FOR KOLL

Unit 4 — Purity and Holiness

A great emphasis is put in the Hebrew Bible on ritual, purity and holiness. Biblical society understood concepts of purity and impurity as physically tangible. Removal of impurity was a physical matter. The Book of Leviticus, also known as the Priestly Code, is essentially a manual for biblical priests. It begins with a list of all the sacrifices that were expected in routine worship at the temple. It deals with removal of impurity caused by contact with the dead. It includes dietary laws, and laws to cope with impurities resulting from sexual intercourse, birth, menstruation and other bodily discharges of both men and women. It provides protocols for dealing with impurities caused by skin diseases, and offers collective purification from sins. It offers an operative definition of consanguinity and laws of incest, and it gives instructions for the celebration of holidays. Some claim that Leviticus is the most important book of the Bible. For us modern westerners, much of the instruction in the Book of Leviticus is foreign and hard to understand. What defined biblical society no longer makes sense to us. Many tried to explain the logic behind the various rituals in the Book of Leviticus. I like Mary Douglas’ theory because she proposes a universal principle that can account for almost all the rituals that we find in Leviticus. This unit I chose to read chapter 11 because it includes the dietary laws, and I chose chapter 19 because it is a curious collection of laws that combine ritual and ethical considerations and deals with the definition of holiness.

Reading:

Lev 11, 19

Collins, Introduction, 139-157.

Mary Douglas, “The Abominations of Leviticus,” in Purity and Danger, 51-71. (Posted on BB)