The second Douglas variable, the grid, refers to the degree of approval that people give to the symbol system imposed on them, its classifications, definitions and evaluations. People can experience a correspondence between their personal experience and the stated goals and values of the system, which is called a high grid. Or they sense a gap between the goals of the system and their experience, which gives it diminished approval, which is a low grid. The Sadducees, as guardians and representatives of the Jewish system of purity, experienced a strong correspondence between the goals of the system and their lives: they are described as a high grid. But other Jews do not seem to have fully accepted the articulation of the religion of Israel as transmitted by the Sadducees priesthoods. The Pharisees, for example, denied many aspects of the system, especially the claim that purity was only the business of priests; And so they tried to extend the system to non-priests, with themselves as their definers and spokesmen. In this conflict with the system, they represent a lower grid than the Sadducees. Mark, however, portrays Jesus as a Reformation figure who saw the system as in considerable need of reparation, as he questioned many basic classifications, definitions, and evaluations of the system. Since Jesus` degree of deviation from the main aspects of the system is greater than that of the Pharisees, His grid is proportionately lower. Jesus seems to be trying to reform the Judaism of his day by suggesting the dominant value of God as God`s free and unpredictable act of covenant election. He still worships the God of Israel and accepts the Word of God in Scripture (strong group), but he strongly challenges the classifications, definitions, and evaluations of the dominant articulation of the system (low grid). Jesus claims to have the true idea of God and the correct expression of it in the symbols of mercy, inclusion and election.

To the Sadducees and Pharisees, Jesus appears as an outsider who is completely out of the system. But Jesus and his disciples would claim to be reformers of the system. The Sadducees and Pharisees would conclude that Jesus had no system of purity because He did not fully share their system; but Jesus and his disciples would categorically claim to have a real system, which is the reformed and authentic system that is really given in the Scriptures. But the two contradictory views of Judaism will clash in terms of degree of particularity, or inclusiveness. According to Douglas` model, these are lattice differences, not group differences. We moderns like to think that we have overcome all these primitive taboos, but modern society, philosophy and culture are in many ways motivated by a quest for purity. The aim of much of modern philosophy has been to isolate a domain of pure reason that is not tainted by the uncertainties of language, history, and religion. Modern politics is based on the imperative to avoid “mixing” religion and politics, church and state. Modern urban design pursues geometric clarity and cleanliness and resists the organic mess of ancient and medieval cities. We lock the sick and dying in hospitals, even if they are not contagious.

What for? However, if you simply dismiss these rules as childish, you are missing out on some important features of these rules. An educator does not care about children to keep them in a permanent childhood. He directs children until they are able to guide themselves. And that, Paul says, was the purpose of the law. The purpose of the Torah was to prepare Israel for the coming of the Messiah. Mary Douglas`s “idea of purity” refers to the systematic structures, classifications, and evaluations that shape social groups. “There is a place for everything and everything in its place” – a saying applicable to people, places, times, things, etc. What is “in place” is pure, what is not is pollution. In Mark, Jesus seems out of place most of the time, dealing with people he should avoid, doing unconventional things, and ignoring customs about places and times. While presenting Jesus as challenging the Jewish system of purity, Mark also describes him as a reformer in favor of other core values. He is “the Holy One” and God`s agent of reform: he is empowered to cross borders and blur classifications as a strategy for a more inclusive Reformed covenant community than the sectarian synagogue.

As God`s agent of holiness, Jesus makes sinners holy and the sick heal. Nevertheless, he drew clear boundaries between those in his group and those who were not and established distinctive criteria for membership and exclusion from the Reformed Federal Communion. a “holy” priest who has perfect bloodlines, who is in perfect physical condition and who is in a state of purity; The external borders that distinguish Jews from other peoples at the time of Jesus can be clearly identified. We all know the Jewish insistence on 1) kosher diet, 2) circumcision, and 3) Sabbath observance. Jews could be identified by special moments (Sabbath), special things (diet), and special physical characteristics (circumcision). These three customs serve as lines because they distinguish Jews from non-Jews. They indicate who is “in” the covenant group and who is “outside.” By making these things important, Jews reinforced their own group identity and constructed the boundaries that distinguished them from non-Jews (see Lev. 20:24–26).

Outsiders regularly regarded Jews as unsociable and antisocial because of these customs, recognizing them for what they are, the limitations of a map (Smallwood: 123). This map is very important. Since you can and should know your purity rating at any time (see impurity maps, m. Kelim 1.3-5, above), you need a code to classify people so you know where they are in the system. We have seen that understanding the idea of purity is important to understand Mark`s representation of Jesus and the Christian community. To repeat it a third time, it would simply be wrong to say that Mark rejects the purity system simply because it represents Jesus without observing or challenging certain rules of purity. Rather, Mark portrays Jesus according to a reformed idea of purity, in which lines are drawn anew and boundaries are loosened. Douglas` group/grid model allows us to locate Jesus` fundamental loyalty to the God of Israel and His Scriptures (strong group) while considering Jesus` Reformation propositions on God`s mercy and how this structures a more inclusive group with a lower purity system that is less particularistic than that of first-century traditional Judaism (weak grid).

Mark, a pagan who writes for a pagan church, portrays Jesus as the rightful prophet of the Reformation who challenges the classifications, definitions, and evaluations of a system that desperately needs to be corrected. Jesus` reforms, in turn, legitimize Mark and his church as genuine worshippers of the one true God, but according to a system, structure, and strategy that differs from the mainstream of Judaism.