Thanks! I apparently copied the wrong URL haha!
Stephen Hughes wrote:David I admire your astuteness
in noticing that "ritual impurity" includes πορνεία in the reasoning of that article. I don't, however, find it "strange" that πορνεία would be used of
ritual defilement / impurity in a very early Christian reference.
[...]
In other words, I don't find this to be a "very strange claim ..."
I do know what you describe, but I don't agree that it is relevant here, because the reason for staying away from "πορνεια" is primarily moral in nature and has nothing to do with ritual purity. For example Matt 5:32 says that "πορνεια" is the only valid reason for divorce. Sins of any kind will cause uncleanness, not just "πορνεια", so I don't see much reason to say that the reference to "πορνεια" in Acts is a matter of ritual impurity as described in the article. In any case I think that it is possible for Acts 15:20 to refer to four pollutions that stem from moral principles rather than considerations of ritual purity. I don't want to elaborate on that too much, since this is not the place for interpretation, but in short idolatry is insulting to the true God, strangling animals is a cruel way of killing them, blood is supposed to contain the life and is supposed to be poured out and not consumed, and of course "πορνεια" is one type of immorality. As for why those four and not others are mentioned, it could be because they are very common among non-Jews, but this is all just my speculation, so it would be better if someone knows some reference that shows that the Jews considered precisely these four things to be necessary for non-Jews based on ritual purity.