consists of xaUxpoi, xxllap/Cu, xa.Oiicpiiru,o; (frequently) ; xxbxipa, iiKxaWa/jiJw (twice each); xKllxpoTr:;, xKHxpf^x, Tipix<cyx.p/j.x. (once each) ; and iczahxpTo;, xxxilxpa-ix. In the English (R\0 these are most often re?idered by 'clean,' 'cleanse,' etc. ; but often by 'jiure,' 'purify,' etc. The other groi;p consists of xyvin, ocyv/ia, a,-/i^a;uc;, icyverr:^, xyvia, which are found less frequently, and which in the EV are always rendered by 'pure,' 'purify,' etc., never by 'clean,' 'cleanse,' or the like. The failure of the EV to distinguish these terms is, however, of no great importance, inasmuch as the Greek words themselves appear to be used as completely equivalent. This appears well in He 9^^ xyia-Zei rrpo; . . . xxtixpoTtiTx ; in the parallel use of xl r,fj.'.p^i toS xxOxpurfj-oii (Lk 22-) and xl r,/x.ipxi to'C xyt la- ij-o'C (Ac 2126) ; and in the use of xcitixpiiriMS twice (2'> 325) and of xyvit,a once (ll^s) in St. John's Gospel to stand indifferently for the customary purifying of the Jews. It is, however, worth while to notice that, with the ex- ception of the last mentioned instance, the second group of words is never met with in the Gospels. (For use of xanou in the sense of making impure, see below).
The important point is to observe how Christ altered the significance of Kadapd^ and its cognates, correcting and deepening the idea of purity which they served to express. Often He used these terms in the .senses which they currently bore. He em- ployed them in connexion with phy.sical disease : 'The lepers are cleansed' (Mt ll', cf. Lk 17'', Mk l'*i); and of the vine in a figure where more is symbolized by the want of physical vigour (Jn 15'-). He spoke also of ' unclean spirits ' when treating those ' possessed' (Mt 12«, Mk 5^). But His char- acteristic habit was to look below the outward and visible evidences of purity and impurity, whether these were physical or ceremonial, to the purity or impurity of the heart. The leading instance is Mk 714-23 < Jvlothing from without the man going into him can defile {Surarai KOLvwaai) him. . . . These evil things proceed from within and defile the man.' Here the Evangelist expressly notes that the saying 'makes all foods clean.' And other passages show the same teaching if less fully ex- pressed : e.g. the Pharisees are denounced for their hypocrisy in cleansing the outside of the cup and platter while inwardly full of extortion and excess, whereas practical love shown in alms would have made all clean to them (Mt 2325-26, cf. Lk 11«); and they are also condemned for being ' like whited sepulchres, full of dead men's bones and all unclean- ness,' which is defined as ' hypocrisy and iniquity ' (Mt 232'- 28). So He gave His blessing to the ' pure in heart' (5*), setting the ideal of purity which He would have His followers share Avith Him. And that this is to be understood in no negative sense is made very plain by Christ's teaching elsewhere. In Jn 13'"'^ the practice of the Lord's own humility is taught as the means of purity in His followers : in 15^ He says, ' Ye are clean because of the word tliat I have spoken unto you,' with which should be compared St. Peter's words, 'cleansing their hearts by faith' (Ac 15») ; while in Lk 112-*-26 y it is ex- pressly taught that a merely negative purity of lieart, due to the extrusiim or exclusion of evil, is hopeless, and ' the last state of that man becometh worse than the first.'
It is in the fullest accordance with Christ's habitual standpoint and with His teaching else- where that He adopted baptism, which had long been a symbolic and ceremonial rite of purification in Judaism, as a fundamental ordinance for His followers ; but it is equally in character with His mind and teaching that in the place of its old nega- tive significance He gave it a new and positive meaning, by making it bajitism into the Divine
Name He had revealed, and into the practical observance of His commands, and the enduring possession of His Spirit (Mt 28'"- 2"). The reference of Christian baptism is thus far less to the past — ■ which it was in Jewish usage — than to the future ; to the life, i.e., to be found and shared in the ' true Israel of God.'
2. But when tlie lesson has been learnt that purity can never consist in externals or negations, but must be a positive characteristic of tlie heart or inner man, there still remains the harder question, Wherein does such purity consist ? This has often been discussed by moralists, and it is curious how little they have to give in answer. No definition ba.sed on acts can be framed, for the same act under difi'erent conditions may be pure or impure. Nor is it easy to find one by the analysis of motives, as the treatment of the matter by the casuists clearly shows ; for they have almost always ended in defin- ing impurity only — a thing best left alone. A clue to the answer may, however, be found in Christ's teaching, though not one admitting of any formal analysis or definition. He laid it down emphati- cally that evil things proceeding from w^ithin can defile (diivarai Koivuiaai). The word employed is most instructive ; and the more so when one recollects that it occurs again in this sense in the decisive lesson taught St. Peter as to the nature of purity (a 6 deb'i iKaddpLdev aii fxrj koLvov, Ac 10'^ 11», cf. 2128). To make common, i.e. to vulgarize, is the way to make impure : profanity is the ruin of purity. A well-spring of living water, fenced about by rever- ence— that is purity. When reverence is broken through, or when careless frequency leaves the bulwark open, every beast may enter and foul the spring after slaking its thirst ; then purity is gone. Not that purity is the flow of living water, but its characteristic so long as it is guarded. The Avater- spring may be a fount of truth, or love, or life ; it may be an aspiration, a resolve, an idea ; it may consist in an opportunity met with, or an experi- ence felt ; it may be a holy menioiy, or an act of worship ; sometimes it will be the new perception of some beauty natural or moral, and sometimes an inborn faculty of service for others. Round any or all of these God sets reverence in our hearts for a fence, and bids us bare our heads as we draw near to what for us is holy ground. If we give no heed, but vulgarize by common use that opening which was afibrded us to be a ' window in heaven,' we may do this, but at the cost of purity. God endows all with faculties of body, of intellect, of soul, which He means to be exercised and kept pure ; but used without reverence, and viewed without wonder, they miss their purpose. It was the sense of what true purity consists in that led an old writer to .say, ' Keep thy heart above all that thou guardest, for out of it are the issues of life' (Pr 423), — a saying which half-anticipates the Beatitude promising the vision of God to the pure in heart. Reverence is the root from which jnirity grows ; and never was the essential nature of purity set in more vivid contrast with that blind and brutal profanity which is its opposite, than in Christ's striking utterance, ' Give not that which is holy to the dogs, nor cast your pearls before the s\\ine, that they may never trample them between their feet, and, turning, rend you' (Mt 7").