Leviticus 22:4 - On the noun אִישׁ

(The above rendering comes from the RJPS translation, an adaptation of the NJPS translation. Before accounting for this rendering, I will analyze the plain sense of the Hebrew term אִישׁ, by employing a situation-oriented construal as outlined in this introduction, pp. 11–16.)

The word אִישׁ is repeated in 20 biblical verses; many of them occur in Leviticus, as here. Such repetition אִישׁ אִישׁ imparts a “no exceptions” meaning to the situation that is being depicted, as I explained in my comment to Exod 36:4. For application to constructions like this one, see my comment to Lev 17:3.

A “no exceptions” stipulation seems germane because the nature of “an eruption or a discharge” is such that an affected priest might be able to get away with hiding it, so that he can continue to partake of the sacred food. The stipulation apparently addresses that temptation.

Gender is not at issue in this passage, yet women are excluded from view by implication. As the commentator Bernard Bamberger notes (1979), certain types of “sacred donation” may be eaten only by priests—not by their family members (6:11, 22; 7:6). Because this passage treats all sacred donations categorically (v. 2), it appears that the only group in view is the one who can eat any of them, namely, the priests themselves. This reading is confirmed in v. 9, in which God claims to have “consecrated” the addressees; that description can apply only to the priests. (It goes without saying that only males serve as priests.)

As for rendering into English, we have warrant for rendering in gendered terms. Yet the NJPS “No man of Aaron’s offspring…” does not convey the intensified nuance in the prohibition. In the revised rencering, the word “whatsoever” is added to express that thought.