Jesus and the Purity Paradigm

Abstract

The theme of Jesus and purity presents one of the most entangled problems of research into the historical Jesus. This chapter surveys how the making the unclean clean interpretation is manifested in Jesus' deeds and words. The next section looks at the inverse strategy of (im)purity within the context of Jesus' overall message and activity. Jesus did not oppose the ritual purity paradigm, nor did he aim at devaluing it. Jesus' eschatological vision, the inverse strategy of (im)purity, did not lead him to oppose the ritual purity paradigm. Taking Jesus' way with the ritually unclean as the point of departure has indeed opened a new gateway to understanding Jesus' purity thinking and even more. Keywords:making the unclean clean; eschatological vision; inverse strategy of (im)purity; Jesus; purity paradigm; purity thinking; ritually unclean