Orientation

1st century Jews needed an ample supply of water for washing. At right, the pool of Siloam in Jerusalem. In John 9, Jesus heals a blind man by mixing his own saliva with dirt, placing the mud on the man's eyes, and finally asking him to wash in this pool.

The core value of 1st century Judaism was probably purity (in contrast to the core value of Mediterranean society as a whole, which was honor). The Jewish quest for purity directly resulted from a conviction that God is absolutely holy, or pure. If God is holy, then anyone who wants to approach God must also be holy. Thus the quest for personal and corporate purity.

Purity was deeply ingrained in Jewish culture, stretching all the way back to Leviticus. Impurity was easy to catch. Women became impure during the menstrual cycle, and men during nocturnal emissions. Among other things, touching a dead animal, eating the wrong kind of food, or associating with the wrong kind of person (like prostitutes, lepers, or tax collectors) automatically made one impure. From this perspective, Jesus and his followers were probably perceived as habitually impure.

In order to make someone or something pure, you had to remove the "dirt," which in turn required some sort of "detergent." The two main detergents for removing moral and ritual impurity were blood, by far the most powerful of the two, and water, the one used most often. Blood, for example, purified an altar or a person's relationship with God; while water purified everyday objects like hands or utensils.

The quest for purity had social ramifications. In the minds of careful Jews, pure people were "in" but impure people were "out." As a result, peasants and fishermen, who frequently had neither the time nor the ability to stay ritually pure, were perceived as outsiders.

In this story, Jesus very much agrees with the Pharisees that purity is major concern--but he disagrees with them about what causes impurity and what cleans it up. By redefining purity, Jesus redefines who is in and who is out. He therefore also redefines the membership and composition of God's people.

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