The Human Body

1
The Human Body

• The construction of human-ness in the Hebrew Bible

2
Psalm 167-10

• NRSV
• (7) I bless the Lord who gives me counsel in the
  night also my heart instructs me.
• (8) I keep the Lord always before me because he
  is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
• (9) Therefore, my heart is glad and my soul
  rejoices my body also rests secure.
• (10) For you do not give me up to Sheol, or let
  your faithful one see the Pit.

• More literal Hebrew
• (7) I bless YHWH, who advises me also, nights,
  my kidneys chasten me.
• (8) I place YHWH before me continually so from
  my right hand I will not slip.
• (9) Therefore, my heart is glad, and my liver
  rejoices also, my flesh or my penis or the
  issue of my penis dwells in security.
• (10) For you do not abandon my throat (nephesh)
  to Sheol you do not give your faithful one to
  see the Pit.

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Nephesh

• Genesis 27
• then the LORD God formed man (a person) from
  the dust of the ground, and breathed into his
  nostrils the breath of life and the man (person)
  became a living being (nephesh).

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Death, Blood and Nephesh

• Job 3414-15
• 14 If he should take back his spirit to himself,
  and gather to himself his breath, 15all flesh
  would perish together, and all mortals return to
  dust.
• Psalm 10429-30
• 29 When you hide your face, they are dismayed
  when you take away their breath, they die and
  return to their dust.
• 30 When you send forth your spirit, they are
  created and you renew the face of the ground.
• Ecclesiastes 127
• 7and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and
  the breath returns to God who gave it.

• Genesis 94
• 4 Only, you shall not eat flesh with its life,
  that is, its blood.
• Leviticus 1711, 14
• 11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood and
  I have given it to you for making atonement for
  your lives on the altar for, as life, it is the
  blood that makes atonement
• 14 For the life of every creatureits blood is
  its life therefore I have said to the people of
  Israel You shall not eat the blood of any
  creature, for the life of every creature is its
  blood whoever eats it shall be cut off.
• Deuteronomy 1223
• 23Only be sure that you do not eat the blood for
  the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the
  life with the meat.

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Exercise on the Body

• In this exercise, you are to look up the biblical
  material associated with each body part.
  Summarize, in brief, what you learn about each.
  Pick one verse from each category and be ready to
  explain it.
• Face Exodus 1028 3311-23 3430-35 Lev
  203-6 Numbers 2622-27 Deuteronomy 3117-18
  Psalm 46 117 4424 Ezekiel 47 62.
• Hair Leviticus 1927-28 Ezekiel 4420 Number
  6 Jeremiah 925 Judges 164-31.
• Eyes (Genesis passages only for some fun)
  35-7 1314 2119 271 2917 397 4810
  4912.

• Ears 1 Samuel 311 2 Samuel 227 2 Chronicles
  640 Nehemiah 83 Job 137 Psalm 441
  Isaiah 610 Zech 711.
• Mouth/Tongue Exodus 412-16 Numbers 2238
  235 Deut 2323 3014 Job 3516 Psalm 173
  509 5115 Prov 1011, 31, 32 184, 21.
• Hand/Arm Exod 66 Deut 434 515 268 Psalm
  13612 Jeremiah 215 Ezek 2033-34
• Feet Gen 184 192 Exod 35 425 Ruth 34
  -8 1 Sam 2524 2Sam 2210 Psalm 86 175
  119105 Prov 618 Isa 62 604.

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Song of Songs

• Chapter 510 My beloved is all radiant and ruddy,
  distinguished among ten thousand. 11His head is
  the finest gold his locks are wavy, black as a
  raven. 12His eyes are like doves beside springs
  of water, bathed in milk, fitly set. 13His cheeks
  are like beds of spices, yielding fragrance. His
  lips are lilies, distilling liquid myrrh. 14His
  arms are rounded gold, set with jewels. His body
  is ivory work, encrusted with sapphires. 15His
  legs are alabaster columns, set upon bases of
  gold. His appearance is like Lebanon, choice as
  the cedars.

• Chapter 71 How graceful are your feet in
  sandals, O queenly maiden! Your rounded thighs
  are like jewels, the work of a master hand. 2Your
  navel is a rounded bowl that never lacks mixed
  wine. Your belly is a heap of wheat, encircled
  with lilies. 3Your two breasts are like two
  fawns, twins of a gazelle. 4Your neck is like an
  ivory tower. Your eyes are pools in Heshbon, by
  the gate of Bath-rabbim. Your nose is like a
  tower of Lebanon, overlooking Damascus. 5Your
  head crowns you like Carmel, and your flowing
  locks are like purple a king is held captive in
  the tresses.

