Unhygienic practices of the OT

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noobio said:
Examples of this can be seen in Leviticus chapter 14:7 which gives instructions on how to cleanse someone after they have been healed of their skin disease. “Seven times he shall sprinkle the one to be cleansed of the defiling disease, and then pronounce them clean. After that, he is to release the live bird in the open fields.”
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and right in the next verse it says (bolding is mine)
The person being purified shall then wash his garments, shave off all hair, and bathe in water, and so become clean. After this the person may come inside the camp, but shall still remain outside his or her tent for seven days.
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Why do you leave out the next part that tells the person to go take a bath which would wash off any blood.
 
Xystus said:
Why do you leave out the next part that tells the person to go take a bath which would wash off any blood.
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I just thought that simply washing blood of wouldn’t be safe enough, but perhaps, I am overestimating the possible damage.
 
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Spyridon said:
@phil19034

I’ve got my Bible open in front of me. The chapter of Leviticus in question (14) explicitly begins with “the LORD said to Moses”.
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Thanks.
4 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “This shall be the law of the leper for the day of his cleansing. He shall be brought to the priest; 3 and the priest shall go out of the camp, and the priest shall make an examination. Then, if the leprous disease is healed in the leper, 4 the priest shall command them to take for him who is to be cleansed two living clean birds and cedarwood and scarlet stuff and hyssop; 5 and the priest shall command them to kill one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water. 6 He shall take the living bird with the cedarwood and the scarlet stuff and the hyssop, and dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water; 7 and he shall sprinkle it seven times upon him who is to be cleansed of leprosy; then he shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird go into the open field. 8 And he who is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, and shave off all his hair, and bathe himself in water, and he shall be clean; and after that he shall come into the camp, but shall dwell outside his tent seven days. 9 And on the seventh day he shall shave all his hair off his head; he shall shave off his beard and his eyebrows, all his hair. Then he shall wash his clothes, and bathe his body in water, and he shall be clean.
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There seems to be more too this. I’m not an expert in the history of this, but the following jumps out at me:
  1. If the man was cured of leprosy, one would expect him to have no open wounds. If he did have open wounds, the priest would most likely not be willing to sprinkling blood on him.
  2. after having the blood sprinkled on him, he was to wash his clothes, shave off all his hair, and take a bath.
  3. then he had to prove for 7 days that he was still clean by dwelling outside his tent , and then on the 8th day shave and bath again.
I’m not sure, but it’s very possible that people in those days may of known that getting animal blood into an open wound was a bad thing, so the ritual involving the bird’s blood may have been a simply test to prove that the leper truly believed he was cured.

Let’s keep in mind, the ancients knew more than we often give them credit for.
 
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I think the combination of using a clean animal, very low risk of disease transmission simply from sprinkling blood, and the bathing afterwards, plus the LORD providentially protecting the Israelites when they carried out this Rite - I think that all comes together to pretty much totally negate any chance of infectious disease spreading due to this ritual @noobio.
 
Let’s also remember that these people lived in a dirty world and were exposed to animals and all their bodily fluids and goo, as well as all kinds of other grunge, from a very young age. I somehow doubt that the Jewish priests performing circumcision on infants were sterilizing the knife before they cut each little baby. People developed natural immunity against a lot of ills by simply growing up in an unsterile, unclean environment.
 
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Maximilian75 said:
yes, but one can also point to H1N1 and tuberculosis (it originated in cows) as examples of how the species barrier is not as defined as we think.
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Can you please give more detail, I would think it would be more complicated than that, with more factors in play
 
you also left out verse 5 that says birds be slaughtered over an earthen vessel with fresh water in it which would dilute the blood.

i think you have some weird fear of animal blood. I just processed a deer a few days ago. the blood i did get on me washed of rather easily. It really is not a problem.
 
noobio said:
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Xystus:
Why do you leave out the next part that tells the person to go take a bath which would wash off any blood.
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I just thought that simply washing blood of wouldn’t be safe enough, but perhaps, I am overestimating the possible damage.
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Yeah, I think you might be. If it was that dangerous, people would have been afraid of being butchers.

