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PURIFICATION
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PURIFICATION , in the study of See also:comparative See also:religion, may be defined as the See also:expulsion or elimination by See also:ritual actions and ceremonies from an individual or a community, a See also:place or a dwelling, of the contagion of a See also:taboo (q.v.) or ritual pollution, which is often conceived of as due to the presence of or haunting by an unclean spirit, and having for its effect disease, See also:pain and See also:death. In the higher religions the See also:idea of purification has slowly See also:developed into that of ethical liberation from See also:sin and See also:guilt. This development involves a distinction between the outward See also:act and the inner act or See also:motive, which we do not find even in the relatively advanced codes of the See also:ancient See also:Jews or of the Athenians of the 5th See also:century B.C., for in both of these the taboo or guilt of See also:homicide was the same whether accidentally or wilfully committed. It is See also:part of this development that contrition, remorse and repentance come to be recognized, together with merely ritual acts, such as See also:baptism and sacra-See also:mental meals, as a See also:condition of regaining the lost purity or status. The ethical ideal of See also:atonement and purity of See also:heart is at last attained when, as in the Society of See also:Friends, all ritual acts are abandoned as indifferent to moral progress. The dross of the See also:primitive taboo still encumbers the See also:conscience in churches which insist on outward ritual performances as an See also:element in holiness or moral perfection and purity. The tendency of See also:civilization is more and more to antiquate them as obstacles rather than See also:aids to the formation of See also:character. In most primitive See also:societies the See also:chief See also:sources of ritual pollution are See also:birth, death, bloodshed, See also:blood, especially menstruous blood. Numberless other things are or have been taboo among different peoples, such as trees, See also:colours, foods and drinks, persons, places, seasons. Persons and things brought even involuntarily into See also:con-tact or association with these are tabooed, and only recover their normal condition by some rite of purification or catharsis. Such See also:rites operate by the transference elsewhere of the stain or impurity contracted. Very generally the impurity is due. to the haunting by an unclean spirit or See also:ghost, who must be driven off by exorcists invoking the name of a more powerful and clean spirit, which usually enters the thing or See also:person possessed in place of the unclean. On this See also:side rites of purification may become rites of See also:consecration. In See also:lower civilizations disease and madness are held to be caused by evil See also:spirits which are similarly expelled ; and on this side purificatory rites develop into the medical See also:art. It must be See also:borne in mind that a See also:drug was originally not a substance succeeding by dint of its chemical properties and See also:physical reactions on our bodies, but a See also:talisman or See also:charm taken internally and succeeding by See also:reason of its magical properties. Among the methods of purification used widely among different races and in various religions, the following may be enumerated, though the See also:list might be indefinitely extended. 1. Piacular sacrifices, often recurring annually, intended to renew the See also:life of the See also:god in the worshippers. " Without shedding of blood there is no remission of sins " (Heb. ix. 22). 2. Vicarious See also:sacrifice, whereby the guilt of an individual or of a See also:clan is transferred into an See also:animal, like the Jewish scapegoat, which is forthwith destroyed or sent over the frontier. 3. Washing or sprinkling with See also:water, as a See also:rule previously blessed or exorcised; or with the water of separation (i.e. water mixed with ashes of a red See also:heifer). 4. Washing with See also:gomez, or urine of the sacred cow. 5. See also:Anointing with See also:holy oil. 6. Smearing with the blood, e.g. of the See also:passover See also:lamb or of a See also:pig; or by actual baptism with the blood of an ox as in the See also:Taurobolium (see See also:MITHRAS). 7. See also:Fumigation with See also:smoke of See also:incense used at sacrifices, the incense itself being the See also:gum of a holy See also:tree and gathered with magical precautions. 8. Rubbing with See also:sulphur or other lyes. Use of See also:hellebore, See also:hyssop, &c. 9. Burning with See also:fire See also:objects in which the impurity has been confined. 10. Sprinkling with water in which the See also:cross has been washed (used for flocks and See also:fields in See also:Armenia). II. Evil spirits are expelled by invocation of the name of a being more powerful than they, and by the introduction of a clean spirit. 12. By See also:fasting. 13. In the old Parsee religion the drugs or demons which infect a See also:corpse can be driven off by the look of certain kinds of See also:dogs. 14. An impure contagion may be removable together with See also:hair, nails or bits of clothing. Hence the use of the See also:tonsure and the See also:custom of shaving the See also:head in vows. 15. Houses may be purged of evil spirits by sweeping them out and masquerading current at the See also:period of See also:Purim are directly derived with a See also:broom, or by many of the cathartic See also:media above enumerated for purification of the person. 