Leviticus 12 · a question people ask
Was having a baby a sin?
The chapter never says so. It says she is "unclean" (12:2, 12:5), that she brings a burnt offering and "a sin offering" (12:6), and that the priest makes atonement, "and she shall be clean" (12:8). It names no sin she committed. Both readings below agree that bearing a child is no wrong: God "blessed them" and said, "Be fruitful, multiply" (Genesis 1:28), and "children are a heritage of the LORD" (Psalm 127:3). They read the sin offering here in two main ways.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
Cleansing from uncleanness
The chapter names no sin; it speaks of uncleanness and of being made clean (12:2, 12:5, 12:7-8). The same two offerings, a sin offering and a burnt offering, are brought when a woman is cleansed of a discharge (Leviticus 15:28-29), and there the atonement is "for the uncleanness of her discharge" (Leviticus 15:30). Leviticus also makes atonement for a house: "So shall he make atonement for the house; and it shall be clean" (Leviticus 14:53). On this reading, the offering brings her back to the holy things and the sanctuary she had to keep from (12:4); it isn't for a wrong in bearing a child.
Leviticus 12:4 · Leviticus 15:28-30 · Leviticus 14:53
A reminder of a fallen world
Some read the uncleanness of birth with the words God spoke to the woman after the first sin, "You will bear children in pain" (Genesis 3:16), and with the psalm, "Behold, I was born in iniquity. My mother conceived me in sin" (Psalm 51:5). On this reading, bearing a child isn't a wrong, but the sin offering after a birth points back to what followed the first sin (Genesis 3:16), and to the sin the psalmist traces to his own birth (Psalm 51:5).
Genesis 3:16 · Psalm 51:5
The verses
““Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘If a woman conceives, and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days; as in the days of her monthly period she shall be unclean.”
“God blessed them. God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.””
“Behold, children are a heritage of the LORD. The fruit of the womb is his reward.”