Faculty Publications

The Function of the Nazirite's Concluding Purification Offering

Document Type

Contribution to Book

Publication Date

June 2008

Abstract

Number 6:13-20 outlines a ceremony, including a purification offering (vv. 14, 16), to be performed at the end of a successfully completed Nazirite period. The purpose of this mandatory purification offering constitutes a crux. For what nondefiant sin or sever physical ritual impurity- the evils remedied by non-calendric purification offerings elsewhere (e.g. Lev 4:1- 5:13; 12:6-8; 14:19)- could such a sacrifice expiate in this context? The answer to this question may affect or at least test our understasnding of purification offerings in general.

Journal Title

Perspectives on Purity and Purification in the Bible

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