Articles
- Impact of the Bible
- The cultural influence of the Bible and Christianity in England
- Bible in English culture, The
- English Bible Translations
- Influence of the Book of Common Prayer on the English language
- A history of the church in England
- Culture and sung Christian worship
- Famous stories from the Bible
- Literary titles from the Bible
- Common Sayings from the Bible
- Big ideas from the Bible
- Adoption
- Angels
- Anger
- Anointing
- Apocalypse, Revelation, the End Times, the Second Coming
- Armour
- Ascent and descent
- Atonement and sacrifice
- Babel, language and comprehension
- Baptism
- Betrayal
- Blood
- Bread
- Bride and marriage
- Cain and Abel
- Christians
- City and countryside
- Cleansing
- Clothing
- Community, church, the body of Christ
- Covenant
- Creation, creativity, image of God
- Cross, crucifixion
- Curtain/veil
- Darkness
- Death and resurrection
- Desert and wilderness
- Devils
- Donkey, ass
- Doubt and faith
- Dove
- Dreams, visions and prophecy
- Earth, clay, dust
- Exile
- Feasting and fasting
- Fire
- Forgiveness, mercy and grace
- Fruit, pruning
- Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, 'Second Adam'
- Gateway, door
- Goats
- Grass and wild flowers
- Harvesting
- Heaven
- Hell
- Incarnation (nativity)
- Inheritance and heirs
- Jewels and precious metals
- Jews, Hebrews, Children of Israel, Israelites
- Journey of faith, Exodus, pilgrims and sojourners
- Judgement
- Justice
- Kingship
- Last Supper, communion, eucharist, mass
- Light
- Lion
- Lost, seeking, finding, rescue
- Messiah, Christ, Jesus
- Miracles
- Mission, evangelism, conversion
- Moses
- Music
- Names
- Noah and the flood
- Numbers in the Bible
- Parables
- Parents and children
- Passover
- Path, way
- Patriarchs
- Peace
- Penitence, repentance, penance
- Poverty and wealth
- Prayer
- Promised Land, Diaspora, Zionism
- Psalms
- Rabbi, Pharisee, teacher of the law
- Redemption, salvation
- Rest
- Rock and stone
- Salt
- Seed, sowing
- Serpent, Devil, Satan, Beast
- Servant-hood, obedience and authority
- Sheep, shepherd and lamb
- Sin
- Slavery
- Soul
- Temple, tabernacle
- Temptation
- Ten Commandments, The
- Trees
- Trinity, Holy Spirit
- Vine, vineyard
- Water
- Weeds, chaff, briar, thorn
- Wisdom and foolishness
- Women in the Bible
- Word of God
- Work and idleness
- Investigating the Bible
- Literary allusions to the Bible
- Pilgrimage in literature
- Biblical style in poetry
- Biblical imagery in metaphysical poetry
- Bible/Literature intertextuality
- The cultural influence of the Bible and Christianity in England
Cleansing
Physical cleansing is important in biblical law and extra-biblical Jewish tradition. It has obvious health implications but also symbolic significance, especially with regard to holiness, forgiveness and healing.
Ritual purification
Old Testament practices
The Old Testament laws describe complex criteria for a person to be considered ‘unclean’ or impure. These include skin diseases Leviticus 13:1-3, bodily discharges Leviticus 15:1-3, contact with the dead Numbers 19:11-12, and the touching or consumption of non-kosher (‘unsuitable’) foods Leviticus 11:1-8. It is not always obvious to modern read-ers why certain things were considered ‘unclean’, but often it was to do with:
- Health and hygiene
- Distinguishing between Hebrew and gentile culture
- Emphasising wholeness/life over decay/death
- Separating worship from sexual activity (important when the worship of many pagan deities involved sex cults).
Whilst unclean, a person was considered ‘unfit’ to participate in corporate worship (e.g.Numbers 9:6). An unclean priest, in particular, was obliged to abstain from duty (see Leviticus 22:1-3).
The process of restoration varied depending on the nature and severity of the uncleanness. Those contaminated by contact with a carcass simply need to wash and wait until evening Leviticus 11:24-25. By contrast, leprosy sufferers (for example) became clean only if healed, and then after an eight day ritual Leviticus 14:8. Until then they were entirely iso-lated from their community.
