Purity and Pollution in the Hebrew Bible

Purity and Pollution in the Hebrew Bible PDF Author: Yitzhaq Feder
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316517578
Category : Bibles
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
A novel account of pollution in the Hebrew Bible, from its embodied origins, to its metaphorical expression in moral discourse.

Purity and Pollution in the Hebrew Bible

Purity and Pollution in the Hebrew Bible PDF Author: Yitzhaq Feder
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316517578
Category : Bibles
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
A novel account of pollution in the Hebrew Bible, from its embodied origins, to its metaphorical expression in moral discourse.

Sexual Pollution in the Hebrew Bible

Sexual Pollution in the Hebrew Bible PDF Author: Eve Levavi Feinstein
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199395551
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 307

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Book Description
The concepts of purity and pollution are fundamental to the worldview reflected in the Hebrew Bible, yet the ways biblical texts apply these concepts to sexual relationships remain largely overlooked. Sexual Pollution in the Hebrew Bible argues that, when applied to sexual relations, pollution language usually reflects a conception of women as sexual property susceptible to being "ruined" for particular men through contamination by others. In contrast, however, the Holiness legislation of the Pentateuch applies such language to men who engage in transgressive sexual relations, conveying the idea that male bodily purity is a prerequisite for individual and communal holiness. This understanding of sexual pollution, found in Leviticus 18, has a profound impact on later texts. In the book of Ezekiel, it contributes to a broader conception of pollution resulting from Israel's sins, which bring about the Babylonian exile. In the book of Ezra, it figures in a view of the Israelite community as a body of males contaminated by foreign women. Drawing on psychological and cross-cultural studies as well as philological and historical-critical analysis of biblical texts, Eve Feinstein's study illuminates the reasons why the idea of pollution adheres to particular domains of experience, including sex, death, and certain types of infirmity.

Sexual Pollution in the Hebrew Bible

Sexual Pollution in the Hebrew Bible PDF Author: Eve Levavi Feinstein
Publisher:
ISBN: 0199395543
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 307

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Book Description
Sexual Pollution in the Hebrew Bible examines the Hebrew Bible's use of pollution language to characterize sexual relationships. Eve Feinstein argues that descriptions of female pollution reflect a view of women as sexual property, while descriptions of male pollution relate to Israel's holiness. The book enables a more thorough understanding of sexual pollution, its particular characteristics, and the role that it plays in biblical literature.

Impurity and Sin in Ancient Judaism

Impurity and Sin in Ancient Judaism PDF Author: Jonathan Klawans
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195177657
Category : Bibles
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
Jonathan Klawans shows how the link between moral impurity and physical defilement, as understood by the ancient Hebrews, can be followed through to St Paul and the Christian era when the need for ritual purity was finally rejected.

Impurity and Gender in the Hebrew Bible

Impurity and Gender in the Hebrew Bible PDF Author: Elizabeth W. Goldstein
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 1498500811
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 148

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Book Description
Impurity and Gender in the Hebrew Bible explores the role of female blood in the Hebrew Bible and considers its theological implications for future understandings of purity and impurity in the Jewish religion. Influenced by the work of Jonathan Klawans (Sin and Impurity in Ancient Judaism), and using the categories of ritual and moral impurities, this book analyzes the way in which these categories intersect with women and with the impurity of female blood, and reads the biblical foundations of purity and blood taboos with a feminist lens. Ultimately, the purpose of this book is to understand the intersection between impurity and gender, figuratively and non-figuratively, in the Hebrew Bible. Goldstein traces this intersection from the years 1000 BCE-250 BCE and ends with a consideration of female impurity in the literature of Qumran.

Ritual and Morality

Ritual and Morality PDF Author: Hyam Maccoby
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521495407
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
The book describes in detail the ritual purity system of the Hebrew Bible, and its development into the system of the rabbis. Certain human conditions require purification before contact is made with holy foods or areas. Recent scholarly theories (Milgrom, Neusner, Douglas) are discussed, and new theories are proposed for the origin of the Red Cow and Scapegoat rites. It is argued that the impurities concerned all derive from the human cycle of generation, birth and death, from which the Sanctuary is to be guarded; not because it needs protection from demonic powers (as in other ancient purity systems), but because of the reverence due to the divine presence. While the priestly code of holiness displays traces of earlier conceptions, its ritual has lost urgent salvific force, and has become a protocol for the Temple and a dedicatory code for a priestly people; the sources distinguish it from universal morality.

Purity and Holiness

Purity and Holiness PDF Author: Marcel Poorthuis
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004421394
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 389

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Book Description
Purity has long been recognized as one of the essential drives which determines humankind's relationship with the holy. Codes of purity and impurity, dealing with such far-ranging topics as 'external stains' and 'inner remorse', represent the physical and 'bodily' side of religious experience and provide the key to the understanding of human orientation to nature, and the structure of society, including even relationships between the sexes. Starting with the Hebrew Bible, a number of articles study some rather neglected passages from both exegetical and cultural-anthropological standpoints. Next, it is shown that the concept of purity is far more central to the New Testament than previously thought. Luke is portrayed as a Jewish-oriented writer. The discussion of purity in Mark is compared with Rabbinical and Qumranic material. Patristic discussions of purity reflect both allegorical and literal interpretations, while rabbinical rulings display a fine sense for detail and realia. Biblical references to illness are interpreted both in Christian and Jewish traditions as a metaphor for immoral behavior. The present collection of studies proceeds far beyond other collections on purity, studying both the medieval and modern periods. Purity rules, in both Christian and Jewish society, do not disappear in the Middle Ages, but become increasingly stronger. Sometimes there appear unexpected and surprising similarities between both societies. Modern society sees a decline in the importance of purity, reflecting a growing ambiguous attitude to the relationship between the body and the holy. A feminist perspective is also provided, examining the intertwined relationship between religion, gender and power. Exegesis, archaeology, liturgy, anthropology and even architecture are all used to study the complex phenomena of purity in their religious and social dimensions from both Christian and Jewish perspectives.

"They Shall Purify Themselves"

Author: Susan Haber
Publisher: Society of Biblical Lit
ISBN: 1589833554
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description
These essays address the connection between purity in early Judaism and the synagogue, Jesus' observance of purity laws, and women's relationships with purity in the first century.

Purity and the Forming of Religious Traditions in the Ancient Mediterranean World and Ancient Judaism

Purity and the Forming of Religious Traditions in the Ancient Mediterranean World and Ancient Judaism PDF Author: Christian Frevel
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004232109
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 618

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Book Description
Focusing on concepts, practices and images associated with purity in the ancient Mediterranean, this volume contributes new aspects to the current discussion about the forming of religious traditions, from a comparative perspective that acknowldges individual developments, mutual exchanges, as well as transcultural processes.

Purity and Danger

Purity and Danger PDF Author: Professor Mary Douglas
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136489274
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Book Description
Purity and Danger is acknowledged as a modern masterpiece of anthropology. It is widely cited in non-anthropological works and gave rise to a body of application, rebuttal and development within anthropology. In 1995 the book was included among the Times Literary Supplement's hundred most influential non-fiction works since WWII. Incorporating the philosophy of religion and science and a generally holistic approach to classification, Douglas demonstrates the relevance of anthropological enquiries to an audience outside her immediate academic circle. She offers an approach to understanding rules of purity by examining what is considered unclean in various cultures. She sheds light on the symbolism of what is considered clean and dirty in relation to order in secular and religious, modern and primitive life.