Page 71 - Pentateuch

pigs in their worship, so pigs were unclean for Israel. Yet cattle, permissible to eat for Israel, were used in
Egyptian worship.

2. Other scholars propose a health reason behind these laws. Breaking any of the instructions would
damage one’s body in some way. Skin diseases, for example, could spread to others and cause hardship for
many in the community. But the same situations existed in the day of Jesus. He had no refrigerator, yet we
find him disregarding these laws for the church.

3. Another suggestion highlights ethics. Warnings are intended to guide us in our relationships with other
people. A woman is in a vulnerable condition after giving birth. Being declared unclean is actually a
protection for her from mistreatment. Certainly, some of the distinctions are ethically connected, but it is
difficult to understand many in this way.

4. A newer suggestion seems to focus on the fine distinctions required of people to separate clean from
unclean. God is once again training his people, refining their thought processes. By asking them to discern
between fabrics with mold, he is exercising their capability to discern also between people who are
committed to God and people who are not. The discernment is, of course, directed at oneself as well as
others. This suggestion seems too distant from the setting of a given law. How does looking at a reddish-
white sore on the bald head of a man sharpen one’s understanding of sin and sinners?

It is probably best to see all of these options operating in the laws about clean and unclean. Some laws can
be traced back to the reasons behind them. Some cannot. Throughout the law, Israel was called to be holy
or separate in all of these ways. They were not to follow other religions in practice. They were to be careful
of their bodies. They were to treat one another with love. They were to think thoroughly about the causes
and cures of sin.

Some basic definitions might help at this point. The condition of anything can be identified in three ways:
holy, common/clean, and unclean. Certain items are reserved for God. Most of the rest is for daily life.
Some things are fairly useless and need to be avoided. Status can change depending on how a person
approaches an item. Terms like “cleanse” or “sanctify” and “profane” or “pollute” describe these changes.
Movement can go in either direction. Some common items could become holy. Some common items could
become unclean. Cleanness is the normal condition of most things in life. Nothing could make the profane
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into the holy, unless the item or person started as common and has been polluted in some way.

The issue of being clean and unclean reminds us of the taint of sin
throughout life. Every single aspect of our daily activity has been
touched by sin. Romans 8:20-23 expresses the principle in more
theological terms. “The creation was subjected to frustration (v. 20).”
“The creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay (v. 21).”
“The whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth (v.
22).” God told Adam about work being “painful toil” and the ground
producing “thorns and thistles” (Gen. 3:17-18). Eve also heard about
“pains in childbearing (3:16). Life is lived against a background of the
effects of sin, even in the physical world.

Some animals are not good to eat. The “natural” processes of childbirth, while bringing the miraculous gift
of a child, also involve sin. Adam and Eve had no skin defects in Eden. Had they built a house, it would never

83 Wenham, Leviticus, pp. 18-25. Further information can be found in Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, ed.,
Harris, Archer, & Waltke, in the articles “clean” and “unclean”.
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