Clean/Unclean

Clean doesn’t just mean a person or food that has been washed! It also means something allowable under the law of Israel. Unclean refers to thoughts, acts, people, places, and foods that are displeasing to God.

God gave the people of Israel a list of the kinds of clean animals they could eat and the unclean ones they couldn’t eat (like pigs). Yet even clean animals could become unclean. An animal that died of natural causes or had been killed by another animal was considered unclean. After Jesus died and rose again, God sent a special vision to Peter to show him that all foods were now clean.

A person could become unclean for several reasons. Anyone who touched a dead person was unclean for seven days and had to go through special washings on the third and seventh days to become clean again. A woman who had a baby was unclean for a week or two weeks. To become clean, she had to offer a young pigeon or a turtledove as a sacrifice. Mary offered two doves after Jesus was born.