Cleansed Lepers, Cleansed Hearts: Purity and Healing in Luke-Acts

Illnesses are perceived and understood differently across cultures and over time. Traditional interpretations of New Testament texts frame the affliction lepra (leprosy) as addressed either by ritual cleansing or miraculous healing. But as Pamela Shellberg shows, these interpretations are limited because they shift modern ideas of leprosy to a first-century context without regard for how the ancients themselves thought about lepra. Reading ancient medical texts, Shellberg describes how Luke might have perceived lepra and used the language of clean and unclean and demonstrates how Lukes first-century understandings shaped his report of Peters dream in Acts 10 as a warrant for Gentile inclusion.

For Luke, cleansing was how the favor of God announced by Isaiah was extended to Gentiles, and the stories of Jesus cleansing of leprous bodies in the Gospel are the pattern for the divine cleansing of Gentile hearts in Acts. Shellberg illuminates Lukes understanding of cleansing as one of his primary expressions of the means of Gods salvation and favor, breaking down and breaking through the distinctions between Jew and Gentile. Shellbergs conclusions take up the value of Lukes emphasis on the divine prerogative to declare things clean for discussions of inclusion and social distinction today.