Leviticus 15

33 verses

The bodily discharge regulations address the ritual dimension of ordinary human bodily life, distinguishing between pathological discharges (which create extended impurity) and normal bodily functions (which create brief, self-resolving impurity). The man with an unusual discharge creates impurity for everything he touches, sits on, or lies on; anyone who contacts these objects requires cloth-washing and until-evening purification. When the discharge resolves, seven days of counting are followed by the two-bird restoration offering on the eighth day. The ordinary semen emission requires only personal bathing and until-evening impurity; sexual intercourse between a husband and wife creates the same brief impurity for both. The woman's regular menstrual period creates seven days of impurity, with the same contact-impurity system as the male unusual discharge; the unusual female discharge (beyond the regular period or at other times) creates extended impurity like the male unusual discharge, with the same seven-day counting period and two-bird restoration offering. Mark 5:25–34 records the woman with twelve years of this extended female discharge — twelve years of the impurity and social exclusion these regulations describe — reaching out to touch Jesus and receiving immediate healing.

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