Torah Study
Notes
Transcript
Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Command the sons of Israel that they send away from the camp every leper and everyone having a discharge and everyone who is unclean because of a dead person.
Numbers 5 explains that persons with lepra, certain discharges, and those defiled by a corpse are to be removed from the camp.
Why? Becuase God dwells in their midst.
Lesson: purity is required in the presence of the Holy One.
Leprosy is the term used in some translations but that translates the hebrew tzarat and in the greek “lepra”.
But leprosy is a poor translation because it is not the true leprosy that we know today as Hanson’s disease.
So to aoivd confusion we will use the term “lepra” because that will help us to remeber that the Bible is talking about a wider range of certain skin conditions and not the disease leprosy.
Refresher - Leviticus 13
Refresher - Leviticus 13
Lev 13 outlines the condicitons for what counts as lepra.
The main point is what skin conditions are lepra or which are not.
If you are impure you can transmit the impurity.
Skin issues are not automatically lepra. Only particular ones that meet certain conditions and these can be confusing.
For example, in Lev 13.12ff if a white scale covers whole body instead of part of it, that person is actually pure.
So lepra is not simply anythign you think is gross on the skin.
Also, a priest must be the one who inspects to confirm or disconfirm if someone has lepra.
That is different from genital discharges in lev 15. If you have a genital discharge you recognize taht on your own.
So if you have lepra, you need to go outside the camp.
“As for the leper who has the infection, his clothes shall be torn, and the hair of his head shall be uncovered, and he shall cover his mustache and cry, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ “He shall remain unclean all the days during which he has the infection; he is unclean. He shall live alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.
From verses like this, as well as Numbers 5, people make the assumption that people with lepra were excluded from all of society. and that the Torah considers forbidden to interact and be near them.
Lev also deals with unclear cases. In some cases, the priest is supposed to quarantine a person with an uncertain condition for a short time to determine if it is indeed lepra upon rexamination. For example, a white spot that spreads after 2 weeks is lepra, if it doesn’t, it is not lepra.
“But if the bright spot is white on the skin of his body, and it does not appear to be deeper than the skin, and the hair on it has not turned white, then the priest shall isolate him who has the infection for seven days.
it is a chronic leprosy on the skin of his body, and the priest shall pronounce him unclean; he shall not isolate him, for he is unclean.
Here we read that if a person definitely has lepra, the priest SHALL NOT quarntine him because he is impure.
QUESTION: If a person has confirmed lepra they shall not be quarantined, but it also says a person with an uncertain condition should be quarantined. What is going on here?
ANSWER: We know that a person with lepra is suppsoed to dwell outside the camp (Num 5). So, this quarantine must be something that is done within the camp before confirmation that it is lepra.
Once confirmed, they shall not be quarantined within the camp, because they have to dwell outside the camp.
So, what is probably happenign is that a person with an unconfirmed case is quarantined within the camp to determine if it is lepra or not. Upon confirmation, then that person would be outside the camp.
Refresher - Leviticus 14
Refresher - Leviticus 14
The first 32 verses describe the purificaiton rituals for someone who has lepra.
The priest goes outside the camp to determine if the person has been healed and if so, they would then perform the purificaiton ritual.
Note that the priest does not heal, but diagnosis if a healing has happened, and then performs the ritual.
The priest doesn’t heal, he cleanses the person from residual impurity that a person has which was caused by the lepra.
The purification rituals then proceeds in stages.
First stage: the person can re-enter the camp but not his tent.
Second stage: the person can re-enter his tent.
Final Stage: after this stage, which requires sacrifice at the tabernacle, the person is completely pure and can partake of sacrifical food.
Later in this chapter we see that a house can have lepra and a similar process of inspecting and diagnosing and purifying is required.
“However, he shall let the live bird go free outside the city into the open field. So he shall make atonement for the house, and it will be clean.”
QUESTION: Why does the house receive atonement? Did the house sin?
ANSWER: Atonement is not strictly about sin but ritual purity. The house is being purified and purged of uncleanness. When something receives atonement it is about purging uncleanness and impurity. This is not about forgiving the house for its sin.
Mark 1.39-44
Mark 1.39-44
And He went into their synagogues throughout all Galilee, preaching and casting out the demons. And a leper came to Jesus, beseeching Him and falling on his knees before Him, and saying, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.”
Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.
And He sternly warned him and immediately sent him away, and He said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”
We see that Yeshua is preaching in synagogues. While we can be certain, it seems to be indicating that the man with lepra may have come to Yeshua in the synagogue.
QUESTION: Is the man with lepra allowed in society?
