Leviticus Study Notes - Purification (Chapter 12)

Israel was a society heavily influenced by the patriarchal customs
However, one aspect that makes Hebrew law and customs different from their neighbors is the high and holy status of women within its society

It may see at first that women didn't have a lot of rights but they were never subjugated to a status level below their dignity. In early Jewish society, they were a protected class to be honored, valued and respected

This makes sense because of the importance placed on women in bringing forth the Messiah (Genesis 3:15)

Leviticus treats the concept of sacrifice in three ways:
     1. Reason: Because man is sinful
     2. Rule: That the sacrificial offering is given as a substitute for man's debt
     3. Ritual: The ceremony of action which God has stipulated, to be carried out by humans in order to approach God

Ritual is what this chapter deals with, emphasizing a woman's value in presenting a sacrifice

Also, it deals with blood
Blood of sacrifices: life is in the blood
Later, it's essential to life (17:11) and a woman's monthly cycle is dealt with in 15:19-24

A discharge of blood would make you unclean, which acknowledges the importance of blood. A woman's uncleanness made it obvious that something momentous happened when she lost blood in childbirth

Gordon J. Whenham wrote, "A bleeding or discharging body lacks wholeness and is therefore unclean. Loss of blood can lead to death, the antithesis of normal, healthy living. Anyone losing blood is at least in danger of becoming less than perfect and therefore unclean. Thus, blood is at once the most effective ritual cleanser (the blood makes atonement, 17:11), and the most polluting substance when it is in the wrong place."

Verse 1 - In other ancient societies, priests of various idol sects would originate lass which governed childbirth. This law came from God

Verse 2 - "If a woman has conceived..." (NKJ) Translated, "If a woman conceive seed..." The force emphasizes that the birth process begins at conception. Therefore, the life begins at conception!

Verse 3 - Why the 8th day? "The presence of certain characteristics in the human blood (most notably vitamin K) are at their highest levels on the 8th day following birth. This suggests the male infant's ability for blood coagulation is at its greatest" at this time.

Why circumcision? Other cultures had rituals and rites of passage for males, why this? It was a very conscious separation between them and other people. Throughout the Bible, how are other people referred to? "Uncircumcised"

Circumcision was not simply a cultural initiation, nor was it a means to achieve just an ethnic separation. It had a much deeper spiritual significance.

First given to Abraham in Genesis 12
"Not only was it an act of initiation into the family of God but a symbolic representation that the physical means of presentation of the seed, which would ultimately bring forth the Messiah, was that which itself had been devoted to God and marked for service to the Divine." (Joseph Meador)

The need for physical circumcision ended with the coming of Christ. At that point, the emphasis on it takes on a deeper and more spiritual meaning

Colossians 2:11 (Entrance into the community of His people)
Romans 2:25-29
Philippians 3:3 "For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh"

Our minds, our hearts should be marked as a sign of devotion to God. The mind of a Christian should be just as discernible to other people as the physical mark would've been to the ancient people

Verse 5 - Why the longer period of uncleanness for having a girl? Not a matter of gender bias. Possibly because a daughter would be a future mother, again stressing the importance of the female. Also gave them twice as long to bond

Keep this in mind: medical reasons
Don DeWelt, "Hygienic-medicinal reasons for the strict laws of separation at childbirth immediately come to mind. A very high mortality rate at birth is almost always associated with contamination through contact. If the mother and child are isolated for 40 or certainly 80 days, the chances for survival are greatly increased."

Verses 6-8 - Purification offering
1. Ended the period of her purification
2. Allowed her to assemble with the congregation at the tabernacle

Could give a lamb or two turtledoves or two pigeons
See Mary in Luke 2:22-24

Leviticus Study Notes - Chapter 11 (Clean vs. Unclean)

This begins a new section of the book which continues through chapter 15. It seems to interrupt the narrative leaving chapter 10 which picks up again with 16.

While this chapter deals with foods and animals, 12 covers a mother's ritual cleanness after childbirth, 13 and 14 cover skin diseases and 15 deals with people unclean due to bodily discharges.

