4. After childbirth (Lk 222)._That childbirth renders a woman unclean is an almost universal belief among primitive peoples. Among some Arab tribes it was customary to build a hut out- side the camp, where the woman had to stay for a time (Hastings' i)5 iv. 828''; Wellhausen, Rested, 170). The Priestly Code recognized two degrees of uncleanness (Lv 12). After the birth of a boy, the mother was to be counted unclean, as in men- struation, for a week, and was to continue ' in the blood of her purifying ' for 33 days longer, during which she could touch no hallowed thing nor come into the sanctuary. She was thus unclean, in areater or less degree, for 40 days. But if the
child were a girl, both periods of uncleanness were doubled. At the expiry of the 40, or of the 80, days, the mother ottered a lamb of the first year for a burnt-ottering, and a young pigeon or a turtle-dove for a sin-ottering. But if she were poor (as was Mary, Lk 2^^), she could substitute for the lamb a young pigeon or a turtle-dove.
5. Graves as causes of defilement are referred to in Mt 23-^ Lk ll-"^ (cf. Tomb).
R. Bruce Taylor.
PURIM. — A feast of the Jews occurring on the 14th and 15tli of the month Adar, one month before the Passover. It had only the slightest religious character, and was devoted to feasting and holiday.
The Book of Esther purports to give the origin of Puriin in the feast kept by the Jews when the afflictions that threatened them through Hanian were turned into joy and blessing. This explanation is now generally regarded as fanciful, in part because of the antecedent improbability of the narrative in Esther and the lack of historical evidence for its truthfulness, and in part because of the impossibility of verifying in Persian the meaning of the word purirn ( = ' lot'), upon which the con- nexion rests.
Several different theories have been held of its origin. (1) The outgrowth of the Wicanor festival kept on the 13th of Adar, to celebrate the victory over that general in b.c. Ibl. (2) Derived from a New Year's festival of Parthian origin. (3) A Persian spring festival. (4) Connected with the Persian Furdigdn, festival of the dead. (5) The Greek Pithoigia, corresponding to the Roman Vinalia. (6) Others most recently (Zimmern, Jensen, Meissner, Wildeboer) derive it from a Babylonian New Year's festival, and make Mordecai the same as Marduk, and Esther = the goddess Ishtar.
The feast is not mentioned by name in the NT, but is by some supposed to be the ' feast of the Jews ' of Jn 5'. If so, this Gospel mentions three Passovers during the ministry of Jesus (2^^ Q* 12'), and His ministry thus extends, according to Jn., over two and a half years. On the other hand, if the alter- native view is held, that 5^ is a Passover feast, there are four mentioned, and the ministry, accord- ing to Jn., extends over three and a half years. Before either figure can be assumed as giving the correct chronology of the life of Christ, the accounts in the Fourth Gospel must be subjected to criticism in connexion with those of the Synoptics. See artt. Dates, Feasts, Ministry. O. H. Gates.
PURITY. — To form a clear conception of purity in its Christian sense is a matter of some difficulty, for two reasons. Historically, the idea has under- gone great changes, and the terms by which it has been expressed have been applied to very ditt'erent qualities, which to-day we should classify as phy.sical, ceremonial, and moral purity, — qualities which have nothing necessarily in common. On the other hand, if the idea in its highest signifi- cance be considered, it is singularly elusive, and therefore exact treatment is hardly practicable. It will be necessary to meet these two difficulties separately, and therefore to subdivide the subject.
1. In the Jewish world, wherein Christianity arose, purity occupied a commanding position. Since the return from the Exile, and especially since the reconstruction under Ezra and Nehemiah, there had been a strenuous and sustained endea- vour to secure the purity of both the national and the individual life by means of the jealous exclu- sion of all that could cause impurity. The Law laid down in detail the requirements of ' clean ' and ' unclean,' alike in matters of worship, of food and conduct, and of relations with the heathen world. Purity of descent in Israel also involved great insistence on genealogical records. And all these questions had received further elaboration at the hands of the later scribes. In this way the idea of purity had become increasingly artificial and external ; till at last it became an obsession Mhich went far to destroy the spontaneity of life, and to obscure the positive aspects of virtue and religion (cf. Ac 15i», Col 2-"-'-3). It follows that in most of
PUKITY
PURPLE
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the passages in the Gospels in which purity is men- tioned, it is this current conception of it which is referred to ; a conception whicli was ahnost entirely negative, and was mainly ceremonial, though not without confused intermixture of elements which were strictly physical, and others which were really spiritual.
There are two groups of words by which purity is expressed, alike in the Greek and in the Knglish NT, though these do not answer strictly each to each. In the Greek the first group