The Greek noun aphedron (ἀφεδρών) is a term for latrine. The word occurs twice in the New Testament (Matthew 15:17, Mark 7:19) and was unknown in classical texts. The Vulgate rendered the term secessus, latrine.[1] Wycliffe avoided the reference to a privy with "and beneath it goeth out," while Martin Luther translated the word as natürliche Gang ("natural course"),[2] though Tyndale's "and goeth out into the draught" is more clear. Perhaps due in part to Luther's "natural course," various 18th and 19th Century scholars assumed it was a euphemism for the human bowel.[3] However the discovery and publication of an inscription at Pergamon in 1901[4] confirmed that the word does, as per Latin secessus, in fact mean latrine.[5]
Further the Mark 7:19 verse says "out into the aphedron, cleaning all meats" which makes no sense if the meat is still lodged in the lower intestine.[6]
The following is a transcription and translation of the relevant fragment of the Greek text known in Latin as Lex de astynomis Pergamenorum and in English as Law of the town clerks of Pergamon.[7][8][9][10]
Translation: Concerning WCs. The town clerks shall maintain the public WCs and their outpipes. And if some of them are not covered and of them... (text broken).
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