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Impurity and Sin in Ancient Judaism
Abstract
Much has been written about ritual impurity in ancient Judaism, but the question of how the ancient Jews understood the relationship between defilement and sin has largely been ignored. This book offers a systematic exploration of the topic. The book takes the results of current research on the Hebrew Bible and applies them to early Jewish and Christian groups. The Bible, it shows, considers the moral impurity generated by sin to be entirely distinct from (but no less real than) the ritual impurity generated by bodily function such as menstruation. The book then traces the relationship between ritual and moral impurity from early Jewish sects through the New Testament and the theology of Saint Paul, and shows how Christian theology arrived at the point where the need for ritual purity was entirely rejected.
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Metadata
- Authors
- Klawans, J.
- Affiliations
- Boston University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Klawans, Jonathan
- ORCID
- Klawans, Jonathan
- Publisher
- Oxford University PressNew York
- Published
- 2000-11-16
- OpenAlex
- W624184781
- Cited by
- 431
- References
- 95
- Citations by year
- 2026: 19 · 2025: 27 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 23 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 53 · 2020: 40 · 2019: 64 · 2018: 17 · 2017: 13 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 14 · 2013: 13 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 44.67
- Type
- book
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Religious studies › Biblical Studies and Interpretation
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Religious studies › Religion, Theology, History, Judaism, Christianity
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Karl Barth and Christian Theology
- Keywords
- ritual impurity, sin, ancient Judaism, Hebrew Bible, menstruation, New Testament, Pauline theology, Christian theology, ritual purity, physiological function
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