Endnote 4 – Did Jesus Oppose the Purity Laws?

For food prohibitions, see Leviticus 7:19–27 (contact-impurity, carrion, fat and blood); for permitted and prohibited foods, see Leviticus 11:1–47 and Deuteronomy 14:3–21. Anthropologist Mary Douglas has analyzed these narratives in Purity and Danger (London: Routledge and Keegan Paul, 1966) and In the Wilderness: The Doctrine of Defilement in the Book of Numbers (London: Sheffield, 1993); see also Jacob Milgrom’s authoritative commentary on Leviticus in the Anchor Bible Series (New York: Doubleday, 1991).