This is new material but it was previewed in 10:10
View these chapters as what the priests were to teach the Israelites to understand, "the clean and the unclean"

This chapter begins by specifying animals, which were clean and which were not
Then gives description of how people could become unclean and what to do when it happened
Concludes by noting the purpose of identifying clean animals. God defining what His people could and could not eat (11:46-47)

Clean and unclean animals goes back to the time of Noah (Genesis 7:2-3, 8; 8:20)

1. First few verses describe four legged animals. Two characteristics necessary for them to be used for food:
     a. Split hooves
     b. Chewed the cud
Allowed: Cattle, sheep, goats, gazelles, antelopes

Deuteronomy 14 is parallel to this chapter and specifies oxen, sheep, goats, deer, gazelles and roebucks (type of deer), goats, ibex (type of mountain goat), antelope and mountain sheep

Verse 5 - Rock hyrax: looks like a guinea pig. Although it looks like a rodent, it's a pachyderm...doesn't chew the cud

Verse 6 - The hare (rabbit): Doesn't really chew cut like cattle
"The text doesn't claim scientific precision; it simply makes it possible for an observer to know how to identify a clean animal."

Verse 8 - "You shall not" same absolute form as laws of the Ten Commandments. Notice touching an unclean animal if it was alive didn't make one unclean. If it had, horses, donkeys or camels couldn't have been used and ridden

2. Verses 9-12 deal with fish
Clean animals had to have two characteristics, so did fish
     a. Fins
     b. Scales
Eliminates shellfish: shrimp, crab, lobster, clams, mussels, oysters, scallops

You better know Acts 10 and 11 and Galatians 2!

3. Verses 13-19 deal with birds
Here, God didn't bother to give a list of what was clean or not, nor did He give reasons why some were clean and others weren't. He simply listed 20 kinds of unclean birds

What made them unclean? One common characteristic: they were meat eaters. Their diet consisted of other dead creatures

Four times this passage lists a bird then adds "in its kind" or "in its kinds" which communicates that all varieties of that bird should be regarded as unclean

Verse 19 - The bad: not a bird, it's a mammal. Of course it has a lot in common with birds. Again, not concerned about scientific exactness

4. Winged Insects Verses 20-23
Who would eat locusts? Matthew 3:4, John the Baptist "locusts and wild honey"
(Side note) R.K. Harrison in the Leviticus book of the Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries: "As a food, locusts have been eaten in the Near East for millennia. A royal banquet scene from the palace of Ashurbanipal (669-627 BC), the last great Assyrian king, depicted servants bringing locusts on sticks for the guests to eat."

Notice no penalty is given if they ate unclean foods. What would happen? Death like Nadab and Abihu? Most scholars believe that eating unclean foods made a person unclean. To be clean again, he'd have to follow the same procedures required if he became unclean by touching something unclean.

Verses 24-40 deal with uncleanness in people
Rules can be summed up:
     1. Touching a dead animal made you unclean
     2. The remedy was washing with water and allowing time to pass
     3. Dead animals contaminated things and the things contaminated had to be made clean. If this wasn't possible, they'd be destroyed

24-28: Contact with unclean animals
Touch it, wash yourself
Pick it up, also wash clothes
You'd be unclean until evening. Consequence: Can't enter the tabernacle area or give a sacrifice

29-38: Contact with unclean swarming animals and reptiles
Q: What if carcass fell in an oven or stove?
A: Destroy it (Verse 35)

Q: What if carcass fell into or touched a spring or cistern?
A: Didn't make it unclean, perhaps because over time water replenishes it (Verse 36)

Q: What if it touched a seed?
A: Seed was clean unless it was also touched by unclean water (verses 37-38)

The reason for these requirements (41-45)
First and last statements say the same thing. God gave the reason for the law in the middle statement twice, at the beginning and at the end

Also, perhaps avoiding practices connected to idolatry
         distinguish God's people from others
         promote general welfare of people