Gender Equality In The Torah's Skin Disease Laws

Gender egalitarianism is not something foreign to the philosophy of the Bible.  Just as I have done with numerous other issues in separate posts, here I will focus on Biblical gender equality in a very particular category: the skin disease laws of the Torah, found largely in Leviticus.  Unlike the punishments for miscellaneous criminal sins, which would be tied to the moral nature of the sins they are connected with and in turn to God's unchanging moral nature (Malachi 3:6, James 1:17; cultural relativism is logically possible either way, since contradictory punishments cannot all be just at once), these defiling skin disease obligations could be limited in their binding nature.  Aside from the subject of whether they would be obligatory if there was still a Levitical priesthood or if it was to resume, one cannot be obligated to do that which one cannot carry out, so if there are no priests to consult, at least that much is objectively not sinful in such scenarios.  Now, men and women could also not have rights or obligations pertaining only to their gender wherever they could be the victim or doer of some act, whether good or evil in the case of the latter.

The Torah does draw blatant attention to this over and over in specific ways--and at least in Old Testament Israel, which even evangelical antinomian relativists often still acknowledge, not following the commands regarding skin diseases was sinful.  Leviticus 13:29-39 puts forth one of these cases that has to do with disease and the affiliated isolation, shaving, and examination.  Because Leviticus 13:29-39 is a very long passage, though there is no deviation from an emphasis on both men and women between verse 29 and 38, I have presented the key portions in isolation below.  Numbers 5 also touches upon these laws without providing details beyond the overarching means of dealing with skin diseases and general uncleanness by quarantining both men and women.

Leviticus 13:29-31--"'If a man or woman has a sore on their head or chin, the priest is to examine the sore, and if it appears to be more than skin deep and the hair in it is yellow and thin, the priest shall pronounce them unclean; it is a defiling skin disease on the head or the chin.  But if, when the priest examines the sore, it does not seem to be more than skin deep and there is no black hair in it, then the priest is to isolate the affected person for for seven days . . . '"

Leviticus 13:38-39--"'When a man or woman has white spots on the skin, the priest is to examine them, and if the spots are dull white, it is a harmless rash that has broken out on the skin; they are clean.'"

Numbers 5:1-4--"The Lord said to Moses, 'Command the Israelites to send away from the camp anyone who has a defiling skin disease or a discharge of any kind, or who is ceremonially unclean because of a dead body.  Send away male and female alike; send them outside the camp so they will not defile their camp, where I dwell among them.'  The Israelites did so; they sent them outside the camp.  They did just as the Lord had instructed Moses."

In Numbers, there is also a narrative where Yahweh gives Miriam leprosy (Numbers 12:10-12) for a particular sin of hers that Aaron also shares in.  The two speak unjustly against Moses because of his Cushite wife (12:1-2) and act in defiance of the special role God has assigned Moses (12:4-8) in communicating moral obligations and uncleanness rites to the collective Israelites.  When Moses pleads with God to heal her (12:13), Yahweh says to isolate her from the rest of the camp for seven days.  She receives no greater freedom and no greater isolation than a male person who suffered the same condition.

Numbers 12:10-11, 14-15--"When the cloud lifted from above the tent, Miriam's skin was leprous--it became white as snow.  Aaron turned toward her and saw that she had a defiling skin disease, and he said to Moses, 'Please, my lord, I ask you not to hold against us the sin we have so foolishly committed . . . The Lord replied to Moses, 'If her father had spit in her face, would she not have been in disgrace for seven days?  Confine her outside the camp for seven days; after that she can be brought back.'  So Miriam was confined outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on till she was brought back."

Being a prophetess (Exodus 15:20) did not spare Miriam from divine punishment of leprosy or a similar skin condition, one that Aaron laments makes her look like a baby whose flesh is dead, nor did God say to treat her any differently than anyone else with such a condition.  He commands her to go outside the camp, which waits for her a full seven days before she rejoins them in their migration.  Aaron's own exemption from this fate, which is temporary in Miriam's case, is not because of misogyny on the part of Yahweh or Moses or Judeo-Christian philosophy.  He acknowledges his own sin as no different than Miriam's since they committed the same offense (which is perfectly rational), but as the high priest, a defiling skin condition on his body would render Israel without a high priest for a time--that figure was not to ever make himself unclean, not even for his father or mother (Leviticus 21:10-12), with uncleanness encompassing defiling skin diseases as Leviticus 13 and Numbers 5 affirm.

Also, Aaron was to approach the curtain shielding the ark of the covenant and tend special lamps (Leviticus 24:1-4) and offer food before God (24:5-9), yet Leviticus 22:16-23 forbids a priest from approaching the curtain and offering the food if he has any physical defect, though he may still eat of the food.  Furthermore, anyone with a defiling skin disease was to go before Aaron or one of his sons (Leviticus 13:1-3), so Miriam would depend on Aaron, who was still living, to examine her.  It is not as if sexism against women is the only possible reason why he does not receive leprosy as well, and other parts of the Torah address why the two were in one very specific sense treated divergently by Yahweh.  Regardless, the fact that Miriam is made to follow the prescriptions concerning defiling skin conditions exemplifies in narrative form, with Numbers 12 clearly indicating that God is behind these events and the command to isolate her, that women were not given any special treatment in matters of disease, quarantine, and divine judgment.  God does not, contrary to some versions of complementarian theology, hold men to a stricter moral standard or punish them more severely for the same offenses, which would be irrational and unjust, yet misandrist instead of misogynistic.

Deuteronomy also references the incident with Miriam and reiterates that no one is to disregard the skin disease laws, which are to be enforced as God commands, not Moses or the priests, who must be in alignment with what God revealed to be in the right.  The text calls attention to Miriam in a way that again requires there to be no differential treatment of men and women:

Deuteronomy 24:8-9--"In cases of defiling skin diseases, be very careful to do exactly as the Levitical priests instruct you.  You must follow carefully what I have commanded them.  Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam along the way after you came out of Egypt."

As with many other matters, like violence (Exodus 21:15, 20-21, 26-32, and more), parents and parenting (Exodus 20:12, 21:17, Leviticus 19:3, and so on), nudity and clothing (Genesis 2:24, Deuteronomy 22:5), labor and rest (Exodus 20:8-11, Deuteronomy 5:12-15, 15:12-17, and many more), religious commitment (Numbers 6:21, Deuteronomy 13:6-10, etc.), sexual morality (Leviticus 20:15-16, Deuteronomy 23:17-18, and so on), corporal punishment (Exodus 21:20-21), and other criminal justice (Leviticus 20:15-16, 27, Numbers 5:5-7, Deuteronomy 17:2-5, and so on), the Torah teaches strict gender equality with its defiling skin disease laws.  Both men and women have skin, whereas their genitalia and certain other anatomical and physiological matters differ.  No discriminatory advantage or disadvantage, accordingly, is prescribed for men and women in issues of skin diseases both can share.