but on a different princi|)le : " Duplex fuit immundities Ilebr. Ihia erat peccatum, (piia praecepto Dei vetita, talis erat comedere carnes immundas. Talis etiam erat pati lepram, etc. Altera non erat vetita, sed solum in- dicata et statuta. talis erat tangere leprosum, etc. Ihec non erant peccata, scd tantum in<lucel)ant irregularita- tem (piandam." INlodern Jews profess to be bound only by the former of these classes. The threefold classifica- tion, however, which is indicated in the law of IMoses itself seems to be most convenient, and is most com- monly adopted — {a) "Every leper;" {b) "Every one that hath an issue;" (c) "Whosoever is defiled by the dead" (see Numb, v, 2). The lawgiver, no doubt, here refers to bis own enactments in Leviticus, and under the three generic phrases includes all the instances of uncleanness.
(1.) He begins with leprosy, the gravest of all in- stances. A minute diagnosis of this terrible malady in its ceremonial character, and the purification which the law prescribed, are given in Lev. xiii. See Leprosv.
(2.) Lender the second head, of uncleanness from " is- sues," are included all those physical emanations or bodily discharges to which either sex is liable. They are described in their several details in the following passages: [1.] The woman's periodical issues in Lev. XV, 19-24, and irregular issues in ver. 25-27. These were alike unclean in themselves (the former for seven days, the latter during the irregularity), and communi- cated uncleanness during the day alike to '•whosoever touched her," "her bed," or "anything that she sat on;" from which uncleanness they escaped "at even" by washing their clothes and bathing. Any man who so far forgot decency as to lie with her and be stained with her menstrual taint incurred an equally long de- filement as the woman herself, and like her communi- cated uncleanness to the bed whereon he lay. On the day after the cessation of her issue (the eighth) the woman, for her purification, was to bring two turtle- doves or two young pigeons, one for a sin-offering and the other for a burut-offering, to the priest, who was to make atonement for her before the Lord. [2.] The is- sues of males, two sorts of wiiich are mentioned in Lev. XV, 3, produced uncleanness with etTects precisely sim- ilar to those of women (see ver. 4-12). This is not the place to discuss the nature of these male fluxes; jMichaelis adduces strong reasons for disputing the gen- eral opinion, which denies that the Gonorrhau virulenfa is referred to in the passage before us (Lavs of Moses [Smith's transl.], art. ccxii). See IssrK. The purifica- tion prescribed for men under this delilement is identi- cal with that for women (ver. 13-15). [3.] Sexual copulation, including conjugal intercourse, caused to both man and woman uncleanness "until the even," from which they were to cleanse themselves and their garments by bathing and washing (ver. 1(5-18). [4.] The final result of the sexual act in childbirth produced a still more marked defilement (see Lev. xii). The mother's uncleanness in this her puerperal state, on the birth of a boy, was identical in duration with that of her menstrual issues. Seven days was she unclean (ver. 2); on the eighth the child was circumcised (ver. 3) ; after which the mother remained in ])rivate, ex- cluded from the sanctuary, during thirty-three days more (ver. 4). This period of forty days' defilement was doubled in the case of the birth of a maid child (ver. 5). The purification rites of the mother, however, were the same, whether observed at the end t)f the forty or of the eighty days. She brought a yearling lamb for a burnt-offering, and a young pigeon or turtle-dove for a sin-offering, unto the priest, that he might make atonement for her before the Lord, and she might be cleansed. In case of inability to bring the lamb, the substitution of another young pigeon or turtle-dove by the mother was allowed (ver. 6-8; comp. the Virgin iMary's humbler offering in her "low estate." Luke ii, 22-24). In our general article on the Law oI'" ]\Iose.s, we had occasion to remark on the probable subst7alum
UNCLEANNESS
635
UNCLEANNESS
of moral and religious mystery which mnlerlies much of the ceremonial enactments. Tlie havoc made by sin on our human race seems most strongly indicated by the fact tliat the normal and inevitable conditions of our natural life are affected with uncleanness. The gradations of pollution from conception to parturition, and their remarkable culmination in the birth of tlie fe- male child, are wonderfully significant of the oriiiinal '■ transgression," and of woman's first and heavier sliare iu it (1 Tim. ii. 14 ; comp. with Gen. iii. G, lO, 17).
The two periods in the mother's purification are. however, different in character. •' For seven days, im- mediately after she is brought to bed. she lies "i^T3 nnKT31b2. ' in the blood of her uncleanness : but the three-and-thirty following, mnii "'?3T!1, 'in the blood of her purifying.' Although the privacy continued to the mother, she was after the seven days released from the ban of imcleanness. and did not communicate de- filement to others, as in the previous period of her per- fect isolation and disability. The old Jewish authori- ties are as usual very dogmatic on the point; "In Pe- dctha, col. 4, it is written, mnii "^TaTi^. "in the blood of her purifying :" n~\^7^•: in^D m p-Slir IS^SX, '• though she issue blood like a flood, yet is she clean." ' Nor doth she defile anything by touching it but what is holy" (Lightfoot, A'xe;c«V/. o« St. Luke [ed. PitmanJ, xii,37).