16. By use of See also:salt. 17. By See also:celibacy, virginity and abstention from sexual intercourse. 18. By See also:confession or expulsion of the evil in speech. 19. By spitting and blowing the See also:nose in See also:order to evacuate devils harbouring in the head and See also:throat. 20. By spittle, as in the baptismal rite of the Latins. 21. By passing between fires or See also:jumping through fire. 22. By sitting or See also:standing on or wearing the fleece of a holy animal. 23. By beating and stinging with ants, by See also:branding, See also:tattooing, knocking out of See also:teeth. 24. By See also:circumcision and other more serious mutilations. In many of these rites the old See also:man contaminated in some way is put off and the mystic is reborn. This idea of rebirth is especially prominent in the blood-See also:bath of the Taurobolium (No. 6) and in See also:Christian baptism (q.v.); also in the initiatory rites of various savages who even make a pretence of killing their boys and bringing them back to life again. (F. C. C.) from the See also:general period of See also:licence allowed at the Sacaea festival of the Babylonian New See also:Year. Even the fact that this latter was celebrated on the first of Nisan, or a fortnight after the Jewish date for Purim, is confirmed by the See also:Book of See also:Esther itself, which states that " In the first See also:month, which is the month Nisan, they See also:cast Pur, that is, the See also:lot, before Haman " (Esther iii. 7-ix. 26). The See also:change of date may have been made in order not to conflict with the Passover on the 15th of Nisan. The connexion that has been suggested between the names of Mordecai and Esther and those of the See also:Assyrian deities See also:Marduk and See also:Ishtar would be a further strong See also:confirmation of the proposed See also:etymology and derivation of the feast (see ESTHER). Going still further, J. G. Frazer connects Purim with the whole See also:series of See also:spring festivals current in western See also:Asia, in which the old god of vegetation was put to death and a new human representative of him elected and allowed to have royal and divine rights, so as to See also:pro-mote the coming See also:harvest (See also:Golden Bough, 2nd. ed., vol. iii. p. 154 seq.). The death of the god, he suggests, is represented by the Fast of Esther on the 13th of Adar, the See also:day before Purim, while the rejoicing on Purim itself, and the licence accompanying it, recall the See also:union of the god and goddess of vegetation, of which he See also:sees traces in the relations of Mordecai and Esther. There may possibly be " survivals " of the See also:influence of some such celebrations both on the Book of Esther and on the ceremonies of Purim, but there is absolutely no See also:evidence that the Jews took over the See also:interpretation of these festivals with their celebration. Nor is there any See also:record of royal privileges attaching to any person at the period of Purim such as occurs in the festivals with which it is supposed to be connected by Frazer. His further See also:suggestion, therefore, that the ironical crowning of Jesus with the See also:crown of thorns and the inscription over the Cross, together with the selection of Barabbas, had anything to do with the feast of Purim, must be rejected. The connexion of the See also:Passion with the Passover rather than Purim would alone be sufficient to nullify the suggestion. However, it is practically certain, both from the etymology of the word Purim and from the resemblance of the festivals, that the feast, as represented in the Book of Esther, was borrowed from the Persians, who themselves appeared to have adapted it from the Babylonians. This is confirmed by the fact that the Book of Esther contains several See also:Persian words and shows throughout a familiarity with Persian conditions. This renders it impossible to accept See also:Haupt's suggestion that Purim is connected with the celebration of See also:Nicanor's Day, to celebrate the See also:triumph of Judas Maccabaeus over the Syrian general Nicanor at Adasa (161 B.c.) on the 13th of Adar, since this is the date of the Fast of Esther, and, besides, the Second Book of See also:Maccabees, which refers to Nicanor's Day, speaks of it as the day before Mordecai's Day (2 Macc. xvi. 36). If, as seems probable, the earlier See also:Greek version of the Book of Esther was made about 179 B.C. (Swete, Introduction of the Old Testament in Greek, p. 25), this suggestion of the connexion of Purim with the Maccabean period made by Haupt and, before him, by Willrich, falls to the ground. At the same See also:time it is difficult to understand why Jews in See also:Palestine and See also:Egypt should have accepted a purely Persian or Babylonian festival See also:long after they had ceased to be connected with the Persian See also:Empire. One can understand its See also:adoption during, or soon after, the reign of See also:Cyrus, whose policy was so favourable to the Jews, and it might easily have become as popular among them as See also:Christmas tends to become among See also:modern Jews. When the exiles returned from See also:Babylon they probably brought back with them the practice of keeping the festival. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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