OT Purity Laws: Women’s Uncleanliness in the Bible Explained
Recently, I had a friend of mine tell me that she was confused about why the Old Testament was so harsh on women. When I hear a misunderstanding like this, I can almost always assume they’re referencing passages in Leviticus. In this case, it would be in Leviticus 12 and 15, which reference a women’s uncleanliness due to her menstrual cycle, or childbirth. If you don’t understand the context of these passages, it doesn’t seem fair that God would have a woman be sent away or declared ‘unclean’ by those she was in community with for bodily functions that he designed. It appears that women are seen as ‘less than’.
While I’ve been able to answer this question and address people’s concerns with these passages in person, I thought it would be fun to dig in and do a post on this to show how the assumption that women are called ‘unclean’ because they are viewed as lesser members of society would be a misunderstanding of the Bible. Let’s take a look at one of the passages in question.
19 “‘When a woman has her regular flow of blood, the impurity of her monthly period will last seven days, and anyone who touches her will be unclean till evening. 20 “‘Anything she lies on during her period will be unclean, and anything she sits on will be unclean. 21 Anyone who touches her bed will be unclean; they must wash their clothes and bathe with water, and they will be unclean till evening. 22 Anyone who touches anything she sits on will be unclean; they must wash their clothes and bathe with water, and they will be unclean till evening. 23 Whether it is the bed or anything she was sitting on, when anyone touches it, they will be unclean till evening. 24 “‘If a man has sexual relations with her and her monthly flow touches him, he will be unclean for seven days; any bed he lies on will be unclean. 25 “‘When a woman has a discharge of blood for many days at a time other than her monthly period or has a discharge that continues beyond her period, she will be unclean as long as she has the discharge, just as in the days of her period. 26 Any bed she lies on while her discharge continues will be unclean, as is her bed during her monthly period, and anything she sits on will be unclean, as during her period. 27 Anyone who touches them will be unclean; they must wash their clothes and bathe with water, and they will be unclean till evening. 28 “‘When she is cleansed from her discharge, she must count off seven days, and after that she will be ceremonially clean. 29 On the eighth day she must take two doves or two young pigeons and bring them to the priest at the entrance to the tent of meeting. 30 The priest is to sacrifice one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering. In this way he will make atonement for her before the Lord for the uncleanness of her discharge.
One of the first things you have to consider when reading the Bible is the cultural context, or the people in which the passage is referencing. What were they like? What was their culture? Their customs and understandings are a lot different than what we have today. In this case, what we see in the Leviticus passages is an example of Jewish ceremonial law. We see two types of law in the Bible, one being moral law (this would be things like, don’t steal, don’t kill people, don’t flip people off on the highway), which we would still follow and honor today, and the second being ceremonial law. Ceremonial law is also where the rules about mixing different fabrics, trimming your beard a certain way, and other “strange” customs that you might have wondered about come from as well.
Ceremonial law taught the Jewish people how to be set apart from the rest of the world. They didn’t have the whole Bible as we do today, so it gave them an understanding and picture of the holiness of God. By following these laws, it would be publicly acknowledging that they were God’s chosen people. This law focuses the attention of the Jewish people on God, and restores them to him. It reminded them that they needed God. This had nothing to do with moral law, which is a matter of sinning. We can’t associate ceremonial purity with sin. Nowhere in scripture are women or anyone told to repent of their bodily discharge. The issue here is that failure to do a purity ritual after being ceremonially unclean, could result in the defiling of the Tabernacle, God’s dwelling place. In Leviticus 15:31, God says, 31 “‘You must keep the Israelites separate from things that make them unclean, so they will not die in their uncleanness for defiling my dwelling place, which is among them.’” The confusion comes in at the end of the passage, which says 28 “‘When she is cleansed from her discharge, she must count off seven days, and after that she will be ceremonially clean. 29 On the eighth day she must take two doves or two young pigeons and bring them to the priest at the entrance to the tent of meeting. 30 The priest is to sacrifice one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering. In this way he will make atonement for her before the Lord for the uncleanness of her discharge.” If it isn’t a sin issue, then why is she told to make a sin offering and a burnt offering? The answer is simple. A sin offering & a purification offering are the same thing. You could do the offering to repent of a specific sin, or just for ritual purification. And a burnt offering is an act of worship, which praises God for his grace.
Regardless, ceremonial purity laws no longer apply to us today. The reason for this is because Jesus came! Jesus brought us closer to God than ever before, so we no longer have to perform rituals and go through a waiting period for purification. The church today is not Israel, so as Galatians 3:23-29 explains:
“23 Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. 24 So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. 25 Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. 26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
Another thing that people commonly don’t understand is that it wasn’t just women who were declared unclean in these passages. People love to single out that specific gender in these passages because it weaponizes the Bible into something that would oppress and humiliate women. In reality, there are many reasons you could be considered ‘unclean’ under this law, no matter your gender or species. There are different types of animals that would be considered unclean. Dead bodies were also considered unclean. The seminal discharge of a man would be considered unclean. Other things such as open wounds, sores, certain skin conditions and even certain behaviors would classify a person as unclean. The Bible doesn’t single out women in this situation. In fact, for someone to make this argument, it would be kind of embarrassing considering they would have to completely skip over the entire first part of this chapter, which begins by explaining the regulations for a man’s discharge (Leviticus 15:1-18).
I hope this post can bring some clarity if you have been confused and/or help you to defend scripture when people accuse it of being misogynistic or oppressive towards women. Jesus held the highest value of women that anyone had ever seen in that time. His care and love for them was revolutionary.
