‘…Nothing is in Itself Unclean’: Hospitality and Paul’s Discussion of Koinos and Katharos in Romans 14.1-15.13

In recent discussions about Paul’s stance concerning the Torah it has been argued that the references to clean/unclean in Rom 14.14, 20 are clear indications that he actually no longer adheres to the Jewish regulations concerning these distinctions, ( and thus considers the role of the law as having come to an end in Christ). It has further been argued that the apostle only advocates tolerance in relation to those Christ-followers who have not yet come to terms with freedom from the law in Christ. Moreover, this is considered to be for a limited period of time until they too have overcome their reservations, and joined the ‘strong in faith’ in their law-free practice of ‘eating everything’. Such readings presuppose that Paul’s statements are repudiations of Jewish perceptions of purity, ‘clean’ and ‘unclean’, and the commandments related to these distinctions. However, it will be argued in this paper that if Paul’s statements are read in the context of a) purity concerns in the Graeco-Roman world generally, and b)Jewish perceptions of koinon and kathara in particular, a different image emerges. Issues concerning purity are not a peculiarity of Judaism but common around the Mediterranean in the first century CE; thus to discuss such issues must have sounded normal in the ears of any first century person. Far from repudiating Jewish distinctions between koinon and kathara Paul affirms Jewish perceptions concerning these. These are rooted not in some natural quality or essence or defect of the item under discussion, but in God’s Torah. Thus the distinctions are relevant for those to whom the Torah is given, that is, Jews, but, consistent with Paul’s stance elsewhere, not for gentiles. It is not these distinctions which cause dissensions in Rome. At the heart of these lies a failure to recognize that differences are neither ridiculous (Petronius), a sign of antagonism, nor an issue for competitive boasting. Rather than being viewed as obstacles they should be seen as constitutive of the body of Christ.