PAUL AND THE RHETORIC OF REVERSAL: KERYGMATIC ...

As L. William Countryman points out, purity is a significant concern of the Torah, a concern
which includes, but is by no means limited to, sexual regulation:
The reader of the Torah can scarcely miss its intense concern with purity, and this
concern was one of the principal forces keeping Israel distinct from the Nations. 38
However, Klawans suggests an understanding of moral defilement as a metaphorical expansion
of the concept of impurity, and it would seem that this meaning is closest to Paul’s use of the
term in the contexts above:
The notion of “moral” defilement, as we and others have described it elsewhere,
concerns the idea that certain grave sins are so heinous that they defile. These acts–
often referred to as “abominations”… – include idolatry (e.g., Lev 19:3 1, 20:1-3),
sexual sins (e.g., Lev 18:24-30), and bloodshed (e.g., Num 35:33-34). They morally,
but not ritually, defile the sinner (Lev 18:24), the land of Israel (Lev 18:25; Ezek
36:17), and the sanctuary of God (Lev 20:3; Ezek 5:11). 39
Another conceptually similar term, “debauchery” (ἀσέλγεια), is, again, only used in the
“sin/sanctification” sections and catechetical lists mentioned above, along with one other vice
list (which perhaps follows a similar pattern, moving from bodily self-indulgence to
interpersonal strife) in Romans 13:13. 40
“Greed”/“the greedy” (πλεονεξία, πλεονέκτης) occurs in many of the same sections examined
above (and infrequently elsewhere), often next to ἀκαθαρσία or πορνεία. 41 The conceptually
38 L. William Countryman, Dirt, Greed, and Sex: Sexual Ethics in the New Testament and
Their Implications for Today (rev. ed.; Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 2007), 19.
39 Jonathan Klawans, “Pure Violence: Sacrifice and Defilement in Ancient Israel,” HTR 94/2
(2001): 133-155; 152-153; emphasis original.
40 The word occurs in Romans 13:13; 2 Corinthians 12:21; Galatians 5:19; Ephesians 4:19.
41 These words occurs in Romans 1:29; 1 Corinthians 5:10, 5:11, 6:10; 2 Corinthians 9:5 (in a
very different context); Ephesians 4:19, 5:3, 5:5; Colossians 3:5; 1 Thessalonians 2:5 (again, in
a contrasting context).
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