ABSTRACT
This chapter devotes one of the features of biblical religion that cannot simply be reduced to belief and ethics: the ritual matter of religious purity and impurity. Many forms of Judaism during the second temple period were strongly influenced by notions of purity and by the ritual mechanisms designed to restore it when defilement occurred, which it invariably did. Purity was more than a simple matter of belief and ethics; it constituted an overarching view of how the world was organized, how it operated, and what ritual order was necessary to maintain the world in right relationship with God. In the world of Judaism, purity was a serious concern and it could affect a person's status in the social and religious ordering of life. In Paul's view, God had acted anew in Christ; Jews remained the chosen people, but Gentiles were now to be included in the community, which Paul referred to as the body of Christ.
