Priestly texts claim that holiness
cannot interact with sin and uncleanness without significant, and often
immediate, negative ramifications. (James A. Greenberg, A New Look at
Atonement in Leviticus: The Meaning and Purpose of Kipper Revisited [Bulletin
for Biblical Research Supplement 23; University Park, Pa.: Eisenbrauns, 2019], 52)
The footnote to the above provides a lengthy elaboration of this:
Unclean people are not to eat holy
food, lest they suffer the penalty of being cut off (Priestly Torah: Lev 7:20-21;
Holiness School: Lev 22:3). Nadab and Abihu are destroyed by YHWH’s fire as a
result of their disobedience of offering strange fire (Priestly Torah: Lev
10:1-2). The Nazirites, who are holy before YHWH, must not make themselves
unclean by going near a dead person (Priestly Torah: Num 6:6-8). The Nazirite
may deal with the issue of corpse contamination through cleansing and sacrifice
(Num 6:9-12); however, it is clear that the mixing of unclean and holy is prohibited.
While this study disagrees that unresolved corpse contamination (Holiness
School; resulting in being cut off: Num 19:13, 20), bodily impurities (Holiness
School; resulting in death: Lev 15:31), and the sin of Molech worship (Holiness
School; resulting in being cut off and death, Lev 20:1-5) cause the sanctuary to
be polluted, at the very least, these texts show that sin and uncleanness
should not interact with the holy. The priests and high priest, who are holy
must take special precautions to avoid sin and contact with uncleanness (Lev 21-22;16).
The daughter of a holy priest who becomes a harlot shall be burned by fire
(21:9). The high priest must not contaminate himself with a corpse, no matter
what his family relationship is with the deceased. Furthermore, he must not
leave the sanctuary with the anointing oil on him (21:12; cf. “lest he die,” Lev
10:7). Presumably, his holiness, as a result of the anointing oil, brings about
destruction to a common thing or person. Not only should the unclean not come
in contact with the holy but the common person must not come in contact with
the holy. While a common object may become holy by touching a sacred object
(Priestly Torah: Exod 29:37; 20:29; Lev 6:11 [Eng. 18], 20 [Eng. 27]; see also
Ezek 46:20), a common person, that is, a non-priest, shall receive the punishment
of death when attempting to enter the holy sanctuary (Holiness School: Num
1:51; 3:10, 38; 4:19; 17:5 [Heb.], 28 [Heb.]; 18:3, 7; even if they
unintentionally look upon the sanctuary while it is being dismantled; Holiness
School: Num 4:20; see also Neh 6:11). It is clear from the Priestly texts that
holiness is dangerous to the unclean and even to the common. It is important to
note that, with the possible exception of holy food (Lev 7:20-21; 22:3), it is always
the person who is negatively affected by holiness, not the other way around.
Wenham states, “It is not God who is endangered by the pollution of sin but man”
(Leviticus, 95). (Ibid., 52 n. 4)
