καθαρίζω

G2511 means to cleanse, purify, or make clean. Its thirty-one forms occur in thirty verses across ten books. In the Gospels it describes people being cleansed from leprosy, the cleaning of cups, Jesus' teaching about what defiles, and the mission command to cleanse lepers. Acts uses it for what God has made clean in Peter's vision and for hearts cleansed by faith. Paul applies cleansing language to holiness, the church, and the people Christ purifies for His possession. Hebrews contrasts outward purification and repeated sacrifices with Christ's blood purifying the conscience. James commands sinners to cleanse their hands, while 1 John declares that Jesus' blood cleanses from sin and that God cleanses those who confess.

These settings share removal of defilement, but they should not be flattened. Bodily healing, household washing, food categories, Gentile inclusion, moral repentance, ecclesial holiness, ritual purification, conscience, and forgiveness each have their own grammar and argument. The verb does not teach that one human ritual accomplishes every kind of cleansing. Nor does it make ceremonial, bodily, and moral categories interchangeable. Context identifies the subject who cleanses, what is cleansed, from what defilement, and toward what restored relation or service.

G2511 moves across bodily cleansing, ordinary washing, food and purity questions, hearts cleansed by faith, communal holiness, sacrificial purification, conscience, confession, and fellowship with God.