Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 12:6-8

6 And when the days of her purifying are fulfilled, for a son, or for a daughter, she shall bring a lamb of the first year for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon, or a turtledove, for a sin offering, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, unto the priest:

7 Who shall offer it before the Lord, and make an atonement for her; and she shall be cleansed from the issue of her blood. This is the law for her that hath born a male or a female.

8 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.

Yesterday I started examining the purification rites surrounding childbirth and discussed why I don’t think they are so shameful as some assume. Certainly, a shameful interpretation can be read into these verses, but it is a personal choice to do so. It is also possible to see no shame in the event, only an acknowledgement of the inherent gravity and mortality in birth. I explained what such a perspective looks like for the purification period of a mother in yesterday’s study, and now we will do the same for the sin and burnt offerings described in today’s verses.

Whether the child was a son or a daughter, the offerings were both a sin offering and a burnt offering. As we have already seen, a sin offering was meant for the absolution of sin, and a burnt offering was about dedicating one’s life to God and His purposes. The burnt offering is not controversial, but many have taken the need for a sin offering at birth as meaning that a child is born sinful; conceived by a sinful act, issued forth in a sinful state. But I don’t believe that view is necessary. I believe this ritual could be pointing to the common curse of mortality, without reflecting on the individual moral guilt of the child.

It is certainly a fact that we live in a fallen world. We all experience tragedy, we all experience suffering, and we all experience death. Every one of us is doomed by this fate and need to be saved from it via resurrection. Separate from this, though, is our own individual guilt when we commit our own sins. Sins where we had a knowledge of good but choosing to do evil. Thus, we have a universal mortal demise, and we have a personal spiritual demise, each of which must be overcome in Christ.

I believe the sin offering for an Israelite child’s birth was to acknowledge that the mother had brought her child into this universal, mortal, deathly reality, and that grim fate could only be overcome by the sacrifice of a lamb. This sacrifice is symbolic of Christ’s promise that his death and resurrection will conquer the tomb for all of us. Whether that resurrection will also redeem us from personal sin depends on whether we seek his forgiveness and enter into his covenant, but redemption from death, at least, is guaranteed.

So, it is true that there is a deep gravity to the fallen state into which we are born, but I don’t hold that we are also born in sin. We are born into the consequences of Adam and Eve’s transgression, but not into the guilt of their transgression. We only become guilty when we personally disobey. And in both cases, mortal death and spiritual sin, the sacrifice of the lamb shall overcome.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 12:1-5

1 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

2 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a woman have conceived seed, and born a man child: then she shall be unclean seven days; according to the days of the separation for her infirmity shall she be unclean.

3 And in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.

4 And she shall then continue in the blood of her purifying three and thirty days; she shall touch no hallowed thing, nor come into the sanctuary, until the days of her purifying be fulfilled.

5 But if she bear a maid child, then she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her separation: and she shall continue in the blood of her purifying threescore and six days.

This chapter speaks about childbirth, and how the mother would go through a purifying period before participating in regular tabernacle ceremonies. These passages have been used as evidence by some that the Mosaic Law treated women and childbirth as shameful, given the use of terms like “unclean” and the requirement of a “sin” offering. And this has not only been the argument of those antagonistic to Christianity. Even believers have used passages such as these to suggest that we are born in sin, shameful from our very beginning, and that sex acts are inherently vile.

While I can see where such interpretations are coming from, I feel that they are unnecessarily negative. It would be very helpful to know how ancient Israelites felt about these requirements, and whether they felt ashamed of them. We do not have that information, so we must be careful to not assume how they must have felt about these requirements.

On the matter of uncleanliness, I wish to point out that unclean is not one and the same as guilty or evil. There were many things that could make one unclean, including things that a person would have no willful agency over. A man having a nighttime emission was unclean for a time. A man stumbling over the corpse of a pig was unclean for a time. It is more accurate to think of uncleanliness as the spiritual equivalent to getting mud on our clothes. Getting muddy is nothing for us to be ashamed of. Sometimes it just happens, and we are not lesser people because of it. And yet, while we are muddy, we still keep distant from formal functions, public events, and clean places. We know we have to take a bath and wash ourselves before we go to these sorts of places because there is just too much earth on us.

Being unclean in the Old Testament seems to be the same, but in the realm of the spirit. The things that make one unclean are do not need to be shameful or guilty, they just happen to leave too much “earth” on us. They are things that mark us with the residue of the mortal world. Given that perspective, it is hard to think of anything so mortal as giving birth, and it makes sense that that would therefore make one ritually, but not morally, unclean.

Not only does birth involve the bringing forth of a mortal soul, but as verse 5 specifically calls out, it involves a considerable discharge of mortal blood. Many have noted that the purifying period is doubled when having an infant girl, and that this is likely due to the fact that this act of childbirth is inseparably connected to the female sex. The bringing forth of another woman means bringing forth another vessel of mortality. It is both issue and future issue all in one, so two purification cycles.

In tomorrow’s verses we will hear about the offerings that would accompany a new child’s birth, including a sin offering. In that post I will address why I think this offering is also not so shameful as some seem to think.