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Ecclesiastes 12 1-7

• Remember your creator in the days of your youth,
  before the days of trouble come, and the years
  draw near when you will say, I have no pleasure
  in them 2before the sun and the light and the
  moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds
  return with the rain 3in the day when the guards
  of the house tremble, and the strong men are
  bent, and the women who grind cease working
  because they are few, and those who look through
  the windows see dimly 4when the doors on the
  street are shut, and the sound of the grinding is
  low, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, and
  all the daughters of song are brought low 5when
  one is afraid of heights, and terrors are in the
  road the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper
  drags itself along and desire fails because all
  must go to their eternal home, and the mourners
  will go about the streets 6before the silver
  cord is snapped, and the golden bowl is broken,
  and the pitcher is broken at the fountain, and
  the wheel broken at the cistern, 7and the dust
  returns to the earth as it was, and the breath
  returns to God who gave it.

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Leviticus 21 The Normative Body

• The Lord said to Moses Speak to the priests,
  the sons of Aaron, and say to them No one shall
  defile himself for a dead person among his
  relatives, 2except for his nearest kin his
  mother, his father, his son, his daughter, his
  brother 3likewise, for a virgin sister, close to
  him because she has had no husband, he may defile
  himself for her. 4But he shall not defile himself
  as a husband among his people and so profane
  himself. 5They shall not make bald spots upon
  their heads, or shave off the edges of their
  beards, or make any gashes in their flesh. 6They
  shall be holy to their God, and not profane the
  name of their God for they offer the Lords
  offerings by fire, the food of their God
  therefore they shall be holy. 7They shall not
  marry a prostitute or a woman who has been
  defiled neither shall they marry a woman
  divorced from her husband. For they are holy to
  their God, 8and you shall treat them as holy,
  since they offer the food of your God they shall
  be holy to you, for I the Lord, I who sanctify
  you, am holy. 9When the daughter of a priest
  profanes herself through prostitution, she
  profanes her father she shall be burned to
  death.
• 10 The priest who is exalted above his fellows,
  on whose head the anointing oil has been poured
  and who has been consecrated to wear the
  vestments, shall not dishevel his hair, nor tear
  his vestments. 11He shall not go where there is a
  dead body he shall not defile himself even for
  his father or mother. 12He shall not go outside
  the sanctuary and thus profane the sanctuary of
  his God for the consecration of the anointing
  oil of his God is upon him I am the Lord. 13He
  shall marry only a woman who is a virgin. 14A
  widow, or a divorced woman, or a woman who has
  been defiled, a prostitute, these he shall not
  marry. He shall marry a virgin of his own kin,
  15that he may not profane his offspring among his
  kin for I am the Lord I sanctify him.
• 16 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying 17Speak to
  Aaron and say No one of your offspring
  throughout their generations who has a blemish
  may approach to offer the food of his God. 18For
  no one who has a blemish shall draw near, one who
  is blind or lame, or one who has a mutilated face
  or a limb too long, 19or one who has a broken
  foot or a broken hand, 20or a hunchback, or a
  dwarf, or a man with a blemish in his eyes or an
  itching disease or scabs or crushed testicles.
  21No descendant of Aaron the priest who has a
  blemish shall come near to offer the Lords
  offerings by fire since he has a blemish, he
  shall not come near to offer the food of his God.
  22He may eat the food of his God, of the most
  holy as well as of the holy. 23But he shall not
  come near the curtain or approach the altar,
  because he has a blemish, that he may not profane
  my sanctuaries for I am the Lord I sanctify
  them. 24Thus Moses spoke to Aaron and to his sons
  and to all the people of Israel.

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The Body

• In Leviticus the holiness code says that if God
  is holy then human beings who are in relationship
  to God must also be holy
• Lev 1145 For I am the Lord who brought you up
  out of the land of Egypt, to be your God you
  shall be holy, for I am holy.
• The integrity of the human body is a key.
  Another word for integrity is wholeness. The
  language for such completeness in Leviticus is
  clean as opposed to unclean.
• Absolute purity (as with God) is impossible to
  attain, but you can acquire ritual purity or
  cleanness

• What comprises bodily integrity
• What you eat (Lev 11)
• Animals that chew the cud and have divided hooves
  are okay as are products from them
• Water creatures with easily removable fins and
  scales are good
• Birds (as long as they are not birds of prey) are
  acceptable
• Right or fit versus torn
• What your body bears
• Children cause temporary ceremonial uncleanness
  (Lev 12)
• Male children 33 days
• Female children 66 days
• Diseases (Lev 13-14)
• Leprosy
• Discharges (Lev 15)
• Penile discharges
• Ejaculation
• Menstruation
• Non-menstrual blood

