Common Axis)¶

The Chain¶

Hebrew OT              LXX (Greek OT)          Greek NT
────────────────   ──────────────────────   ──────────────────
חֹל (chôl)       →  βέβηλος (bébēlos)    →  βέβηλος (bébēlos)
H2455, 7x OT        LXX co-occ: 5x            5x in NT
"common, profane"    PMI score: 20.42          "profane"
                     (highest score found)

חָלַל (châlal)   →  βεβηλόω (bebēlóō)    →  βεβηλόω (bebēlóō)
H2490, 132x OT      LXX co-occ: 61x           2x in NT
"to profane"         PMI score: 30.08          "to profane"

OT Usage (Hebrew)¶

Strong's	Word	POS	Occurrences	Primary Meaning
H2455	חֹל (chôl)	masc. noun	7	common, profane, unholy — the state of being non-sacred
H2490	חָלַל (châlal)	verb	132	to bore/pierce; to profane, pollute, defile; to begin

H2490 is a complex root with three distinct semantic streams in the KJV: "profane/pollute/defile" (~50x), "begin" (~40x), and "wound/slay/pierce" (~10x). The "profane" sense dominates the LXX mapping to βεβηλόω; the "begin" sense maps instead to ἄρχω (G757, 43x).

Key OT passages:

Lev 10:10 — "And that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean" — the foundational text establishing the holy/common (chol) distinction alongside the clean/unclean (tame/tahor) axis
Eze 22:26 — "Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean" — priestly failure to maintain the chol/qodesh boundary
Eze 44:23 — "And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean" — restoration mandate for Ezekiel's ideal priesthood

Library entries: H2455-chol.md, H2490-chalal.md

LXX Bridge¶

H2455 chôl → Greek (what Greek words translate this Hebrew word in the LXX):

Hebrew	Greek Translation	Co-occ	PMI Score	Notes
chôl (H2455)	βέβηλος (G952)	5	20.42	Primary equivalent — strongest semantic match
chôl (H2455)	ἅγιος (G40)	5	8.88	Contextual — appears in holy/common contrast passages
chôl (H2455)	ἀκάθαρτος (G169)	3	8.74	Overlap — "unclean" adjacent in parallel pairings

G952 bébēlos ← Hebrew (what Hebrew words this Greek word translates in the LXX):

Hebrew Source	Strong's	Co-occ	PMI Score	Notes
chôl	H2455	5	20.42	Primary source
qôdesh	H6944	5	10.10	Contextual — holy/profane contrast passages
ṭâmêʼ	H2931	3	9.96	Overlap with uncleanness axis
ṭâhôwr	H2889	3	9.86	Contextual — clean/unclean passages where bébēlos also appears

H2490 châlal → Greek (what Greek words translate this Hebrew verb in the LXX):

Hebrew	Greek Translation	Co-occ	PMI Score	Notes
châlal (H2490)	βεβηλόω (G953)	61	30.08	Primary equivalent for "profane" sense — dominant mapping
châlal (H2490)	ἄρχω (G757)	43	21.27	"Begin" sense — separate semantic stream
châlal (H2490)	μιαίνω (G3392)	9	9.10	"Defile/stain" sense — intensified pollution
châlal (H2490)	ἁγιάζω (G37)	9	7.86	Contextual — appears in sanctification contexts alongside profaning

Semantic note: The LXX translators consistently used the βέβηλ- root (bébēlos adjective, bebēlóō verb) to render the chôl/châlal word family when the sense is "profane/common." This is a tight, reliable mapping — 5 of 7 chôl occurrences map to bébēlos, and 61 of châlal's ~50 "profane" occurrences map to bebēlóō. The βέβηλ- root etymologically means "accessible to all" (from the threshold [bēlós] that anyone may cross), capturing the Hebrew concept of what lies outside the sacred boundary.

