Leviticus 13.1-14.57

Leprosy, Varieties and Symptom / Purification of Lepers and Leprous Houses

Leprosy, for the sake of this portion of the bible, could refer to any number of skin diseases. Leprous diseases are characterized by sores and/or discolored skin. And for the ancient Israelites, the disease is not confined to humans. Possessions, articles of clothing, and even houses can have leprosy. The biblical author seeks to instruct the priests as to how to deal with these matters.

Leprosy, Varieties and Symptoms: Leviticus 13.1-59

If you have a spot on you, a discoloration, you should see a priest. If the priest finds that the disease extends beyond the surface of the skin, it is deemed leprous and you are declared ceremonially unclean. If the spot is on the surface only, you are confined seven days and examined again. If the spot is still there, you must be inspected in another seven days. If it does not spread, you shall be pronounced clean after you wash your clothes (a literal removal of the perceived contagion [whether or not it actually exists, as well as a figurative removal of the stigma). If the eruptions spreads after the cleansing, you should appear again before the priest, whereupon you will be deemed unclean.

A leprous condition is characterized by a white swelling of the skin that has turned hair white, as well as "quick raw flesh" (Lev. 13.10). However, if the disease spreads from head to foot, you will be deemed clean, because you are all white. Perhaps you have succumbed completely to the disease, but you are not in a state of limbo. You are fully ill, but pure in your illness because the health, the normal color of your skin, has departed entirely. This says a lot about the concept of purity and holiness. Separation is meant to be complete. And the sign of the illness is important. If you turn all white, that is okay, but if you have lesions ("raw skin") you are considered unclean. In this case, your intact skin opposes your raw skin, whereas in the precious example your skin is intact entirely, simply a different shade. And if your lesions disappear and you return to whiteness, you are deemed clean.

Leprous diseases can break out on boils. If a healed boil leaves a white or reddish-white spot, it is to be examined. Again, if the discoloration features white hair and is more than skin deep, it is considered a leprous disease. If not, you will be confined seven days. If the spot remains and does not spread, it is a scar, and you are pronounced clean.

The same goes for burns and discolorations of the head or in the beard.

You will be confined seven days for an itching disease that appears no deeper than the skin and that has no black hair in it. If the itch does not spread or develop yellow hair or deepen into the body, you should shave, but not the part that itches. You will be confined seven more days. You are clean after that if the itch does not spread - and you must wash your clothes. Itches that spread cause you to be unclean.

Rashes do not make you unclean.

If you go bald, you are clean. If you are bald because of spots, you are leprous and unclean.

If you are leprous, you should wear torn clothes and keep your hair disheveled, both traditional signs of mourning. You shall cover your upper lip and cry out, "Unclean, unclean." This shouldn't cause any stigma at all because clean people love to be around unclean people. Just kidding. In fact, you will live alone outside the camp. So really, stigmatism puts you in a bad place, but clean people aren't looking down their noses at you.

Clothing
Clothing can be leprous as well. Yeah, really. Any piece of leather or linen or wool cloth that develops a greenish or reddish discoloration should be brought to the priest. It will be set aside for seven days and reexamined. If the "disease" spreads, the item is declared unclean and must be burned. If the disease does not spread, the article is to be washed and set aside another seven days. If the disease spreads, the article is deemed unclean and should be burned. If the disease abates after the washing, the spot should be torn out of the item and the item should be rewashed. If it appears again it is spreading, and the item should be burned.

Purification of Lepers and Leprous Houses: Leviticus 14.1-57

What follows are instructions for the priest regarding the ritual cleansing of a leprous person.

The priest should make an examination of the leprous person outside of the camp. If the person is healed, the priest should be brought two living clean birds, cedar wood, crimson yarn, and hyssop in order to carry out the ceremony. The priest should then command one of the birds be slaughtered over an earthen vessel containing fresh water. The water/blood mixture should be sprinkled seven times on the person to be cleansed, then pronounce him clean. The other bird he should let go. The cleansed person should wash his clothes, shave his hair, and bathe himself.

The sprinkling of the water/blood mixture seven times parallels the sprinkling of the sin offering, which purifies the area in front of the curtain. The lesser cleansing uses a bird sacrifice, rather than a bull, and the blood is diluted in water. The release of the second bird serves as a metaphor for the man who is now free of the bonds of illness.

The cleansed person is integrated back into the camp slowly. First he is to live outside his tent seven days, then shave all his hair (including eyebrows) and again wash his clothes and body.

On the eight day he is to bring a sacrifice to the entrance of the tent of meeting consisting of two unblemished male lambs, one ewe lamb less than a year old, a grain offering of 3/10 ephah flour mixed with oil, and one log of oil. The priest should sacrifice one of the lambs as a guilt offering, along with the oil. The lamb should be slaughtered in the spot where burnt and sin offerings are slaughtered. In another parallel to priestly ceremony, the priest should take some of the blood and put it on the right earlobe, thumb of the right hand, and big toe of the right foot of the person to be cleansed. The priest should pour the oil into the palm of his left hand, dip his right finger into the oil, and sprinkle some of the oil seven times before the Lord. Leftover oil should be put on the right ear lobe, thumb of the right hand, and big toe of the right foot. What is left should be put on the person's head. To make atonement on behalf of the person, the priest should offer a sin offering, burnt offering, and grain offering.

Better hope you don't get sick - that's an expensive ceremony. So if you are poor, you can make do with one male lamb for the guilt offering, one-tenth an ephah of flour mixed with oil, and two turtledoves or pigeons. Continuity error: A log of oil is not listed as a necessary item, though it is required for the ceremony. In any case, the ceremony follows the same as above, substituting the birds with lambs and using less grain.

One day the Israelites will settle in Canaan and they will all have houses. But these too are subject to diseases. Leprous diseases. Actually, it's probably more like mold, but it functions in a similar way; as mold affects a house, skin disease affects a human.

A priest should demand a house be emptied before he goes to examine it, otherwise everything in the house will become unclean. If the disease leaves reddish or greenish spots and appears to penetrate deeper than the surface, the house should be shut seven days. If the disease spreads, the affected stones should be removed and thrown in an unclean place outside the city. The inside of the house should be scraped thoroughly, and the plaster that scrapes off should be taken out with the stones. New stones and plaster should replace the affected ones in the house. If the disease breaks out again, the house itself is unclean, and it should be torn down and disposed of outside the city. All those who enter it will be unclean until evening. Those who sleep or eat in it shall wash their clothes.

If the disease does not spread, the house shall be pronounced clean. The house is cleansed in much the same way as a human leper, with the birds, cedar wood, crimson yarn, and hyssop.

Houses are an extension of the Israelite people. The gathering place of a family can fall ill just like individual members. Houses do not require the offerings of three lambs and grain and oil because they do not have to answer to God. They do not incur the guild of sickness, but only require cleanliness.