(ἀλίσγημα, only found as noon in Acts 15:20; as verb in Daniel 1:8, Malachi 1:7; Malachi 1:12, Sirach 40:29 [LXX_])
ἀλίσγημα is probably from a root meaning ‘smear with fat or blood’ (cf. ἀλίνειν, Lat. linere), and is therefore a natural word for Jews to use of idol offerings (Leviticus 3:17). It is a real ‘Jewish Greek’ word, very rare, and is a translation of (gâ’al, root-meaning ‘loathe,’ afterwards ‘pollute’). Possibly it is also a partial transliteration of âÌÈàÅi, combining this and the Greek root ἀλιν-. It would then be a similar formation to Eng.-Fr. ‘crayfish,’ ‘Rotten Row’ (for instances of this principle see F. J. A. Hort, 1 Peter I. 1-II. 17, 1898, p. 77, LXX_ translation of Jeremiah 9:5, A. Edersheim, LT_4 i. 448, n._ 3; cf. also ἀγαπή as a sound- as well as sense-translation of àÇäÂáÈä). This would make St. James use a peculiarly biting word, ‘a loathed smearing.’ Its use in the LXX_ suggests also that it referred to the ordinary food of Gentiles (Daniel 1:8, Sirach 40:29) as well as to idol offerings. The Council did not adopt it, and changed it to the more colourless εἰδωλόθυτον, ‘idol offering,’ wishing perhaps to avoid a racial word which might suggest a separation in the matter of ordinary food between Jew and Gentile, such as afterwards actually happened (Galatians 2:9) under the influence of those who ‘came from James.’
Literature.-R. J. Knowling, in EGT_, ‘Acts,’ 1900, p. 324; Conybeare-Howson, The Life and Epistles of St. Paul, new ed., 1889, ch. vii. esp. pp. 162, 172.
Sherwin Smith.