RID YOURSELVES OF EVIL AND WICKEDNESS
By Fr. Felix (African Times Guest Writer)
The clash between the strict marriage-rules of
Judaism (Leviticus 18, largely adopted by
Christianity and even by non-Christian modern
society) and the much more relaxed gentile
world must have produced considerable
difficulty, especially in Jewish-Christian
communities which included a number of
gentiles.
Certainly there is mention in one classical
source of disapproval of the particular link here
condemned. But it was a world where a
Pharoah might marry his sister, and the
marriage of a son to the father’s second wife at
the father’s death might secure the woman’s
property rights for the family! Paul’s horror at
the transgression is no doubt intensified by the
general Jewish dislike of mixing (e.g. Leviticus
19.19; Deuteronomy 22.9-11).
The penalty of excommunication, either
permanent or temporary, for offences is
common enough in the Bible and in first-century
Jewish texts (e.g. Qumran). The purpose of
temporary excommunication is normally
remedial, as here.
The removal of all the old leaven is still an
important preparation for the Passover, or more
accurately for the Festival of Unleavened Bread
which coincides with it.
The Festival of Unleavened Bread occurred
originally at the beginning of the wheat-harvest,
so was a festival of renewal and freshness.
Yeast is a symbol of corruption and so had no
place there. Paul is here invoking the principle,
‘One rotten apple taints the whole barrel’.
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