Pure and Impure

During 2024, I undertook a detailed study of the Offerings in Leviticus. The insights I gained were published in a big article called Leviticus. They are important for understanding what Jesus achieved when he died on the cross.

A key insight was that the purpose of the Decontamination Offering was to remove Impurities from the tabernacle. That pushed me into a study of the nature of impurity in Leviticus, as needed to understand what caused them, if I was to understand how they could be removed. I discovered that the impurities that caused harm were the work of the spiritual powers of evil, although this was not very explicit in the Old Testament.

Recently, when reading Mark’s gospel I was struck by the parallels with Leviticus. Some of the evil spirits that Jesus encountered are actually called “contaminating spirits”. I had not thought about the significance of this title before, but the New Testament was clearly confirming that evil spirits caused the contaminating impurities that the Decontamination Offering was designed to remove from the tabernacle.

The other interesting insight from Mark’s gospel was that in the first few miracles described. Jesus resolved problems that were the consequence of Harmful Life Impurities (scale disease, abnormal bodily discharge, and death). This implication is that, not surprisingly, Jesus’ ministry transformed the situation with respect to purity and impurity.

The article on Levitical Offerings was becoming too large more details, so I have pulled all the information about Purity and Impurity out into a separate article and added my new insights to it. This is an important topic for Christians to understand, as without awareness of the nature of impurity the Levitical offerings do not make sense, particularly the Decontamination Offering. Several New Testament events do not make sense if the background in Leviticus is missed, so it is essential for a full understanding of the gospel.

Go to Pure and Impure.
The Substack version is here.