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 behavior and the significance of the death of Jesus.