Skin-disease, mould, and fungus

I hereby vow to complete Leviticus! It's so boring I might need a break after that, but I am going to finish! Unfortunately after tomorrow I won't be able to write more until Jan. 15, and then school starts. But still, I only have four days left including today, so I will get it done. Boy, when an infinitely powerful being decides to be boring, it is REALLY boring!


"This is the law for skin-disease, mould, and fungus." --Leviticus 14:57

Old Testament
Book Three: Leviticus
Laws of purification and atonement (cont'd)
Chapter 13: Zits!
Chapter 14: More disease
Chapter 15: More pervy rules
Chapter 16: Yearly catch-all expiation

However, sprinkled throughout there are still some nuggets. Chapter 13 is all about zits. If you get a discoloration on the skin of the body, a pustule or inflammation, then you have to go to the priest, and the priest will look at it to determine if it's unclean or not. If the hairs on the sore have turned white, that means it is malignant. Unfortunately I don't know what they are actually talking about. It's obviously not really acne--but what disease makes the hairs turn white? And is it true? Or is it another old wives' tale? I don't know, I just think it's funny that even adolescents with an acne problem have a chapter in the bible. Unfortunately, acne, like menstruation, is unclean!

I just did a quick search, as one might guess, the disease they were looking out for was leprosy. That page is kind of silly, but mildly interesting.

So you think it's just me that finds this book boring? It is so boring that for the first time in the entire bible, the scholars themselves found it so boring there are no footnotes on the zits page!

Leviticus 13:37--there are no blond people in the bible. That's interesting, isn't it? According to this chapter, you have to have black hair to be declared clean!

This rule is great: "One who suffers from a malignant skin-disease shall wear his clothes torn, leave his hair disheveled, conceal his upper lip, and cry, 'Unclean! Unclean!'" Except for my exposed upper lip, this is pretty much how I look every day! I will start yelling unclean whenever anyone comes close to me.

The rest of the chapter is about mould stains in buildings. Just a quick question: why didn't God just give us cleaning supplies, say, bleach, for instance?

Chapter 14 is more on disease. It's a little bit kinky--if someone gets sick they have to shave all their hair off, even their eyebrows!

Oh, I do have a question. (I apologize for the utterly disjointed nature of this post, but there is nothing interesting enough in these chapters to sustain a real conversation--I'm just throwing out whatever thoughts I have.) Why is God so concerned with "unclean"? That's one of those things that if you really think about it, makes no sense at all. Think about parents with their children, or people with their pets. Parents aren't disgusted when they have to suck snot out of their baby's nose with an eyedropper--why would God be disgusted by leprosy that he created? The rather obvious answer is that there was a point to these rituals, to keep disease from spreading. But if that's the case, why not attack the problem? Why not go into the tent, pray for 30 seconds, and God cures you? WHY make them go through this rigmarole? Just one more of an endless line of examples of Occam's Razor. There is an obvious answer: it was the priests who were trying to prevent disease. The alternate explanation, that God commanded it, makes no sense at all.

Does it make sense for God to be concerned about "unclean"? What could that possibly mean to him who made everything?

Chapter 15 is interesting. It is all sex rules. First it's apparently about gonorrhea, with a lot about what a guy should do with discharge from his penis. But then it goes into when a guy emits semen! Even I've done that before. When a man emits semen, and a woman has semen emitted upon her, both are unclean for the rest of the day. Finally, women having a period are also unclean.

The notes say the purpose of these rules is to effect a complete separation between sexual activity and cult worship. "This separation is in sharp contrast to some forms of religious expression among ancient peoples, for whom fertility rites were not uncommon." (15:16-18n) All these cool old religions with virgin sacrifices and so on, why did we get stuck with this stodgy old thing? Those other religions sound much more fun. But it is another example of the purpose of this book--to give this tribe something to believe in, something to distinguish it from the others.

Chapter 16 is nice, it's the yearly catch-all cleansing, to take care of any sins that were missed during the year. Note that all this is utterly antithetical to Christian belief.

One last thing, an example of how these things really are based on mythology, in 16:8, the priest is to prepare two sacrifices, one for God and one for Azazel--a demon who had been exorcised from the community. Again in verse 14, they throw the uncleanness eastward, in the direction of the desert, where demons were thought to dwell. (All that is from the notes.)

The rituals in this chapter are interesting, but so obviously mythical, it really boggles the mind that people could think this book is real. In this chapter, in order to rid the community of sin, the priest transfers the sins to a goat, then they release the goat out in the wilderness away from the encampment.

Again, as a simple guide of morality, and as a source of interesting stories, the bible is fine. But for anyone to believe either 1) that the bible is literally true, or 2) that it is the word of God, is just absurd.

All right! Three days to go! I hope we are at the end of the wilderness, and Deuteronomy is more interesting, but I have a feeling not.


--bibletoenail