Week 3: Clean and Unclean

Objective: 

• Focus is on the purity of the flesh

• These became the main issues and debates among scribes and Pharisees, and the Lord Jesus Christ rebuked them for it

• Cleanness and uncleanness are related to holiness

• Clean and unclean divided Jews and Gentiles (most important)

• Clean and unclean is different in the Old Testament from the New Testament

Resources:

• Fr Tadros Y Malaty Commentary
• Catena Bible Commentary

Reading:

• Leviticus 11-15
  • Leviticus 11:1-20, 44-47
  • Leviticus 12 & 15:1-3, 13-16, 29-30  (together)
  • Leviticus 13 & 14 - Explain, do not read.

Key verse(s):

"be holy; for I am holy." Leviticus 11:44

Comments:

• Leviticus 11 (Animals)
  • Why is one clean and another not?
  • Many unclean animals (e.g. pigs) were used in pagan ritual and worship
  • Symbolic that man should imitate God
  • Sovereign Choice
  • This idea existed in Genesis
    • Noah took 2 of every unclean and 7 of every clean animal
  • The Lord Jesus taught the true meaning of cleanness and uncleanness (Read Mark 15:11 & Mark 15:17-20)
  • The idea was abolished in Acts 11
    • “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.”–“What God has cleansed you must not call common"
• Leviticus 12&15 (Bodily discharges)
  • What are considered unclean?
    • Discharges of blood from a woman
    • Any discharge from a man
  • Why are they considered unclean?
    • God wanted to separate sex from religious worship because the pagan nations combined the two
    • Normal intimate relations during marriage are not a sin, but they must be separated from religious worship
  • Why 80 days for a girl and 40 for a boy?
    • 40 days is enough time for postpartum hemorrhage to stop. Doubling the period serves to remind us that the woman was the first to fall into temptation and introduce sin into the world
  • Does the Church consider girls unclean?
    • Absolutely not.
    • Having a menstrual cycle does not make you unclean–this is the Old Testament way of thinking.
    • Sin makes us unclean.
    • However, it is not proper to approach the Body and Blood of Christ when I am bleeding (male or female) or have had a discharge (male or female).
    • We must be pure in soul, body and spirit to receive the Mysteries
      
    • How the Lord Jesus dealt with that issue - Read Luke 8:43-4
• Leviticus 13 & 14 (Leprosy)
  • 21 different cases of skin disease in Chapter 13, 3 cases of garments
    • They are all visible, external (not internal diseases)
    • They are not fatal
    • They affected part of the body not all of it
    • They are all chronic, contagious, or contaminating
    • Only the priest could declare a skin condition clean or unclean
    • The concern is not curing the individual, or protecting public health, but protecting the sanctity of the Tabernacle: the dwelling of God.
    • Unclean things are either washed with water, burned with fire, broken, or torn down and demolished
    • Cleansing process involved ritual cleansings, sacrifices, other rituals
• Conclude with this:
  • Uncleanness in the NT (Read 1 Corinthians 6:9-10)

Review/recap questions:
**Servant may add more questions

1.  God gives a clear reason why we should not defile ourselves. What is that reason?
2. What incident is mentioned in the New Testament where God permitted eating all kinds of animals?
3. The Lord Jesus Christ taught that uncleanness comes not from food, but from within. Give verse from the
   New Testament.  
4. Why a woman is considered unclean after giving birth?
5. God asked that the offering made by a woman giving birth to a male or female child be the same. Why?

Homework:
**Servant may add more questions

1. Circle the animals that are considered unclean.
   a) cow b) camel c) hare d) swine e) goat
2. Whatever in the water does not have _______ or _______ shall be an abomination to you.
3. What are 3 examples of prohibited birds?
4. What specific characteristic in an insect makes it permissible to eat?
5. The days of purification of a woman giving birth to a male child are:
   a) two weeks b) 33 days c) 7 days d) 40 days
6. A woman giving birth to a male child should offer to God the same offering as if she had a female child.
   Circle True or false.
7. What kind of offering is presented to God for the birth of a child?
8. Who diagnosed the lepers?
   a) the doctor b) Moses c) the congregation d) the priest