Milgrom views the prohibition in
Lev 12:4, “the parturient must not touch any consecrated thing or enter the
sanctuary until her days of purification are complete,” as a clear indication
that there is a transition of contagion levels of the parturient between states
one and two (Milgrom, Leviticus 1-16, 992). According to Milgrom, Lev
12:4 stipulates that after the parturient launders and bathes, she no longer
infects the sacred by air but may infect the sacred by touch. Furthermore, in
respect to the common, the parturient is no longer contagious and may resume
most if not all of her normal activities in the community.
Following the case of the
menstruant’s impurity outlined in Lev 15:19-23, in agreement with Milgrom, the
parturient is contagious to the common by touch in stage one (she is contagious
to objects that are underneath her, people who touch those objects, and through
intercourse following the stipulations of the menstruant [ibid., 952-53]).
Furthermore, like the menstruant, the contagious nature of the parturient to
the common ends after stage one (see Lev 15:19, where the time the menstruant
is unclean and contagious by touch is restricted unless the discharge
continues; see also v. 25). Thus, in agreement with Milgrom, the text seems to show
that, after purification stage 2, the effect the parturient has on the common
is reduced by one degree, from touch to nothing. Finally, with Milgrom by stage
three, the parturient must enter the sanctuary in a clean state, since her interaction
with the holy sanctuary in an unclean state would mean her death (Ibid.,
945-46).
However, in disagreement with
Milgrom, the text shows that the parturient is more contagious to the sacred by
one degree of intensity in every purification stage. Leviticus 12:4 makes more
sense if it is truly a warning and not, as Milgrom contends, an explicit
statement specifying the change in the contagion of the parturient to the
sacred after her first purification stage (Ibid., 992). The Priestly
legislators must remind the parturient that even though she is not contagious
to the common she is still unclean in reference to the sacred. This warning is
understandable given that the thirty-three (or sixty-six) day duration for her
last purification stage is by far the longest waiting period for any bodily impurity
in the Priestly Torah. None of the other bodily impurity rituals have a text
that states the affected person may not touch a consecrated thing or enter the
sanctuary. Why not? The other bodily impurities do not have a final
purification stage that lasts more than seven days. As a result, it is unlikely
that Lev 12:4 explains the change in the parturient contagious nature to the
sacred, from aerial to touch. Rather, it explains how the contagion of the
parturient to the common has changed. This change in respect to the common
and the long duration of stage three required a warning to the parturient.
While she is no longer unclean to the common, she is still unclean to the
sacred.
Thus, until the last purification
stage, the parturient seems to be always unclean in reference to the sacred,
but her contagious level to the common reduces after each purification stage.
Only during the last purification stage is the parturient more contagious to
(and so endangered by) the sacred than to the common by one degree. Thus, the
last purification stage is the required time interval to move the person with
bodily impurity from an unclean to a clean state in respect to the sacred. (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], 96-97, emphasis added)
In a footnote to the above, Greenberg asks the question
Why do people with bodily impurities
require waiting periods before they are declared clean in relation to the
sacred? Perhaps it is a precautionary period to ensure all of the unclean
substance is removed. For example, a parturient’s bleeding may stop significantly
in the timespan of seven to fourteen days; however, bleeding may continue to a
lesser extent for up to six weeks (Ibid., 749; Wenham, Leviticus, 188).
It seems as though bodily impurity that was visible to the eye was contagious
to the common. Bodily impurity that was no longer visible or significantly
reduced was no longer contagious to the common but may still be considered to
be endangered by the sacred. (Ibid., 97 n. 17)
