Purification

Purification (prop. טָהַרָה, tohorah, καθαρισμός), a ceremony enjoined in the Mosaic law for the purpose of cleansing from pollution or defilement (Nu 19:9). Purifications were, for the most part, perfortmed with water, sometimes with blood and with oil (Heb 9:21-22; Ex 30:26-29; Le 8:10-11). Sometimes fire was used for the purpose of purging or purifying (Isa 1:25; Isa 10:26; Zec 13:9; Mal 3:3).

In its legal and technical sense, the term is specially applied to the ritual observances whereby an Israelite was formally absolved from the taint of uncleanness, whether evidenced by any overt act or state, or connected with man's natural depravity. The cases that demanded it in the former instance are defined in the Levitical law, see UNCLEANNESS: with regard to the latter, it is only possible to lay down the general rule that it was a fitting prelude to any nearer approach to the Deity; as, for instance, in the admission of a proselyte to the congregation, see PROSELYTE, in the baptism (καθαρισμός Joh 3:25) of the Jews as a sign of repentance see BAPTISM, in the consecration of priests and Levites, see LEVITE; see PRIEST, or in the performance of special religious acts (Le 16:4; 2Ch 30:19). In the present article we are concerned solely with the former class, inasmuch as in this alone were the ritual observances of a special character. The essence of purification, indeed, in all cases, consisted in the use of water, whether by way of ablution or aspersion; but in the majora delicta of legal uncleanness, sacrifices of various kinds were added, and the ceremonies throughout bore an expiatory character. Simple ablution of the person was required after sexual intercourse (Le 15:18; 2Sa 11:4); ablution of the clothes after touching the carcass of an unclean beast, or eating or carrying the carcass of a clean beast that had died a natural death (Le 11:25,40); ablution both of the person and of the defiled garments in cases of gonorrhea dormientium (15:16, 17) — the ceremony in each of the above instances to take place on the day on which the uncleanness was contracted. A higher degree of uncleanness resulted from prolonged gonorrhea in males and menstruation in women: in these cases a probationary interval of seven days was to be allowed after the cessation of the symptoms; on the evening of the seventh day the candidate for purification performed an ablution both of the person and of the garments, and on the eighth offered two turtledoves or two young pigeons, one for a sin-offering, the other for a burnt-offering (vers. 1-15, 19-30). Contact with persons in the above states, or even with clothing or furniture that had been used by them while in those states, involved uncleanness in a minor degree, to be absolved by ablution on the day of infection generally (vers. 5-11, 21-23), but in one particular case after an interval of seven days (ver. 24). In cases of childbirth the sacrifice was increased to a lamb of the first year, with a pigeon or turtle-dove (12:6), an exception being made in favor of the poor, who might present the same offering as in the preceding case (ver. 8; Lu 2:22-24). The purification took place forty days after the birth of a son, and eighty after that of a daughter, the difference in the interval being based on physical considerations. The uncleannesses already specified were comparatively of a mild character: the more severe were connected with death, which. viewed as the penalty of sin, was in the highest degree contaminating. To this heald we refer the two cases of (1) touching a corpse, or a grave (Nu 19:16), or even killing a man in war (31:19); and (2) leprosy, which was regarded by the Hebrews as nothing less than a living death. The ceremonies of purification in the first of these two cases are detailed in Numbers 19.

A peculiar kind of water, termed the water of uncleanness (מֵיאּהִנַּדָּה, A.V. "water of separation"), was prepared in the following manner: an unblemished red heifer, on which the yoke had not passed, was slain by the eldest son of the high-priest outside the camp. A portion of its blood was sprinkled seven times towards (אֶלאּנֹכִח פּנֵי) the sanctuary; the rest of it, and the whole of the carcass, including even its dung, were then burned in the sight of the officiating priest, together with cedar-wood, hyssop, and scarlet. The ashes were collected by a clean manl and deposited in a clean place outside the camp. Whenever occasion required, a portion of the ashes was mixed with spring-water in a jar, and the unclean person was sprinkled with it on the third and again on the seventh day after the contraction of the uncleanness. That the water had an expiatory efficacy is implied in the term sin-offering (חִטָּאת, A.V. "purification for sin") applied to it (Nu 19:9), and all the particulars connected with its preparation had a symbolical significance appropriate to the object sought. The sex of the victim (female, and hence life-giving) its red color (the color of blood, the seat of life), its unimpaired vigor (never having borne the yoke), its youth, and the absence in it of spot or blemish, the cedar and the hyssop (possessing the qualities, the former of incorruption, the latter of purity), and the scarlet (again the color of blood)-all these symbolized life in its fulness and freshness as the antidote of death. At the same time, the extreme virulence of the uncleanness is taught by the regulations that the victim should be wholly consumed outside the camp, whereas generally certain parts were consumed on the altar, and the offal only outside the canmp (comp. Le 4:11-12); that the blood was sprinkled towards, and not before, the sanctuary; that the officiating minister should be neither the high-priest, nor yet simply a priest, but the presumptive high- priest, the office being too impure for the first and too important for the second; that even the priest and the person that burned the heifer were rendered unclean by reason of their contact with the victim; and, lastly, that the purification should be effected, not simply by the use of water, but of water mixed with ashes which served as a lye, and would, therefore, have peculiarly cleansing qualities. See PURIFICATION-WATERS.