What is Purity?

What is Purity?

The last time we met scribes who had come from Jerusalem to Galilee to confront Jesus (3:22) their arrival spelt trouble. Here again they are a hostile group, a foretaste of the sort of reception Jesus is going to meet when he eventually goes to Jerusalem himself. The issue of purity which they raise is one which will fundamentally divide Jesus from the religious establishment, and it is important enough for Mark to devote a long section directly to the discussion (vv. 1–23), while the stories that follow will illustrate the way Jesus’ mission inevitably takes him outside the ‘pure’ boundaries of Israel, into company which would scandalize the scribes…