Table of Contents

The Temple: Its Ministry and Services
Alfred Edersheim

Chapter 18
On Purification

• The Red Heifer Symbolical meaning of Levitical defilements and purifications
• The Offering for the First-born --The purification of the Virgin Mary in the Temple
• Purification for the Dead --Defilement by contact with death
• The Six Degrees of Defilement
• Death the Greatest Defilement
• Levitical Defilement Traceable to Death --Sacrifice of the red heifer--Preservation of its ashes, and use of them in purification--Symbolical meaning of this purification
• The Scape-goat, the Red Heifer, and the Living Bird Dipped in Blood --Analogy between the red heifer, the scape-goat, and the living bird let loose in cleansing the leper
• These Sacrifices Defiled Those Who Took Part In Them --Why was the heifer wholly burnt?
• Significance of the Red Heifer --Meaning of the use of the ashes of the red heifer--Rabbinical tradition about Solomon's ignorance of the meaning of this rite
• The Sacrifice of the Red Heifer --Selection of the red heifer--Ceremonial in its sacrifice and burning--Selection of one so free from suspicion of defilement as to administer this purification
• Children Used in the Offering --Children kept in special localities for that purpose--Ceremonial connected with the purification--How many red heifers had been offered from the time of Moses
• Purification of the Leper --Symbolical meaning of leprosy--Lepers admitted to special places in the synagogue
• Examination of the Leper --How the priests were to examine and pronounce judgment on leprosy
• Right Meaning of Leviticus 13:12, 13
• The Mishnah --Two-fold rites in restoring the healed leper--First, or social stage of purification
• The Second Stage --Second stage after seven days' seclusion--The rites to be observed in it --Rabbinical account of the service
• Purification from Suspicion of Adultery --The meat-offering at the purification of a wife suspected of adultery--Symbolical meaning of it--The priest warns the woman of the danger of perjury--The words of the curse written upon the roll, washed in water from the laver--This mixture, with dust of the sanctuary, drunk by the woman
• Regulations as Given in the Mishnah --In what cases alone the Rabbis allowed this trial--How the accused appeared dressed in the Temple--How she had to drink the bitter water--Divine judgments upon the guilty--Cessation of this rite shortly after the death of our Lord--Remarks of the Mishnah in recording this fact.