NUMBERS 19

  

Waters of Impurity (3 1/2" x 4 1/4" x 12 1/4")

Among the various prescribed rites found in the Pentateuch, the one described in Numbers 19 is unusual in that it really has nothing to do with atonement for sin as we would describe the word. But we should keep in mind that Hebrew thought looked at everything in the world through a lens that described a continuum of people and things that can be pictured somewhat as follows:

                                                              Figure 1: Degrees of Purity

                                        God ----> holy <----> clean <----> unclean <---- demonic

“To be tame, 'unclean,' meant to be in a state antithetical to that holiness in which fellowship with God and God's community was impossible.” (Ashley) And that uncleanness included transgressions of ritual laws as well as moral ones. In the case of death, dead bodies or places where people had died or were buried, coming in contact with any of these caused a person to become ritually unclean, for which a remedy was needed. This chapter contains the details concerning such a remedy.

A footnote in the Jerusalem Bible labels the procedures in Numbers 19 as “semi-magical.” By contrast, Wenham explains: “They are not doing something magical; rather, such ceremonies, just like ours, express the deepest truths about life as the society sees them.”

As to the all-important question of why coming in contact with the dead would result in a person becoming impure, Stubbs says that there was a need for “a purity that resists and disowns death and corruption – both of which are associated with the breakdown of God's life-giving order in the world...The red elements of the sacrifice – the red cow [or heifer], cedarwood, and 'crimson material' (19:6) '' are significant because they are the color of blood, a symbol of the power of life.”

In addition to this chapter, Ashley notes: “Defilement by a corpse is the presupposition behind such texts as Lev. 5:2; 11:8,24-25; 21:1-4,11; Num. 5:2; 6:6-12; 9:6-7,10-11.”

There is one additional element to the ritual – the involvement of a sprig of hyssop. Ashley notes, “Most commentators see hyssop as a purgative (cf. Ps. 51:7)...These same items are used in the narrative concerning the cleansing of lepers (Lev. 14:4,6,49,51-52), although used in a different way there."

Structure of the Chapter

I won't bore you by discussing all of the various proposals in the scholarly literature as to how this chapter is organized, but below is a brief summary of some of them.

    NRSV:                                    1-10a, 10b-13, 14-20, 21-22

    NIV, RSV:                              1-10,     11-13, 14-22

    JB:                                         1-10,      11-16, 19-22

    B.W. Anderson, Ashley:       1-10,      11-22

    Levine:                                  1-13,                 14-22

The start of two sections introduces what follows with the words: “This is (a statute of) the law” (vv. 1, 14), thus confirming the opinion of three of the above sources. And I decided to adopt the suggestion of commentators such as Ashley and the editors of NRSV to consider the phrase “This (it) shall be a perpetual statute” at 10b and 21a as constituting transitions between adjacent sections. Thus, we have the following arrangement for the chapter:

                                                     Figure 2: Organization of Numbers 19

                    A. Numbers 19:1-10a

                                        “This shall be a perpetual statute” (10b)

                    B. Numbers 19:11-13

                                                                -------------

                    C. Numbers 19:14-20

                                        “It shall be a perpetual statute” (21a)

                    D. Numbers 21b-22

Levine characterizes the first half of Chapter 19, as defined above, by the fact that it concerns the preparation of the water of cleansing. The second half describes the specific conditions under which it applies.

It may be accidental, but this overall two-fold division results in four each occurrences of the symbolic word “seven” in each half, and seven of these appearances are associated with “day.” In a similar manner, the root “clean” is found five times in each half (excluding the negative reference in 12b) for a total of ten (another symbolic number). We thus are given a two-fold indication that the prescribed rite will be “completely” successful in removing the impurity.

All but Section D in this overall organization begin at a commonly accepted point. However, in justification of this final division, Ashley says, “The last part of the passage [21b-22] continues to deal with uncleanness. The cases here, however, do not issue from direct contact with the dead...For this reason these regulations fall outside the main body of the passage, and look like an appendix.”

Additionally confirming these divisions are the similarities between the resulting openings and conclusions of the four sections defined above:

            A and C: As mentioned above, both begin with “This...is the law.” In addition, Levine notes that there are unspecified objects to verbs in verses 2,5, and 17.

            A and D: Both sections end with “unclean until evening.”

            B and D: Both begin with “touch” a dead body/ the water for cleansing.”

            B and C: Both begin similarly with “those who touch a dead body/ when someone dies...unclean 7 days.”

            B and C: Both end similarly with three consequences.

                    Section B: unclean, defile the Sanctuary, cut off from Israel

                    Section C: unclean, cut off from Israel, defile the Sanctuary

Concerning these last parallels, Levine says, “The mere likelihood that a contaminated individual might enter the sacred space of the Sanctuary was sufficient to pose a real threat to its purity, even if the event did not actually occur, because the impurity of the dead generated additional impurity. The danger to the Sanctuary is explicitly stated in Num 19:13 and repeated in Num 19:20, so that both sections [i.e. halves] of the chapter, it turns out, convey this principle.”

Importance in the New Testament

Offhand, most of us would consider such an arcane ceremony to have little lasting significance to Christians today. But consider the following places in the New Testament where there are possible allusions to this chapter. Knowing the regulations in Numbers 19 in conjunction with the diagram in Figure 1 will help you better understand these passages.

Mark 11:2 Not long after Jesus enters Jerusalem on “a colt that had never been ridden,” he is arrested and crucified. J.A. Thompson compares this to the red heifer of Numbers 19 which is not to have previously borne a yoke (v. 1,2): “i.e. it is to be wholly to the Lord's sole service.”

Luke 8:26-39 It should be no surprise in light of Figure 1 that the demon-possessed man should find a home among the tombs.

Luke 10:29-37 Numbers 19 stands as the background for Jesus' Parable of the Good Samaritan and gives the reason for the reluctance of religious leaders to come in contact with a person who might be dead since the purification rites necessary for a priest were especially stringent (see Numbers 19:3-7).

Luke 11:44 Jesus castigates the Pharisees for being “like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without realizing it.” (NRSV) In other words, those religious leaders give the unwary no warning that their teachings and examples are causing people to stumble and become unclean in God's eyes.

Hebrews 9:13-14 This passage reads, “For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkled ashes of a heifer have power to hallow those who have been defiled and restore their external spirit, how much greater is the power of the blood of Christ; he offered himself without blemish [see Numbers 19:2b] to God, a spiritual and and eternal sacrifice...” (NEB)

Hebrews 13:12-13 The author says that Jesus suffered outside the city gate. In the same manner, Numbers 19:3 states that the red-heifer ceremony to take away impurity is to be conducted outside the camp. Levine explains that “riddance implies the transfer of sinfulness and impurity to the victim, in this case, to the red cow [free from impurity]...“rites of riddance were normally enacted outside the camp.”

I Peter 1:2 Peter talks about those who have been chosen and sanctified by the Spirit and sanctified by being sprinkled with his blood. “Michaels suggests that Num. 19, the red-heifer ceremony, is the primary OT background [for this verse].” (Carson)

I John 1:7 “As the men of the old covenant had in this ritual an ever-ready means of bodily purification, so we are reminded that 'the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin' (I Jn. 1:7).” (Wenham)

To these references we could add those places in the New Testament such as II Corinthians 5:21 and Hebrews 7:26 in which the sacrificed Jesus was said to be without sin just as the red heifer of Numbers 19:2 needed to be without flaw in order to take away the ritual impurity of man.