unclean by a dead body Lit. unclean by a person. The full phrase, "a deadperson, or body," occurs Leviticus 21:11; Numbers 6:6; but the word "dead" is often left to be understood as here and Leviticus 21:1; Leviticus 22:4. The law of ceremonial uncleanness as attaching to death (under which there lay, no doubt, the moral idea that death polluted because it was the offspring and the wages of sin) is found in Numbers 19:11-22.

shall it be unclean? as clearly laid down in Numbers 19:22. Compare, for the moral counterpart, James 2:10, where Dean Plumptre observes: "This seems at first of the nature of an ethical paradox, but practically it states a deep moral truth. If we wilfully transgress one commandment we shew that in principle we sit loose to all. It is but accident, or fear, or the absence of temptation, that prevents our transgressing them also. Actual transgression in one case involves potential transgression in all." Camb. Bible for Schools, St James, p. 68.

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