The Chosen has the answer. https://youtu.be/XNk7_KHQLZs?si=EdRRGI_A7P0TzxWa
The depiction in the chosen is the common misunderstanding. Here are some commentaries with similar views:
Mark Healing the Leper (1:39–42)
The leper in
The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Volume 8: Matthew, Mark, Luke F. Healing a Leper (1:40–45)
Jesus’ touching of the leper not only resulted in his being cured (v. 42) but also revealed Jesus’ attitude toward the ceremonial law. He boldly placed love and compassion over ritual and regulation.
Life Application New Testament Commentary Jesus Heals a Man with Leprosy / 1:40–45 / 38
This meant that lepers were unfit to participate in any religious or social activity. Because the law said that contact with any unclean person made that person unclean too, some people even threw rocks at lepers to keep them at a safe distance.
Even the mention of the name of this disabling disease terrified people because they were afraid of catching it.
ANSWER: Lepers were allowed in society but they did have to make their presense known. The common misunderstanding is that the disease is transmissible but that is not the case. The impurity is transmissible, not the disease. And it is not a sin to be impure.
So why is this important? It’s important because it creates false depcitions and misunderstanding of what is happening in the gospels. These end up reifnorcing a notion that the law, or rituals, or cold ruthless things are in contrast to a compassionate Jesus.
Once you create that depiction then the dichotomy is created that Yeshua rejects the cold law. And then from there it creates false ideas about the Jewish people of the day, the Pharisees, Scribes, Judaism, etc etc who care aobut the law.
QUESTION: Numbers 5 says that the leproi must be excluded from the camp. But what is the camp?
ANSWER: The camp is ‘machneh’ in Hebrew. It is a set up that only exists in the wilderness wanderings. God dwells in the tabernacle in the midst of the camp, and all the tribes dwell near the tabernacle in the camp.
A sin is being impure and doing something only a pure person can do - going to the tabernacle and offering a gift.
So the reason leproi (people with lepra) were isolated outside the camp is so that their impurity would not spread to someone else unknowingly and then that person defile the sanctuary.
There is nothing that says a person is excluded from all society, or that someone cannot be near a person with lepra, or that a person is not allowed to touch a person with lepra, etc.
Presumably a person could have social interaction outside the camp, and when it says he will ‘dwell’ alone but that is referring to his sleep set up.
QUESTION: What about when Irasel etners the land? The tribes spread out across the land, there is no war camp. Is Numbers 5 relevant? How do you obey the command without a camp?
ANSWER: Two ancient Jewish sources
DSS Temple Scroll circa 150-100 BC
Tosefta circa 200-300 AD
These sources outline early thinking about purity laws, separation, etc. in both texts they think people with lepra must be kept out of two spaces - Jerusalem - which has a similar level of holiness as the war camp, and they also exclude people with lepra from walled cities within the land of Israel.
Jerusalem was not the size of the city today, it was the walled city around the temple mount.
So outside of the cities, you could exist in villages and in places where people lived in the land. The leproi would have to manage their interactions responsibly.
QUESTION: Could a person with lepra enter a synagogue?
ANSWER: Yes, based on ancient Jewish sources.
The Mishnah Negaim
13:12 A [If] he entered the synagogue,
B they make a partition for him ten handbreadths high by four cubits wide.
C He enters first and leaves last.
Here we can see that people with lepra were not hated, neglected, excluded from all society, or what ever. It is inaccurate and it causes false ideas about what is happening in the Gospels.
So the significance of the passage where Yeshua interacts with the man with lepra is not that he is including people who were excluded, it is more significant than that.
Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.”
We notice that Yeshua touches the man.
Again, with such poor understanding of the context and society, many scholars make poor conclusions (which impacts other interpretations in the Gospel).
The Teacher’s Bible Commentary Authority (Mark 1:21–45)
Perhaps the most tragic illness of that day was leprosy (1:40–45). It did not immediately kill, but left one maimed and crippled. Jesus touched this leper, in defiance of the ritual law. This serves to substantiate the priority Jesus gave to persons over the petty legal restrictions of the Jewish law.
These interpretations assume that touching the person with lepra is prohibited. BUT contracting ritual impurity is not prohibited, it is not sinful.
God commands that corpses be buried, that requires beomcing impure.
God commands being fruitful and multiplying - that requires that a man ejactulates during intercourse and that means he and the woman become impure.
The list goes on. Where does this idea that becoming ritualy impure come from? Perhaps Lev 5.
‘Or if he touches human uncleanness, of whatever sort his uncleanness may be with which he becomes unclean, and it is hidden from him, and then he comes to know it, he will be guilty.
