Clean and Unclean: A Lost Emphasis
by Ed Nelson
Part One: Does it Make any Difference?
What is modern Christianity’s teaching on the biblical concept of clean and unclean? With such a heavy emphasis on these two themes throughout the Bible, something seems to have weakened their gravity for us today. Are these two related biblical subjects no longer relevant or consequential to our faith? Like shards of clay found in an archaeological dig, are they mere relics of the ancient church’s teachings?
In reading the Book of Leviticus (Vayikra), beginning with chapter five, we become keenly aware of these two frequently used words of the Bible. “Clean” and “unclean” are like the pulse beats of the book. They pulsate “thump thump” on every page with life-affecting consequences.
This duo of opposite words appears throughout the Bible from Genesis 7:2 to Revelation 21:27, but nowhere with the rhythmic frequency as found in Leviticus, the heart of the Torah.
In the New Covenant books, the Gospel of Luke and his Book of Acts treats the subject of clean and unclean the most (23 times), though otherwise it is fairly evenly weighted among the Gospel writers and Paul’s letters.
Does the subject really matter anymore? A core problem in speaking about the subject of being clean or unclean today is that few Christians think about the subject, or see any significance of these concepts as applicable to their lives. Christians nurtured on the milk of our Western culture (i.e., the Greco-Roman worldview) do not relate well to either the Book of Leviticus or the rest of the Bible in matters where there is weighty emphasis on cleanness and uncleanness.
To illustrate, when modern-day Christians enter a church facility to worship, few seem to struggle whether they are living in an unclean state. Such a concept of the necessity of being clean prior to entering into congregational worship is foreign to modern expressions of Christianity.
Modern Judaism, Islam and Hinduism are belief systems quite interwoven with the concept of a person’s status of being either clean or unclean. Christianity, in general, has lost that edge of thinking. Yet the New Testament, like the Old Testament, underscores its significance to the thinking of believers in the first century. Back then, a practical concern was whether one’s status was right for approaching God.
Christians today think more in terms of whether we are living in sin or, its opposite, in holiness, or righteousness, instead of whether one is living as clean or unclean. We are conditioned to think about our sins much more than whether we are clean or unclean in God’s Presence.
How do we distinguish between being sinful and unclean? Or should we? If so, how, in what way? What is the difference, if any, between righteousness and being clean?
Clearly the Bible drew verbal distinctions that are more than a matter of semantics. Since the word “sin” and “unclean” are not synonyms, but are related, we should come to some understanding on how to separate the terms. Then we should ask a follow-up question. Are these biblical distinctions important in a practical sense to us today? If we say no, then we have to answer the question why these issues were important to the earliest followers of the Messiah Jesus [Yeshua]. If we say yes, we have to ask why we don’t think and act in light of these differences today.
We know that the ancient church showed serious concern about whether one was living in sin or in righteousness, as do Christians today. The ancient church, however, gave serious concern to the related issue of a believer’s status of either being clean or unclean in God’s Presence. We find this concern throughout the Bible.
By doing a careful study of the Bible we find some important distinctions between the subject of sin and holiness, or sin and righteousness, and the subject of clean and unclean. Seeing some of these key differences are helpful.
Sin is about our inner nature. In the Bible, sin and holiness, or righteousness, are issues dealing with our internal nature, what causes us to sin, and the external product of our sinful nature, our sins. To speak of our sinful nature, or our holy nature, is to speak of our inner dispositions, our inner framework for life, the heart, so to speak, of our spiritual nature.
Our sinful nature is the way we are bent, or inclined, on the inside towards a sinful life. The Hebrews called it yetzer ra—the evil inclination of the heart. Jeremiah had this ancient understanding in mind when he wrote in Jeremiah 17:9:
The heart is more deceitful than all else
and is desperately sick.
Who can understand it?
The same concept of yetzer ra is found in the Thanksgiving Scroll (1QH 4:29-30) of the Dead Sea Scrolls:
A human is in the wrong from the womb,
and guilty of fraud to old age.
And I know that righteousness is not man’s,
and the perfect way not the son of man’s.
Sins are products of the sinful nature. Our sins are the product of our sinful nature, our yetzer ra, and concern the way we think, perceive and behave. In this biblical understanding, our sinful nature is like a factory inside us that produces sins.
When we are made holy or righteous in God’s sight through faith in the Messiah Jesus [Yeshua], we should consider ourselves dead in Messiah’s death so that our sin factory is understood as being destroyed in Him. If the sin factory, our sinful nature, is crucified daily in Messiah, then we cease the production of sins. When we consider ourselves dead to our sinful nature through faith in Messiah, both our old nature and behavior remain dead in Him (cf. Romans 6:5-14).
As we consider ourselves alive as new persons, having received Messiah’s Spirit in us, we are renewed each day as new persons. Messiah’s Holy Spirit dwells within us to produce a life of righteous acts instead of evil ones. In this way we receive the inclination for good in our hearts, the yetzer tov.
Cleanness concerns our external condition—our status in God’s sight. Clean and unclean issues, on the other hand, in the Bible deal neither with our sinful nature (yetzer ra) proper or the product of our sinful nature, our sins.
