RID YOURSELVES OF EVIL AND WICKEDNESS

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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