Purity and holiness

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Hannah Harrington gave a very fine presentation on the holiness and purity terminology in Ezra and Nehemiah. She showed that these post-exilic texts display an expansion of holy space to encompass the whole city as well as an expansion of the duties of Levites, a closing of the gap between Levites and priests. These two changes are perfectly consistent, displaying a general trend of "up-grading" the holiness of Israel after the exile. The people of Israel become the new sanctum, which can be contaminated and against which sacrilege might be committed.

What was more challenging was her suggestion that the post-exilic period saw, for the first time in Israel's history, the development of what she described as a "biological" conception of holiness. She interpreted the phrase "holy seed" as an indication of this; suggested that for the first time Gentiles as such appear to be defiling presences within Israel; and pointed to the problem of intermarriage as an indication of this concern with a biologically pure genealogy.

While I'm not particularly comfortable with the suggestion that this is "biological" holiness, there does seem to be something distinctive going on in the post-exilic period. The phrase "holy race" (Ezra 9:2) could be a way of highlighting the up-grading of holiness, but when it's used regarding questions of descent, then it appears to be something more than just an upgrade. It's an upgrade that is tied to genealogy. Further, the splitting up of mixed marriages could be a way of protecting the children from the bad influence of pagan wives, but the action is described in terms of purity concerns rather than moral concerns. (This could be a transfer of purity concerns to social concerns, as in Paul.)

One way to explain this increased interest in genealogy among the people as a whole is to see it as an aspect of the heightened priesthood of the postexilic people. In the Pentateuch, the genealogies come to a climax with the genealogy of Aaron, and the priestly genealogy is at the center of the chiastically arranged genealogy of 1 Chronicles. When the people as a whole begin to show a concern for genealogy, it's a sign of their enhanced priestly status. Priests were apparently permitted to marry converted Gentiles, but the high priest had to marry a "virgin from his own people" (Lev 21:14). It's no doubt too strong to say that the people as a whole have to conform to the marital requirements of the high priest, but there may be some move in that direction.

Two comments on all this. First, at the heart of Pharisaism is precisely this up-grade of holiness to all Israel. Every Israelite is to be holy as the priests are holy, since the land and city are like the forecourt of the temple. Pharisaism is a perversion of the restoration arrangements, but it is clearly working within the framework of Ezra-Nehemiah.

Second, if it is true that a conception of genealogical holiness takes shape in the post-exilic period, why is that? How is that part of the maturation of Israel that we see throughout the OT? It would seem that as Israel approaches the NT, we'd see a clearer sign of the extension of Israel to encompass the Gentiles, rather than a tightening of regulations and a closing of gaps in the boundaries between Israel and the Gentiles.

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Saturday, November 18, 2006 at 04:10 PM

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