Leviticus 15:31-33

Conclusion. These five Chapter s, and espe cially the last, throw a strong light on the conception of sin in P. Sin is not an act, but a condition. The sacrifices prescribed for it are not punishments, nor even methods of escape, but means by which, the abnormal conditions gone, the functions of the normal can be safely resumed. But the connexion of the abnormal, as well as the strictly pathological, with a sense of sin and guilt, is a truth familiar to psychology, and is illustrated by common feelings about all four of the cases in Leviticus 15. But, in fairness to P, it must be remembered that P does not brand as sins, in our modern sense, acts or states for which the individual cannot be held responsible; it simply asserts that they necessitate ritual seclusion, and that escape from them demands the performance of certain ceremonies not by any means particularly burdensome.