iL TXm ])urpose of the ashes prepared as above la expressly dec-lared to be ' for (the preparation of) a water of separation' (.i-i -c^ v.'; R\ m 'a water of impurity '). The meaning of these words was early misunderstood. The LXX, followed by aU the chief ancient versions, connecting rni nidddh with the Aramaic form of the Heb. nu ' to sprinkle,' rendered the phrase by ioup jiavnafiov ' water of sprinkling,' Jerome's aqua aspersionis, Luther'a Sprenqwasser. In reality the verb n^j (see Is 66°) denoted in the technical language of the priests ' to exclude from the cultus,' in post-biblical Hebrew ' to excommunicate ' ; hence the substantive nidddh denotes 'that which excludes from the cultus,' t viz. ceremonial uncletmness or impurity. Mi niddCih (lit. 'water of exclusion') accordingly signifies water for removinij the uncleanness whicIi is the cause of this exclusion ; In other words, as suggested by RVm, ' water [for the removal] of impurity.' The mode of preparation was of the sim[)Iest : 'for the unclean they sh.all take of the ashes of the burning of the sin -offering, and running water shall Ije put thereto in a vessel' (v." RV). This simple procedure was later elaborated with the most ingenious detail, if we are to believe the statements of the Mishna, to which the student is referred (Prtrn/t iii. 2-5). A clean person — accord- ing to Parah xii. 10, an adult male, not a female, though the latter might hold the vessel — took a bunch of hysso]), dipped it in the ' water of im- purity,'and s]irinkled the house in which a death had taken place, and all the persons and utensils therein, except such of the latter as were provided with lids, or were otherwise closed against the contagion of uncleanness (v."). The same lustra- tion was required in the case of uncleanness con-
" Four are named in Parah iii. 8 : fJN and pit (Aagyr. Irinrt, ' cedar '), two species of Juniper (probably), Cii3 ' cypress,' and
fig-
t Ibn Ezra appears to be the first to grasp the true connexion Iwtween the verb and the substantive. See his conim. in toe. Rashi kept to the traditional view .T'1.1 "cS 'for water ol sprinkling.' The commentaries of both exegetea ore found in the ordinary Rabbinic Bibles.
RED HEIFER
RED HEIFER
209
tracted by every one who had occasion to toucli a dead body, whether the person had died a natural or a violent death, and by every one who liad tonchcd even a bone of the linnian bodj- or a grave (v.'»).
By a separate enactment (Nu 31""**; note esp. .■r;i,-!n r-n v.''), which likewise bears every indica- tion of belonging to the latest stratum of the priestly legislation, the 'water of impurity' had to be employed on the return from a campaign for the cleansing of the soldiers and their captives (31"), including their clothes and impedimenta (v.*). The spoil, also, of precious and useful metals taken from the enemy, after a preliminary purilieation by being passed through the lire, had to be finally purified by the application of the ' water of impurity ' (v.^).
In the case of unclean persons the sprinkling Ras performed on the third and seventh days following that on which the uncleanness had been «3ntracted. On the seventh day 'at even' or sundown, after having bathed their persons and washed their clothes, they were once more clean. The ban of exclusion from tlie cultus was finally removed, and the persons all'ected resumed their place in the holy community of J".
iii. Origin and significance of the rite. — Although the chapter before us may, or ratlier must, have assumed its present form at a comparatively late period, the essential part of the ceremony of lus- tration may be conlidently affirmed to be of extreme antiquity, for the mystery attaching to the beginning and the end of life, and to tlio blood aa the vehicle of life, has impressed mankind from the earliest days. In all forms of primitive religious thought a dead body is conceived as a TOurce of real, if undefined, danger to nil in |ii<)xiniity to it. Itself in the highest degree unclean, in modem phrase taboo, it becomes an active source of uncleanness, and renders taboo everyone and evcrj-thing about it. These death taboos, as they may be called, were in full force among the ancient Hebrews, as among the other nations of antiquity, and the means used to remove the taboo were to a large extent identical. Primarily, as Kobertson Smith has pointed out, 'purification means the application to the person ot some medium which removes a taboo, and enables a person to mingle freely in the onlinary life of his fellows' (RS^ 405). The most widely distributed medium is, of course, water, but for aggravated ca-ses of uncleanness this medium was supposed to acquire increa.sed potency through the addition of ashes (see the rett'. to ancient writers quoted by Bahr, Symbolik, ii. 495, and Knobel in Dillmann's commentary, in loc). Here, then, ue have the origin of the essential part of the Hebrew rite.
Closely connected with this circle of ideas is the nniveisal belief of primitive man that sickness and death are caused by harmful and malevolent spirits whose anger be has incurred (cf. Demon, vol. i. p. 590*). An interesting survival of this primitive mode of thought may, we venture to think, be found in the ritual of the red heifer. Much laboured ingenuity has been exjiended in finding suitable symbolical meanings for each of the 'cedar wood, liyssop, and scarlet' which were a«lded to the burning pyre. According to some, cedar, hastily assumed to be the majestic cedar of Lebnniin, is the symbol of pride, aa hyssop of humility ; according to others, cedar, the incor- ruptible wood, was chosen ' aa tyjiical of eternity of life, hyssop of purification from the power of death, and scarlet thread to show the intensity of life in the red heifer.' The true explanation, it seems to us, is to be found in the primitive concep- tion referred to above. We have here a meaning- vou iv._i4