Hello, I'm Gary Stevens, and welcome to the History in the Bible podcast.

All the history, in all the books, in all the Bibles.

Thank you. Episode 1.18, The Holiness Code.

In the last episode, we discussed the first half of the book of Leviticus.

With chapters 11 to 15 of Leviticus, we reached the most intimate of the book of Leviticus. With chapters 11 to 15 of Leviticus, we reach the most intimate of the regulations prescribed by the book, those on impurity, To Moore.

To More is often translated as contamination, defilement, pollution or uncleanness.

But it has nothing to do with hygiene and medicine.

Being covered in poo does not make you impure.

In the peace source, impurity is like an atmospheric coating, enveloping a person or object.

It is not the same as modern notions of filth or dirt.

Rather, it is a simple fact of life.

Leviticus distinguishes between holy and common on the one hand

and pure and impure on the other.

To be holy is to belong to God, but only pure things can become holy. It is a prerequisite. A pure object or person is qualified to

become holy, but not wholly by itself.

Now, there is nothing wrong in being impure, nothing sinful about it.

Impure objects are not morally bad.

There is nothing morally repugnant about a human corpse or menstruation.

You can watch television all day in your underwear in a state of impurity. That's fine.

But what you cannot do is turn up to temple.

You are impure and unfit to approach the most holy God.

A holy object loses its holiness if it comes in contact with an impure object or person.

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