One Year Bible, Monday, February 21st
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A big part of the Levitical law was separating the clean from the unclean. In the New Testament under the new covenant all things are made clean by the blood of Jesus.
1. Chapter 11 deals with the animal, fish, and insects which were unclean and they could not eat.
After 10 chapters of laws dealing with priests and sacrifices, “Here we come to the laws which touch the ordinary and everyday life of the people…. [God] is interested in every detail of their lives. He issues His commands as to what they may eat, and what they may not eat.” (Morgan)
The main reasons may be summarized as follows:
1. The clean animals were better for overall health. People today who eat kosher foods are shown to be healthier people.
2. It set the Jews apart from the Gentiles. As a nation they were set apart or, “holy unto the Lord”.
3. It gave them another chance to be obedient to the Lord under Moses and Aaron’s leadership
Chapter 12 deals with the purification of women after childbirth. Since some of these laws seem strange to us today. Let’s see what the biblical commentators have to say.
The woman was considered unclean after birth for seven days, and if the child was a boy he was circumcised on the 8th day in obedience to the covenant God made with Abraham. Circumcision was a way Jewish boys were set apart from the Gentiles. A lot of the uncleanliness of the woman was due to the blood associated with childbirth
“In the law of ancient Israel, blood had sacred associations. It was understood that the life of a being was in their blood (Genesis 9:4, Leviticus 17:11); loss of blood can mean the loss of life. The blood of menstruation made a woman ritually unclean (Leviticus 15:19-24). Even animals had to be bled in a certain way in sacrifice or slaughter. Since childbirth is always associated with blood, it makes sense that there was a special ritual purification after childbirth. “Because life is in the blood (17:11), the loss of blood required some purification to acknowledge the sanctity of life.” (Rooker)
The time of uncleanliness and the number of days for the purification of the mother when a daughter was born was double the amount of days. This seems a little odd. Why?
“The time period for each phase was double what was required when giving birth to a son. For the birth of a daughter, a woman was unclean for 14 days followed by 66 days. A mother of a female child received double of the ancient equivalent of maternity leave. (Rooker)
“It has also been suggested the longer period of time in connection with the birth of a girl was because girls are usually smaller at birth, and this would allow more time for the mother’s focused care and attention on the child. As well, since sons were more prized, the longer time at home for a mother with a newborn girl would force the family to bond more deeply, over a more extended period of time with the newborn girl.” (Guzik)
Today in Mark’s gospel there are two different instances of Jesus healing people. He healed Jairus’ (leader of the local synagogue) 12 year old daughter, who was dead when he arrived at his house
He also healed a woman who had been bleeding for 12 straight years. Given what we just explained in Leviticus, because of her blood she would have been considered unclean as well. So she was suffering from physical pain, emotional wounding, and social stigma. She had gone to the doctor many times and was out of money. Jesus was her last chance
As Jesus was walking along the woman grabbed Jesus’ robe and was instantly healed Jesus felt the power go out from him and could not figure out what happened until he spotted the woman in the crowd. Then he knew what had happened.
The woman had exhibited great faith, and Jesus commended her for it and told her to go in peace for her suffering was over.
Jesus’ next stop was the home of Jairus. On the way he was met by messengers saying it was no use in him coming, as she was already dead! But Jesus told them not to worry and she was not dead.
When he got there, there was a lot of commotion, but he only went in with three of his disciples (Peter, James, and John) and Jairus and his wife. When Jesus came into the house, he simply said the words, “Get up little girl!”, and she rose from the dead
In both cases Jesus tried to limit the amount of people seeing the miracle so that the crowds wouldn’t get any bigger. And in both cases either Jesus or someone else referred to the woman and the little girl as “daughter”. This signified how Jesus viewed both of these woman.
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