by jimwalton » Mon Mar 09, 2015 10:20 am
Paul Copan answers the question like this: Some claim this passage implies female inferiority: the woman is ceremonially impure for 40 days (7 + 33) after giving birth to a boy but 80 days (14+66) after giving birth to a girl. Surely, it is accused, this reveals a lower social status for females. Various sensible explanations have been proposed.
1. More days for the female actually indicates a kind of protection of females rather than a sign of inferiority.
2. The motive may have been to preserve Israel’s religious distinctiveness over against Canaanite religion, in which females engaged in religious sexual rites in their temples.
In general, a Jewish mother’s lengthier separation from the tabernacle (or temple) after giving birth to a girl made a theological and ethical statement. In ancient Near Eastern polytheism, a strong emphasis was on fertility rites, cult prostitution, and the dramatization of the births of gods and goddesses. The distance between the birth event and temple worship—especially with baby girls—was carefully maintained.
Another plausible explanation focuses on a natural source of uncleanness—namely, the flow of blood. Verse 5 refers to the reason: it’s because of “the blood of her purification.” The mother experiences vaginal bleeding at birth. Yet such vaginal bleeding is common in newborn girls aw well, due to the withdrawal of the mother’s estrogen when the infant girl exits the mother’s womb. So we have two sources of ritual uncleanness with a girl’s birth but only one with a boy’s.
Notice also that when the time of purification is over, whether “for a son or for a daughter,” the mother is to bring the identical offering (whether a lamb, pigeon, or turtledove); this is to be a purification offering (12.6)—not technically a sin offering—and its purpose is to take away the ritual (not moral) impurity.
So it's not discrimination at all.
Paul Copan answers the question like this: Some claim this passage implies female inferiority: the woman is ceremonially impure for 40 days (7 + 33) after giving birth to a boy but 80 days (14+66) after giving birth to a girl. Surely, it is accused, this reveals a lower social status for females. Various sensible explanations have been proposed.
1. More days for the female actually indicates a kind of protection of females rather than a sign of inferiority.
2. The motive may have been to preserve Israel’s religious distinctiveness over against Canaanite religion, in which females engaged in religious sexual rites in their temples.
In general, a Jewish mother’s lengthier separation from the tabernacle (or temple) after giving birth to a girl made a theological and ethical statement. In ancient Near Eastern polytheism, a strong emphasis was on fertility rites, cult prostitution, and the dramatization of the births of gods and goddesses. The distance between the birth event and temple worship—especially with baby girls—was carefully maintained.
Another plausible explanation focuses on a natural source of uncleanness—namely, the flow of blood. Verse 5 refers to the reason: it’s because of “the blood of her purification.” The mother experiences vaginal bleeding at birth. Yet such vaginal bleeding is common in newborn girls aw well, due to the withdrawal of the mother’s estrogen when the infant girl exits the mother’s womb. So we have two sources of ritual uncleanness with a girl’s birth but only one with a boy’s.
Notice also that when the time of purification is over, whether “for a son or for a daughter,” the mother is to bring the identical offering (whether a lamb, pigeon, or turtledove); this is to be a purification offering (12.6)—not technically a sin offering—and its purpose is to take away the ritual (not moral) impurity.
So it's not discrimination at all.