Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Ray Clendenen" <rclende AT lifeway.com>]

Ray Clendenen@BSSBNOTES
05/09/2000 01:49 PM

Being the general editor of the New American Commentary, I just received on my
desk today the first copy of Mark Rooker's (OT/Hebrew prof, Southeastern 
Baptist
Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC) commentary in that series, which will 
be
available for purchase in bookstores within a few weeks. Here is answer to 
this
question. I hope it is helpful to you:

Much discussion has surrounded the reason for the different periods of
uncleanness which resulted after the birth of a son or a daughter. Common
explanations include: (1) females were understood in some since seen as 
inferior
to males [A variation of this position would be the fact that female infants 
are
smaller than males and thus would need a longer time of personal care from 
their
mothers in order to survive (Harris, 
?Leviticus,? 574)].    2) the longer amount
of time involved for the formation of the male and female embryo, 3) the fact
that the blood discharges after the birth of a female last longer or have
greater toxicity than they do after the birth of a male [D. I. Macht, ?A
Scientific Appreciation of Leviticus 12: 1-5,? JBL 52 (1933): 253-60.  Jenson
maintains that the attempt to find medical reasons behind these purity laws is
due to a modern imposition upon the biblical text (P. P. Jenson, Graded
Holiness: A Key to the Priestly Conception of the World, JSOT Supplement 
Series,
106 [Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1992], 75-76)].   and 4) the fact that women are
associated with the pains of childbearing that comes as the punishment for sin
[See W.C. Kaiser, Old Testament Ethics (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1983): 
286-87;
Hartley, Leviticus, 167-68; A. S. Hartom and M. D. Cassuto, "Leviticus," in
Torah, Prophets, Writings (Tel-Aviv: Yavneh, 1977), 39 [In Hebrew].]  With
regard to the uncleanness of the mother after the birth of the son being only
one week as opposed to two, the difference of this length of time may be found
in the text itself.  The length of uncleanness after the birth of a son is
interrupted by the command to carry out the circumcision on the eighth day
[Similarly, Calvin, Commentaries on the Last Book of Moses, 2:501.]  If the
mother were considered ceremonially unclean on the eighth day after the birth 
of
her son it would be conceivable that she would not be able to witness her own
son's circumcision.
     No consensus of interpretation has been reached regarding the greater
length of time for a woman to be purified from her bleeding after the birth 
of a
daughter.  Perhaps the best option is the one offered by Levine that the 
longer
period after the birth of a daughter would reflect the fact that the 
daughter's
own fertility and association with blood is anticipated. In addition the 
longer
time for purification for the daughter may be an intentional polemic against 
the
practices and viewpoints of the pagan religions of the ancient Near East.  By
excluding the mother from the tabernacle for a longer period after the birth 
of
a female, a distance is created between fertility and the worship of God.  
This
would communicate in strong terms that God is not at all subject to processes 
of
procreation as is the case of deities in pagan beliefs but he in fact is the 
one
who blesses with new life [Levine, Leviticus, 250.]  Longer periods of
uncleanness after the birth of a girl were also customary among the Greeks and
various African peoples including the Egyptians [Mact, ?A Scientific
Appreciation of Leviticus 12: 1-5,? 254-55.]