One of the most hotly debated questions for Jews of the first century was whether pouring a fluid from a ritually pure vessel into a ritually impure vessel made the higher vessel also impure.
It seems to me that many of the gospel stories can be understood as opinions on this question. Rather than defining purity as the absence of impurity, Jesus seemed to define impurity as the absence of purity. When Jesus came in contact with ritually impure people such as lepers or the woman with chronic bleeding or the dead Lazarus, Jesus made the impure person pure again.
Contrast this understanding of purity with the concern that impurity might climb upwards through a stream of pouring liquid from an impure vessel into a pure vessel above it.
In other words, the Jews in the first century were of two opinions:
(a) the impure vessel makes the pure vessel above it become impure during the pour
(b) the impure vessel does NOT make the pure vessel above it become impure during the pour
But Jesus had a new answer:
(c) the pure vessel makes the impure vessel below it become pure during the pour
Perhaps, this new answer on the ritual purity question also applies to the question of sinfulness vs. righteousness. Maybe salvation is not about removing the sin from the sinner but instead maybe it is about adding some righteousness to the sinner? What condemns a person is not the presence of sin but the absence of righteousness.
So just wondering what others think.
It seems to me that many of the gospel stories can be understood as opinions on this question. Rather than defining purity as the absence of impurity, Jesus seemed to define impurity as the absence of purity. When Jesus came in contact with ritually impure people such as lepers or the woman with chronic bleeding or the dead Lazarus, Jesus made the impure person pure again.
Contrast this understanding of purity with the concern that impurity might climb upwards through a stream of pouring liquid from an impure vessel into a pure vessel above it.
In other words, the Jews in the first century were of two opinions:
(a) the impure vessel makes the pure vessel above it become impure during the pour
(b) the impure vessel does NOT make the pure vessel above it become impure during the pour
But Jesus had a new answer:
(c) the pure vessel makes the impure vessel below it become pure during the pour
Perhaps, this new answer on the ritual purity question also applies to the question of sinfulness vs. righteousness. Maybe salvation is not about removing the sin from the sinner but instead maybe it is about adding some righteousness to the sinner? What condemns a person is not the presence of sin but the absence of righteousness.
So just wondering what others think.
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