Purity, Politics, and Parables: A Narratological and Exegetical Study on the Handwashing Conflict in Mark 7:1-23 Paperback – May 26, 2025

The Gospel of Mark contains one of the most enigmatic and debated passages within all of the New Testament where we read the (in)famous words "thus He declared all foods clean" (7:19). At the intersection of the Historical Jesus, biblical theology, interpretation and exegesis, and Second Temple Period Judaism, this saying with its surrounding material has captured the minds of scholars and readers since the very birth of the Church. In recent decades new interpretive approaches have been proposed which present a new way of reading the passage: not one of Jesus abrogating the purity laws outlined in the Hebrew Bible, but one which resonates and harmonizes with the contextual background the verse is canvassed against.In this study on Mark 7:1-23 from a narratological and exegetical approach, R. M. Bailey tackles what he calls "the handwashing conflict" and proposes a reading that situates Jesus's words not only in their immediate context, but within Mark's larger thematic narrative which bookends the conflict pericope itself. Drawing from an informed historical background of Second Temple Period Judaism and a close exegetical approach, Bailey examines Jesus's statements throughout Mark 7 from different vantagepoints which allow for a harmonizing understanding. Written from a pronomian perspective, Purity, Politics, and Parables argues that Jesus's words should not be read as nullifying the Law of God but actually using the principles found therein to provide parabolic halakhic sayings which both correct misunderstandings of purity and its transfer and His day as well as extending these principles to a robust, beautiful, and powerful moral application. Read more