What Does Leviticus 15:8 Mean?
And if the one who flows spits on the one who is clean, then he shall tread his garments, wash himself in the waters, and be soiled until evening.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And if he that hath the issue spit upon him that is clean; then he shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.THE KEY
A clean state can change through a single bodily contact, and the text gives that change a finite boundary.
THE MEANING
When the person with a discharge spits on someone clean, that contact makes the other person unclean. Clothing is washed and the body is bathed, while the changed status lasts until evening. The verse treats this condition as embodied and time-bounded.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that being clean makes someone immune to contact: here, one bodily encounter changes the person’s ritual status.
THE ROOT
טָמֵא
ṭāmēʾ
GROWS FROM
טמא
To be unclean or make unclean.
“soiled” in this verse is ṭāmēʾ. The root טמא (ṭ-m-ʾ, to be unclean) names both the state of uncleanness and the act of making something unclean. Here, טָמֵא (ṭāmēʾ, unclean) describes a condition transferred through physical contact, not a verdict on the person’s character.
ALSO GROWS
ṭumʾāh: The state of uncleanness.
טֻמְאָה
It names the condition the clean person enters after the contact described in the verse.
ṭimmēʾ: Made something or someone unclean.
טִמֵּא
This verb from the same root shows how the root can name both a state and its transmission.
טָהוֹר
ṭāhôr
GROWS FROM
טהר
To be clean or pure.
The root טהר (ṭ-h-r, to be clean) supplies the other side of the verse’s change of status. English separates “clean” and “unclean” into opposing labels; the Hebrew roots present them as distinct conditions that contact can alter and that cleansing can address.
ALSO GROWS
ṭāhŏrāh: Purity or cleanness.
טָהֳרָה
This noun from the same root gives a name to the state held by the person before the contact.
ṭihēr: Cleansed or purified.
טִהֵר
This verb from the same root shows cleanness as a condition that can be restored.
THE PATTERN
Ritual uncleanness can pass through physical contact, making clean and unclean conditions transferable.
And whoever touches the flesh of the one who flows shall tread his garments, wash himself in the waters, and be soiled until evening.And whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean, and the living soul that touches it shall be unclean until evening.Then Haggai said, If one who is unclean by a corpse touches any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priests answered and said, It shall be unclean.THE THREAD
Remove my falling short with hyssop, and I am clean; tread me, and I am whiter than snow.The word translated “clean” here is אֶטְהָר (ʾeṭhār, I shall be clean), from טהר (ṭ-h-r, to be clean). Leviticus shows contact changing that state; the Psalm speaks of cleanness as something reached through cleansing.
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