Cleanness vs. Uncleanness in Leviticus
According to the Introduction to Leviticus in the English Standard Version Study Bible,
“Another interpretative issue is how one should understand various concepts such as uncleanness, cleanness, and holiness. Great debate accompanies this issue, for the simple reason that Leviticus often provides various laws concerning cleanness and uncleanness without giving an explicit rationale of why something or someone is clean or unclean (e.g., Chapter 12).
“Traditionally, commentators have thought that the rationale behind these rules was to be found in hygienic concerns, polemics against Canaanite religious customs, or the symbolic meaning of death. Of these options, uncleanness as symbolic of death appears to be the only proposal that sufficiently covers many (as opposed to just some) of the cases of uncleanness. If this is correct, then holiness – which is the polar opposite of uncleanness – could often symbolize life.”
This is an interesting distinction to make in the midst of our currently divided society. Is there any way that political viewpoints can be distinguished in a godly way (i.e., how do they look from God’s perspective) as “clean” vs. “unclean”? Here are two recent examples (click on each picture for a post on their respective marches):
Women’s March on Washington, January 21, 2017
March for Life on Washington, January 27, 2017