It would be one thing if they used the blood and then could not take a bath for days… but they were required to wash their clothes, shave all the hair off their body, and bathe right after the blood ritual.
 
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I don’t think he has a case of animal hemophobia - I think he was asking this more along the lines of “how could God command a ritual be carried out which put the people at risk of getting a disease”.

And I think his inquiry has been adequately answered at this juncture in time.
 
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The Maasai people in Kenya drink fresh cow’s blood in rituals and eat raw beef and remarkably illness is rare among them considering most illnesses stem from eating contaminated food. The passage doesn’t involve consuming the blood as that’s against Jewish dietary laws.
***That of course is not an excuse to ignore hygiene rules in our part of the world.
 
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What post number answered his question? I think maybe the OP is wondering, as am I how an all knowing God who knows humans can catch diseases from animals could require them to sprinkle blood.
 
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The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2 This shall be the ritual for the leprous[a] person at the time of his cleansing:
He shall be brought to the priest; 3 the priest shall go out of the camp, and the priest shall make an examination. If the disease is healed in the leprous person, 4 the priest shall command that two living clean birds and cedarwood and crimson yarn and hyssop be brought for the one who is to be cleansed. 5 The priest shall command that one of the birds be slaughtered over fresh water in an earthen vessel. 6 He shall take the living bird with the cedarwood and the crimson yarn and the hyssop, and dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was slaughtered over the fresh water. 7 He shall sprinkle it seven times upon the one who is to be cleansed of the leprous[c] disease; then he shall pronounce him clean, and he shall let the living bird go into the open field. 8 The one who is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, and shave off all his hair, and bathe himself in water, and he shall be clean. After that he shall come into the camp, but shall live outside his tent seven days. 9 On the seventh day he shall shave all his hair: of head, beard, eyebrows; he shall shave all his hair. Then he shall wash his clothes, and bathe his body in water, and he shall be clean.
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I think I’d be more likely to get sick from sleeping outside my tent for seven days in a row, rather than being sprinkled with diluted blood-water and then going off and taking a bath. As has been mentioned, the ancient Hebrews were shepherds. They were no strangers to slaughtering livestock. Blood was an everyday part of life. You get more blood on your hands in processing a carcass than you do from this ceremony.

For thousands of years, up until, say, the 1940’s, if you wanted chicken, it wasn’t something that you got out of a plastic bag from the store. You generally went out, killed a chicken, plucked the feathers, took out the insides, and cooked it. Meat didn’t come from styrofoam trays and magically appear. 🙂 Blood, and the taking of life, was an unavoidable part of human existence. If just merely touching animal blood was sufficient to turn an otherwise healthy individual into a disease-ridden person, either civilization would have collapsed a long time, or we’d all be vegetarians since the cavemen and the ancient Sumerians. 😛
 
Remind one of the healing of Naaman where he was asked to take bath in River Jordan.

Perhaps important to note that the patient is asked to clean, shave,and wash himself in clean water. I think that is quite hygienic considering that there was no AIDS or HIV some four thousand years ago during the era of the Old Covenant.
 
I’ve only taken the Chalice once or twice. I don’t want to catch anything.
 
Quite a bit of Leviticus could also be taken as an allegorical representation of Christ’s life and sacrifice.

Completely off-topic, just happened to think of that.
 
With no temple, no priesthood and no animal sacrifices, no one on earth is living under the full Mosaic law - thus this is academic. Besides, God commands many things that we resist. That is no reflection on God - but rather on us.
 
There is one guy in our lab who is precisely of that mindset.

There’s also one or two on the factory floor who apparently don’t believe in much in the way of hygiene.

You know you’re in for trouble when the answer to last bathing time question is a question of “what year is this?”
 
Well, let’s not go too far. I’m not anxious that we all go around smelling like the Middle Ages. However, the people who can’t handle it when the dog or cat makes a mess on the floor (or several), or have to use hand sanitizer constantly when they are out and about, or disinfecting everything, are not doing themselves any favors.
 
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