Issues of Impurity in Early Judaism

Preface 1. Introduction: Impurity in the Second Temple Period Introduction Pre-exilic purity Purity and the Persians Temple and life Issues of impurity 2. Impurity, Ritual, and Emotion: A Psycho-Biological Approach Introduction The role of emotions for human behaviour Impurity and disgust Impurity and fear Impurity and a sense of justice Conclusions 3. Explaining Discrepancies in the Laws on Genital Discharges Introduction Systemic reading in Second Temple Judaism Systemic shaping in the text of Leviticus Discrepancies as a gender issue The impurity of discharges Demonic threat Conclusions 4. Who Touched Whom? On Graded Impurity and First-Day Ablutions in 4Q274 Introduction Previous research Reconstruction and reading Translation Notes Discussion First-day ablutions and graded impurity First-day ablutions for dischargers Conclusions 5. The Status of the Zavah and the Jesus Tradition Introduction: the discharge rules Discrepancies within and between Harmonization and criteria Temple Scroll theory Philo and corpse impurity Josephus and the menstruant A mitigating water rite? Dischargers in real life The zavah in Mark Conclusions 6. Hand-washing, Pure Food and Graded Purification: Mishnah, Mark and Jesus Introduction Hand-washing for secondary impurities Was hand-washing a priestly practice? The rationale behind hand-washing Hand-washing and the date of Mark Redactional levels and audiences in Mark 7 Torah and tradition Impurity from within Conclusions 7. The Good Samaritan and a Presumptive Corpse Introduction Sources and levels A purity issue? Objections and answers Priestly purity and priority Concluding reflections 8. Meier on Jesus and Purity Introduction Three programmatic statements? The purity laws Mark 7 Other possible references Result Appendix: Standard chart Bibliography Indices Source index Author index Subject index