Monday Night Bible Study: Leviticus | Week 6

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We continued our fall Bible study series on Monday with a discussion of Chapters 11-15 of the Book of Leviticus and its impact on modern Judeo-Christian society.

We will continue on Monday, October 17th at 7:30pm Eastern with a study of Chapters 16-18.

Here’s the rest of our study schedule:

  • October 24: Chapters 19-22
  • November 7: Chapters 23-25
  • November 14: Chapters 26-27

Study notes for Leviticus 11-15

Leviticus Chapter 11

What animals can they eat?

Can eat:

  • Animals with split hooves that chew their cud (e.g., cows)
  • Sea creatures with fins and scales
  • Birds (if not on the “detest” list) — e.g., chickens, ducks, swans
  • Insects with jointed legs used for hopping — locusts, katydids, crickets, grasshoppers

Can NOT eat:

  • Animals with split hooves that don’t chew their cud (e.g., pigs)
  • Animals that chew their cud but have no split hooves — camels, rock badgers, rabbits
  • Sea creatures with no scales and no fins — they should be detested — e.g., catfish
  • Birds — eagle, vulture, osprey, kite, all falcons, all ravens, ostrich, nighthawk, sea gull, all hawks, owl, cormorant, ibis, water hen, pelican, Egyptian vulture, stork, all herons, hoopoe and bats
  • All flying insects that walk on all fours
  • Any four-footed animal that goes on its paws
  • All creatures that crawl on the ground — weasel, rat, all lizards, gecko, monitor lizard, wall lizard, skink, chameleon

Also:

  • If you touch something “unclean” you have made yourself unclean
  • If something “unclean” touches pots, clothes, food
  • If you touch something disallowed to eat, you are unclean

Make yourselves holy for I am holy. Don’t make yourselves ritually unclean by any creature that crawls on the ground. I am God who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Be holy because I am holy. (Leviticus 11:44-45)

Leviticus Chapter 12

Childbirth

Give birth to a boy

  • Woman is unclean for seven days
  • On the eighth day, circumcise the boy
  • The mother must stay home another 33 days for purification

Give birth to a girl

  • Woman is unclean for 14 days
  • The mother must stay home for 66 days for purification

Once the birth mother has stayed home for the “purification”:

  • She must offer a whole-burnt-offering — using a lamb (if she can’t afford it, use two doves or two pigeons)
  • She must offer an absolution-offering — using a dove

Leviticus Chapter 13

Infections

  • Swelling, blister or shiny spot on skin — take to the priests; they will determine if the person is clean or unclean
  • A shiny spot with no white hair — quarantine seven days, then back to the priest for re-inspection — may be repeated
  • Once it shows signs of healing, the person is pronounced clean and released
  • If it has spread or gotten worse, they are unclean and have a serious and infectious skin disease, repeat inspection every seven days until the person is found clean
  • If a person has a boil and it heals but leaves a white swelling or reddish-white shiny spot — off to the priest
  • Skin burn or raw flesh that turns reddish-white or white shiny spot — off to the priest
  • Sore on the head or chin — off to the priest
  • Shiny or white spots on the skin — off to the priest
  • If a man goes bald — off to the priest
  • If the priest diagnoses you with a serious skin disease, you must wear torn clothes, leave hair unclean and unbrushed, and live alone outside the camp

Clothing

  • If it changes, show it to the priest
  • Priest will confiscate the item of clothing/cloth
  • After seven days, priest will reinspect
  • If problem has expanded, the cloth is unclean and the priest will burn it
  • If the priest finds the spot hasn’t spread, the owner must wash it and return it to the priest — on hold seven more days — if the spot is still there, it’s unclean, burn it
  • If the spot has faded, the priest will remove the spot from the cloth
  • If after washing the spot goes away, wash it again and the cloth will be clean

Leviticus Chapter 14

Treatment for an infection at the time of their cleansing

Send the priest to the person outside of the camp. If the priest finds them clean:

  • Offering
  • Person washes clothes
  • Shaves off all their hair
  • Person bathes
  • Person may enter camp, but must live outside of the person’s tent for seven days; after seven days, to be considered clean the person must save and wash clothes, bathe and make an offering:
    • Two lambs, a yearling ewe and six quarts of fine flour mixed with oil
    • Compensation offering
    • Wave offering
    • Whole burnt offering
    • Absolution offering
    • Grain offering
    • The person is now clean
    • If a poor person, use one lamb and a couple of quarts of fine flour with oil and two doves or pigeons

Instructions for when they enter Canaan, if there is a fungus in their building

  • Vacate the property and call the priest to inspect it
  • If priest agrees there is a fungus, close the house and wait seven days
  • Priest reinspects the fungus
  • If it has spread, remove the bad stones, scrap the rest of the house, then repair the hole
  • If it breaks out again, repeat
  • If found after seven days the fungus is still there, tear down the house
  • If found clean, the priest will make atonement for the house

Leviticus Chapter 15

Bodily discharge

Men — discharge from genitals is unclean

  • Anything touched is also unclean
  • Offerings needed — whole burnt offering and absolution offering

Men — semen discharge

  • Man must bathe entire body
  • All cloth touched by semen must be washed
  • If when lying with a woman, both are unclean until evening and must wash in water

Women

  • Menstruation — impurity lasts seven days, anything she touches during this time is unclean until evening
  • Bleeding and not their “normal time,” all things she touches are unclean
  • After the bleeding stops, wait seven days and she is then clean
  • Offerings — absolution offering, whole burnt offering
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