Why were females worth less than males in Leviticus?

Answer 1

They wasn't. Their personal habits made the nation of Israel a comparatively healthy people, notwithstanding their nomadic wanderings in the wilderness for 40 years. God's laws governing their camp life, including the diagnosis and treatment of diseases, were unquestionably responsible for this. The importance of clean water was emphasized under this arrangement. Not all animals were classified as clean for food. (See ANIMALS.) Precautionary regulations governed the handling and disposal of dead bodies. Quarantines acted as barriers against the spread of contagious diseases. Sewage disposal by burying excreta was a sanitation requirement far in advance of the times. (De 23:12-14) The requirements of frequent bathing and the washing of clothes were also beneficial provisions in that nation's code of laws. The Bible lists some 70 causes of physical uncleanness and ceremonial defilement. Among these are: contact with dead bodies (Le 11:32-40; Nu 19:11-19); contact with unclean persons or things (Le 15:4-12, 20-24; Nu 19:22); leprosy (Le 13:1-59); physical discharges of the sex organs, including emission of semen during sexual intercourse (Le 15:1-3, 16-19, 32, 33); childbirth (Le 12:1-5); eating the flesh of unclean birds, fish, or animals (Le 11:41-47). The priests were especially obligated to be physically as well as ceremonially clean when serving before Jehovah. (Ex 30:17-21; Le 21:1-7; 22:2-8) In a special sense the land could be polluted by acts of murder and idolatry.-Nu 35:33, 34; Eze 22:2-4; 36:25 Giving birth also meant a period of uncleanness for the mother. If the baby was a boy, she was unclean for seven days, the same as during her menstrual period. The eighth day the child was circumcised, but for another 33 days the mother was unclean with regard to touching anything holy or coming into the sanctuary, though she did not make unclean everything she touched. If the baby was a girl, this 40-day period was doubled: 14 days plus 66 days. Thus, from birth, the Law distinguished between male and female, assigning to the latter a subordinate position. In either case, at the end of the period of purification she was to bring a ram less than a year old for a burnt offering and a young pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering. If the parents were too poor to afford a ram, as was the case with Mary and Joseph, then two doves or two pigeons served for the cleansing sacrifices.-Le 12:1-8; Lu 2:22-24. Whydid the MosaicLaw say thatsexual intercourse andchildbirth made aperson "unclean"? The question arises: Why were such normal, proper things as menstruation, sexual intercourse between married persons, and childbirth viewed in the Law as making one "unclean"? For one thing, it raised the most intimate relations of marriage to the level of sanctity, teaching both mates self-control, a high regard for the reproductive organs, and respect for the sacredness of life and blood. The hygienic benefits that accrued from scrupulous observance of these regulations have also been commented on. But there is yet another aspect of the matter. In the beginning God created the sex impulses and generative powers in the first man and woman and commanded them to cohabit and bring forth children. It was therefore no sin for the perfect pair to have sexual intercourse. However, when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, not in the matter of sex relations, but in eating the forbidden fruit, drastic changes took place. Suddenly their guilty sin-stricken consciences made them aware of their nakedness, and they immediately covered their genital organs from God's sight. (Ge 3:7, 10, 11) From then on, men could not carry out the procreative mandate in perfection, but, instead, the hereditary blemish of sin and the penalty of death would be transmitted from the parents to children. Even the most upright and God-fearing parents produce sin-infected children.-Ps 51:5. The Law's requirements pertaining to the functions of the reproductive organs taught men and women self-discipline, restraint of passions, and respect for God's means of propagation. The Law's regulations forcefully reminded creatures of their sinful state; these were not merely health measures to ensure cleanliness or prophylactic safeguards against the spread of diseases. As a reminder of man's inherited sinfulness, it was fitting that both the male and the female with genital discharges due to normal functions of their bodies observe a period of uncleanness. If suffering abnormal prolonged discharges because of defective conditions, a more extensive period of uncleanness was demanded; and in the end, as also when a mother gave birth, in addition to bathing, a sinoffering was necessary, so that God's priest might make atonement in behalf of the person. Jesus' mother Mary thus confessed to her hereditary sinfulness, acknowledging that she was not sinless, immaculate, by offering a sin-atoning sacrifice after giving birth to her firstborn.-Lu 2:22-24.