The concepts of purity and impurity become extremely complex when talking about religion and moral codes. The main message of Douglas’s writing is that “rituals of purity and impurity create unity in experience”. As seen in Leviticus, purity has more of a ceremonial connotation whereas later in the Bible this comes in the form of moral actions. This makes sense as at the time these events occur, ritual sacrifice was integral to society, similar to how God tells Abraham to sacrifice Isaac in order to bless him. The function of the emphasis on purity laws in Israel is that in order for humans to be in communion with God, there must be order and an establishment as humans as followers of God. In looking at purity/impurity in terms of this, God requires the maintenance of purity not because humans are inherently impure or not worthy, but to instill that to enter a covenant with the divine, you must be willing to sacrifice and follow God’s rules. To receive God’s blessing, humans must be “clean”.
In terms of the food laws, I again believe that this goes along with the concept that God requires we sacrifice, in a different respect, in order to be blessed. By not eating certain animals or mixing different food groups, God is giving rules for how the Jews should live so that they can be blessed. I personally think that the thought behind the food laws is more important than the laws themselves as the principle of God establishing Himself as lord but offering communion with humans has been a common theme throughout the Old Testament so far. This is seen in the narrative of Noah’s Ark, wherein after the flood God allows for the consumption of animals but requires that the blood be drained as an act of sacrifice.
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I like your point about the food laws being more symbolic than practical in the sense that the dominion of God over everything is exhibited by humans following the laws to remain “pure.” I also believe that God is attempting to separate order from disorder, keeping humans in communion both with him and with one another through order and attempting to remove disorder altogether. I also enjoy your description of the transformation of purity from ceremonial action to moral action, and agree with the fact that the way the term is lived out will change over the course of the Bible.
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I think that it was extremely interesting that you established the difference between the purity seen in the story of Leviticus and the role that plays within the rest of the Bible. Rather than maintaining its denotation as a set of rules, Purity is seemingly now determined by our morals, whereas before it was created in order to teach morals. Furthermore, I think that purity act as a continuation of God creating order out of chaos, similar to the creation of the Universe, as with natural law, the universe tends to disorder. I think your analysis was very well done, and I agree with many of your points.
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I really like the way in which you distinguish how purity is presented in different parts of the Bible, showing how at first it has more of a ceremonial connotation, whereas later on, it has to do more with moral actions. I agree with your claim that the function of the emphasis on purity laws is that there must be order and structure for humans to follow God since I also believe that these purity laws serve as some type of morality guidelines for people to follow. I also find it very interesting how you emphasize that these laws must be kept and God reinforces them due to how humans aren’t naturally pure and thus need to work to become pure and worthy of God.
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