Janet McLarren is an anthropology consultant in SIL Eurasia. Her interests include diaspora studies, Biblical cultures and applying anthropology in Bible translation. She has worked in three translation projects in North Africa and holds an MA in anthropology from California State University. She writes for the Biblical Culture Notes in Paratext.
Paul McLarren is a translation consultant in SIL Eurasia and the project manager for the Key Terms Old Testament project. His interests include biblical languages and the cultural background of the Old and New Testaments. He has consulted on translation projects throughout North Africa and Eurasia.
Purity: Embodiment in the Social Order
Abstract
In the Old Testament purity is embodied in social and ritual behavior. Mary Douglas defines defilement as ‘matter out of place’ where people, places, and things which don’t fit into accepted cultural cognitive categories are considered defiled and hence defiling. Defilement is dangerous due to the potential disruption of social life. Both Sherry Ortner and Robert Priest challenge this rubric as too simplistic. Ortner situates purity in worldview where social and spiritual order are embodied. Priest links defilement to an inherent disgust of death and decay. All of them show how the power of ritual overcomes danger and defilement. We will use all three paradigms to examine the semantic domains of two key terms in the Old Testament, טהר (tahar to be pure) and טמא (tame’ to be defiled). Beginning with the temple as a holy place, we will look at how holiness and purity are embodied in the ritual associated with cultic Old Testament religion. Western Christians tend to consider purity as a moral issue, ignoring the ritual and emotional components of purity and defilement. This interferes with an understanding of the Hebrew semantic complex. We will demonstrate how two new tools currently in development for use in the Paratext environment, Biblical Culture Notes (BCN) and Key Terms Old Testament (KTOT), can help translators explore these concepts more fully.