Tool Beta

The Ancient World Behind the Text: Ideas

The customs, offices and ideas a first reader knew without being told, what each meant then, and the nearest thing you already know.

Unclean by touch

Under the law, skin disease, bleeding, corpses, tombs and certain animals made a person ritually unclean, and touch could pass it on.

Jewish life and lawClean and unclean

First, in plain English

Nobody wanted to shake the hand of the man who had just climbed out of the sewer. Unclean in the Bible does not mean dirty, and it does not mean sinful. It meant not fit, for a time, to come near holy things. Some conditions passed that state to anyone who touched you. Washing, waiting and sometimes a priest's inspection made you clean again.

What it meant then

Lepers were unclean under Leviticus 13:45-46, and anyone who touched them became ritually impure for a time. The word leprosy covered a range of severe skin conditions. Sufferers lived away from towns and called out unclean to warn people off. A healing had to be certified by a priest under Leviticus 14, and an offering in the temple should follow. Bleeding made a woman unclean (Leviticus 15), and even touching her clothes made the wearer impure. Contact with a bleeding person made you impure until evening. Touching a corpse made you impure for a week (Numbers 19). Jews regarded tombs and anything tied to the dead as impure, and pigs as unclean. The custom of washing hands arose after the Old Testament was finished, probably among Jews outside the land (Keener). People washed to remove impurity picked up in the markets, pouring water over the hands or dipping them to the wrist. Pharisees had detailed rules for purifying vessels. Wright says these rules were written down about two hundred years after Jesus but were already well known as oral tradition. Purity codes also marked a people's boundaries against the pagans around them. Dogs were treated as unclean and not kept as pets; Bailey says flatly, "Dogs are never pets." Spittle was usually thought unclean but was used in cures. Touching a leper was forbidden and revolting to most people. The bleeding woman should not even have been in a crowd, since anyone she touched became unclean. Vessels could carry impurity too. A pure vessel that touched an impure one sometimes had to be purified again, and cheap impure vessels were broken (Keener on 2 Timothy 2:20-21).

The bridge to today

An analogy: a hospital clean room. Touching the wrong thing does not make you a bad person, but you cannot go back in until you have scrubbed and waited.

What it changes in the reading

Touching a leper, a bleeding woman or a corpse should have passed impurity to Jesus, as in Mark 1:41 and Matthew 9:20, so each touch is a scene in itself. Washing and food rules marked who was fit to come near holy things. Peter's vision in Acts 10:14 turns on the same categories.

Where the analogy breaks

Not about germs. The hospital picture breaks here. Ritual impurity was not infection. It came from things no doctor fears, such as a dead body or a tomb, and it concerned access to holy things, not health.

Where scholars disagree

Do the vessels of 2 Timothy 2:20-21 carry purity at all? Keener reads them through Jewish purity rules, under which an impure vessel could defile a pure one. Wright hears honor and use instead, from fine ware kept for guests to the rag for the floor.

