Bible Review

See Sanders’s lucid discussion, Judaism: Practice and Belief 63 B.C.E.-66 C.E., pp.72–76. He writes: “Whatever it was about Gentiles that had to be kept away from the holier areas, it threatened the temple’s sanctity, and the purity of worshippers, less than did Jewish menstrual blood” (p. 75).

See Romans 1:8–31, referring specifically to Gentile culture; compare the similar list in Galatians 5:19–21 and 1 Corinthians 6:9–11.

Douglas, In the Wilderness, p. 25.

Borg, Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, p. 64, n. 20.

Borg, Jesus in Contemporary Scholarship, p. 109.

Borg, Jesus in Contemporary Scholarship, p. 109.

Borg, Jesus in Contemporary Scholarship, pp. 102, 110.

For a fascinating review of the whole legal tangle, see G. Alon, “The Levitical Uncleanness of Gentiles,” Jews and Judaism in the Classical World (Jerusalem: The Magnes Press, 1977), pp. 146–189; his discussion of Niddah and Gentile blood is found on p. 154f. For more information on the same issue and tractate, see Sanders, Jewish Law from Jesus to the Mishnah, p. 156.