Gordon J. Wenham
British OT Scholar
Commentary on Leviticus
When we talk about teleology we are talking about the goal, end, or purpose of whatever is in question. When we talk about the teleology of a knife we would say its end, purpose or goal, is to cut or stab. If we were to talk about the teleology of a book we would say it is to inform, instruct or amuse. When we talk about the teleology of man we know that it is to glorify God by fully enjoying Him forever.
Proper teleology is part of the substance of Christian worldview. When we talk about teleology in relation to our study of man (anthropology) we inquire about the end for which man was made.
The “image laws” that we find in Leviticus 19, wherein God communicates how His people are to be Holy (set apart) in their physical selves and even in their fashions, is part of the answer to a biblical teleology for anthropology. Many assume because they can’t understand the general equity in such laws as Leviticus 19 therefore they assume such laws are void. To avoid this is why God gave some to the Church to be Pastors.
Leviticus 19 when read in light of all of Scripture according to the “anaologia fidei” … when read in conjunction with verses like I Corinthians 6:19-20 and verses like Ephesians 5:27f we begin to see the proper teleology for man and so begin to understand what man was created for and so that for which fallen man is re-created.
The intent of God, for man, in terms of man’s teleology, has always been to present unto Himself a people without spot, wrinkle, blemish or any such thing (Eph. 5:27). This is put on display in the ministry of Christ with the bringing in of His Kingdom as He brings wellness, health, and restoration via His Kingdom ministry to the palsied, the blind, the halt, and the deaf. All Christ’s healing, resurrections of the dead, delivery from demon possession, and forgiveness of sins was to communicate that the teleology of man, in today’s lingo, has always been human flourishing. Christ came to give life that was and is abundant.
Some want to reduce this prospect of Kingdom life without wrinkle, spot, or blemish to some kind of spiritual realm, so that it is our souls or our spirits alone, which are blemish free. We to often forget that the body has been redeemed likewise. Now, before I am accused of arguing that there is automatic physical healing in the atonement, I fully understand that not all physical blemishes upon God’s people are done away in this life. The last enemy to be defeated is death. My argument here is that if the teleology of man is wholeness, shalom, and well-being then that includes man’s body as well as his soul.
Our corporeal selves are to be a reflection of our incorporeal selves and so for the Christian to pursue spots and blemishes upon their skin is a contradiction to Christ’s ultimate intent to present us without spot, wrinkle, blemish, or any such thing.That this is no stretch notice the connection in Deuteronomy 14:1-2 between God’s people being Holy with their corporeal wholeness and well being.
Deuteronomy 14 “You are the sons of the Lord your God. You shall not cut yourselves or make any baldness on your foreheads for the dead. 2 For you are a people holy to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
It wasn’t just that God was saving a people so their souls would be without spot, wrinkle, blemish or any such thing. He was saving a people who would be physically unmarred unless He Himself, in His providence, decided to mar them physically. Even then, in the fullness of the Father’s Kingdom, those who God had marred in His providence would be physically whole again. This is the teleology of the Saints.God’s people remain, as Deuteronomy 14 teaches, a people who are his possession,
I Peter 2:9 — But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
Notice both in Deuteronomy 14 and in I Peter 2 this possession language is used. In Deuteronomy God’s claim of possession follows his prohibition upon cutting. (We looked at this in some depth in the previous entry.) Are we to believe in I Peter God likewise claims possession but now doesn’t care about cutting and scarification? Did Jesus come to die for the sins of His people so that they could now scarify themselves in tattooing? God doesn’t own for Himself a people in the Old Testament who scarify themselves and yet in the New Testament God does own for Himself a people who do go out of the way to scarify themselves via tattooing? When the modern Church disregards God’s teleology for man’s physical wholeness and so allows and even advocates for scarification and tattooing the Modern Church is confessing a Gnostic Christianity. Gnosticism, the Church’s first, and still present, and now long abiding heresy taught that the corporeal world was unimportant. All that was important was our spiritual selves. The body was alienated from a spiritual salvation. Sometimes, in Gnostic quarters, it was explained that the spirit of man was entombed in the evil corporeal quarters that was man’s body. Because the spirit was all that was important, it didn’t matter what a person’s body did or was involved in. The Gnostic saw the flesh at best as meaningless and at worse as positive evil. If the flesh is meaningless then anything can be done with it or to it including scarification and tattooing. But this was not to be so among God’s people. God’s claim was upon man both body and soul. This is why the Continental Reformed have always confessed,“That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death —to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.”
This is why Wenham can say in our introductory quote that,
“The external appearance of the people should reflect their internal status as the chosen and holy people of God.”
My body belongs to Christ. It should reflect my internal status as redeemed, and so chosen and holy. What I do to my body is significant and if God tells me that my body is His Temple possession and significant in terms of communicating His teleology for me then who I am to scarify or tattoo my body and so contradict Him? God calls us to serve Him with the whole man, body and soul, and when we tattoo ourselves we are confessing a worldview that has a teleology component that is contrary to a Christian teleology and a Christian worldview. We are contradicting the abundant life Christ promised to give.
In the future installments I hope to get to some history of the tattoo as well as cultural considerations that are wrapped up in tattooing.
