Matthew Thiessen: Jesus is Divinely Equipped to Deal with Ritual Impurity

Matthew Thiessen, Jesus and the Forces of Death: The Gospels Portrayal of Ritual Impurity within First-Century Judaism (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2020), 20.

The Gospel writers depict Jesus as being divinely equipped to deal with the actual sources of [ritual] impurity. Once the underlying conditions that create ritual impurity are removed, people are free to follow the simple steps that will remove the lingering ritual impurity…. The Jesus of the Gospels is the holy one of God, a man who embodies a contagious power or force that is opposed to and ultimately destroys the powers that create impurity and death.