True, sin and uncleanness are directly related as is righteousness and cleanness. If we sin we are unclean. But it is possible to be unclean, and likely so, by simply being in the wrong environment—the wrong place at the wrong time—where there is an unclean contagion. Such uncleanness, which was common in the Bible, happened unintentionally. This is the nature of uncleanness. It has more to do with our status in God’s sight than our sinful nature.
For the greater part uncleanness (tumah) happens without sinful intention. Uncleanness is a contagion that bears the guilt of sin. Whatever is clean (tahor) becomes defiled by contact with unclean [tamei] things. The power of uncleanness overcomes the holy and the clean.
The prophet Haggai (cf. 2:12-14) asked the priests of Israel:
“If a man carries holy meat in the fold of his garment,
and touches bread with this fold, or cooked food, wine, oil, or any other food,
will it become holy?”
And the priests answered, “No.”
Then Haggai said, “If one who is unclean from a corpse touches any of these,
will the latter become unclean?”
And the priests answered, “It will become unclean.”
Then Haggai said, “So is this people. And so is this nation before me,”
declares the LORD, “and so is every work of their hands.
And what they offer there is unclean.”
We are helped to understand that clean and unclean issues concern our external condition as to whether we are appropriate, or worthy, in our current external condition to be in the Presence of God. In this way, clean and unclean issues are understood to be ceremonial of a greater reality.
Sin demands a just, legal verdict. Issues of sin and holiness, or of sin and righteousness, not only are internal conditions of the heart, but also deal with matters of legal justice. Sin demands a verdict of condemnation because our sins are crimes against God and our neighbor. Because there is no cure for our incorrigible sinful nature, the judgment for our sins is the penalty of death.
Over 800 times the Bible speaks of sin as the internal power within us that breaks our right standing with God. Almost as many times the Bible clearly shows that we should live in holiness and righteousness, something impossible because of our sinful nature. These are huge issues in the Word of God that must be dealt with properly and overcome if we are to live in God’s Presence. Sin and guilt offerings are dealt with frequently in the Bible to point us to the Messiah Jesus [Yeshua] whose offering of Himself on a cross became the Sacrifice of sacrifices to take away our sins through faith in his atoning work.
We are unable to change into a new human nature on our own. We cannot reform ourselves. To be rid of our sinful nature, we need a transformation. This is why Messiah Jesus [Yeshua] came to save us from ourselves—to transform us into a new humanity. Once we were slaves to our sin. Now we are free in Him to live as new persons.
If we are judged by God as holy, or righteous, because we have become new persons in Messiah, we are cleared from all judgment for our sins. In Him we are transformed into a new person. The sinful nature is now reckoned by God, our Judge, as being dead in Messiah’s death. We are forgiven and granted eternal life. Justice has been served through the mercy of God.
But this is impossible without faith in the Messiah Jesus [Yeshua] and his atoning work to save us from judgment. When we speak of our being justified by faith in Messiah Jesus [Yeshua], we are speaking of our being made just by the Messiah to appear before God the Father without condemnation. Our nature may not be changed, but our status in God’s sight is changed. This is only possible through faith in the atoning work of Messiah Jesus [Yeshua].
Cleanness is about our state of worthiness. Clean and unclean issues, on the other hand, are not about our facing judgment or overcoming judgment before God because of our sinful nature and its product, our sins. Clean and unclean issues concern, instead, our condition or status of worthiness to appear before God. Worth has to do with status and status with value. As clean people, we have value we do not have when we are unclean.
What is the difference between justice to appear before God and status of worthiness to appear before God? If we understand this difference, we understand the difference between sin and uncleanness, and the difference between being holy and clean.
God’s justice that results in forgiveness and mercy for us gives us the legal right to appear before Him without condemnation. Worthiness is different. It is more than the legal right to appear before God. It is the privilege of being God’s child (by status) to appear before Him, our heavenly Father.
A legal right may be granted a stranger. True, the forgiven stranger knows that a great debt has been paid for his salvation. But a privilege is more than a legal right. Privileges are granted family members. Privileges are granted to those who belong.
When Jesus [Yeshua] told the story of the prodigal son’s torturous path of sin and his eventual return to his loving father, He held two things up before his audience:
(1) the prodigal son’s sinful state demanded a verdict by his father; and
(2) his sonship was a status based on his worth to his father
In this light, Jesus [Yeshua] emphasized the son’s unworthy status as much as the son’s sinfulness. The son was a sinner, yes, and his sins condemned him and made him unworthy to be a son. Sin affects both the legal standing and one’s worthiness.
The son deserved judgment as a sinner. But the story Jesus told concerned two phases in his restoration from sin: (1) the son recognizing he had sinned against God and his father, repenting of it; and (2) the son acknowledging his unworthiness to live any more with the status as a family member because he was unclean. He had violated the biblical standards of cleanness.
Repentance for his sins was first. This took care of the justice issue. Then the matter of worthiness, or appropriateness, to live within his father’s home became the central issue.
