This thesis examines the meanings of purification practices and purity concepts in early Christian culture, as they were articulated and formed by Greek Christian authors of the first three centuries, from Paul to Origen. As purity and defilement are especially suited for articulating difference, hierarchy and change, these concepts were essential for early Christians, shaping their understanding of human nature, sin, history, and ritual. In parallel, the major Christian practices embodying difference and change, baptism, abstinence from food or sexual activity, were all understood, emoted and shaped as instances of purification. Two broad motivations, at some tension with each other, were at the basis of Christian purity discourse. The first was a substantive motivation: the creation and maintenance of anthropologies and ritual theories coherent with the theological principles of the new religion, and the integration of purity traditions and concepts into these worldviews and theories. The second was a polemic motivation: construction of Christian identity by laying claim to true purity while marking the purity practices and beliefs of others (Jews, pagan or “heretics”) as false. I trace the interplay of these factors through a close reading of second- and third-century Christian Greek authors discussing food abstentions, death defilement, sexuality and baptism, on the background of Greco-Roman and Jewish purity discourses. This thesis demonstrates three central arguments. First, purity and defilement are central concepts for understanding Christian cultures of the second and third centuries. Second, Christianities developed their own conceptions and practices of purity and purification, distinct from those current in contemporary and earlier Jewish and pagan cultures, though decisively influenced by them. Third, concepts and practices of purity and defilement were shifting and contentious, an arena for boundary-marking between Christians and others and between different Christian groups.

L’image que la littérature grecque donne des femmes est souvent négative et l’idéal féminin qui s’en dégage est celui d’une femme silencieuse et peu visible. Or, s’il est vrai que la femme a une place assez réduite dans la cité, elle joue néanmoins un rôle important par ses activités religieuses. L’étude, en s’attachant au facteur socialisant qu’est la pratique rituelle pour les femmes, a alors pour but de montrer le contrôle des rituels féminins par les hommes en confrontant la réglementation qui encadre les femmes à leur représentation littéraire. La recherche vise ainsi à délimiter la place des femmes dans l’espace sacré, en tentant de dégager leur rôle et les règles qu’elles doivent suivre (accès aux sanctuaires, funérailles, participation aux rituels) ; mais elle s’attache aussi aux magistratures religieuses féminines. C’est donc aussi la question de l’implication des femmes dans la cité, par leurs activités rituelles, les magistratures et l’évergétisme, et celle de la « citoyenneté » des femmes qui sont abordées. Un volume d’annexes regroupe le corpus des documents épigraphiques –textes et traductions– utilisés dans ce travail. / Greek literature often gives a pejorative image of women and presents an idealised woman whose qualities are silence and invisibility. If it is true that women had quite a reduced place in Greek city, nevertheless they played an important role through their religious activities. This study, which pays particular attention to the social implications of ritual practices, aims to examin the masculine control over feminine rituals by comparing the rules supervising women with their literary representation.The research intends to establish the woman's place in sacred locations and tries to outline their role and the rules they had to follow (access to sanctuaries, funerals, participation in rituals). It also focuses on religious feminine magistrates. It therefore also deals with the implication of women in cities through their citizenship, ritual activity, office and evergetism. A supplementary volume collects the corpus of epigraphic inscriptions, texts and translations used in this work.