Purity Before Holiness: Reading Toward Christ - Episode 147
Continuing the water series by framing purification and holiness through an ancient Near Eastern lens and a Christotelic (telos-aimed) reading of Scripture. We contrast Christocentric “reading back” with Christotelic “reading forward,” explore holy/common vs clean/unclean as two distinct axes, and ask whether Leviticus was ever meant to be a sin-management system—or a way to host a holy God in sacred space. Along the way: covenant at Sinai, ritual logic, righteousness in OT vs NT, and why Jesus as incarnate Holy One unites holy and common in himself. Bonus at the end: Carey’s first look at The Unseen Realm: Expanded Edition and its nods to frame semantics and christological lenses.
In this episode
- Editing experiment: does lighter editing serve the mission better?
- Why hermeneutics matters: Christocentric vs Christotelic readings
- Purity → Holiness: which comes first in human religious imagination?
- Two spectra, not one: holy/common and clean/unclean
- Leviticus beyond “sin management”: making space for divine presence
- Covenant first, cult second; why Israel is unique amid the ANE
- Righteousness reconsidered across Testaments
- Word-study pointers: “pure/purge/refine” (gold, oil, incense), ritual vs ethical usage
- Teaser: upcoming episodes on atonement frames, water vs fire, and Divine Council themes
Resources mentioned
- Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm — Expanded Edition (new front-matter on frames & christological lenses)
- John Walton on Christotelic reading (telos-oriented Scripture)
- Carey’s On This Rock community (October theme: Unseen Realm)
Support / connect
- Join the conversation in the On This Rock community
- Share the episode; leave a rating/review
- Send pushback & questions for office hours
On This Rock Biblical Theology Community: https://on-this-rock.com/
Website: genesismarksthespot.com
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/GenesisMarkstheSpot
Music credit: "Marble Machine" by Wintergatan
Link to Wintergatan’s website: https://wintergatan.net/
Link to the original Marble Machine video by Wintergatan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvUU8joBb1Q&ab_channel=Wintergatan
00:00 - Why hermeneutics matters (not talking past each other)
06:03 - Ritual & baptism recap; the big question: purity or holiness first?
09:28 - A Christological lens: setting the stage
10:40 - Christocentric reading (arrows radiating back)
15:06 - Christotelic reading (arrows moving forward to Jesus)
17:26 - Case study: purification as our test-bed
20:51 - Is Leviticus a sin-management system? Rethinking assumptions
24:34 - What is holiness? Modern conflations vs ancient otherness
27:07 - Holiness as divine “set-apartness,” not mere moralism
30:41 - Don’t import later ideas into earlier texts
33:31 - Two axes: holy/common and clean/unclean (and the “powder-keg” mix)
36:33 - Why purification precedes holiness; historical signals
39:04 - Covenant first, cult second; Israel vs the ANE
43:41 - Intuitive logic of purification; why it feels “obvious”
47:17 - Word-study invites: pure, purge, refine; ritual vs ethical purity
50:45 - Fire, water, and purging; future directions
53:01 - Righteousness OT vs NT: behavior, justice, belonging
57:38 - Bonus: Unseen Realm Expanded, frame semantics, and themes for October
