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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
15:1-33 Discharges from Male and Female Reproductive Organs. The rules in this chapter are symmetrically structured:
a serious case of male discharge (vv. 2-15)
man's emission of semen (vv. 16-17)
sexual intercourse (v. 18)
female menstruation (vv. 19-24)
a serious case of female discharge (vv. 25-30).
One characteristic of these regulations is their emphasis on the transmission of contagion from one person to another. Transmission of infection may occur in any number of ways: for example, by sitting on an object that a defiled person had previously sat on, by touching contaminated cooking utensils, and by having direct contact through touching or spitting. No matter how it happens, the person infected is required to separate and to undergo the purification ritual. It is clear that "unclean" is not the same as "sinful," but rather has to do with what is permitted (cf. note on 13:3). The Bible does not view the process of reproduction, with its associated bodily functions, as evil; this is part of the original good creation (even though human nature is severely damaged by the fall of Adam). Certainly the Creator of these functions has the right to tell his obedient creatures how and when to use them.
15:2 his body. The Hebrew basar (here, "body"; cf. ESV footnote, "flesh") is used euphemistically here for the "genitals." In fact, the same word is used in v. 19 of the female vagina.
15:16-18 The emission of semen is polluting, perhaps because it is the life liquid and its loss makes a man unclean.
15:19-23 A woman who is menstruating is unclean, and her uncleanness may be transmitted to others. The structure of this passage corresponds to that of the male with a discharge earlier in the chapter.
15:24 If a man has sexual relations with a woman during her menstrual period, then he is considered unclean for seven days. That is the same length of time as is prescribed for the woman herself. It has often been alleged that this rule conflicts with 18:19 and 20:18, in which both parties are cut off from Israel. How are these statements to be harmonized? Perhaps the present verse deals only with the ritual implications of the act, or perhaps it is concerned with an inadvertent sexual act, whereas the later texts focus on a brazen breaking of the law. The texts simply seem to be dealing with different circumstances.
15:25-30 These laws are concerned with irregular or unnatural flows of blood from a female (cf. the woman who has a long-term "discharge of blood" in Matt. 9:20-22; Mark 5:25-34; Luke 8:43-48).
15:31-33 This section concludes with a warning and summary. You in v. 31 refers to Moses and Aaron (cf. v. 1 and 10:11). defiling my tabernacle. The presence of uncleanness in the camp constantly defiles the sanctuary; this idea prepares for the need for its cleansing in the Day of Atonement ritual (see 16:16).
