the origin of that negative moi-ality connected witli Jewish ceremonial religion which Jesus abrogated for ever (Lk lP-*--«).
'In rules of holiness the motive is respect for the gods, in rules of uncleanness it is primarily fear of an unknown or hostile power, thouyh ultimately, as we see in the Levitical lf'i,dslation, the law of clean and unclean may be brought within the sphere of divine ordinances, on the view that uncleanness is hateful to God and must be avoided by all that have to do with Him' (Robertson Smith, RS'^, p. 153).
The attitude of Jesus towards ceremonial unclean- ness does not properly fall within the scope of this article (see artt. ' Purihcation,' 'Purity' in DCG ii.). The scribes, by an elaborate system of casu- istry, laid down minute regulations and interpreta- tions of the ceremonial laws of purity ; and these dominated the whole religion of Judaism in our Lord's day. They became a grievous burden, under which men became ' weaiy and heavy-laden.' The gracious invitation of Mt 11-^ is also the herald of a great religious revolution, and it is in connexion with the ceremonial requirements connected with hand-washing tliat Jesus enunciates the great law, repealing all the Levitical rules as to unclean meats (Mk 7'''-^, Mt 15-*"2"). No longer ceremonial, but only moral, dehlement is possible.
As regards the practice of the Apostolic Church, the incident of Ac 10^"^'^ is instructive. We may be certain that St. Peter was not the only one who was ' much perplexed within himself' as to the full scope of Jesus' principle that the real seat of defile- ment is within. The Apostolic Decree of Ac 15'-'' was essentially a concession to Jewish prejudices, but at the same time was no doubt actuated by the spirit of Christian love, which forbids one's doing violence to the conscience of a brother, merely for the purpose of asserting an abstract and selfish liberty (1 Co ^'^«- lO-'^f-). It has to be borne in mind : (1) that religious scruples are to be respected (Mk 1*J) ; (2) that when, for example, St. Paul be- came a Jew to the Jews, and submitted to a rite of purification (Ac 21^'^), he did so all the more easily that he himself did not cease to be a Jew (see art. Fast). The instances of obedience to the Jewish ceremonial Law in the NT are not entirely to be explained by a theory of deliberate and conscious concession or adaptation.
The concejition of purity, however, in the NT (as in the prophetic teaching of the OT) is entirely ethical. If we are to make any distinction between a.yv6s and Kadapds, it will be found in the direction of the distinction laid down in Westcott's comment on 1 Jn 3^ {Ep. of St. John, London, 1883, p. 98) : 071/65 connotes the feeling, and Ka9ap6s the state. d7!'65 implies a certain inward shrinking from pollu- tion and is applied to Jesus, wiiile Kadapos ex- presses simply the fact of cleanness (cf. IIDB, art. 'Purity'). In the LXX 017^65 and Kadapds are used indiscriminately to translate Heb. tdkdr (lit. 'brightness'); KaOapdi occasionally for bor (lit. ' separate '). ayv6s (as also ayvdrTjs) is always ethical in meaning ; ayvl^u has a ceremonial sense in Jn n^, Ac2r--'-^«24"*; d7;'eia=' chastity 'in 1 Ti 4^2 5-. KCiOapds and its cognates vary in meaning between the ceremonial and the ethical. In .such a passage as Jn 15^ we see the word in process of passing fi'om the ceremonial to the ethical meaning.
The word eiXiKpiviqs (Ph P", 2 P 3^) and its noun elXiKpLvela (1 Co 5^, 2 Co 1'- 2") are worthy of special treatment. In the instance quoted from 2 Peter, it is to be suspected tliat the usage of the writer is not very accurate. He is fond of ' bookish' words. The etymology is vei"y doubtful, but the sense is abundantly clear. In Ph 1'" the mind that is tlXt- Kpiv-qs is enabled 8oKi/j,d(^eiv to. 8ia<p^povTa (' to approve the things that are excellent,' RV ; cf. Ro 2"*). Bengel's note is ' non modo prae mails bona sed in bonis optima.' There is a type of character which may hold fast the good, and miss the best (cf. our
HOLINESS, PUKITY
HOLY DAY
571
Lord's Parables of the Treasure hid in the Field, and the Fearl of Great Price). The character de- scribed possesses such clear moral perception that it is enabled to welcome and understand and love the 'highest' when it sees it. The goal and ulti- mate standard of human conduct is the judgment- seat of Christ — 'the day of Christ,' as the Philippian passage has it. In Plato, Phcudo, 81 B, C, the ypvxh eiXiKpiv-qs is contrasted with the ^vxi) fiefj.iacr/J.^i'r] /cat cLKdOapTos, stained and polluted by its connexion with the body. The use of eiXiKpiv-qs in the NT is an example of the way in which a word is ennobled and enriched by being taken over into Christian thought. The Orphic doctrine of the dehlement of the spirit by contact with the body (aQfia (rrj/xa — the body the prison-house of the soul *), elaborated by Plato, is cast aside, and the great result of pure ethical vision is attained through the discipline and control of the passions. The meaning seems to be that form of ethical purity which is expressed in a mind uncontaminated and unwarped by sensual or sordid passion. Clearly St. Paul uses it in this sense in 2 Co p2 and 2'''. His motives are unmixed (cf. the phrase 'the unleavened bread of elXiKpivelas' in 1 Co 5^). All that he has done, or is doing, is worthy to be seen as in an atmosphere of pellucid clearness, iv ayioTrjTi Kal eiXiKpivelg. toO 6eov, ovk iv C70<plg, aapKiKy dX\' if xap'Tt dead. The purity of which he speaks must be regarded as a gift of God. It is remark- able that in Fhcedo 81 A the soul that is elXiKpivris is compared with the experience by the initiated of the Divine Vision. In any case, the emphasis is on the comprehensive ethical quality of purity, in the sense of 'sincerity' or 'reality,' which plays such a dominant part in the Pauline ethics (2 Co 13^ ; cf. Weinel, Biblische Theolugle, des AT, p. 349 f.). (For the Stoic conception of elkiKpivda cf. Posidonius, ap. Sext. Emp. adv. Math. ix. 71-4 ; Cicero, Tusc. Lisp. i. 40, 42, 43 ; and E. Bevan, Stoics and Sceptics, Oxford, 1913, pp. 107-8.)