What Does Leviticus 13:15 Mean in the King James?

And the priest shall see the raw flesh, and pronounce him to be unclean: for the raw flesh is unclean: it is a leprosy.

Leviticus 13:15 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

The Hebrew calls it “living flesh” and still names it unclean, holding bodily life and a severe verdict in the same sentence.

THE MEANING

The priest sees the living flesh and pronounces him unclean: life is present, and the verdict is real. The verse speaks now wherever a living body bears a condition that receives a concrete name; life does not cancel the condition, and the condition does not cancel life.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the assumption that living flesh must therefore be clean: the verse holds life and uncleanness together.

THE ROOT

חַי

ḥay

GROWS FROM

חיה

To live, be alive.

“raw flesh” in this verse is ḥay. The Hebrew phrase means “the living flesh”; “raw” can obscure that the word explicitly marks life. The same root names life and living creatures, so the flesh is not described as lifeless even as the verse calls it unclean.

ALSO GROWS

chayyim: Life, living.

חַיִּים

This branch makes the life-bearing sense of “living flesh” explicit.

chayyah: A living creature.

חַיָּה

The same root describes a living being, linking the flesh’s condition to the continued presence of life.

טָמֵא

tamei

GROWS FROM

טמא

To be unclean or impure.

The root appears in both the priest’s act and the condition’s designation: the priest marks him unclean because of what he sees. The verse keeps this status distinct from the flesh’s being alive, without weakening either statement.

ALSO GROWS

tum’ah: Uncleanness, impurity.

טֻמְאָה

This noun names the status assigned in the verse.

timmeʾ: To make or declare unclean.

טִמֵּא

This verb describes the priest’s act of assigning that status after seeing the living flesh.

THE PATTERN

Scripture names bodily affliction in concrete language, letting its full condition be seen.

So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown.

Job 2:7 · KJVJob’s bodily affliction is described across his whole body without softening its physical reality.

There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin.

Psalm 38:3 · KJVThe speaker names the condition as felt in flesh and bones, not as an abstraction.

And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.

Mark 1:40 · KJVThe man names his need for cleansing directly while his condition is plainly present.

THE THREAD

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Genesis 2:7 · KJV

“Living” in both “living flesh” and “living soul” comes from ⁨חיה⁩ (chayah), the root for being alive. Genesis names the human as a living soul; Leviticus calls the flesh living while declaring the person unclean, so the designation does not erase the life it sees.

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