How to Translate κοινός [koinos] and What Constitutes Its Opposite? The Purity and Impurity in Mark 7:15–23 and in Ancient Latin Translations

Abstract

The research of Andrzej Wypustek on ancient scatology demonstrates how the use of the terms purity and impurity employed in the Gospels differs from their understanding in common language of the Roman civilization. The New Testament concepts of purity and impurity had not only to be translated, but also exposed to the Latin reader as to what constitutes the essence of the content of Jesus’ teaching. The study of the Latin translation tradition of Mark’s Gospel is an important part of the interpretation of the text. In fact, St. Jerome’s interpretation contains a reinterpretation of the motive of (im)purity in the sense which is different from the ritualistic direction of Mark’s text.