NT Usage (Greek)¶

Strong's	Word	POS	Occurrences	Primary Meaning
G952	βέβηλος (bébēlos)	adj.	5	profane, godless, accessible to the uninitiated
G953	βεβηλόω (bebēlóō)	verb	2	to profane, desecrate

Louw-Nida: βεβηλόω (G953) — Domain 53.004: "Defile, Unclean, Common" (Religious Activities). No entry for βέβηλος (G952) in Louw-Nida.

Key NT passages:

Matt 12:5 — "on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane [βεβηλόω] the sabbath, and are blameless" — Jesus uses the very verb of Ezekiel's priests to argue from lesser to greater
Heb 12:16 — "Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person [βέβηλος], as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright" — personified profaneness: treating the sacred as common
1 Tim 4:7 — "refuse profane [βέβηλος] and old wives' fables" — the adjective applied to speech/teaching that has no sacred character
Acts 24:6 — "Who also hath gone about to profane [βεβηλόω] the temple" — charge against Paul; temple desecration in classic LXX sense

[No canonical study yet for G952 or G953]

The κοινός (koinos) Parallel¶

The NT develops a parallel axis using κοινός (G2839, 12x) and κοινόω (G2840) to express the holy/common distinction, particularly in contexts involving Gentile inclusion:

Acts 10:14 — "Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common [κοινός] or unclean [ἀκάθαρτος]" — Peter pairs the two axes (common + unclean) exactly as Lev 10:10 and Eze 44:23 pair chôl + ṭâmêʼ
Heb 10:29 — "hath counted the blood of the covenant... an unholy thing [κοινός]" — covenant blood treated as "common" rather than sacred

The OT chôl → LXX bébēlos mapping is the direct predecessor of this NT koinos usage. Both words occupy the same conceptual slot: what lies outside the sacred boundary. The LXX used bébēlos for the formal priestly vocabulary (Leviticus, Ezekiel); the NT uses both bébēlos (for profane persons/speech) and koinós (for the ritual common/clean distinction, especially in the Gentile-inclusion debates).

Direct OT→NT Quotations¶

No direct verbatim quotations carry the βέβηλ- root from OT to NT. However, two structural echoes are significant:

NT Verse	OT Echo	Shared Concept	Significance
Matt 12:5	Num 28:9–10	sabbath "profaning" by priests	Jesus applies bebēlóō to priestly sabbath service, drawing on the same concept Ezekiel condemns — but here it is authorized profaning, showing the word's range
Heb 12:16	Gen 25:29–34	treating the sacred as common	Esau as the paradigm βέβηλος person — selling the birthright is treating qodesh as chôl

Continuity and Shifts¶

What stays the same across testaments: - The exact βέβηλ- root carries intact from LXX into NT — same word family, same core meaning: "treating what is holy as though it were common" - The Leviticus 10:10 framework (holy/common :: clean/unclean — two distinct axes) persists into the NT, with both bébēlos and koinós occupying the "common" slot and akáthartos occupying the "unclean" slot - The objects that can be profaned remain the same: the temple (Acts 24:6, cf. Eze 22:26), the sabbath (Matt 12:5, cf. Eze 22:8), and sacred things generally

What shifts: - In the OT, chôl/châlal is primarily cultic vocabulary confined to priestly discourse (Leviticus, Ezekiel); in the NT, bébēlos extends to describe persons (Esau, Heb 12:16; the lawless, 1 Tim 1:9) and speech (1 Tim 4:7; 6:20; 2 Tim 2:16) — a moralized, generalized application - The NT develops κοινός as a second, less formal word for "common" — one that carries the Levitical concept into the Gentile-inclusion debate (Acts 10–11), while bébēlos retains its stronger connotation of active desecration or willful disregard for the sacred - H2490 châlal's massive range (profane + begin + wound) collapses in the LXX: the βεβηλόω mapping captures only the "profane" stream, while ἄρχω captures only the "begin" stream — the polysemy does not survive translation