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Leviticus 15 · a question people ask

Is this chapter saying the body is sinful?

In the text

The chapter never calls any of these things a sin. For an emission or a woman's period (15:16-24) there is no offering at all. For an emission, he bathes and is unclean "until the evening" (15:16, 15:18); for her period, she is unclean "seven days" (15:19). Only a discharge that goes on (15:2-3, 15:25) ends with an offering. One of its two birds is "for a sin offering" (15:15), but the chapter names no wrong done. What it says is this: "The priest shall make atonement for him before the LORD for his discharge" (15:15), and "the priest shall make atonement for her before the LORD for the uncleanness of her discharge" (15:30). The chapter's own reason is the LORD's tabernacle (15:31), and Leviticus says that one who ate of the peace offerings "having his uncleanness on him" would "be cut off from his people" (Leviticus 7:20). When a discharge stops, the chapter gives the way back: "and shall be clean" (15:13), "and after that she shall be clean" (15:28). Genesis says of everything God made, the man and the woman among it (Genesis 1:27), "it was very good" (Genesis 1:31).

The verses

“but the soul who eats of the meat of the sacrifice of peace offerings that belongs to the LORD, having his uncleanness on him, that soul shall be cut off from his people.”
Leviticus 7:20 · World English Bible
“God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them.”
Genesis 1:27 · World English Bible
“God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. There was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.”
Genesis 1:31 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Leviticus 15

Leviticus 15: Until the evening

Leviticus 15 never calls the body's discharges sin. Most meant washing and waiting "until the evening" (15:5); one that went on ended with seven days and two birds on the eighth. Its reason is the LORD's "tabernacle that is among them" (15:31). And a woman with "a discharge of blood for twelve years" (Mark 5:25) touched Jesus and heard, "Daughter" (Mark 5:34).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions