Biblion Bible Commentary
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The Priest Shall Look
Leviticus 13:1-46
1 Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, · WEB
The longest procedure in the book is a diagnostic one, built to keep people in the camp wherever the evidence allows it.
Fifty-nine verses are given to skin conditions, which is more than the book gives to the day of atonement. The reason is that the consequence is severe and the diagnosis is difficult.
The condition named covers a range of ailments and is not the disease that later took the name. What matters for reading the chapter is that most of what it describes is curable, temporary, and gets a person readmitted.
The procedure is examination, and the verb recurs relentlessly: the priest shall examine Leviticus 13:3. The criteria are physical and stated — whether the hair in the patch has turned white, whether the appearance is deeper than the body's skin, and above all whether it has spread.
What is remarkable is the caution built into it. If the signs are ambiguous, the priest shall isolate the infected person for seven days Leviticus 13:4 and look again. If it is still unclear, seven days more Leviticus 13:5. Two weeks of observation before any verdict, and if the patch has faded, the priest shall pronounce him clean Leviticus 13:6.
The default is not exclusion. A man is quarantined while the question is open, and the whole apparatus exists to avoid putting somebody outside the camp on a bad guess. Where the case is genuinely doubtful the law repeatedly errs toward waiting.
The priest's role here is worth noting: he does not heal and does not treat. He inspects and pronounces, and his function is that of a public health officer whose ruling is binding.
When the verdict does go against a man, the consequences are stated without softening. He wears torn clothes, lets his hair hang loose, covers his upper lip, and calls out Unclean! Unclean! Leviticus 13:45. He shall dwell alone. His dwelling shall be outside of the camp Leviticus 13:46.
That is the dress and posture of mourning, worn by a living man about himself. He is separated from the sanctuary, from his household, and from the community, and he is required to announce it.
It is the cruelty of the passage and it is also the reason the Gospels' healings of such men land as they do. A leper who came to Jesus was breaking the rule in verse 46 by approaching at all; what he received was a touch Mark 1:41, and then an instruction to go to the priest for the examination this chapter prescribes.
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