DEFILE, DEFILEMENT (among a dozen or so Heb. and Gr. words used in the Bible and tr. “to defile,” the most frequently used are the following: חָלַל֒, H2725, טָמֵא֒, H3237, גָּעַל, H1718; κοινόω, G3124; μιαίνω, G3620; μολύνω, G3662). Among the OT Jews were five kinds of defilement: (1) Physical (Song of Solomon 5:3); (2) Sexual, either moral or ceremonial, involving either illicit intercourse (Lev 18:20) or intercourse at forbidden times (Lev 15:24; 1 Sam 21:5). (3) Ethical (Isa 59:3; Ezek 37:23). (4) Ceremonial, which meant to render oneself ceremonially unclean so as to be disqualified for religious service or worship (Lev 11:24; 15:19; 22:6). (5) Religious often hard to distinguish from the ceremonial, but concerned more with the heart attitude toward Jehovah (Num 35:33; Jer 3:1; Mal 1:7, 12). The gospels show that by the time of Christ the rabbis had extended the rules regarding defilement into a complex and very burdensome system (Mark 7:2; John 18:28). In the teaching of Christ and the apostles, defilement is uniformly ethical or spiritual (Matt 15:18; Mark 7:19; Heb 12:15).