Leviticus 21: 16-24: Chapter Analysis

When Leviticus 21:16-24 is read in the present, Western context, the passage seems to present a clear message: high priests cannot have the disabilities. This type of interpretation risks supporting an ablest theology. Since the high priest is viewed as the closest to God, it is easy to draw the conclusion that being “able bodied” means the opportunity of being closer to God. Another common assumption is that disabilities are linked with moral impurity and therefore sin. These interpretations are internalized and then affect the way in which people who have disabilities are treated.

Even Nancy Eiesland, who was committed to changing Christian’s theological view of disability, falls into this constricted interpretation. She wrote that “In the Hebrew Scriptures, in particular, the conflation of moral impurity and physical disability is a common theme.” Eiesland

For example, what was considered a blemish during the writing of the Hebrew Bible has changed throughout time. The list of blemishes in Leviticus 21:16-24 was expanded in the Qumran scrolls which lists nearly 150. The list in Leviticus 21:16-24 was taken as symbolic of essentially all disabilities, instead of a fixed list. How the list should be viewed and categorized has the least consensus. Most scholars said that the list is fixed. However, they differed over categorizing the twelve blemishes as being visible except for the “crushed testicle” and that the list was chosen as a match to the blemishes of the animal list in Leviticus

Milgrom believes that a crushed testicle is included with the other blemishes in order to create a “structural and thematic parallelism between the priestly list and the animal list which includes multiple blemishes involving the animal’s genitals (Lev