Purity, nature of

The OT recognises a close link between outer cleanliness and inner purity. In the NT, special emphasis is placed on inner purity resulting from spiritual renewal.

Physical cleansing from impurity by washing or refining

Genesis 18:4; Job 9:30; Psalm 12:6

Ritual impurity must be avoided or cleansed

Leviticus 10:10–11 See also Isaiah 35:8, Isaiah 52:1, Isaiah 52:11; Mark 7:2, Mark 7:4

You must distinguish between the holy and the common, between the clean and the unclean, so that you may teach the Israelites all the statutes that the LORD has given them through Moses.”

Sexual sources of ritual impurity

Childbirth

Leviticus 12:2 See also Leviticus 12:5; Luke 2:22

“Say to the Israelites, ‘A woman who becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son will be unclean for seven days, as she is during the days of her menstruation.

Other sources of ritual impurity

Dead bodies

Numbers 19:11–16

Whoever touches any dead body will be unclean for seven days. He must purify himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day; then he will be clean. But if he does not purify himself on the third and seventh days, he will not be clean. Anyone who touches a human corpse and fails to purify himself defiles the tabernacle of the LORD. That person must be cut off from Israel. He remains unclean, because the water of purification has not been sprinkled on him, and his uncleanness is still on him. This is the law when a person dies in a tent: Everyone who enters the tent and everyone already in the tent will be unclean for seven days, and any open container without a lid fastened on it is unclean. Anyone in the open field who touches someone who has been killed by the sword or has died of natural causes, or anyone who touches a human bone or a grave, will be unclean for seven days.

Unclean creatures

Genesis 7:2 See also Leviticus 11:24, Leviticus 11:46–47; Deuteronomy 14:3; Hosea 9:3

You are to take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate; a pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate;

Skin diseases

Leviticus 13:45 See also Matthew 8:2–4 parallels Mark 1:40–44, Luke 5:12–14

A diseased person must wear torn clothes and let his hair hang loose, and he must cover his mouth and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean!’

Mildew

Leviticus 14:36

Contact with a sin offering

Leviticus 16:26

The man who released the goat as the scapegoat must wash his clothes and bathe himself with water; afterward he may reenter the camp.

Cleansing from ritual impurity

Leviticus 14:8 See also Leviticus 16:26; Numbers 19:17–21, Numbers 19:9, Numbers 19:17–21, Numbers 31:22–23 Fire is also a purifying agent.

The one being cleansed must wash his clothes, shave off all his hair, and bathe with water; then he will be ceremonially clean. Afterward, he may enter the camp, but he must remain outside his tent for seven days.

Contact with God demanded purity

Exodus 19:10 See also Exodus 19:14–15, Exodus 30:18–21; Hebrews 10:22

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. They must wash their clothes

Ritual purity is not required under the new covenant

Matthew 15:11 parallel Mark 7:15 What concerns God is moral impurity, associated with actions, not ritual impurity, associated with food, etc. See also Acts 10:12–15, Acts 21:26 Paul took part in Jewish purification rites in accordance with his Jewish heritage; Romans 14:14; Galatians 2:11–12 Peter temporarily relapsed into the habit of treating Gentiles as unclean; Galatians 2:14–15; 1 Timothy 4:4

A man is not defiled by what enters his mouth, but by what comes out of it.”