Passages where it appears

{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/matthew-8-1-17\/","n":"Matthew 8:1-17, A leper, a centurion and a mother-in-law","s":"Coming down the mountain, Jesus touches and heals a leper, heals a centurion's servant from a distance, and heals Peter's mother-in-law and many others.","r":"Matthew 8:1-17"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/matthew-9-18-34\/","n":"Matthew 9:18-34, A ruler's daughter, a bleeding woman, the blind and the mute","s":"A synagogue ruler asks Jesus to raise his daughter; on the way a woman touches the fringe of his cloak. Then two blind men call him Son of David, and a mute man speaks.","r":"Matthew 9:18-34"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/matthew-23-13-28\/","n":"Matthew 23:13-28, Oaths, mint, gnats and whitewashed tombs","s":"Jesus pronounces woes on the scribes and Pharisees: they shut the kingdom, play games with oaths, tithe herbs while neglecting justice, strain gnats and swallow camels, and look clean outside like whitewashed tombs.","r":"Matthew 23:13-28"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/mark-1-21-45\/","n":"Mark 1:21-45, A Sabbath in Capernaum and a leper","s":"Jesus teaches in the synagogue, drives out a spirit, heals Simon's mother-in-law and, after sunset, the whole town. Then he touches and cleanses a leper.","r":"Mark 1:21-45"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/mark-5-1-20\/","n":"Mark 5:1-20, Legion among the tombs","s":"Across the lake, in Gentile country, Jesus frees a man possessed by many spirits. They enter a herd of pigs that rushes into the sea.","r":"Mark 5:1-20"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/mark-5-21-43\/","n":"Mark 5:21-43, A synagogue leader's daughter and a bleeding woman","s":"On the way to heal Jairus' dying daughter, Jesus is touched by a woman who has bled for twelve years. Then he raises the girl.","r":"Mark 5:21-43"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/mark-7-1-23\/","n":"Mark 7:1-23, Washed hands and the tradition of the elders","s":"Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem object that Jesus' disciples eat with unwashed hands. Jesus answers that what defiles comes from inside.","r":"Mark 7:1-23"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/mark-7-24-37\/","n":"Mark 7:24-37, A Greek woman and a deaf man","s":"In the region of Tyre a Gentile mother asks Jesus to free her daughter, and answers his saying about dogs. In the Decapolis he heals a deaf man.","r":"Mark 7:24-37"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/luke-7-11-17\/","n":"Luke 7:11-17, A widow's only son on the bier","s":"At the gate of Nain Jesus meets a funeral for a widow's only son. He touches the bier, raises the young man and gives him back to his mother, and the crowd says a great prophet has arisen.","r":"Luke 7:11-17"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/luke-10-25-37\/","n":"Luke 10:25-37, The Samaritan on the Jericho road","s":"A lawyer asks what he must do to inherit eternal life and then who his neighbor is. Jesus tells of a man left half dead on the road to Jericho, passed by a priest and a Levite and rescued by a Samaritan.","r":"Luke 10:25-37"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/luke-11-37-54\/","n":"Luke 11:37-54, Woes at a Pharisee's table","s":"At a Pharisee's meal Jesus does not wash before eating, and when his host is surprised he pronounces woes on Pharisees and lawyers: clean cups and greedy hearts, tithed herbs, the best seats, unmarked graves and the tombs of the prophets.","r":"Luke 11:37-54"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/luke-16-19-31\/","n":"Luke 16:19-31, The rich man and Lazarus","s":"A rich man feasts every day while a beggar named Lazarus lies at his gate. Both die; Lazarus is carried to Abraham's side, and the rich man finds himself in torment in Hades.","r":"Luke 16:19-31"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/luke-17-11-19\/","n":"Luke 17:11-19, Ten lepers and the Samaritan who came back","s":"On the border between Samaria and Galilee ten men with leprosy call to Jesus from a distance. He sends them to the priests, they are cleansed on the way, and only one, a Samaritan, comes back to thank him.","r":"Luke 17:11-19"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/john-2-1-12\/","n":"John 2:1-12, Water into wine at a village wedding","s":"At a wedding in Cana the wine runs out. Jesus has the servants fill six stone purification jars with water, and the master of the feast tastes the best wine of the week.","r":"John 2:1-12"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/john-4-1-42\/","n":"John 4:1-42, A Samaritan woman at Jacob's well","s":"Tired at noon, Jesus sits on Jacob's well and asks a Samaritan woman for a drink. They talk about living water, her husbands and the right mountain for worship, and her town comes out to meet him.","r":"John 4:1-42"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/john-11-45-57\/","n":"John 11:45-57, Caiaphas: one man for the nation","s":"After the raising of Lazarus the chief priests and Pharisees call a council, afraid the Romans will take away their place and their nation. Caiaphas tells them it is better for one man to die for the people.","r":"John 11:45-57"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/john-18-28-40\/","n":"John 18:28-40, Pilate's headquarters at dawn","s":"At daybreak the leaders bring Jesus to the governor's headquarters but will not go in, so as to stay clean for Passover. Pilate questions him about being king of the Jews, finds no case, and offers to release him, but the crowd asks for Barabbas.","r":"John 18:28-40"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/acts-9-32-43\/","n":"Acts 9:32-43, Lydda and Joppa","s":"Peter heals a paralyzed man at Lydda and, at Joppa, raises Tabitha, a disciple known for her charity, while the widows she clothed stand weeping. He stays on with a tanner.","r":"Acts 9:32-43"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/acts-10-1-23\/","n":"Acts 10:1-23, Cornelius and Peter's vision","s":"A God-fearing Roman centurion in Caesarea is told in a vision to send for Peter. At noon on a Joppa rooftop Peter sees a sheet full of unclean animals and hears a voice tell him to eat.","r":"Acts 10:1-23"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/2corinthians-6-14-7-1\/","n":"2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1, Unequal yoke, Belial and the temple of God","s":"Paul tells the Corinthians not to be yoked with unbelievers, for light has no fellowship with darkness nor Christ with Belial, and calls them the temple of the living God, who must come out and be separate.","r":"2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/2timothy-2-14-26\/","n":"2 Timothy 2:14-26, Gangrene, a resurrection already past, and vessels in a great house","s":"Timothy is to warn the church against quarreling about words and to handle the word of truth correctly; the teaching of Hymenaeus and Philetus, who say the resurrection has already happened, spreads like gangrene, but God's foundation stands sealed, and in a great house some vessels are for honor and some for dishonor.","r":"2 Timothy 2:14-26"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/hebrews-9-11-22\/","n":"Hebrews 9:11-22, Blood, ashes and a will","s":"Christ entered the greater tent once for all with his own blood, not the blood of goats and calves. If the ashes of a heifer could make the unclean outwardly clean, how much more will his blood cleanse the conscience; and as a will takes effect only at a death, the new covenant was put in force by his.","r":"Hebrews 9:11-22"}

Sources

NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Mark 1:40, 1:41, 5:3, 5:11, 5:25, 5:27, 5:41, 7:3, 7:4, 7:27 and 7:33, and note on Matthew 8:4
N. T. Wright, Mark for Everyone, comments on Mark 5:1-20, Mark 5:21-34, Mark 7:1-13 and Mark 7:14-23, and Glossary, entry leper, leprosy
ESV Study Bible, study notes on Mark 1:41-42 and 5:41
Kenneth E. Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, ch. 16, The Syro-Phoenician Woman
Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Matthew 8:3 and 9:20-21
Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on 2 Timothy 2:20-21
N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: The Pastoral Letters, comment on 2 Timothy 2:20-26

All ideas