(2.) Besides these cases of official uncleanness, we find one instance sui yeneris occurring in Deut. xxiii, 10, 11, which, with its purification, is thus described : " If there be among you any man that is not clean bv reason of uncleanness that chanceth him by night, then shall he go abroad out of the camp . . . but when evening cometh he shall wash himself with water, and when the sun is down, he shall come into the camp again." It may be observed that this case is not designated by the usual term HX^i: ; the phrase merely denotes its accidental
character, nb;^b-n'i;5'a "lin-J-N?.
(3.) Our enumeration, to be complete, should include the aggregate uncleanness of the priest and his house- hold, and the nation (Lev. xvi); this was expiated by the grand ritual of the great Day of Atonement, for the imposing details of which ceremony we must refer the reader to our article on that subject.
3. Some few historical instances of uncleanness, and more of purification, are mentioned both in the Old Test, and the New Test. As being, however, applica- tions only of some of the statutes which we have given above, we shall refrain from adducing them here, ex- cept one case, which is important because it led to the enactment of a proviso in the law. " There were cer- tain men, who were defiled by the dead body of a man, that they could not keep the Passover on that day.'" The}' stated their difficulty to INIdses and Aaron, the former of whom referred it to the Lord, and obtained from him a statute allowing a supplemental celebration of the Passover for such as were incapacitated in the manner in question or on a distant journey (Numb, ix, 6-12). See Passovek.
UNCLEANNESS
636
UNCTION
In coiUrast with tliis relief was the inflexible penalty threatened against all wilful nei;lect of the various rites of ttiirilicatioii prescribed in the law. Tlie fullest formula of this penalty occurs in Numb, xix, 20: "The man tliat shall lie unclean and shall not purify himself, that soul shall l»e cut off from ainoui;- the conli;re<,^■llion [or, as it runs in ver. IJi, 'from Israel'], because he hath de- nied the sanctuary of the Lord." That this excision meant death is evident from Lev. xv, 31, and xx, 9 (see jVIicliaelis, Laws of Moses [Sniitli's transl.], iv, 43, and Keil on Gen. xvii, U). Jehovah, the theocratic kiig and holy Ciod.who ha<l his own ways of "cutting;- off" i he dis- obeilient, isijleased to include in liis sentence of excision the reason for its iutliction — "because he hath defiled the sanctuary of tiie Lord."' This is in direct accord- ance with the principle by which the Divine Legislator repeatedly sanctions his laws: " Ye shall be holy ; for I the Lord your God am holy" (Lev. xix, 2, and frequent- ly elsewhere), and it was the recognition of these saint- ly duties which always characterized the pious Israel- ite. "God" (says tiie psalmist, Psa. Ixxxix, 7 ) "is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints [3^'wlp, which is likewise the word used in the for- mula of Leviticus; the phrase C'L'np ^-TUTS al^^O; which occurs in ver. 5 of this psalm, is the frequent designation of the political organization of the Israel- ites], and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him."
The Mosaic ritual on uncleanness illustrates much of the phraseology of the Psalms and the prophets, and (what is more) many statements in the New Test., not only in obvious comparisons, as in the Epistle to the Hebrews, but in oblique phrases, such as in Eph.v, '26, 27, where the apostle, "speaking of Christ's washing the Church, that he might present it to himself ' with- out spot or wrinkle,' etc., seemeth to allude to the Jews' exceeding great curiousness in their washings for pu- riticati(ui"(Lightfoot, who quotes Maimonides in Mik- vaoth, III, iii, '297).
In conclusion, we must refer to the notices of purilica- tion which occur in the New Test. These are of three kinds— (a) the legitimate instances, such as that of tlie Virgin Mary (Luke ii, 22), the leper (Mark i, 44), the Nazarite (Acts xxi, 23, '24), all of which make express reference to the law; (6) the nnauthorized cases, such as the traditional and Pharisaical washings of the hands (Matt. XV, 2), and of tables, cups, and platters (Mark vii, 4), all which the Lord condemned in strong terms as su|)erstitious encroachments on the divine law; (c) the doubtful cases, such as the case of those who came to Jerusalem to purify themselves before the Passover (John xi, o5), and the discussion mentioned in John iii, '25. "Their controversy," says Lightfoot, "was partly about the pre-eminence of the Judaical washings and the evangelical baptism^and here the Jews and John's disciples were at opposition, and partly about the pre- eminence of John's baptism and Christ's — and here tlie Jews woidd hiss them on in the contestation" (^Works [ed. Pitman], v, G7 j.
4. Our object in this article has been to collect the .<<r,iij>tur(il laws on uncleanness and purification, we have avoided the Jewish traditional doctrines. These may be discovered by the curious on such subjects by a careful use of the indexes to the works of Lightfoot, Schiittgen ( lloree IJeb. et Talmud.), aim] Sureiihusius (Mis/ina). Dr. Wotton, in his work on the IMishna (i, J 60-1 70), has analyzed the Seder Taharoth, or Order of Purijicalions, whicli contains the authorized tradition on the subject oi our article. "In this order," says Wotton, " more than in any of the rest, the true Phari- saical spirit which our blessed Lord so severely repre- hends in Matt, xv and Mark vii is plainly and fidly seen." We subjoin the names of the chief " titles" or sections of this order : 1. A'(7//«, vessels ; 2. 0 // a lot /i, tents — treating of pollutions from the dead; 3. Ner/avn, plagues — of lci)rosy; 4. /"«/<(/(, the red heifer; 5. Taha-