Bible Dictionary
GUILTLESS
Guiltless means clean, free from blame, or not liable to punishment. Its precise force depends on the context, sometimes referring to innocence and sometimes to freedom from a legal penalty.
Definition
Guiltless means clean, free from blame, or free from punishment. Its precise meaning depends on whether the context emphasizes innocence or legal exemption from penalty.
Biblical Usage
The term is used in passages concerning freedom from punishment, such as the prohibition against taking God’s name in vain, and in passages concerning freedom from blame or responsibility.
Historical Background
The primary Hebrew idea is to be clean; the meanings freedom from blame and freedom from punishment overlap as they do with guilt.
Historical Bible Dictionaries
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>gilt'-les: The primary meaning of the Hebrew word is "to be clean." Sometimes the meaning is "freedom from blame," at other times to be "free from punishment," these two ideas running over into each other as with the word "guilt." The latter meaning seems to predominate in Ex 20:7; De 5:11; 2Sa 14:9; 1Ki 2:9. The other meaning holds in Nu 32:22; Jos 2:19; 2Sa 3:28; Mt 12:5,7.</p>