We find these issues discussed and debated heatedly between the scribes and the Pharisees, and our Lord had to do with cleanness and uncleanness-particularly the area of ceremonial uncleanness as defined by Jewish tradition, not so much as defined by Old Testament revelation. When we leave the Old Testament and come to the New Testament, we once again find that the definition of clean and unclean is critical to our understanding. All of that says to us that if we are going to begin to get some kind of grasp of Leviticus, we must have some kind of grasp over what clean and unclean means and how these words apply to the Israelite.
So the sense of uncleanness is a predominate theme, and the word clean, along with its related terms, occurs 74 times in Leviticus, which is over one-third of the uses found in the Old Testament. Wenham, 62 in a footnote in one of his commentaries, says that unclean and its cognates occurs 132 times in the Old Testament over 50 percent of these are Leviticus. It is important for us to understand the meaning of clean and unclean, as it is used in the Old Testament, and its application for us in the New Testament.įor one thing, the expression clean and its counterpoint unclean is one of the prominent themes of Leviticus. In third world countries, “clean” means “free of large clumps of contamination.” In our children’s bedrooms, clean has a definition which means that everything has been kicked into one general pile and if given enough time, they can find what they left in that pile.Ĭlean means something different when we come to the definition of clean versus unclean in Leviticus. We had a trophy roach in the booth where I was eating.” Not at all taken back by the comment, the cashier replied, “Oh, that’s nothing! You should see the size of them in the kitchen!”Ĭlean and unclean-that can be a matter of great importance to us, but it is also a matter of differing definitions. When my friend got to the cashier, he said as quietly as he could, “You all have a real roach infestation here.
He thought to himself, “Now shall I tell her and ruin the whole night, or shall I not tell her and hope the roach just walks away?” He decided not to tell her, and the roach went on its way and continued up over the booth and then down the other side. He was taking this girl out for the first time, and as they waited at their table in the restaurant, he noticed a huge roach crawling up the booth right beside her. I remember someone telling me of his experience not long ago. There is hardly any contamination at all! The restaurants in which you and I eat are supposed to be clean, especially the kitchens.
In an electronics plant where silicon crystals are grown, the clean room is incredibly clean.
Clean and clear day and night free#
For example, in the operating room, things must be clean, and that has a very rigid, strict interpretation-to be as free as possible from all germs and contamination. The word “clean” has a lot of different meanings today depending upon the context in which it is used. Leviticus 11 is dealing with the subject of cleanness and uncleanness-specifically, with the subject of clean and unclean foods.
0 kommentar(er)
