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)

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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 Why hermeneutics matters (not talking past each other)
00:06:03 Ritual & baptism recap; the big question: purity or holiness first?
00:09:28 A Christological lens: setting the stage
00:10:40 Christocentric reading (arrows radiating back)
00:15:06 Christotelic reading (arrows moving forward to Jesus)
00:17:26 Case study: purification as our test-bed
00:20:51 Is Leviticus a sin-management system? Rethinking assumptions
00:24:34 What is holiness? Modern conflations vs ancient otherness
00:27:07 Holiness as divine “set-apartness,” not mere moralism
00:30:41 Don’t import later ideas into earlier texts
00:33:31 Two axes: holy/common and clean/unclean (and the “powder-keg” mix)
00:36:33 Why purification precedes holiness; historical signals
00:39:04 Covenant first, cult second; Israel vs the ANE
00:43:41 Intuitive logic of purification; why it feels “obvious”
00:47:17 Word-study invites: pure, purge, refine; ritual vs ethical purity
00:50:45 Fire, water, and purging; future directions
00:53:01 Righteousness OT vs NT: behavior, justice, belonging
00:57:38 Bonus: Unseen Realm Expanded, frame semantics, and themes for October