2. an Invisible Danger

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An Invisible Danger

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Leviticus 11

Taking precautions: like a surgeon preparing to operate

Leviticus 11:47 You must distinguish between the unclean and the clean.

For man ears surger remained a desperate last resort !or the hopelessl

ill. "urgeons knew nothing about germs. #ithout washing$ the would don

operating garb$ usuall an old coat caked with blood and pus !rom numerous

operations. The would pick up the scalpel$ wiped clean with an old rag a!ter

the last operation$ and go to work. %al! o! those operated on died.

&ne pioneer a!ter another stumbled on the correct sterile techni'ues. (ut eachwas scorned and humiliated b !ellow doctors. )ro!essor *gna+ "emmelweis$ !or

one$ discovered that making doctors wash their hands could dramaticall cut

the death rate in maternit wards. Yet his colleagues opposed "emmelweis

strenuousl$ and though he argued !or handwashing throughout his li!e$ he died

without seeing his ideas take hold.

#h "o "low,

#h were doctors so slow to adopt sterile techni'ues, The answer is simple:

-erms had not et been discovered. octors could not see/and re!ormers like"emmelweis could not give them/an reason wh washing hands should make a

di!!erence.

Then Louis )asteur discovered micro0organisms under his microscope. "terile

procedures began to make sense: The made war on germs. ven so$ each

re!orm$ !rom rubber gloves to gau+e masks$ was accepted onl grudgingl and with

considerable opposition. *t was as though doctors had a hard time remembering

that something invisible could be so devastating. Fi!t ears o! constant

education and re!orm were necessar be!ore 2sterile techni'ue3 became a

routine part o! surger$ and germs became 2real3 to most medical minds.

#h ll the 5ules,

s germs are to a surgeon$ 2uncleanness3 is to Leviticus. Leviticus 11/16

describe elaborate precautions/what animals to avoid and how to treat

2unclean3 skin disease$ mildewed clothing or walls and bodil emissions.


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"cholars point out that man clean and unclean rules have good health habits

behind them$ such as the rule to 'uarantine a person with an in!ectious

disease or the rule against eating pork which carries man parasites8.

&thers sa that dietar laws were meant to keep the *sraelites apart !rom

their neighbors. )igs were prominent in 9anaanite worship there!ore the

*sraelites were not to eat pigs. di!!erent dietar standard would keep the

two groups !rom mi;ing sociall$ !or a meal was alwas part o! s people to watch their lives as care!ull as surgeons

watch their sterile techni'ues. The must develop the habit o! care!ulness$

even about something the cannot see or !eel. The must think about preparing

themselves !or -od$ not ?ust do whatever 2!eels right.3

*t was not a 'uestion o! how the !elt about -od$ an more than a surgeon>s

concern is how he 2!eels3 about germs. 9lear$ absolute standards laid out what

could be acceptable to a -od who is per!ectl clean$ absolute$ unchanging.

@ust as surgeons had to struggle to take germs seriousl$ so -od>s people must

learn to 2puri! themselves3 !or -od.

Touching the Anclean

The uncleanness rules o! Leviticus are outmoded because o! @esus> declaration

that all things are clean see


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carelessl. ach person must e;amine his or her li!e to be certain that -od>s

purit is not violated.

Antil @esus> da$ the slow spread o! uncleanness seemed irreversible. You

could avoid it$ but ou could not get rid o! it. 9ontact with anthing unclean

made ou unclean oursel!. aturall$ certain diseases$ notabl lepros$ were

twice cursed: The were both dangerous and unclean. You kept awa !rom

lepros$ absolutel.

Then @esus touched a man with lepros$ and the man became clean. @esus

touched a woman su!!ering !rom internal bleeding$ and she was healed. For the

!irst time$ cleanness rather than uncleanness spread. The rules o! Leviticus tell

how to avoid uncleanness. 9ontact with @esus$ however$ changes the unclean to

clean.

Li!e Guestions

"uppose sin were visible/small green spots that break out on the skin. o ou

think this would help people to take sin more seriousl,

Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Bible NIV

Copyright (c) 1!" 1#" 1$ %oft&ey ltimedia Inc *ll +ights +eserved

.

isidentification

,evitics 1-.1/

Victims of leprosy, or Hansen's disease, have endured untold suffering because earlier

versions of the Bible translated as "leprosy" the Hebrew word for "infectious skin disease"mentioned in this chapter. The symptoms described here have little to do with leprosy, a

disease of the nervesnot skinwhich is barely contagious.




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0f %callops and +abbits

,evitics 11.!/

!cholars have long puled over the seemingly arbitrary division between "clean" and

"unclean" foods. #hy permit the eating of certain fish but not shrimp, and cows but notpigs$ "%n &nvisible anger," page (((, discusses some of the theories that have beenproposed. )robably the best e*planation is that +od was indeed being arbitrary, in order to

form a nation different from any other see -(-/0. &n %cts 1( +od shows there is nothing

intrinsically wrong with the animals labelled "unclean" in 2eviticus.



NC,E*N" NC,E*NNE%%Heb. tumah, uncleanness, defilement, niddah, separation,

impurity, erwah, erwath davar, unclean things, tame, defiled unclean, tame, to make or

declare unclean, +r. akatharsia, miasmos, pollution, akathartos, unclean, koinoo, to defile,miano, to defile, molyno, to make filthy, spiloo, phtheiro, to corrupt0. %ll &srael's restricted

foods, unlike those of some other nations, involved the flesh of animalsdifferentiating the

clean from the unclean mammals 2ev 1113, -/-30, sea creatures 1141-0, birds 1115-60, and creeping things 11-4530. 7othing that died of itself was fit for their food, nor

were they to eat anything strangled. Blood was a forbidden part of their diet.

% dead person, regardless of the cause of death, made anyone who touched the body

unclean 7um 14--0. 2ikewise anything the body touched 14--0 or the enclosure inwhich the person died was made unclean 1418140. Those who touched the carcass of an

animal became unclean 2ev 11-8-30. 9ertain types of creeping things that died made

anything they touched unclean. !ome ob:ects thus touched could be cleansed by washing,whereas others had to be destroyed 11-45;0.

2eprosy, being a type of sin, was looked on as unclean whether it was in people, houses, or

clothing. +od reesus condemned. ?nly four restrictions were placed on the new believers

%cts 16-3-40. &n the 7ew Testament era, uncleanness has become moral, not ceremonial.

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