"Holy" in the realms of morality and taboo.

Extracted text from Holy.pptx:

Holy - Separate The Hebrew Bible does not consistently distinguish between moral and physical-taboo system of holiness. But the two contexts nevertheless are present in the texts, while both are undergirded by the basic idea of separation.

Holy / Pure - moral sense

  Profane / Impure                    Holy / Pure
    God
 Humans

Leviticus 19.2: …I am the your God. I am holy, and you must be holy too!

Mark 7.18-20: “Don't you know what I am talking about by now? You surely know that the food you put into your mouth cannot make you unclean. It doesn't go into your heart, but into your stomach, and then out of your body.” By saying this, Jesus meant that all foods were fit to eat.

What comes from your heart is what makes you unclean.

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Contexts-moral vs. taboo The moral context is binary:

God Humans Sinless Sinful All-powerful, immortal Weak, mortal Pure, clean Unclean, impure The taboo context in more complicated (with various interconnected elements), and ultimately is also connected (at least in the biblical texts) with the moral context.

Taboo as ownership The concept of taboo can be understood from the perspective of ownership. If someone is not supposed to touch something or not eat something, it can be seen as the protection of ownership (God’s, or the gods’, or the ancestors’, etc.)

“Holy”- Example of garbage In the street

In the house

On the bed

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Set apart places/objects (“holy”) Stones (altars, Asherim) Trees (sacred grove of Mamre) Mountains (Sinai, Zion) Promised Land Temple / sanctuary (Shiloh, Jerusalem, Bethel) Lightning / thunder (Sinai) Blood (life / death, see skin) Special food (see skin, blood, etc.) Special days (Sabbaths)

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Symbols of Separation Skin (of animal or person) Walls of house or city (leprosy) Body (head, forehead, wrist) Doors/gates (house, city) Veils (head, temple) Cloven hooves Desert Rivers, seas (Red Sea, Jordan, Jabbok)

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Symbols of Separation Even something as seemingly innocuous as sweat can represent a “transgression” of a boundary (here, skin) and be part of the taboo system: Ezk 44:18 They shall have linen turbans on their heads, and linen undergarments on their loins; they shall not bind themselves with anything that causes sweat.

Purity and danger (Mary Douglas) Systems of taboo also have an element of danger (coming from the spirit world of God/the gods/the ancestors) which needs to be avoided.

The clearest Biblical example is that of Uzzah and the ark of the covenant:

2SA 6:6-7 6When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen shook it. 7The anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah; and God struck him there because he reached out his hand to the ark; and he died there beside the ark of God.

Contamination in systems of purity prototypically (across cultures) are mapped from food disgust and move only in one direction: from unclean to clean. Purity and disgust

Purity and disgust

Purity and disgust

But in the Bible contamination moves in both directions, as priests must ritually cleanse themselves upon both entering and exiting the temple. Purity and contamination

Ezk 44:19 And when they go out to the people in the outer court, they shall take off the garments in which they served and leave them in the rooms of the sanctuary, and put on other garments so they do not transmit holiness to (contaminate) the people by their garments. Purity and contamination

The social functions of (symbolic) taboo systems Anthropologists generally agree that taboo systems have a social function (to transmit values, for e.g.). Some cases are obvious, like a taboo against sitting in a chair reserved for an elder. Others seem totally arbitrary, and may well be so on the level of the specific taboo itself.

The social functions of (symbolic) taboo systems But the overall function anthropologically seems to be to reinforce the social cohesion of the group. In the Bible we can see this in the “chosen people/promised land” motifs. But the theological function is to elevate Israel’s God to a position of uniqueness. This creates a problem of access to God.

Holy / Pure – Physical World

  Material / Common                        Spiritual (“holy”) 

Holy God, Temple, Ark, etc. Profane (“unholy”) Corpses, pigs, witches, etc. Any object in the material world not associated with the spiritual world

Impure Impure

Jesus

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Dramatic Inversion– A. van Gennep, Rites of Passage, – V. Turner, The Ritual Process Liminal State Pre-ritual identity Post-ritual identity

Rites of Passage Quinceañera Graduation Wedding Funeral Baptism

Dramatic Inversion– A. van Gennep, Rites of Passage, – V. Turner, The Ritual Process Liminal State Pre-ritual identity Post-ritual identity Dramatic Inversion

Dramatic Inversion The priest sprinkles the blood over the priests/people/temple in order to purify them
Exo 24.8; 29.20-21; Lev 16.14-19; Heb 9.18-22

The Lord passes over the houses with the blood on the lintel and doorposts Exo 12:13, 23

Jesus uses his saliva to cure Mar 8.23

The blood of Jesus “cleanses” us of sin 1Jn 1.7

But the most direct connection between the moral and the taboo spheres is by way of the ritual sacrificial system.

The basic idea is that all (moral) sin must be paid for, and that the innocent sacrificial animals stand in for the sinners and take their place.

Due to the symbolic contamination taboo system, the animals had to be sacrificed according to ritual purity regulations as well.

But in the end, the moral requirement that sin be “covered,” or atoned for was satisfied by the ritual sacrifice system combined with the symbolic contamination taboo system.

Sickness and healing in the New Testament Modern western concepts:

1. Action

2. Sickness

3. The individual

4. Cure

Ancient Mediterranean concepts:

1. Being

2. The subject

3. The community

4. Healing

Mary Douglas - Cultural Structures

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Increasing personal freedom

 Cultures in the Process of Bible Translation  

Isolates –
Marginalized persons

Hierarchies –
HB and many receptor and
national cultures

Individualists –
The majority of consultants and some national cultures

Communitarians –
NT and some receptors cultures

Increasing solidarity
Increasing personal freedom

 Cultures in the Process of Bible Translation 

Isolates – 

Marginalized persons

Hierarchies – 

HB and many receptor and national cultures

Individualists – 

The majority of consultants and some national cultures Communitarians –

NT and some receptors cultures

Increasing solidarity