Leviticus 15

[Guest]

Hello,

I have a question regarding uncleanness in the Old Testament--specifically as found in Leviticus 15. My husband and I were reading it again recently. As a woman, the portions of this chapter specific to women stood out to me the most. My question is this:

Why did God consider women unclean during their monthly cycles and require a sin offering to make atonement afterwards? A woman's body is designed to work in having monthly cycles, and God designed it. According to Leviticus 15:30, a woman had to offer sacrifices (one as a burnt offering and one as a sin offering) to make atonement for herself after each monthly cycle. I understand doing something wrong to be considered unclean, and consequently requiring a sin offering. But I don't understand why God required a sin offering for something that isn't sin, but is simply a healthy bodily function that He designed. Does anyone have any thoughts on this that could help clear up my confusion?

Thanks,

Tonnie = )
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[Guest]

good question, and welcome!

i am curious as to whether Eve had a "monthly cycle" prior to the fall; my impression is that she did not but this is not based on anything.

i have always thought of the requirements you noted as having some symbolic purpose, although i am not exactly sure what this is.

OT scholars- help!!

TK

[Guest]

For what it is worth, some thoughts of mine on the matter:

The basic issue at hand involves the fertility cults of the region. Neighbors of the Israelites pursued religion that focused on human and agricultural fertility, and the attending rituals could involve temple prostitution. In order to hedge against this type of thing infecting the worship of God, the Torah stipulates that certain bodily secretions attendant to human fertility are unclean and (explicitly or implicitly) unfit for the environs of the sanctuary.

In Leviticus 15:31, we find the summary statement: "And you will separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness, and they will not die in their uncleanness, in making unclean my tabernacle which is amongst them." So this is the key issue at hand: the proper protocol for the sanctuary.


As to the matter of a sin offering - there are a number of possibilities.

On the one hand, it might not be necessary to see the sin offering as implying that the discharge itself (whether male or female, in this chapter) is sinful. Similar protocol is established in previous chapters for childbirth and "leprosy," neither of which would necessarily qualify as sinful by our understandings.

During the time of uncleanness brought about by these various conditions, the affected individual would have been barred from the sanctuary and unable to offer sacrifice. The sin offering could be seen as a normal part of re-entering the matrix of the sanctuary. It theoretically is possible, of course, that the individual might not have sinned in any way since their last sacrifice. Nevertheless, the offering of a sin sacrifice might be a reminder that one of the primary roles of the sanctuary ritual was to provide a venue for engaging sinfulness: I have been a sinner, and I have the capacity to sin again, and as such it is fruitful for me to participate in the ministry of the sanctuary, and not to allow my estrangement from it to continue. So although the condition which separated the individual from the sanctuary was not itself sin, their re-introduction to the sanctuary involves an acknowledgment of one's sinfulness, because that is one of the primary purposes of the sanctuary.

On the other hand, it may simply be that our understanding of "sin" differs from the semantic range of the Hebrew diction of the time.


Shalom,
Emmet

[Guest]

What do you make of this as a test for a woman's infidelity, in cases where a fit of jealousy comes upon her husband? Just make her drink polluted water which will normally make anyone very sick. But if she is innocent it won't hurt her!

NUMBERS 5:
11 ¶ And the LORD said to Moses,
12 "Say to the people of Israel, If any man’s wife goes astray and acts unfaithfully against him,
13 if a man lies with her carnally, and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband, and she is undetected though she has defiled herself, and there is no witness against her, since she was not taken in the act;
14 and if the spirit of jealousy comes upon him, and he is jealous of his wife who has defiled herself; or if the spirit of jealousy comes upon him, and he is jealous of his wife, though she has not defiled herself;
15 then the man shall bring his wife to the priest, and bring the offering required of her, a tenth of an ephah of barley meal; he shall pour no oil upon it and put no frankincense on it, for it is a cereal offering of jealousy, a cereal offering of remembrance, bringing iniquity to remembrance.
16 "And the priest shall bring her near, and set her before the LORD;
17 and the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel, and take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water.
18 And the priest shall set the woman before the LORD, and unbind the hair of the woman’s head, and place in her hands the cereal offering of remembrance, which is the cereal offering of jealousy. And in his hand the priest shall have the water of bitterness that brings the curse.
19 Then the priest shall make her take an oath, saying, ‘If no man has lain with you, and if you have not turned aside to uncleanness, while you were under your husband’s authority, be free from this water of bitterness that brings the curse.
20 But if you have gone astray, though you are under your husband’s authority, and if you have defiled yourself, and some man other than your husband has lain with you,
21 then’ (let the priest make the woman take the oath of the curse, and say to the woman) ‘the LORD make you an execration and an oath among your people, when the LORD makes your thigh fall away and your body swell;
22 may this water that brings the curse pass into your bowels and make your body swell and your thigh fall away.’ And the woman shall say, ‘Amen, Amen.’
23 "Then the priest shall write these curses in a book, and wash them off into the water of bitterness;
24 and he shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that brings the curse, and the water that brings the curse shall enter into her and cause bitter pain.
25 And the priest shall take the cereal offering of jealousy out of the woman’s hand, and shall wave the cereal offering before the LORD and bring it to the altar;
26 and the priest shall take a handful of the cereal offering, as its memorial portion, and burn it upon the altar, and afterward shall make the woman drink the water.
27 And when he has made her drink the water, then, if she has defiled herself and has acted unfaithfully against her husband, the water that brings the curse shall enter into her and cause bitter pain, and her body shall swell, and her thigh shall fall away, and the woman shall become an execration among her people.
28 But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, then she shall be free and shall conceive children.
29 "This is the law in cases of jealousy, when a wife, though under her husband’s authority, goes astray and defiles herself,
30 or when the spirit of jealousy comes upon a man and he is jealous of his wife; then he shall set the woman before the LORD, and the priest shall execute upon her all this law.
31 The man shall be free from iniquity, but the woman shall bear her iniquity."

[Guest]

Hello, Paidion,

Thank you for your posting.

What do you make of this as a test for a woman's infidelity, in cases where a fit of jealousy comes upon her husband? Just make her drink polluted water which will normally make anyone very sick. But if she is innocent it won't hurt her!

It seems eisegetical to describe the water in such terms. All we know is that the water has had some dust from the tabernacle mixed into it, and perhaps some ashes from the red heifer might be involved, though this is not explicated. It is not given that the quality or quantity of these substances would have any natural effect upon the woman's health. The ritual pronounces its own terms of curse or release, and these need not involve any processes aside from the intervention of God.


Shalom,
Emmet