Jesus and the Forces of Death: The Gospels’ Portrayal of Ritual Impurity within First-Century Judaism
Overview
Although most people acknowledge that Jesus was a first-century Jew, interpreters of the Gospels often present him as opposed to the Jewish law and customs—especially when considering his numerous encounters with the ritually impure. Matthew Thiessen corrects this popular misconception by placing Jesus within the Judaism of his day. Thiessen demonstrates that the Gospel writers depict Jesus opposing ritual impurity itself, not the Jewish ritual purity system or the Jewish law. This fresh interpretation of significant passages from the Gospels shows that throughout his life, Jesus destroys forces of death and impurity while upholding the Jewish law.
- Examines the Jewish culture of the first-century
- Addresses significant passages from the Gospels
- Explores how Jesus destroys forces of death and impurity
- Introduction
- Mapping Jesus’s World
- Jesus in a World of Ritual Impurity
- Jesus and the Walking Dead
- Jesus and the Dead Womb
- Jesus and the Dead
- Jesus and Demonic Impurity
- Jesus, Healing, and the Sabbath Life
- Conclusion
- Appendix: Jesus and the Dietary Laws
Top Highlights
“Jesus does not abolish the ritual purity system;17 rather, he abolishes the force that creates the ritual impurity in the person he meets.” (Page 6)
“I would suggest, though, that compassion animates the Jewish purity system; it was a protective and benevolent system intended to preserve God’s presence among his people, a presence that could be of considerable danger to humans if they approached God wrongly.” (Page 11)
“All the regulations about ritual purity and offerings, then, actually purport to maintain what modern religious people might call Israel’s ‘relationship with God.’ In other words, the ritual purity system was, within the world that Israel’s priests inhabited, foremost about life with God and was therefore a matter of life and death.” (Page 18)
“This preference of Jesus’s opponents for killing over giving life resurfaces at the end of the story; Mark depicts the Pharisees and Herodians departing the synagogue in order to plot the death of Jesus. Confirming that they have chosen death over life, doing evil over doing good, they become guilty of desecrating the Sabbath by doing the work of plotting to create both moral and corpse impurity.” (Page 165)
“These boundaries, then, were meant not only to safeguard God’s presence but also to protect God’s people from the consequences of wrongly approaching God.” (Page 11)
- Title: Jesus and the Forces of Death: The Gospels’ Portrayal of Ritual Impurity within First-Century Judaism
- Author: Matthew Thiessen
- Publisher: Baker
- Publication Date: 2020
- Pages: 272
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Topic: Bible Backgrounds
