Birth

Birth customs in the ancient Israelite world followed patterns common to the broader ancient Near East while incorporating distinctive elements tied to covenant identity. As soon as a child was born, it was washed, rubbed with salt—a practice Ezekiel mentions as having been neglected in the metaphorical birth of Jerusalem—and wrapped in linen swaddling bands. The salt rubbing may have served antiseptic or symbolic purposes, associated with covenant and preservation. Luke's account of Jesus's birth at Bethlehem echoes these customs when Mary wraps the infant in swaddling cloths and lays him in a manger.

The Mosaic law prescribed specific purification periods for mothers after childbirth: forty days of uncleanness after the birth of a son and eighty days after a daughter, followed by prescribed sacrifices for purification. Male infants were circumcised on the eighth day, incorporating them into the covenant community. The birth of a son was generally cause for greater celebration than a daughter in the ancient patriarchal context, though the daughters of Zelophehad successfully challenged the assumption that daughters were unimportant heirs in the Mosaic period. The new birth metaphor Jesus employs in John 3—birth from water and Spirit—draws on physical birth as the analogy for entry into the kingdom of God.