This week, Carey continues the Purity Series by digging into Matthew Thiessen’s Jesus and the Forces of Death: The Gospels’ Portrayal of Ritual Impurity within First-Century Judaism—and uses it as a springboard to talk about atonement, purification, and why “apocalypse” is not just end-times hype.

A core thread: modern readers (and plenty of scholars) often read Jesus as if he’s against Jewish purity, when the Gospels actually portray him as rescuing people from the forces of ritual impurity—with a “contagious holiness” that overwhelms impurity at its source.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

- Why we misread the Gospels when we unconsciously import our modern conceptual world into a first-century purity framework (a frame-semantics problem)

- The common scholarly false dichotomy: “Jewish holiness vs Jesus’ mercy,” and why it fails

- A helpful map for thinking clearly: holy/profane (common) and pure/impure as distinct-but-related categories

- Why “ritual impurity vs moral impurity” can be a useful discussion tool—but isn’t quite a clean biblical taxonomy

- “Death-logic,” sacred space, and why childbirth (surprisingly) gets pulled into the conversation

- How this connects to Genesis (childbirth, Eden as sacred space, exile from the presence, Sabbath, and the start of death)

- Demonic impurity / unclean spirits: why Genesis 6/Nephilim and 1 Enoch matter, but don’t “solve” everything—and why you have to account for broader ancient exorcism

- Apocalyptic vs prophetic genre: prophecy as covenant lawsuit and warning to rebels; apocalypse as hope for the faithful and God “breaking in”

- A bridge into the atonement conversation: how “atonement” language can mean purification/purgation of sacred space, and how that differs from broader “at-one-ment” reconciliation talk

Referenced

- Matthew Thiessen, [Jesus and the Forces of Death](https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Forces-Death-Portrayal-First-Century/dp/B0BVP1NXFR/)

- Andrew Rillera, [Lamb of the Free](https://www.amazon.com/Lamb-Free-Recovering-Sacrificial-Understandings-ebook/dp/B0CW1DWC1R/) (and the PSA conversation)

- Jacob Milgrom and “death-logic”

Join the study ([On This Rock](https://on-this-rock.com/))

Carey is formally kicking off a deep-dive study of Lamb of the Free in January 2026, with recorded Zoom discussions and supporting visuals/charts; the study is for paid members (noted as $5/month in the episode)

On This Rock Biblical Theology Community: https://on-this-rock.com/

Website: [genesismarksthespot.com](http://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

00:00:00 Thiessen, purity, atonement, apocalypse vs prophecy
00:04:37 The big misread: “Jesus vs Jewish purity”
00:08:52 Unclean spirits, sickness/wholeness, and why “unclean” is a category worth studying
00:12:37 Jesus vs the forces of death (impurity, conflict, cross, resurrection)
00:13:28 PSA debates and why Lamb of the Free is in this conversation
00:16:51 “Atonement”: at-one-ment vs purification/purgation (word-logic matters)
00:19:12 Invite: the Lamb of the Free study group on On This Rock
00:21:24 Genesis Marks the Spot: death, child birth, sacred space, exile, Sabbath
00:25:25 Genesis as “proto” + why Leviticus becomes essential
00:26:12 Two binaries: holy/common and pure/impure
00:31:07 Ritual vs moral impurity: helpful distinction, messy taxonomy
00:34:31 “Death logic” (Milgrom), chaos/order, and why impurity matters
00:40:14 Childbirth, blood, and why “death” gets linked to impurity
00:44:45 Apocalypse: what it is (and isn’t) + why genre matters
00:54:58 Eschatology reflections: prophecy vs apocalypse
00:59:19 Demonic impurity beyond 1 Enoch: demons, bodies, exorcism, and kingdom signs