ABSTRACT
In the Gospels we encounter persons afflicted by unclean spirits (Mark 1:26-27; 5:1-20), lepers begging to be made clean (Mark 1:40; Matt 8:2; Luke 5:12), and controversies between Jesus and the Pharisees about eating with defiled hands (Mark 7:1-23; Matt 15:1-20). To get the point of these and many other New Testament narratives we need to understand the phenomenon of purity rules as systematic and symbolic expressions of a group’s identity and core values. This chapter will present a model of purity and impurity drawn from cross-cultural anthropology as a framework for interpreting the debate about unwashed hands in Mark 7:1-23.
