What does the chapter actually say?
Identify the explicit claims before importing later doctrine or assumptions.
LEVITICUS • CHAPTER 12
Leviticus 12
Priesthood, sacrifice, ritual purity, holiness, sexuality, food, festivals, atonement, and Israel's sacred order.
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Leviticus 12
WORLD ENGLISH BIBLE
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Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
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“Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘If a woman conceives, and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days; as in the days of her monthly period she shall be unclean.
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In the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.
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She shall continue in the blood of purification thirty-three days. She shall not touch any holy thing, nor come into the sanctuary, until the days of her purifying are completed.
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But if she bears a female child, then she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her period; and she shall continue in the blood of purification sixty-six days.
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“ ‘When the days of her purification are completed for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the door of the Tent of Meeting, a year old lamb for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon or a turtledove, for a sin offering.
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He shall offer it before Yahweh, and make atonement for her; then she shall be cleansed from the fountain of her blood. “ ‘This is the law for her who bears, whether a male or a female.
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If she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtledoves or two young pigeons: the one for a burnt offering, and the other for a sin offering. The priest shall make atonement for her, and she shall be clean.’ ”
TORAH
Where this chapter fits
Leviticus belongs to the Torah/Pentateuch, the foundational collection of Israel's law and origin traditions.
Chapter numbers were added long after the biblical books were written.
Read this chapter together with what comes immediately before and after it.
ANCIENT TEXT, MODERN QUESTIONS
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