Purity System of the Hebrew Bible

The Book of Leviticus

Book of Leviticus: Part I

Chapters 1-16

From the “Priestly Source” (7th-6th century)

Concerned with:

1) Sacrifice

2) Various forms of ritual impurity

3) Dietary Laws

Book of Leviticus: Part II

Chapters 17-26

“Holiness Code” (6th - 5th century)

“You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy” (19:2 & others)

Blessings & Curses (i.e., being vomited out by the land”)

Holy = set apart

The Sacrificial System

Leviticus 1-7 & 16

6 categories

Oral component?

#1: Burnt Offering

2x/day: sunrise & sunset

completely burnt

100% God’s - none remains for priests’ comsumption

#2: Grain Offering

Bread cooked in one of several ways:

unbaked

baked in oven, griddle, or pan

roasted grain

#3: Peace or Wellbeing

“Shalom”/”Salam” = peace, wellbeing, wholeness

Voluntary; a “well-wishing”, often as a thank-you

#4: Sin Offering

Covers Unintentional Sin

“Sin” = “to miss the mark”

Against priest, congregation, leader, or commoner

Egalitarian; offering based on income

#5: Guilt Offering

Unintentional sin (“missing the mark”)...

against a holy thing (i.e., something dedicated to God)

against any thing/one else

in the case of someone acting deceitfully or oppressively

#6: Day of Atonement

Means of annually cleansing the temple/tabernacle

The 1x a year the priest enters the Holy of Holies

Yom Kippur

“yom” = “day”

“kippur” = literally “covering”

Sacrificial System: Summary

Focus on:

Unintentional sin (“missing the mark”)

Daily & occasional giving

Individual responsibility

Purity System

1970s: Jacob Milgrom, UC Berkeley

Considered antiquated by modern readers

particularly Protestant Christians

not followed by vast majority of Jews

Preserved out of tradition & reverance

Purity System

Underlying rationale:

maintain categories of creation

connection to Gen 1 & the command to fill the earth & subdue it

Category #1 (of 2): Moral Impurity

Any wrong done intentionally or unintentionally

Transgressing the law(s)

Not taking care of ritual impurity

An act that one can avoid

Category #2 (of 2): Ritual Impurity

Cannot be helped

3 main categories:

Corpse (transferred to house)

Sexual fluids

Skin disease

What do ritual impurities have in

common?Reverence for life

Reflecting God as much as possible

Reflection of God as 1) eternal & 2) asexual

“Let us make humankind in our image” (Gen 1:26-28)

“You are to be holy, for I the Lord your God am Holy” (Lev 19:2)

Relation of 4 Terms:

Lev 10: Death of Aaron’s Sons

2 Sam 6: Death of Uzzah

Impure

Holy Common

Pure

Sickness of the Land

For example, Lev 18:25-27...

“...and the land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. 26 But you shall keep my statutes and my rules and do none of these abominations, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you 27 (for the people of the land, who were before you, did all of these abominations, so that the land became unclean), 28 lest the land vomit you out when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before you.”

Mary Douglas

Purity & Danger: Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo (1966)

Anthropological Perspective

Mary Douglas

“Dirt” = matter out of place

Assumes categories of where things belong

Not a matter of hygene

Mary Douglas

Food laws of Leviticus 11

Categories assumed by authors of Leviticus, not layed out

Key example: prohibition of pork

Limits humankind’s effect on nature

Mary DouglasConnection of Leviticus & Genesis 1

from same literary source

both concerned with maintenance of creation and the categories implied therein

Gen 1:28: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Underlying Rationale:

Concern for ethical relationship to nature

Promotion of life and fertility

Gen 1:28: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

In your own words...1) What is the underlying rationale(s) for the purity system?

2) According to this system, what does it mean for day-to-day life to be...

a. made in the image of God (Gen 1:26-28) or to be holy, because God is holy (Lev 19:2)?

b. to have dominion over the sea, heavens, earth, and everything in them (Gen 1:26-28)?