Leviticus 11-15: Alms for an ex-leper?

Summary:  God lays out rules on:

• what animals can be eaten, and which are unclean
• purification rules for post-childbirth
• how to handle leprosy (unclear, may actually mean some other infection)
• ritual cleansing concerning sex and menstruation

Thoughts:  This is the section that lays out the basic rules of keeping kosher, and for the allegedly witty observation that God hates shellfish.  I mean, yes, these rules make no sense from a logical standpoint.  But it also makes no sense to say that Christians-even Biblical literalists-are wrong for not following these rules.  Jesus pretty explicitly rebuked the old Jewish laws, so non-Jews don't need to pay any attention to this.  On the other hand, that also makes the fundamentalist obsession with the Ten Commandments, for example, pretty silly.  Anywho, much more on that when we get to the New Testament.

The rules on childbirth and menstruations are pretty sexist, but this is fairly early for any feminist consciousness raising.

Great quotes:  And he that owneth the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, It seemeth to me there is as it were a plague in the house. (Lev 14:35)  I don't know, that "as it were" kills me.

Comments

[buzz]

When I write up legal documents, I try not to be so specific, because then the document is not flexible inteh future. Here, you see a bad example. YOu have to take lepers to Aaron, who presumably wouldn't live forever. And there is a very specific procedure to follow. No room for improving the process here, is there?

One of the inconsistencies that makes me scratch my head: Tortises are unclean, as "crawling things." When a woman bears a child, she is supposed to bring a lamb to sacrifice. But if she is unable to get a lamb, she can bring two turtles.

Now, did the writer intend to say that tortises are bad, but turtles are OK? Because that seems like splitting hairs to me. Or is sacrifice an exception -- turtles are unclean, their carcasses are unclean, except: (i) when you are taking it for a post-childbirth sacrifice; (ii) when its in a well or spring with a lot of water; ...

Oh, the Israelites could eat grasshoppers and locust, but not shrimp?

I didn't look at any annotations, but doesn't part of Chapter 15 talk about VD? The issue from a man...man's seed of copulation...issue from a woman...woman's flowers upon a man...if the woman has problems with her issue, everything she sits on is unclean.... I know menstration is in here, but I thought that it covered VD as well, since it brought the man into play.

Actually, I think this is one of Sam Brownback's platform planks -- seven days of separation from women during their cycle.

[FS]

Far be it from me to defend the Bible as logical, but Leviticus offers a turtledove as a low cost sacrificial alternative. A turtledove is a bird.

Regarding grasshoppers, the OBC says that most of these rules seem to post hoc rationalizations of already current taboos. I'd say the reason it's okay to eat grasshoppers is because they already did (and that probably because they were all over the darn place).

Yeah, 15 is sexual fluids of all sorts, normal or otherwise.

[buzz]

I was going by Lev. 12:8, which (on the KJV you link to) says:

And if she be not able to bring a lamb, then she shall bring two turtles, or two young pigeons; the one for the burnt offering, and the other for a sin offering: and the priest shall make an atonement for her, and she shall be clean.

But yeah, turtleDOVE does seem to fit with the rest of the process. So I'll count that as an error.