TR: kabas → plyno (Wash Garments)¶

The Chain¶

Hebrew OT              LXX (Greek OT)           Greek NT
───────────            ───────────────           ────────
כָּבַס (kabas)      →  πλύνω (plyno)         →  πλύνω (plyno)
H3526, 48v in OT       LXX co-occ: 43x          1x in NT (Rev 7:14)
"wash garments"        of kabas                  "have washed their robes"

OT Usage (Hebrew)¶

Strong's	Word	Occurrences	Primary Meaning
H3526	כָּבַס (kabas)	48v	wash/launder garments (by treading); fuller

Kabas is the specific term for washing garments or fabric, distinct from rachats (H7364) which washes the body. The root sense is "to trample" — referring to the ancient fulling process of stamping cloth in water. In ritual law, kabas clothes + rachats body form a mandatory pair for restoring purity after contact with uncleanness.

Key OT passages: - Exo 19:10 — "let them wash (kabas) their clothes" — consecration before Sinai theophany - Lev 15:5 — "shall wash (kabas) his clothes, and bathe in water" — standard purification formula - Psa 51:2 — "Wash me (kabbeseni) throughly from mine iniquity" — figurative application to moral cleansing

H3526-kabac.md

LXX Bridge¶

Hebrew	Greek Translation	Co-occurrences	PMI	Notes
kabas (H3526)	πλύνω (plyno) G4150	43	8.70	Primary — near 1:1 equivalence
kabas (H3526)	λούω (louo) G3068	20	7.78	Secondary — "bathe" when LXX renders broadly
kabas (H3526)	γναφεύς (gnapheus) G1102	3	8.88	"Fuller" — matches Qal participle kobes

Reverse direction — what Hebrew words does plyno translate:

Hebrew	Strong's	Co-occurrences	Score
כָּבַס (kabas)	H3526	43	32.91
רָחַץ (rachats)	H7364	25	24.21
בֶּגֶד (beged)	H899	34	22.71

Plyno in the LXX primarily renders kabas but also appears in verses containing rachats (body washing) and beged (garments), reflecting the ritual co-occurrence of these terms in purification passages.

Semantic continuity in translation: The LXX preserves the kabas/rachats distinction almost perfectly — kabas → plyno (launder/wash cloth), rachats → louo (bathe body). Both Greek verbs appear together in purification contexts just as their Hebrew equivalents do.

NT Usage (Greek)¶

Strong's	Word	Occurrences	Primary Meaning
G4150	πλύνω (plyno)	1v	wash (garments — specifically robes)

Plyno appears only once in the NT:

Rev 7:14 — "These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed (eplynan) their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."

TODO(need G4150 study)

Continuity and Shifts¶

What stays the same across testaments: - Plyno retains the specific garment-washing sense of kabas in its sole NT appearance - The Levitical association of garment-washing with achieving ritual purity carries into Rev 7:14, where washed robes = access to God's presence - The pairing with whiteness (Psa 51:7 "whiter than snow"; Rev 7:14 "made them white") bridges the testaments

What shifts: - Kabas in OT law requires literal water; Rev 7:14 replaces water with "the blood of the Lamb" as the cleansing agent — a paradox (blood normally defiles in Levitical law) - OT kabas is a repeated ritual act; Rev 7:14 presents a once-for-all completed washing (aorist tense eplynan) - The OT fuller (kobes) as professional tradesman has no NT parallel; Mal 3:2 "fullers' soap" provides the bridge into eschatological purification imagery