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Leviticus says that sex during menstruation creates ritual impurity that requires temporary cleansing. Ezekiel later describes it as a moral offense included with crimes deserving death, showing how categories of impurity and morality could overlap.
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Leviticus 15:19
Hebrew Bible
17 and he must wash in water any clothing or leather that has semen on it, and it will be unclean until evening. 18 As for a woman whom a man goes to bed with, then has a seminal emission, they must bathe in water and be unclean until evening. 19 “‘When a woman has a discharge and her discharge is blood from her body, she is to be in her menstruation seven days, and anyone who touches her will be unclean until evening. 20 Anything she lies on during her menstruation will be unclean, and anything she sits on will be unclean. 21 Anyone who touches her bed must wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening.
Date: 5th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
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Ezekiel 18:6
Hebrew Bible
5 “Suppose a man is righteous. He practices what is just and right; 6 does not eat pagan sacrifices on the mountains or pray to the idols of the house of Israel; does not defile his neighbor’s wife; does not approach a woman for marital relations during her period; 7 does not oppress anyone, but gives the debtor back whatever was given in pledge; does not commit robbery, but gives his bread to the hungry and clothes the naked; 8 does not engage in usury or charge interest, but refrains from wrongdoing; promotes true justice between men; 9 and follows my statutes and observes my regulations by carrying them out. That man is righteous; he will certainly live, declares the Sovereign Lord.
Date: 6th Century B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... From the Exile onwards some ‘ritual’ offences come to be treated as on a par with ‘moral’ ones even by prophets: this can be clearly seen in the list in Ezekiel 18 ... Sexual relations with a menstruating woman are a particularly interesting case, since in some places in the law they seem to incur ritual impurity (Leviticus 15:19–24), but in others are treated as a crime deserving the death penalty (Ezekiel 18:6, and perhaps implied in Leviticus 18:19; 20:18), so that we hardly know whether to classify the issue as one of morality or of ritual purity - another reminder that these two categories are mutually porous in the Old Testament. One can make other tentative alignments. The wisdom literature in general seems to belong with Deuteronomic/Deuteronomistic thinking where the ritual/moral contrast is concerned ..."
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