This examination of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Letters of Paul finds
that, in both these bodies of literature, religious self-understanding
is expressed in terms of the concept of purity so important to primitive
religion and earlier Judaism. Dr Newton contradicts the view held by
most scholars that the traditional Jewish attitude to purity had no
place in Christianity. By using the concept of purity not unlike that at
Qumran or of Pharisaic and Rabbinic Judaism, Paul could elucidate his
views on, among other things, the nature of the Church, the divine
presence, the basis of ethical behaviour and the significance of the
death of Jesus.