Josephus’s Seven Purities and the Mishnah’s Ten Holinesses

This paper compares two descriptions of the Jewish hierarchy of holiness in relation to the Jerusalem temple: one from Josephus’s Jewish War, books 1 and 5, where the relevant hierarchy is referred to as the seven purities, and the other, in Mishnah Kelim 1:6-9, titled (the) ten holinesses. After an...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Orian, Matan (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill 2016
In: Journal for the study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman period
Year: 2016, Volume: 47, Issue: 2, Pages: 183-211
Further subjects:B Mishnah Kelim holiness hierarchy exclusion from Temple halakah Josephus Jewish War ritual impurity
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Description
Summary:This paper compares two descriptions of the Jewish hierarchy of holiness in relation to the Jerusalem temple: one from Josephus’s Jewish War, books 1 and 5, where the relevant hierarchy is referred to as the seven purities, and the other, in Mishnah Kelim 1:6-9, titled (the) ten holinesses. After analyzing the guiding principles behind the seven purities, this paper will examine the two hierarchies against the background of the biblical instructions for the exclusion of impure persons from the desert camp, and the interpretation of these instructions according to Josephus, the Temple Scroll from Qumran, and rabbinic literature. It will show that, while the seven purities is a cultic perception coherent to the exclusion of different categories of people from the temple, the ten holinesses follows different guiding principles.
ISSN:1570-0631
Contains:In: Journal for the study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman period
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/15700631-12340457