Jesus and the Forces of Death
The Gospels' Portrayal of Ritual Impurity within First-Century Judaism

An excellent reexamination of Jesus' healing narratives, demonstrating that Jesus did not disregard Jewish law. Several of his healings focused on those suffering from ritual impurity caused by lepra, genital discharges, and death. Rather than set aside the ritual purity system, Jesus removed the so......more

Building upon the work of Jacob Milgrom and other OT scholars who have mapped Israel’s understanding of holiness, Matthew Thiessen explores various narratives from the Gospels where Jesus heals those with ritual impurity. The book is a helpful introduction to Jewish teachings about holiness, the pro......more

In “Jesus and the Forces of Death,” Thiessen’s guiding thesis is that the gospel authors depict Jesus as concerned with Jewish law observance. The Jesus of the gospels is thoroughly Jewish—and his ministry is not concerned with the abolishment of the biblical ritual system, contrary to popular conje......more

Matthew Thiessen managed to craft an engaging, novel, and approachable book that not only informs and stretches the imagination, but managed to bring me to new depths of awe-filled worship at the mission of the Holy One of God, Jesus the Messiah, who not only deals with the effects of pneumatic, rit......more

Readings of the Gospels which interpret Jesus’s healings as violations of Levitical purity law—the result of a widely held notion that his ministry was characterized by Christian “grace” in opposition to Jewish “legalism”—are shown to be exegetically unwarranted. Engaging and concise.......more