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Making a Covenant

• Covenant or berit tyrb
• Cut a covenant
• Genesis 1517 When the sun had gone down and it
  was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch
  passed between these pieces.
• No obligations for Abram appear in chapter 15

• God said to Abraham, As for you, you shall keep
  my covenant, you and your offspring after you
  throughout their generations. This is my
  covenant, which you shall keep, between me and
  you and your offspring after you Every male
  among you shall be circumcised. You shall
  circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and it
  shall be a sign of the covenant between you and
  me. Genesis 189-11
• Includes slaves and foreigners in your household
• You are cut off from the people if you do not
  follow this command

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Circumcision Marking the Covenant in the Body

• Male children are born with a hood of skin
  covering the penis
• Circumcision removes it and leaves the head
  exposed

• A doctor or person officiating makes a cut, pulls
  back the foreskin with a special instrument that
  holds it in place, and then cuts the foreskin off.

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More on Circumcision

• Circumcision was a rite associated with marriage
  or fertility
• Abram circumcised before the birth of Isaac
• Moses strange story bridegroom of blood.
  The Hebrew root htn refers to a circumciser
  and also to a father-in-law (because he often
  did it prior to marriage) and to a son-in-law
  and a bridegroom
• Dinahs brothers demand circumcision of the
  Hivites to marry their sister (Gen 34)

• Circumcision is necessary for the passover (Exod
  1243-49 Josh 52-12)
• Being uncircumcised is physical and spiritual
• Jeremiah 610-12
• True circumcision is a sign or a symbol a
  physical mark of what should be an inward
  change
• Deut 1012-22
• Deut 301-10

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Circumcision as a unique sign

• Lev 1927-28
• You shall not round of the hair on your temples
  or mar the edges of your beard. You shall not
  make any gashes in your flesh for the dead or
  tattoo any marks upon you I am the Lord

• Lev 215
• They shall not make bald spots upon their heads,
  or shave off the edges of their beards, or make
  any gashes in their flesh.

14
Genesis 126-27

• Then God said, Let us make adam in our image,
  according to our likeness and let them have
  dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the
  birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over
  all the wild animals of the earth, and over every
  creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. So
  God created adam in his image, in the image of
  God he created him male and female he created
  them.
• adam humankind

• us and our sodh or heavenly council
• Creation of male and female simultaneous here
  separate in Gen 24b-25

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Genesis 51b-2

• When God created adam (humankind), he made him
  in the likeness of God. Male and female he
  created them, and he blessed them and named them
  adam when they were created.

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Image and Likeness

• ltlx and twmd
• Tzelem and demut
• Tzelem 10 of 12 times it occurs outside of
  image of God it means a physical representation
  (1 Sam 65 2 Kings 1118)
• Demut is to be like can be physical but does
  not have to be (2 Kings 1611 Isa 134)

• Both male and female are included as part of this
  image (see Gen 51-2)
• Personality, rationality, sense of self (not
  necessarily just physical) are probably indicated
• The pre-eminence of humanity over the rest of the
  created order is emphasized

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Psalm 85-8

• Yet you have made them(1) a little lower than
  God (2), and crowned them with glory and honor.
  You have given them dominion over the works of
  your hands you have put all things under their
  feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of
  the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of
  the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the
  sea.
• (1) mortals
• (2) elohim can also be translated gods or
  divine beings

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Ezekiel

• 26And above the dome over their heads there was
  something like a throne, in appearance like
  sapphire and seated above the likeness of a
  throne was something that seemed like a human
  form. 27Upward from what appeared like the loins
  I saw something like gleaming amber, something
  that looked like fire enclosed all around and
  downward from what looked like the loins I saw
  something that looked like fire, and there was a
  splendor all around. 28Like the bow in a cloud on
  a rainy day, such was the appearance of the
  splendour all round. This was the appearance of
  the likeness of the glory of the Lord. When I saw
  it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of
  someone

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Some Conclusions

• God made humans in Gods image
• To maintain this connection with the image of
  God, humans must attend to the way they care for
  their bodies
• What humans ingest is key because what we eat
  makes up who we are
• What comes out of the human body is also
  important and must be attended to ritually

• Marks on the body are either to be made by God
  (Gen 4) or ordered by God (Gen 17)
• The body is a representation and its wholeness
  reflects the wholeness, completion, and holiness
  of God. It is not necessarily a physical
  connection, but humans maintain the physical as a
  symbol of their spiritual order