Purification

Cleansing from sin or uncleanness, by means of ritual washing under the old covenant, but through the blood of Jesus Christ under the new covenant.

Purification from uncleanness

After contact with something unclean

Leviticus 11:39–40 See also Leviticus 15:1–12, Leviticus 15:19–23, Leviticus 17:15–16; Numbers 19:10–20

If an animal that you may eat dies, anyone who touches the carcass will be unclean until evening. Whoever eats from the carcass must wash his clothes and will be unclean until evening, and anyone who picks up the carcass must wash his clothes and will be unclean until evening.

After disease

Leviticus 15:13–15 See also Leviticus 14:1–32

When the man has been cleansed from his discharge, he must count off seven days for his cleansing, wash his clothes, and bathe himself in fresh water, and he shall be clean. On the eighth day he is to take two turtledoves or two young pigeons, come before the LORD at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, and give them to the priest. The priest is to sacrifice them, one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering. In this way the priest will make atonement for the man before the LORD because of his discharge.

After childbirth and menstruation

Luke 2:22 See also Leviticus 12:1–8; 2 Samuel 11:2–4

And when the time of purification according to the Law of Moses was complete, His parents brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord

Purification from sin

1 John 1:7 See also Numbers 19:1–9; Job 1:5; Hebrews 1:3, Hebrews 9:16–24; 1 John 1:9

But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

Purification of people

Priests and Levites

Ezra 6:20 See also Exodus 30:18–21; Leviticus 16:24–28; Numbers 8:5–22, Numbers 19:7; 2 Chronicles 4:6; Nehemiah 12:30, Nehemiah 13:22, Nehemiah 13:30

All the priests and Levites had purified themselves and were ceremonially clean. And the Levites slaughtered the Passover lamb for all the exiles, for their priestly brothers, and for themselves.

Lay people

Acts 21:24–26 See also Genesis 35:1–2; Numbers 19:20, Numbers 31:19; 2 Chronicles 30:13–20; Isaiah 66:17

Take these men, purify yourself along with them, and pay their expenses so they can have their heads shaved. Then everyone will know that there is no truth to these rumors about you, but that you also live in obedience to the law. As for the Gentile believers, we have written to them our decision that they must abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality.” So the next day Paul took the men and purified himself along with them. Then he entered the temple to give notice of the date when their purification would be complete and the offering would be made for each of them.

Purification of inanimate objects

The temple

2 Chronicles 34:8 See also 2 Chronicles 29:15–19; Nehemiah 13:6–9; Ezekiel 45:18–20

Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, in order to cleanse the land and the temple, Josiah sent Shaphan son of Azaliah, Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah son of Joahaz, the recorder, to repair the house of the LORD his God.

Sacred objects

Exodus 29:36 See also Leviticus 8:15; 1 Chronicles 23:28

Sacrifice a bull as a sin offering each day for atonement. Purify the altar by making atonement for it, and anoint it to consecrate it.

Other items

Leviticus 14:48–53 See also Numbers 31:19–24

If, however, the priest comes and inspects it, and the mildew has not spread after the house has been replastered, he shall pronounce the house clean, because the mildew is gone. He is to take two birds, cedar wood, scarlet yarn, and hyssop to purify the house; and he shall slaughter one of the birds over fresh water in a clay pot. Then he shall take the cedar wood, the hyssop, the scarlet yarn, and the live bird, dip them in the blood of the slaughtered bird and the fresh water, and sprinkle the house seven times. And he shall cleanse the house with the bird’s blood, the fresh water, the live bird, the cedar wood, the hyssop, and the scarlet yarn. Finally, he is to release the live bird into the open fields outside the city. In this way he will make atonement for the house, and it will be clean.

Purification of precious metals

Psalm 12:6 See also Malachi 3:3

The words of the LORD are flawless, like silver refined in a furnace, like gold purified sevenfold.

Purification of the inner person

2 Corinthians 7:1 See also Mark 7:2–8; Acts 15:5–11; Titus 2:11–14; James 4:8; 1 Peter 1:22; 1 John 3:3

Therefore, beloved, since we have these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that defiles body and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.