Jesus’ reinterpretation
In the gospels, Jesus frequently reached out to those who were considered ‘unclean’ (such as lepers) and healed them (see Luke 17:11-19). This angered the Pharisees, who promoted a carefully constructed system of tradition to help preserve cleanliness and cultural separation. However, Jesus was more concerned with the inner state of a person’s heart, rather than whether they had outwardly contaminated themselves Matthew 15:17-20. According to God’s standards, the Pharisees were hypocrites: for all their appearance of holiness they neglected ‘justice and mercy and faithfulness’ Matthew 23:23. Jesus accused them of being like attractive gravestones which concealed decomposing bodies Matthew 23:27-28 – i.e. ‘unclean’ themselves.
Healing
There are occasions in both the Old and New Testaments when physical cleansing plays a part in miraculous healing:
- When Naaman, the commander of the Syrian army finally obeyed the prophet Elisha’s instruction to wash seven times in the River Jordan, he was healed of his skin disease 2 Kings 5:1; 2 Kings 5:9-14
- Jesus gave sight to a man born blind by placing mud on his eyes and sending him to wash in a well-known Jerusalem pool John 9:11.
Conversely, physical healing can have the effect of restoring (ritual) cleanliness, such as the woman with a flow of blood who was healed when she secretly touched Jesus’ garment Mark 5:25-34.
Cleansing from sin
The notion of being ‘cleansed’ from sin (known as absolution) is a strongly recurring theme in the Bible. A famous Psalm attributed to King David is about his penitent desire that God cleanses him from his sins of adultery and murder (Psalms 51:1-19:
and cleanse me from my sin! ..
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Psalm 51:2,7 ESVUK
Similar imagery is used to encourage repentant believers in the New Testament:
Hebrews 10:22 ESVUK
Blood that cleanses
As well as water, the Bible also introduces the visually paradoxical idea of being cleansed by blood. In the Old Testament, it is the blood of animal sacrifices that cleanses from sin Leviticus 16:14-16; in the New, it is the blood of Jesus 1 John 1:7-9.
Symbolic washing with water
When Pilate reluctantly handed Jesus over to be crucified he famously washed his hands as a public gesture of self-absolution Matthew 27:22-26. To ‘wash one’s hands’ has become a popular idiom for rejecting personal responsibility for and/or distancing oneself from a situation.
Baptism
The practice of Christian baptism represents the washing away of sin Acts 22:16 and participation in the death and new life of Jesus Romans 6:3-4. See Big ideas from the Bible: Baptism.
Foot washing
It was a common custom in many ancient cultures to provide water (and possibly a servant) to wash the feet of guests (e.g. Genesis 18:4). When a ‘sinful woman’ interrupts a meal to wash Jesus’ feet with her tears, the host is appalled Luke 7:37-39. Jesus, however, re-bukes him for his lack of basic hospitality and commends the woman for her love and humility Luke 7:44-47.
On another occasion Jesus astonishes his disciples by taking it upon himself to wash their feet – a menial servant’s job John 13:3-10. He tells them that they are to have the same atti-tude of humble service towards one another John 13:14-15.
Cleansing in literature
- A famous scene in Shakespeare’s Macbeth (1611) sees Lady Macbeth desperately trying to scrub imaginary bloodstains from her hands, despite her earlier claim that ‘a little water clears us of this deed’ (Act 2, Scene 2)
- In Charles Dickens' Great Expectations (1861) Jaggers the lawyer washes his hands (and his face and nails, if the case is 'grimey' enough) after each client meeting or court en-gagement
- In the play Pygmalion (George Bernard Shaw, 1913) Prof. Higgins sends Eliza the flower girl to be washed before she can face polite society
- In To My Wash-stand (1932) objectivist poet Louis Zukofsky explores the connection be-tween self and ‘other’ via the twice-daily ritual of washing
- Cleansing and baptism are themes in Marilynne Robinson’s Lila (2014), about a woman ad-justing to family and home after a lonely, itinerant life on the road.
Other
- Artists such as Rembrandt, Tiepolo, Rubens and Gentileschi depicted the apocryphal story of Susannah, lusted after by two men as she bathed in her garden.
Related topics
- Big ideas: Atonement and sacrifice; Baptism; Blood; Last Supper, communion, eucharist, mass;
- Famous stories from the Bible: Jesus heals ten lepers; Naaman in the Jordan
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