You have to read, study and pray the Old Testament in the genre that it was written in those days in order to get a better understanding of what is being said.
Well, let me give you an example of how I go about studying these old documents. Take this bit from the Book of Numbers:
1 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron: 2 “This is a requirement of the law that the Lord has commanded: Tell the Israelites to bring you a red heifer without defect or blemish and that has never been under a yoke. 3 Give it to Eleazar the priest; it is to be taken outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence. 4 Then Eleazar the priest is to take some of its blood on his finger and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the tent of meeting. 5 While he watches, the heifer is to be burned—its hide, flesh, blood and intestines. 6 The priest is to take some cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet wool and throw them onto the burning heifer. 7 After that, the priest must wash his clothes and bathe himself with water. He may then come into the camp, but he will be ceremonially unclean till evening. 8 The man who burns it must also wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he too will be unclean till evening.
Now, the unlettered atheist would casually hold these passages up for ridicule, pointing to them as an example of the "ridiculous" rituals practiced by the ancient priests. That is where you start to see the difference between an atheist and a humanist: a humanist does not stop seeing the world as magical just because he does not believe in magic. I am looking at the ingredients here, and my interest is very much aroused. Let's take hyssop, for example:
If you were to look at how hyssop is used in other parts of the Bible, you would notice a pattern of it being used in ritual cleansing. I am assuming that the priests were relatively knowledgeable in herb lore, so I am going to experiment with the idea that hyssop might be useful as a cleansing agent.
Well, my first step is to explore whether it is useful as a laxative because "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean" (Psalm 51:7) suggests that it might have been used for this purpose. Well, I found this site right here:
http://www.globalherbalsupplies.com/herb_information/hyssop.htm
According to this site, it is an immensely useful member of the mint family! Global Herb Supplies identifies for us 14 distinct things it actually does when taken internally. It acts as:
- antiseptic [an agent for inhibiting the growth of microorganism on living tissue or destroying pathogenic or putrefactive bacteria]
- antispasmodic [an agent which relieves or eases muscular spasms, cramps or convulsions]
- astringent [a binding agent that contracts organic tissue, reducing secretions or discharges of mucous and fluid from the body]
- carminative [an agent for easing griping pains, colic and expelling gas from the intestines]
- diaphoretic [an agent that promotes perspiration]
- emmenagogue [an agent that promotes menstrual flow]
- expectorant [an agent that promotes the discharge of mucous and secretions from the respiratory passages]
- pectoral [remedy for pulmonary or other lung and chest diseases]
- purgative [an agent that produces a vigorous emptying of the bowels, more drastic than a laxative or aperient]
- stimulant [an agent that excites or quickens the functional activity of the tissues giving more energy]
- stomachic [an agent that strengthens, stimulates or tones the stomach]
- sudorific [an agent that promotes or increases perspiration]
- tonic [an agent that tones, strengthens and invigorates organs or the entire organism giving a feeling of well-being]
- vermifuge [an agent to expel parasitic worms, especially of the intestines]
And that's just what it does directly when taken internally. However, it still looks like an empty ritual if you only consider what it does when taken internally. The way they are using it, it doesn't look like they are prescribing it for internal use in this section of the Book of Numbers. Therefore, what I am going to do is scroll down and examine the list of external uses:
- for bruises and discolored contusions
- for burns
- for cuts
- for skin irritations
- for swellings
- for the relief of muscular rheumatism
- to aid in healing of wounds
- to bathe tired and aching eyes (very dilute)
Well, based on this list, I could form the impression that my original speculation might be correct. It really seems like they might be putting hyssop to some sort of legitimate use as a cleansing agent.
Considering that this website has proven useful for getting good information on hyssop, I will use it to explore the uses of cedar. Check this out:
http://www.globalherbalsupplies.com/herb_information/cedar.htm
Here is a list of external uses:
- fungal growths
- muscular aches and pains
- removing warts
- rheumatism
- skin afflictions
Here are some other uses:
- cosmetics
- perfume
- scenting soaps
- the wood is used for light roofing timber, palings, fencing, etc.
Now, I have a pet theory that the "scarlet wool" refers to an agent used for dying wool, not to actual wool off of a sheep.
Well, I did some research on what dyes might have been used in the ancient world to produce a strong red color, and it just looks increasingly like madder is a strong candidate. Here is a site on it:
http://doctorschar.com/archives/madder-rubia-tinctoria/
According to Doctor Schar, here are some external uses:
"The fruit is useful in hepatic obstructions, and a paste made by rubbing up the roots with honey is mentioned as a valuable application for the removal of freckles and other discolorations of the skin. It is regarded as astringent and useful as an application in external inflammations, ulcers and skin diseases such as pityriasis versicolour, etc. Madder is now chiefly used as a colouring ingredient of medicinal oils."
Another reason I doubt that they were burning dyed wool, though, is that the Westminster Leningrad Codex says nothing about wool. A direct translation just says "scarlet."
Numbers 6:
וְלָקַ֣ח הַכֹּהֵ֗ן עֵ֥ץ אֶ֛רֶז וְאֵזֹ֖וב וּשְׁנִ֣י תֹולָ֑עַת וְהִשְׁלִ֕יךְ אֶל־תֹּ֖וךְ שְׂרֵפַ֥ת הַפָּרָֽה׃
Here, "וּשְׁנִ֣י" or, for pronciation, "usheni," does not refer specifically to dyed fabric, and I think the translators were taking liberties, here, based on the assumption that the priests were engaged in ritual nonsense and symbolic
hocus pocus.
Therefore, let's take all of these ingredients and their uses together, and let's consider why the priests are ritually burning a cow and mixing in these ingredients. It's actually explained pretty clearly right here:
"9 “A man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and put them in a ceremonially clean place outside the camp. They are to be kept by the Israelite community for use in the water of cleansing; it is for purification from sin. 10 The man who gathers up the ashes of the heifer must also wash his clothes, and he too will be unclean till evening. This will be a lasting ordinance both for the Israelites and for the foreigners residing among them.
11 “Whoever touches a human corpse will be unclean for seven days. 12 They must purify themselves with the water on the third day and on the seventh day; then they will be clean. But if they do not purify themselves on the third and seventh days, they will not be clean. 13 If they fail to purify themselves after touching a human corpse, they defile the Lord’s tabernacle. They must be cut off from Israel. Because the water of cleansing has not been sprinkled on them, they are unclean; their uncleanness remains on them."
"Purification from sin," my ass. I could make a strong argument, here, that the priests were doing nothing more extraordinary (in my opinion, "nothing less extraordinary") than making a very effective soap for cleansing the body. I honestly doubt that it was intended to be an empty ritual. I think that this was a deadly serious attempt, by learned and lettered men, to ward off diseases and plagues.
As for why they were not more clear on this, you have to understand that the people they were trying to govern were primitive savages, and they had had to bust their asses to be even remotely better. Do you think being a graduate student is hard now? These ancient priests were lucky if they didn't lose their minds.
Anyway, when I say that you have to really take a lot of time and energy to give the Bible a thorough study, that is what I meant. I mean, you might study the same passages and form a very different conclusion from me. You would most likely be applying a drastically different theory of interpretation. Nevertheless, I hope you can appreciate how labor-intensive it is to really do justice to reading the Old Testament.
