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Cover image for book Body, Gender and Purity in Leviticus 12 and 15

Body, Gender and Purity in Leviticus 12 and 15

By:Dorothea Erbele-Küster
Publisher:Bloomsbury USA
Print ISBN:9780567708762
eText ISBN:9780567496652
Edition:1
Copyright:2017
Format:Page Fidelity

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The so-called purity laws in Leviticus 11-15 reflect a cultic and social view on the male and female body. These texts do not give detailed physiological descriptions. Instead, they prescribe what to do in the cases of skin disease, delivery and wo/man's genital discharges, but the particular way of dealing with the body and the language used in Leviticus 12 and 15 ask for clarification: How do these texts construct the male and female body? Which roles does gender play within this language?

By means of themes like menstruation and circumcision, the author unfolds the language used for the body in Leviticus and its interpretation history. The study provides material for a contemporary anthropology of bodies which relates the human sexed body to God's holiness.