Matthew Thiessen has written an excellent book on the Gospels’ presentation of Jesus and the priestly purity system. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to study Jesus and the Gospels in their cultural context. Also, the reader gets a solid survey of the purity system as explained by Jacob Milgrom and to some extent, Jonathan Klawans, so it’s a real two-for-one. His argument that the “Jesus of the Gospels only makes sense in light of, in the context of, and in agreement with priestly concerns about purity and impurity documented in Leviticus and other Old Testament texts” (8) is situated within the larger goal of demonstrating that Jesus “really was that Jewish” (2). Thiessen contextualizes his work within larger academic and ecclesial frameworks that either a) mistakenly conceptualize Judaism as a dead religion from which Jesus’ love and spontaneity liberated humankind (Thiessen cites Adolf von Harnack) or b) rightly affirm Jesus’ Jewishness, but then wrongly deny the latter its probable, historical, cultural content (citing N.T. Wright and American pastor, Andy Stanley). Against the position articulated by von Harnack and others, Thiessen argues (rightly and successfully, in my view) that Judaism is not a cold, legalistic religion, and that Jesus did not liberate his disciples from it through abrogation of law-keeping. He then positions himself against other Jesus scholars (e.g. N.T. Wright, Dominic Crossan, Marcus Borg) by agreeing with their claim that Jesus was Jewish, but then deviating from some of their conclusions by demonstrating that a definitive aspect of that Jewishness was precisely Jesus’ conformity to the priestly purity system, a system that many contemporary scholars view as the foil to Jesus’ concerns. Rather, Thiessen argues, understanding Israel’s purity system and how Jesus’ activity was motivated by concerns for preserving that purity, is essential to understanding the Gospels’ portrayal of the person and work of Jesus.After surveying the extensive work of Jacob Milgrom, who argues that the sacrifices had as their goal the maintenance of the presence of God among Israel, itself accomplished by maintaining the sanctity and purity of the temple and the people through God-ordained legal/ritual observances, Thiessen demonstrates the importance of such concerns for an understanding of Jesus’ activity. Important to Thiessen’s reading is Milgrom’s notion that impurity symbolizes, and is indicative of, death. Citing some OT, 2TJ, and rabbinic texts that support this theory, he consequently postulates that when Jesus is confronting impurity, he is confronting the forces of death (hence the book’s title).In the course of the book, Thiessen discusses Jesus’ interactions with those with lepra (≠ leprosy!), the woman with a prolonged discharge of blood, corpses, persons afflicted by “impure spirits,” and his healing activities on the Sabbath. Each chapter wades through relevant OT, 2TJ, Greco-Roman, and rabbinic evidence in support of his broader arguments, and as such, this book will reward readers desirous of detailed and historically grounded exegesis. The conclusion to the main text contains an insightful description of the purpose of the tabernacle/temple and how Jesus and the in-breaking Kingdom of God relate to it. It closes with an appendix on Jesus’ stance on the food laws, focusing on Mark 7.1-23. I predict readers will wish that his appendix were longer and that he had discussed Jesus’ prediction of the destruction of the temple, especially given the relationship between ritual purity and the temple, but I think what he has published will give the reader plenty to contemplate. This book is necessary reading for scholars of the Gospels (but really for the NT more broadly, as I think Paul stands in alignment with the Jesus depicted by Thiessen), and for teachers and preachers who want to deepen their understanding of the Jesus they announce.