'Til Death Do Us Part

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'Til Death Do Us Part

• Num 19

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Out of the Silent Planet

• Lewis suggests that death is a natural part of
  life itself and that it is because humans are
  fallen that this is not understood

C. S. Lewis
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Death Anxiety Scale

• Donald I. Templer
• Psychological health
• Experiences pertaining to the matter of death.

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Death in Numbers

• Num 5.1-4 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying
  Command the Israelites to put out of the camp
  everyone who is leprous, or has a discharge, and
  everyone who is unclean through contact with a
  corpse you shall put out both male and female,
  putting them outside the camp they must not
  defile their camp, where I dwell among them. The
  Israelites did so, putting them outside the camp
  as Yahweh had spoken to Moses, so the Israelites
  did. (See 6.6-12)?

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Death as Judgment

• Num 11.33-35

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Death as Judgment

• Num 14.29-30, 35, 36-38

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Death as Judgment

• Num 16.31-34

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Death as Judgment

• Num 16.35

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Death as Judgment

• Num 16.41-50

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Miriam Aaron

• Num 20.1b . . . and they stayed at Kadesh.
  Miriam died there and was buried there.
• Num 20.28b . . . and Aaron died there on the top
  of the mountain (Mt. Hor) . . . .

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The Red Heifer
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Num 19.1-2

• And Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron saying, "This
  is the statute of the Law which Yahweh has
  commanded, saying 'Tell the Israelites to bing to
  you a red heifer without defect, in which there
  is no blemish, on which no yoke has been laid.

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Num 19.3-4

• You will give it to Eleazar the priest. He
  (another person) shall take it outside of the
  camp and slaughter it before him. Eleazar the
  priest shall take its blood with his finger and
  sprinkle its blood seven times toward the Tent of
  Meeting.

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Num 19.5-6

• He shall burn the heifer in his sight its hide,
  its flesh, its blood, its dung, he will burn. The
  priest will take cedar wood and hyssop and
  crimson material and throw it into the midst of
  the burning heifer.

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Num 19.7-8

• Then the priest shall wash his garments and bathe
  his body in water. Afterwards he may come into
  the camp and the priest will be unclean until
  evening. The one who burns it shall wash his
  garments and bathe his body in water. He shall be
  unclean until evening.

• Mikvah at Qumran

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Num 19.9-10

• A clean man shall gather up the ash of the heifer
  and deposit it in a clean place outside of the
  camp. It will be kept for the community of the
  Israelites for the water of cleansing. It is a
  purification offering. He who gathers the ash of
  the heifer shall wash his garments and be unclean
  until evening. This shall be a perpetual statute
  for the Israelites and for strangers who are in
  their midst.

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Num 19.11-12

• He who touches the corpse of any one shall be
  unclean for seven days. He shall purify himself
  with it on the third day and on the seventh day.
  But if he does not purify himself on the third
  day and on the seventh, he will not be clean.

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Num 19.13

• Anyone who touches a corpse, the body of a person
  who has died and does not purify himself, defiles
  the tabernacle of Yahweh. That person shall be
  cut off from Israel for the water of cleansing
  was not dashed on him, he remains unclean. His
  uncleaness is still on him.

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Num 19.14-15

• This is the Law when a person dies in a tent
  whoever enters the tent and whoever is in the
  tent shall be unclean seven days. And every open
  vessel, with no lid fastened down, shall be
  unclean.

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Num 19.16

• Anyone in the open field who touches a person who
  was killed with a sword or who died naturally or
  a human bone or a grave will be unclean for seven
  days.

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Num 19.17-18

• And they shall take some of the ash of the burnt
  purification offering and put running water into
  it in a vessel. Then a clean person shall take
  hyssop and dip it in the water and sprinkle it on
  the tent, on all the furnishings, on the persons
  who were there . . . on the one who touched human
  bones or the slain or one who died or the grave.

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Num 19.19-20

• The clean person shall sprinkle the unclean
  person on the third day and on the seventh day,
  thus cleansing him by the seventh day. He shall
  then wash his clothes and bathe in water and by
  evening shall be clean. If anyone who has become
  unclean does not cleanse himself, that person
  shall be cut off from the midst of the
  congregation for he has defiled the sanctuary of
  Yahweh. The water of cleansing was not dashed on
  him, he is unclean.

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Num 19.21-22

• It shall be a perpetual statute for them. The one
  who sprinkles the water of cleansing shall wash
  his clothes, and whoever touches the water of
  cleansing will be unclean until evening. Whatever
  touches the unclean person shall be unclean and
  the person who touches him shall be unclean until
  evening.

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The Puzzle of Num 19

• This is the statute of the Torah. R. Isaac
  opened with the text All this I have tried (to
  fathom) by wisdom I said, I will get wisdom but
  it was far from me (Ecclesiastes 723). Thus
  spoke Solomon I succeeded in understanding the
  whole Torah, but, as soon as I reached this
  chapter about the Red Heifer, I searched, probed
  and questioned, I said I will get wisdom but it
  was far from me (Yalkut Shimoni 759)?

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Uniqueness of Num 19 as a Sacrifice

• The cow killed outside the camp, without altar in
  direct contradiction of Lev 17.
• Cow should be perfect and unblemished is
  normative (Lev 22.17-25), but not having a yoke
  placed on it is unique. (See Deut 21.3 1 Sam
  67 Deut 15.19)?
• The burning of the cow is to provide ashes.

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Clarification

• Holy or sacred implies a separation to God and
  being set apart from the common.
• The definition of common is technically
  complicated because it is found only in Lev 10.10
  in the Torah (See 1 Sam 2110-11 Ezek 2226
  4220 4423 4815)?
• Impure and pure are ritual terms that are
  explicated in Lev 11ff.

Holy
Common
Sin
Pure
Impure
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Tolerated Impurities

• 1. Death related impurities the human corpses
• 2. Sexual impurities semen, menstrual blood,
  etc.
• 3. Disease related impurities
• 4. Cultic impurities

• They can cause impurities in other people or
  objects
• The are tolerated because they deal with natural
  things, but they tend to be contrary to the idea
  of being fruitful . . . . blessing

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The Problem with the Dead

• 1. Burial in Open Fields
• 50 in Middle Bronze, 20 in Iron Age
• Usually adult males
• A dead ancestor makes the perfect guard for the
  fallow fields

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The Problem with the Dead

• 2. Tombs Under the Houses
• Oldest and infants
• 17 of the house sites had infant jar burials in
  the Middle Bronze 14 in the Iron Age

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The Problem with the Dead

• 3. Cemeteries
• Grew like cities in the biblical period
• Some are smaller with a half-dozen
  shaft-and-chamber tombs, while others include
  hundreds of multiple interments

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Cult of the Dead

• Exod 22.18 You shall not permit a female
  sorcerer to live. Witch Deut 18.10-11 Lev
  20.6, 27 versus 1 Sam 28

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Cult of the Dead

• The ultimate goal of the Cult of the Dead was to
  keep the doors of communication open between the
  realm of the living and the realm of the dead.
  Hallote, Death, Burial, and Afterlife in the
  Biblical World
• Cult of the Dead was therefore family oriented

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Summary

• The ritual of the Red Heifer dealt with the whole
  idea of impurities not sin. . . . but if not
  dealt with it could lead to sin.
• God intended to bless human kind with
  fruitfulness and the ritual impurities
  symbolically speak against God's blessing.
• Death pollution was considered the worst case of
  impurity because it possibly led to the cult of
  the dead.

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