Purification of a woman after childbirth
1 ① Yahweh spoke to Moses: 2“Say to the Israelites: when a woman gives birth to a male child, she shall be unclean for seven days as in the days of her monthly period. 3On the eighth day the child is to be circumcised; 4then she shall wait for thirty-three days to be purified of her bleeding. She shall not touch anything that is consecrated nor enter the sanctuary until the days of her purification are completed.
5If she gives birth to a daughter she shall be unclean for two weeks as in her menstruation; then she shall wait sixty-six days to be purified from her bleeding.
6And when the days of her purification are completed whether for a son or daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the door of the Tent of Meeting, a lamb born that year for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering. 7The priest shall then offer it to Yahweh to make atonement for her and she shall be cleansed from the flow of her blood.
This is the law for the woman who gives birth to a child, male or female. 8But if she cannot offer a lamb, she shall take two turtledoves or two young pigeons, the one for a burnt offering, the other for a sin offering. The priest shall make atonement for her and she will be purified.”
- Lev 12,1 Primitive people often contrast the pure and noble blood of a male, shed in wars, to the impure flow of blood during a woman's period. Therefore, childbirth and a woman's periods preoccupy men (they are the ones who impose the rules and make the laws) and they require purification rituals. In this we see how, although they are part of the word of God, the rules of the Old Testament were adapted to ancient times and to the criteria of the people of Israel. God's people were aware of this, which they expressed in their own way by saying that the Law was planned by angels: Acts 7:38; Gal 3:19; Heb 2:2. Jesus and his mother submitted themselves to these rituals (Lk 2:21).
