Leviticus 11; Leviticus 12; Matthew 26:1-25

Leviticus 11

1 The Lord gave Moses and Aaron the following regulations

2 for the people of Israel. You may eat any land animal

3 that has divided hoofs and that also chews the cud,

4 but you must not eat camels, rock badgers, or rabbits. These must be considered unclean; they chew the cud, but do not have divided hoofs.

7 Do not eat pigs. They must be considered unclean; they have divided hoofs, but do not chew the cud.

8 Do not eat these animals or even touch their dead bodies; they are unclean.

9 You may eat any kind of fish that has fins and scales,

10 but anything living in the water that does not have fins and scales must not be eaten.

11 Such creatures must be considered unclean. You must not eat them or even touch their dead bodies.

12 You must not eat anything that lives in the water and does not have fins and scales.

13 You must not eat any of the following birds: eagles, owls, hawks, falcons; buzzards, vultures, crows; ostriches; seagulls, storks, herons, pelicans, cormorants; hoopoes; or bats.

20 All winged insects are unclean,

21 except those that hop.

22 You may eat locusts, crickets, or grasshoppers.

23 But all other small things that have wings and also crawl must be considered unclean.

24 If you touch the dead bodies of the following animals, you will be unclean until evening: all animals with hoofs, unless their hoofs are divided and they chew the cud, and all four-footed animals with paws. If you carry their dead bodies, you must wash your clothes, but you will still be unclean until evening.

29 Moles, rats, mice, and lizards must be considered unclean.

31 Whoever touches them or their dead bodies will be unclean until evening.

32 And if their dead bodies fall on anything, it will be unclean. This applies to any article of wood, cloth, leather, or sacking, no matter what it is used for. It shall be dipped in water, but it will remain unclean until evening.

33 And if their bodies fall into a clay pot, everything that is in it shall be unclean, and you must break the pot.

34 Any food which could normally be eaten, but on which water from such a pot has been poured, will be unclean, and anything drinkable in such a pot is unclean.

35 Anything on which the dead bodies fall is unclean; a clay stove or oven shall be broken,

36 but a spring or a cistern remains clean, although anything else that touches their dead bodies is unclean.

37 If one of them falls on seed that is going to be planted, the seed remains clean.

38 But if the seed is soaking in water and one of them falls on it, the seed is unclean.

39 If any animal that may be eaten dies, anyone who touches it will be unclean until evening.

40 And if any of you eat any part of the animal, you must wash your clothes, but you will still be unclean until evening; any of you who carry the dead body must wash your clothes, but you will still be unclean until evening.

41 You must not eat any of the small animals that move on the ground,

42 whether they crawl, or walk on four legs, or have many legs.

43 Do not make yourselves unclean by eating any of these.

44 I am the Lord your God, and you must keep yourselves holy, because I am holy.

45 I am the Lord who brought you out of Egypt so that I could be your God. You must be holy, because I am holy.

46 This, then, is the law about animals and birds, about everything that lives in the water, and everything that moves on the ground.

47 You must be careful to distinguish between what is ritually clean and unclean, between animals that may be eaten and those that may not.

Leviticus 12

1 The Lord gave Moses the following regulations

2 for the people of Israel. For seven days after a woman gives birth to a son, she is ritually unclean, as she is during her monthly period.

3 On the eighth day, the child shall be circumcised.

4 Then it will be thirty-three more days until she is ritually clean from her loss of blood; she must not touch anything that is holy or enter the sacred Tent until the time of her purification is completed.

5 For fourteen days after a woman gives birth to a daughter, she is ritually unclean, as she is during her monthly period. Then it will be sixty-six more days until she is ritually clean from her loss of blood.

6 When the time of her purification is completed, whether for a son or daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the entrance of the Tent of the Lord's presence a one-year-old lamb for a burnt offering and a pigeon or a dove for a sin offering.

7 The priest shall present her offering to the Lord and perform the ritual to take away her impurity, and she will be ritually clean. This, then, is what a woman must do after giving birth.

8 If the woman cannot afford a lamb, she shall bring two doves or two pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering, and the priest shall perform the ritual to take away her impurity, and she will be ritually clean.

Matthew 26:1-25

1 When Jesus had finished teaching all these things, he said to his disciples,

2 "In two days, as you know, it will be the Passover Festival, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified."

3 Then the chief priests and the elders met together in the palace of Caiaphas, the High Priest,

4 and made plans to arrest Jesus secretly and put him to death.

5 "We must not do it during the festival," they said, "or the people will riot."

6 Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon, a man who had suffered from a dreaded skin disease.

7 While Jesus was eating, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar filled with an expensive perfume, which she poured on his head.

8 The disciples saw this and became angry. "Why all this waste?" they asked.

9 "This perfume could have been sold for a large amount and the money given to the poor!"

10 Jesus knew what they were saying, and so he said to them, "Why are you bothering this woman? It is a fine and beautiful thing that she has done for me.

11 You will always have poor people with you, but you will not always have me.

12 What she did was to pour this perfume on my body to get me ready for burial.

13 Now, I assure you that wherever this gospel is preached all over the world, what she has done will be told in memory of her."

14 Then one of the twelve disciples - the one named Judas Iscariot - went to the chief priests

15 and asked, "What will you give me if I betray Jesus to you?" They counted out thirty silver coins and gave them to him.

16 From then on Judas was looking for a good chance to hand Jesus over to them.

17 On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus and asked him, "Where do you want us to get the Passover meal ready for you?"

18 "Go to a certain man in the city," he said to them, "and tell him: "The Teacher says, My hour has come; my disciples and I will celebrate the Passover at your house.' "

19 The disciples did as Jesus had told them and prepared the Passover meal.

20 When it was evening, Jesus and the twelve disciples sat down to eat.

21 During the meal Jesus said, "I tell you, one of you will betray me."

22 The disciples were very upset and began to ask him, one after the other, "Surely, Lord, you don't mean me?"

23 Jesus answered, "One who dips his bread in the dish with me will betray me.

24 The Son of Man will die as the Scriptures say he will, but how terrible for that man who will betray the Son of Man! It would have been better for that man if he had never been born!"

25 Judas, the traitor, spoke up. "Surely, Teacher, you don't mean me?" he asked. Jesus answered, "So you say."