PURITY AND LEGAL IMPURITY. — From the ritual or legal point of view, most non-Christian religions consider “pure” that which they deem close to God and full of His power; “impure” that which is alien and opposed to His sphere. In the Bible, the precepts concerning purity, even in cases where the cause is not indicated, tend to make Yahwistic worship exclusive, opposing what occurs in magic and polytheistic cults. What belongs to the God of Israel is considered sacred and holy, and therefore exalted, powerful, and radiant.
Impure are bodily effluvia, since they signify a diminution of physical strength and are opposed to sacredness as a power. The dead are impure, being considered “powerful,” that is, in possession of forces opposed to the sacredness of Yahwistic cultic power. Foreign gods are “excrement,” they are “nothing.” Impure are the pagan peoples, their land, and their foods. Certain animals sacred in paganism are impure. An attempt is then made to classify these animals according to external signs: cloven hoof and cud-chewing for quadrupeds, fins and scales for fish. The supposed considerations of “hygiene” are modern scholars’ speculations.
Water, sacrificial blood, oil, and confession—as an expression of evil, almost in a physical sense—serve for purification. With these, at sunset, the state of impurity is ended. The ashes obtained from a red heifer, like the color red itself, possess purificatory power. Crimson threads, as well as cedar wood, serve to combat impurity. A bird, a dove, brought into contact with the impure object, serves to carry away the impurity. The confession of sins over running water serves the same purpose. The use of water in purificatory rites is constant; water is by nature antithetical to impurity, so much so that in Lev. 11:36 it is stated that springs, cisterns, and reservoirs will not contract uncleanness. Constant too is the changing of garments and frequent the obligation to shave. The action of the purificatory rite is certainly effective.
The laws on impurity are treated at length in Lev. 11–16. In them, impurity appears as a fluid that penetrates men, animals, and things through contagion.
In animate beings, impurity can be intrinsic or contracted. A person can become impure for physical reasons (leprosy: Lev. 13:3; Num. 5:2), for natural necessities (childbirth: Lev. 12:2, 5), independently of his will (ibid., 15:25), or through necessary and undesired contacts (e.g., with a dead body: Num. 6:7, 9, 6). Certain animals are impure by nature (Lev. 11:10 ff.). In inanimate things, impurity can be contracted through contact (the saddle of a man with gonorrhea, his bed, that of a menstruating woman: ibid., 15:9, 21, 24, 26); mention is also made of the leprosy of houses and garments (ibid., 14:34; 13:47).
In Ezekiel it is said that impurity is contracted through idolatrous acts (Ezek. 20:7, 18, 30, 31; 22:3, 4; 23:7, 17) or by transgressing God’s commandments (ibid., 15:11; 20:43). In Ps. 24:4 impurity of the heart is spoken of. The concept of purity interweaves. The struggle between pure and impure, which plays such a large part in the priestly code, foreshadows the struggle between good and evil.
The state of purity restores the missing element in the impure person: Naaman is declared pure after being healed of leprosy (2 Kgs. 5:14); “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity” prays David (Ps. 50[51]:4), that is, restore in me what is lacking, deficient. The state of purity is the necessary prelude to entering the realm of sacred forces (2 Chron. 30:17).