In summary, holiness and righteousness deal with our justice to stand legally as holy in God’s sight. Cleanness has to do with our worthiness and privilege to approach God’s Presence as a family member without our impediments stopping us.
A story is told in 2 Samuel 9 of King David receiving into his family the surviving grandson of the wicked king of Israel, King Saul. The grandson’s name was Mephibosheth. He had no legal right to be in King David’s palace. He was the grandson of David’s worst enemy and in justice could have been put to death for the sins of his family.
He was also crippled. To be crippled was to be reckoned as unclean by all biblical standards. For two good reasons, King David did not have to do anything to help this young man. Legally, he could be held in contempt of the king because of the sins of his family. Socially, he was unworthy of the king’s presence because he was unclean. When King David invited the young man to his house, he said he would restore all the land that belonged to his grandfather Saul. This had the effect of legally restoring Mephibosheth to his properties, a legal act of mercy and forgiveness. But there was more. Mephibosheth was unclean. King David not only gave him legal rights, but extended to him family privilege. He regained status. He asked him to always eat at the king’s table. Privilege was restored in spite of his uncleanness.
Uncleanness had two aspects to it. The first aspect was those things we can do nothing about that makes us unclean. Such conditions were being lame, blind, deaf, wounded or sick, or having a bodily discharge. Only by God’s lovingkindness and healing mercies can we become better.
The second aspect was those things we can do something about. We could avoid touching unclean things and becoming contaminated. Many regulations were set in place by ancient Jewish sages to help them avoid becoming unclean. To walk out a clean life was to walk worthy of our calling to the highest status of being God’s people.
Since cleanness has to do with the status of worthiness to appear before God, our sins being forgiven, we can do as the apostle Paul urged us to do and walk worthy of our calling in Messiah Jesus. In Philippians 1:27, he wrote: “Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ …”
The Bible’s emphasis on being clean or unclean. In Leviticus, all Hebrew words related to “unclean” total 140 times. Total usage of the same words in the Bible, i.e., Old and New Covenants, is 282 times. About half of all instances are found in Leviticus. The New Covenant books mentions uncleanness 48 times.
In words related to cleanness in the Bible, total usage is 357 times. While frequency is higher for the Bible over all, Leviticus draws a somewhat starker picture. Only 74 times does it mention words related to “clean,” about half as many times as words related to uncleanness. The New Covenant books refers to cleanness 82 times, 59 percent more times than it mentions uncleanness.
Simply, the Tanakh (Old Testament) emphasizes uncleanness more than cleanness. The New Covenant (New Testament) mentions cleanness more than uncleanness.
Leviticus was instructive for Israel about Yahweh. But it also is instructive to us today if we will catch hold of its message to us about Yahweh and his revelation in Messiah Jesus [Yeshua]. No book of the Torah was more instructive for the Old Testament prophets and the first century church about the atoning work of Messiah than Leviticus.
Leviticus (Vayikra) was the first book of Torah to be learned by Jewish children of old. The words “clean” and “unclean” salted the book, seasoning it with personal concern about one’s worthiness to stand before Yahweh as his chosen people.
What we should understand about the book of Leviticus is that while it mentions cleanness and uncleanness more than any other Bible book, no less than 207 times it mentions the personal, intimate name of God as Yahweh. Everything in this book was about Yahweh and how to relate to Him. All the sacrifices, the offerings, in Leviticus have to do with relating to God personally and up close as Yahweh, not according to his judicial, stern name of Elohim. As a matter of fact, the number of references to Elohim are sparse—only 39 times, and are mostly found in the phrase, “Yahweh your God” (25 times).
During the Second Temple Era that ended with its destruction in A.D. 70, no book of the Bible held sway over the minds of Bible readers like Leviticus. This included believers in Messiah Jesus [Yeshua]. Life and its practice were wrapped up in this book. Orthodox Judaism today still teaches Leviticus as the first Torah book to be learned. The destruction of the Temple contributed to the eventual waning of emphasis by the church on cleanness and uncleanness.
The decline of Leviticus. With the eventual rise of Gentile believers in Messiah Yeshua surpassing the original Jewish following of Messiah Jesus [Yeshua], particularly between the destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70 and the Jewish war against Rome in A.D. 132-135, the book gradually lost its pinnacle place as the guidebook for the conduct of daily life.
Today, in Christianity, Leviticus remains one of the lesser read books of the Bible, a significant change from the spiritual moorings of the church in the first century. With its decline, also came the decline in seeing the redemptive work of Yahweh through terms like “clean” and “unclean.”
Later Catholicism would teach the necessity of belonging to the church for salvation. Reformed thinkers explained redemption through terms like “covenant” and “grace.” Modern evangelicalism preferred terms like “saved” and “unsaved.”
We do well to remember that with whatever tradition we belong to or espouse today, the first century church also grappled with the redemptive work of Messiah Jesus [Yeshua] within its Hebraic context of being “clean” and “unclean” in relationship to Yahweh. To study this subject enhances our understanding of the gospel message of our Lord Jesus [Yeshua] and his apostles.
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