Thursday, March 31, 2022

James A. Greenberg on the Potency and Power of "Holiness"

  

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)

 

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