‘So it shall be when he becomes guilty in one of these, that he shall confess that in which he has sinned. ‘He shall also bring his guilt offering to the Lord for his sin which he has committed, a female from the flock, a lamb or a goat as a sin offering. So the priest shall make atonement on his behalf for his sin.
QUESTION: Why would a person be guilty if they became unclean witohut knowing it?
ANSWER: They were ignorant of their impurity and failed to properly purify accroding to the command.
Also, there is a very high liklihood that a person violated a command while in their impurity or passed on their impurity to somone else causing taht person to sin - eating sacrificial food, eating tithes, going to the tabernacle, etc.
This all means that Yehsua didn’t violate the Torah when touching the lepros. You’ll notice it is quiet from the opponents - there is no evidence they chastised Yeshua for touching the lepros. It raised no questions for the opponents probably because they didn’t see anything wrong with it. All Yeshua needed to do would be to immerse in water and wait until evening.
Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.
And He sternly warned him and immediately sent him away, and He said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”
QUESTION: Why does Yeshua command the man to go to the priest and make an offer for cleansing, if Yeshua had already cleansed him? Is Yeshua challenging the Torah and priesthood?
ANSWER: The purifcation process in this case takes stages back to full cleansing.
The first stage is healing (stopping the source of the impurity) and this is the ‘cleansing’ that Yeshua performed. But, there is still residual impurity that needs to be cleansed by the priests.
‘Now when the man with the discharge becomes cleansed from his discharge, then he shall count off for himself seven days for his cleansing; he shall then wash his clothes and bathe his body in running water and will become clean.
‘Then on the eighth day he shall take for himself two turtledoves or two young pigeons, and come before the Lord to the doorway of the tent of meeting and give them to the priest;
This is the case of a Zav - a man with an abnormal discharge. Notice his cleansing, healing, then followed by him becoming clean seven days later. then he goes to the priest on the 8th day for atonement.
So - A person can have a condition that renders them impure for the duration of that condition, and that condition can cease which the text calls them having been cleansed, but that doesn’t refer to final ritual cleansing, which is why they have other actions to do in order to obtain ritual purity.
Yeshua does what the priests cannot do, he heals the man. Then he sends the man to the priests for what Yehsua cannot do, which is ritually purify the man. Yeshua fixes the source, the priests fix the effects.
Yeshua is not challenging the priests authority. He is not against priests, or temple, or rituals - No, Yeshua loves the entire Torah of his Father.
Yeshua sends him to the preists as a testimony - to delcare that the restoration promised through the prophets has come to the nation.
The healing is the evidence that Yeshua is moshiach - cleansing the lepers, releasing those captive, etc.
QUESTION: Did Yeshua become impure when he touched the lepros?
ANSWER: It doesn’t say so, but yes, according to the Torah. And he would have gone through the process to become ritually pure.
Did yeshua ever cry? Did he get hungry? Did he get tired? Did he ever become unclean?
QUESTION: Did Yeshua disagree with isolating the lepros from the camp?
ANSWER: No, the very reason the laws were given to Moses was to safeguard and protect God’s people from the consquences of incorrectly approaching God. This is why he complied and didn’t change the requirements Moses commanded.
QUESTION: Was Yeshua allowed to ritually purify the man instead of the priests?
ANSWER: No, Yeshua was was from the tribe of Judah. This is what the author of Hebrews is referring to - Yeshua is not an levitical priest of the earthly temple, he is a malchi-tzedekian priest of the heavenly temple.
The priests cleanse the flesh through the blood of animals, Yeshua cleanses the source of the disease (the sin and death), through his own blood in the heavenly temple.
“Oh, do not let her be like one dead, whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes from his mother’s womb!”
The skin condiitions from leproi were comparable to a corpse.
Yeshua is the one who can cleanse the source - Yeshua is the only on who can stop death - the levitical preists can’t do that. Yeshua transmits life. Yeshua said I am the way, the truth, and the life. Yehsua is contagious with life.
We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin, are burned outside the camp.
Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate. So, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.
notice how outside the camp is parallel to outside the gate.
golgotha was outside the walls.
the irony - inside the camp was to be pure because that is where God dwelled, and yet it was outside the camp that the word of God made flesh was crucified because he was rejected by those inside the camp.
in other words what was inside the camp was actually outside, and outside the camp was actually inside! it was a different city - the jerusalem above.
that is why it goes on to say
Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.
one cannot offer a sacrifice outside the camp!
hebrews is saying that is where god is accessed, and which is why he follows that with through him let us offer a sacrifice of praise.
