaughter on the earth, and the people eat with the blood.
• Ps 106:37-39 : 37 And they sacrifice their sons And their daughters to destroyers, 38 And they shed innocent blood -- Blood of their sons and of their daughters, Whom they have sacrificed to idols of Canaan, And the land is profaned with blood. 39 And they are defiled with their works, And commit whoredom in their habitual doings.
• Deut 12:23-25 : 23 `Only, be sure not to eat the blood, for the blood `is' the life, and thou dost not eat the life with the flesh; 24 thou dost not eat it, on the earth thou dost pour it as water; 25 thou dost not eat it, in order that it may be well with thee, and with thy sons after thee, when thou dost that which `is' right in the eyes of Jehovah.
• Deut 14:21 : 21 `Ye do not eat of any carcase; to the sojourner who `is' within thy gates thou dost give it, and he hath eaten it; or sell `it' to a stranger; for a holy people thou `art' to Jehovah thy God; thou dost not boil a kid in its mother's milk.