Clean, Unclean, and Holy

Today’s question is definitely interesting, if not something often discussed.

“What's up with the pooping is sin thing? I've always heard something about some scripture claiming pooping is against god or immoral or something along those lines. No idea what passage.”

This is obviously not something you hear about in Sunday school, or really in most church services for that matter. At first it seems like a silly question. How can pooping be a sin? Aren’t we reminded by a popular children’s book that everybody poops? Rather than brush this off however, I decided to dig into where this idea might have come from. There is one main section in the bible that is the most likely candidate.

“Designate a place outside the camp where you can go to relieve yourself. As part of your equipment have something to dig with, and when you relieve yourself, dig a hole and cover up your excrement. For the Lord your God moves about in your camp to protect you and to deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy, so that he will not see among you anything indecent and turn away from you.”- Deuteronomy 23:12-14

These verses come from the time when the Israelites were still living as a nomadic group in the wilderness. Setting aside any religious reasons, this seems like a pretty obvious command. If you need to go to the bathroom, do it outside of the camp. I wouldn’t want to step in your waste, do you think God would be happy about it?

The other most likely source for this question is the many laws about what is clean and unclean. These laws include things such as food, disease, bodily fluids, and dealing with dead bodies. The entire area of study is one that most people skip over. Christians often gloss over the clean and unclean laws because they don’t believe that these laws apply to them any longer. I’m not going to go into that line of thinking here, I have already covered it for those who are interested. I am instead going to focus on the terms themselves.

There are three words in the bible that are often misunderstood. These are clean, unclean, and holy. A common misconception is that something unclean is a sin. Though they are related, this is not entirely the case. On the other side, clean and holy are often taken to mean good or some variation thereof. This is also not the case.

I will start with the term holy, made popular in modern times by such things as cows and hand grenades. In biblical terms, holy means set apart. In this case set apart for God. Anything that is holy is only for the use or glory of God, and nothing else. Using something holy for anything other than its set aside purpose is a sin. There are many examples in the bible. Consequences of this misuse range from sickness, family troubles, or other curses, to instant death.

There are many things which are designated as holy. A place can be holy, such as the site of the burning bush in the story of Moses or the camp as mentioned in the verses above. An object can be holy, such as the Ark of the Covenant. Even a person can be holy, such as prophets, and people who have taken vows. This holiness may be permanent, or temporary (especially in the case of people).

Now the distinction for clean and unclean is a little harder. Someone can be unclean without being a bad person. Being unclean does not automatically mean you have sinned. Clean and unclean only apply when dealing with the presence of God. People were supposed to be clean before making sacrifices, visiting the temple, or being involved in any of the many rituals listed in the bible. Anything that was unclean could not come into the presence of God.

I like to compare it to an isolation room at a hospital, or a clean room at a tech company. When you are outside the room living your life, you are not a bad person. You might not be decontaminated enough to enter the clean rooms, but that doesn’t hinder your everyday life. If you need to enter one of these clean rooms though, then you must prepare yourself. A simple handwashing is not enough. The requirements to enter a clean room at a hospital or tech company are stringent.

As for what is designated as clean or unclean, many of the designations seem arbitrary at first. That is because we are looking at them from a human perspective. When you dig into the various distinctions and begin looking for deeper meaning, you start to find a pattern. Something that is unclean is often something that directly or indirectly represents the fall of man and man’s separation from God.

Death and anything surrounding it.

Disease and permanent injury.

Blood, the literal representation of life in a body

Birth and bodily fluids involved in the creation of life. This one seems odd at first, but childbirth was included in those things tainted by the fall.

And others.

Other things designated as unclean seem to be designed to set the Israelites apart from the cultures around them, in effect making the Israelites as a people holy. These include the dietary laws.

In the end, the clean and unclean laws are similar to the sacrificial laws in that they represent something beyond the simple act itself.

About the Author:

Stephen Mayo lives in Montana with his wife, daughter, corgi, and three cats.

You can keep in touch with him on Facebook and Twitter. Find more on his podcast A Side of Mayo. If you enjoyed reading this consider buying him a coffee or supporting him on Patreon.