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Jesus and Purity: An Ongoing Debate

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 October 2002

JAMES D. G. DUNN
JAMES D. G. DUNN
Affiliation:
Dept of Theology, University of Durham, Abbey House, Palace Green, Durham DH1 3RS
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Abstract

The importance of purity legislation and the ‘separateness’ that it implied within Second Temple Judaism confirms the significance of the renewed interest in purity issues in ‘historical Jesus’ research. The relevance of John the Baptist's ‘baptism’ is less clear than at first appears. But that Jesus himself shared at least some purity priorities is implied by Mark 1.44 and by his ‘cleansing of the Temple’. Yet he also sat loose to the purity halakhoth regarding clean and unclean and table-fellowship, which suggests that Jesus did not regard such concerns as central to the definition of Israel and its practice.

Type
Research Article
Information
New Testament Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 4 , October 2002 , pp. 449 - 467
Copyright
© 2002 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

This paper was delivered at the SBL meeting in Denver, Colorado, in November 2001, in what was intended to be a three-way debate with E. P. Sanders and Bruce Chilton. Unfortunately Sanders was unable to be present in person (other than by video-presentation), so that the debate could not develop as intended.