Numbers 19:1-22 comments: the red heifer

 

Numbers 19:1 ¶  And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, 2  This is the ordinance of the law which the LORD hath commanded, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke: 3  And ye shall give her unto Eleazar the priest, that he may bring her forth without the camp, and one shall slay her before his face: 4  And Eleazar the priest shall take of her blood with his finger, and sprinkle of her blood directly before the tabernacle of the congregation seven times: 5  And one shall burn the heifer in his sight; her skin, and her flesh, and her blood, with her dung, shall he burn: 6  And the priest shall take cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet, and cast it into the midst of the burning of the heifer. 7  Then the priest shall wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp, and the priest shall be unclean until the even. 8  And he that burneth her shall wash his clothes in water, and bathe his flesh in water, and shall be unclean until the even. 9  And a man that is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and lay them up without the camp in a clean place, and it shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for a water of separation: it is a purification for sin. 10  And he that gathereth the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even: and it shall be unto the children of Israel, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among them, for a statute for ever.

 

The red heifer, according to Matthew Henry and others, is a type of Christ, without spot or blemish and having never been used by man or under the world’s yoke.

 

Hebrews 9:14  How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

 

He was crucified without the camp, not at the altar.

 

Hebrews 13:11  For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp. 12  Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. 13  Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.

 

The red heifer also plays a part in Fundamentalist Christian mythology. Many Fundamentalists believe that the Second Advent of Christ cannot occur until a third temple is built. See the minority Jewish view of a third temple by going to http://templemountfaithful.org/. Supposedly a cattle breeder is even now or recently has been trying to breed red heifers and send them to Israel so that the third temple will be constructed and Christ can return. I am not going into what I think of this myth just stating that it does exist.

 

Greeks were prominent in the ancient Near East as colonists and mercenaries. Their religious myths were formed in the first millennium BC. They had a lot of contact with Hebrews as merchants and with Hebrews as captured slaves.

 

Joel 3:6  The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians, that ye might remove them far from their border.

 

They probably developed their mythologies of the red heifer from their contact with the Hebrews. The red heifer was sacred to the Greek god Apollo. The god Hermes stole Apollo’s red heifers and to placate his anger Hermes created the lyre, a musical instrument. This was developed much later than our narrative here.

Numbers 19:11 ¶  He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days. 12  He shall purify himself with it on the third day, and on the seventh day he shall be clean: but if he purify not himself the third day, then the seventh day he shall not be clean. 13  Whosoever toucheth the dead body of any man that is dead, and purifieth not himself, defileth the tabernacle of the LORD; and that soul shall be cut off from Israel: because the water of separation was not sprinkled upon him, he shall be unclean; his uncleanness is yet upon him. 14  This is the law, when a man dieth in a tent: all that come into the tent, and all that is in the tent, shall be unclean seven days. 15  And every open vessel, which hath no covering bound upon it, is unclean. 16  And whosoever toucheth one that is slain with a sword in the open fields, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days. 17  And for an unclean person they shall take of the ashes of the burnt heifer of purification for sin, and running water shall be put thereto in a vessel: 18  And a clean person shall take hyssop, and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it upon the tent, and upon all the vessels, and upon the persons that were there, and upon him that touched a bone, or one slain, or one dead, or a grave: 19  And the clean person shall sprinkle upon the unclean on the third day, and on the seventh day: and on the seventh day he shall purify himself, and wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and shall be clean at even. 20  But the man that shall be unclean, and shall not purify himself, that soul shall be cut off from among the congregation, because he hath defiled the sanctuary of the LORD: the water of separation hath not been sprinkled upon him; he is unclean. 21  And it shall be a perpetual statute unto them, that he that sprinkleth the water of separation shall wash his clothes; and he that toucheth the water of separation shall be unclean until even. 22  And whatsoever the unclean person toucheth shall be unclean; and the soul that toucheth it shall be unclean until even.

 

Although there are other contexts where a corpse or remains had to be handled when a Hebrew had to wash and prepare a loved one for burial they were ritually unclean seven days. Here is a use for the ashes of the heifer. Mankind’s sin is the reason that death exists and it is in rituals like this given by God that the seriousness of what we are and what we and our ancestors have done is reinforced.