Expert: Brenda Martin - 3/8/2009

Question
I am a bit confused about Leviticus 19-32... it talks about how menstration makes a woman unclean? was that just the way it was back then...or...

Thank you for your time!

Answer
It was one of the laws given to the Israelites back then, we are not under the Law today, but the principle is still there.

The reproductive organs were made to pass on perfect human life. However, because of the inherited effects of sin, imperfect and sinful life was passed on to the offspring. The temporary periods of ‘uncleanness’ associated with childbirth, as well as other matters, such as menstruation and seminal emissions, called this hereditary sinfulness to mind. (Leviticus 15:16-24; Psalm 51:5; Romans 5:12) The required purification regulations would help the Israelites to appreciate the need for a ransom sacrifice to cover mankind’s sinfulness and restore human perfection. Thus the Law became their “tutor leading to Christ.”—Galatians 3:24.

Medical studies partially credit the low incidence of uterine cancer among Jewish women to their abstaining from intercourse during menstruation; so there were hygienic benefits. This same regulation would remind the Israelite husband to take into consideration his wife’s biological cycles and limitations, both physical and emotional. (Lev. 18:19; 1 Pet. 3:7) Also, these laws would have taught men and women self-discipline, reasonable restraint of their passions and respect for the sexual organs.

In regard to menstruation, respect for blood as something sacred to God seems also to have been involved. If a husband and wife willfully had relations while she was menstruating, the man would have “exposed her source,” and the woman would have “laid bare the source of her blood.” (Lev. 20:18; 17:11) Since an Israelite husband was not to have relations with his wife at such a time, as was discussed above, those who deliberately showed contempt for God’s law on this matter were to be cut off.—Num. 15:30, 31.


all the best
Brenda