Clean vs Unclean

We left off with a description of God as the source and summit of holiness in a transcendent way that man, left to his own devices, will never and CAN never approach. We continue by looking at holiness as it pertains to ritual cleanness as prescribed by God for the Hebrews on Mt. Sinai.

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The Book of Leviticus describes (among other things) what man can do or come into contact which will make him unclean. For instance, eating pork or camel meat or snakes or bugs was forbidden under the Law as these animals were considered unclean. Likewise, wearing certain fabrics, coming into contact with mildew, a dead body, or bodily emissions would make a person unclean. Perhaps the most obvious case of uncleanness is leprosy, the cure of which is described in several chapters (as well as in the Gospels: cf. Matthew 8:2-4; Mark 1:40-45; Luke 5:12-16).

The restrictions placed on the unclean were strict and highlighted their separateness from things that were holy. From Leviticus 13:

45 "The person with such an infectious disease [i.e. leprosy] must wear torn clothes, let his hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of his face and cry out, 'Unclean! Unclean!'
46 As long as he has the infection he remains unclean. He must live alone; he must live outside the camp.

Regarding those who were unclean during the time of Passover, we read in Numbers 9:

7 [They] said to Moses, "We have become unclean because of a dead body, but why should we be kept from presenting the LORD's offering with the other Israelites at the appointed time?"
8 Moses answered them, "Wait until I find out what the LORD commands concerning you."
9 Then the LORD said to Moses,
10 "Tell the Israelites: 'When any of you or your descendants are unclean because of a dead body or are away on a journey, they may still celebrate the LORD's Passover.
11 They are to celebrate it on the fourteenth day of the second month [i.e. one month later] at twilight. They are to eat the lamb, together with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
12 They must not leave any of it till morning or break any of its bones. When they celebrate the Passover, they must follow all the regulations.
13 But if a man who is ceremonially clean and not on a journey fails to celebrate the Passover, that person must be cut off from his people because he did not present the LORD's offering at the appointed time. That man will bear the consequences of his sin.

We see that the Israelites who had become unclean were legally forbidden from joining the rest of their kinsmen in making offering to the LORD and from participating in the celebration of Passover. For those who were not unclean, this celebration was considered a moral and legal duty, the neglect of which would cause a man to "bear the consequences of his sin." The consequence of becoming unclean -- even from something as morally innocuous as burying one's father -- was a strict separation from those who were clean under the Law. The demands of holiness in this case are shown to outweigh a man's obligations to God. And this for laymen.

In the next section, we will discuss the role of holiness in the lives of the Levites and the sons of Aaron.

The Holiness of God

The title of this post also the title of a book by Calvinist theologian R.C. Sproul dealing with (what else) God's holiness. This is something upon which Jews, Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox, and probably most other theists in the world agree, so it seems a safe place from which to launch my analysis of a more turbulent doctrine (i.e. Purgatory).

As an aside before starting in on the meat of this post, my Old Testament research brought me to reread the oft-overlooked Book of Leviticus which I remember reading as a boy on my first (so far only) cover-to-cover Bible read. As a Protestant, I thought it was tremendously dull and basically pointless for Christians no longer living under the Law -- excluding a chapter or two on sexual morality. Re-reading this book with Catholic eyes was much more fulfilling. Therein lies the naissance of our priesthood, of Holy Days, and of the propitiatory sacrifice of Christ -- on the Cross and in the Mass. Cool stuff. I recommend it.

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So, as I've said, God is Holy. The most common scriptural support comes from Isaiah chapter 6:

1) In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple.
2) Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.
3) And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory."

This should be especially familiar to Catholics, as it forms part of the Sanctus, sung at mass just before the Eucharistic consecration. This past Sunday (much to my surprise), these verses made up part of our first reading. In Jewish liturgy, the proclamation of the seraphs is recited in the Kedushah. Need I mention the classic hymn?

Sproul makes this observation in the book (p 40) mentioned above:

“The Bible says that God is holy, holy, holy. Not that He is merely holy, or even holy, holy. He is holy, holy, holy. The Bible never says that God is love, love, love, or mercy, mercy, mercy, or wrath, wrath, wrath, or justice, justice, justice. It does say that He is holy, holy, holy, the whole earth is full of His glory.”

But what is holiness, and what does it mean that God is holy? We refer to a lot of THINGS that are holy: the Holy Land, the Holy Sepulchre, holy water, the Holy Father, the Holy See, the Holy Grail, holy days, etc. There are two senses of the word holy: to be set apart for a divine purpose and to be morally pure. Holy water is set aside to protect us from evil. The Holy Father is set aside for the unique task of shepherding Christ's Church on Earth. Likewise, we may call the pope, our bishops, or the saints holy to indicate their moral purity, but we recognize that even these are poor sinners in the eyes of God. When we say that God is holy, we acknowledge that He is TRULY pure and in fact transcends our previous definition of holiness. We are holy insofar as we are imitators of Christ. Holy days are holy insofar as they are set aside for the worship and glory of God. He is the source of all holiness and the end to which holiness is directed.

Next, we will look at ritual purity in the lives of the Hebrews.