Crappy Bible Stories, Part 1: Bury Your Crap

Cleanliness and hygiene have always been an essential part of human civilization, but did you know that they also had deep cultural and religious significance in ancient Israel? I posted something about this on Facebook a little while ago, and it spawned the idea for a larger series of reflections that I've decided to call 'Crappy Bible Stories'. As we get started on this ten-part series, let's take a trip back in time to uncover the surprising commandment that specifically instructed the Israelites to bury their poop outside the camp for the sake of ceremonial cleanliness. We'll also see how Jesus' teachings frame the concept of cleanliness in a new way, shifting the focus from external rituals to inner purity. So, let's dive into this strange connection and discover whether it has any relevance for us today.

In ancient Israel, the concept of ceremonial cleanliness was deeply ingrained in the religious and cultural practices of the people. They believed that certain actions or conditions could render a person "unclean" and therefore ineligible for engaging in religious activities. These conditions ranged from physical ailments, such as skin diseases, to natural bodily functions like menstruation or even contact with the dead.

It's really important to understand that uncleanness was not as much of a moral judgement as we make it out to be today. I like to talk about it as 'Bronze Age Self-Isolation'. While the ancient Israelites didn't understand germ theory the way we do today, they certainly understood that there were some kinds of conditions that could be transmitted from one person to another. So communicable skin diseases (usually called 'leprosy', which could include what we know as 'Hansen's Disease' but not restricted to it) meant that those who showed symptoms had to remove themselves from society for the sake of the community. They might not have understood why dead bodies were linked to sickness, but they certainly understood that they were. Many of the Jewish laws around cleanness and uncleanness were attempts to prescribe how long it would take for a condition to be contagious, the way health authorities regulated self-isolation for those who got COVID-19. But I digress...

One of the lesser-known commandments related to ceremonial cleanliness is found in Deuteronomy 23:12-14. This commandment instructed the Israelites to bury their poop outside the camp. While it might appear to be a simple hygiene measure at first glance, it carried profound symbolic and spiritual significance. By disposing of their waste in a designated area away from their dwelling place, the Israelites demonstrated their commitment to cleanliness, communal health, and the respect they held for God's gift of the land. It was a way of honoring the sacredness of their environment and the importance of stewardship.

You shall have a designated area outside the camp to which you shall go. With your utensils you shall have a trowel; when you relieve yourself outside, you shall dig a hole with it and then cover up your excrement. Because the Lord your God travels along with your camp, to save you and to hand over your enemies to you, therefore your camp must be holy, so that he may not see anything indecent among you and turn away from you.

There's also a note of superstition to this, that's a little harder to wrap our modern heads around. The people are told to keep a little shovel on hand to bury their poop so that God wouldn't see anything indecent! Leaving aside the suggestion that an all-seeing, all-knowing God still knows that buried poop is still there, the reasoning behind this commandment is a bit peculiar. The Israelites understood that something unclean could pass its uncleanness to something clean. But they also understood that something holy could, in the right circumstances, transmit holiness to things that were clean. But what happens when something holy comes in contact with something unclean?

This is what they were particularly afraid of. Remember at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, when the Nazis opened the Ark of the Covenant and their faces melted away? Like that. The Old Testament is full of stories of people who presumed to touch or handle holy things when they were unclean, and the result was almost always the same. The power of God would 'break out' and destroy them. So another section of the Jewish purity laws were about keeping people safe from the awesome power of God.

This commandment in Deuteronomy has another twist, though. At this point in time, the people of Israel were wanderers in the wilderness, making their way to the Promised Land. One of the most important realities for them was the sense of trust that the God who had brought them out of slavery in Egypt was still travelling with them, symbolized by the presence of the Ark of the Covenant and the Tabernacle. The last thing they wanted to do was offend God with a filthy camp full of people pooping wherever they wanted. Even if it didn't lead to God's power 'breaking out' and destroying them, it could be equally disastrous to lose that divine protection in their midst.

Fast forward to the time of Jesus, and we find him engaging with the religious leaders of his day on matters of cleanliness and purity. In Matthew 15, some Pharisees criticized Jesus because his disciples ate without performing the traditional hand-washing ceremony. In response, Jesus challenges the focus from external rituals and shifts the conversation towards the inner condition of the heart.

Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.

Jesus's point is that true uncleanness doesn't comes from what enters the body but from what comes out of it—specifically, the intentions, thoughts, and actions that arise from within. He builds on a perfectly legitimate concern about external hygiene, and reminds the Pharisees that there are simple ways of dealing with this need: bury your poop, flush it down the toilet, wash your hands. The point is not that the disciples weren't burying their poop or washing their hands after going to the bathroom. Instead, Jesus reminds us all that this kind of external purity can be pretty useless if we don't prioritize inner purity, a state of the heart that aligns with God's will and expresses love, kindness, and compassion towards others.

The connection between the commandment to bury excrement and Jesus' teaching on inner purity may seem unexpected, but it offers a profound insight. They highlight the shift from an exclusive focus on external rituals to an emphasis on the internal transformation of individuals. In ancient Israel, ceremonial cleanliness was about preserving physical and ritual purity. However, Jesus invites his followers to go beyond outward appearances and embrace the transformative power of a pure heart. We can see a progression from an external, ritualistic approach to a deeper understanding of spiritual and moral purity. Jesus calls us to prioritize the state of our hearts and the intentions behind our actions, recognizing that true cleanliness stems from a genuine love for God and others.

There are valuable lessons from this connection. It reminds us that true spirituality goes beyond external rituals and rules; it touches the core of our being. Our actions should be rooted in love, compassion, and the sincere desire to honor God and care for our fellow human beings as we navigate our own spiritual journeys in today's wilderness places. So wash your hands, flush the toilet, but do so out of care and concern for other people, rather than for any sense of personal pride that comes from doing the right thing.