Holy Lives of Priests (21:1–24)

A priest must not make himself ceremonially unclean (21:1). Ancient Near Eastern priests were required to be ritually pure—through avoiding impurities or undergoing purification rituals—before approaching their deities. Whereas non-Israelites feared demonic impurities, which could even threaten deities (see comment on 16:10), for Israel the sources of impurity were human beings and some kinds of animals. The holiness of Israelite priests demanded that they avoid defilement from dead persons, who epitomized the impure realm of mortality (cf. comment on 12:2).

In a Mesopotamian myth, impurity linked to the domain of death is similarly restricted: Ereshkigal, divine queen of the underworld, cannot be with the holy gods who dwell above because she is impure.227 However, just as many ancient Near Eastern people worshiped (impure) underworld deities, they could also worship their dead ancestors.228

By contrast to the Israelites, for whom death was a major disruption, the Egyptians believed that life continued after death, and therefore the realm of death was positive and holy. A hymn to the god Osiris, who was king of the dead, contains the words: “Eternal lord who presides in Abydos, Who dwells distant in the graveyard,” and, “The son of Isis who championed his father, Holy and splendid is his name.”229 Because death was holy, tombs were temples where priests officiated.

Image shows ancient Israelite tomb in Ketef Hinnom. Contact with the dead would render priests unclean.

Daniel Frese/www.BiblePlaces.com

None of your descendants who has a defect may come near to offer (21:17). Respect for the deity required that his priestly servants be free from physical defects, just as animals offered to him were not to be defective (22:17–25). Hittite ritual rules also excluded persons with physical disabilities from intimate access to deity in sacred precincts.230

The funerary stele of the priest Remi with his wife and child. Remi is depicted with a shorter and thinner right leg, apparently the result of poliomyelitis. Priests with physical defects could not serve in Israel.

Ole Haupt, courtesy Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen