In Leviticus 12, is the term "sin offering" a mistranslation?

Question

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus%2012;&version=9;

Answer 1

No. The 'sin' offering was a separate part of the ritual having to do with atonement for the wrongs committed against God's laws.

Answer 2

No it is not. But I think your understanding of it might be a little off.

If you read through the different offering, the way the animal was treated and what happened to the "meat" varied by which type of an offering it was. With a sin offering, the animal was slain, the unediable parts (bladder, kidneys intestines) burnt, some of the meat given to the preist, and the rest boiled and returned to the person for a feast.

In the cleansing that followed childbirth, usually a lamb and a dove were sacrificed. The dove (which is too small to make a feast out of) was burnt. But the lamb was prepared according to the sin offering rules. Most of it was returned to the family, who could use it for a feast to celebrate the birth.

So when it speaks there of the "sin offering", it is not calling childbirthing a sin, but stating which of the five different rules to follow in how the animal was treated.

Answer 3

Not a mistranslation, but perhaps people misunderstand it.

Though the occasion was joyous, the sacrifices required were to impress upon the mind of the parent the reality of original sin & that the child had inherited a sin nature. The circumcision was to prevent infections and diseases in its folds. Circumcision points to the fact that cleansing is needed at the very core of a human being, a cleansing God offers to the faithful & penitent through the sacrifice of Christ to come.

Uncleanness is related to the mother's afterbirth, not the child. The impurity refers to her monthly cycle (15:19-24). The longer time pr. for birth of a girl reflects the stigma on women for Eve's part in the Fall. This stigma is removed in Christ.(1Tim.2:14,15)

The turtledoves...pigeons were the offerings of Joseph and Mary after Christ's birth.(Luke 2, Ex.13). Livestock was more expensive.

Answer 4

Given the heavy Christian influence on religious terminology in the English language, many of the common 'translations' of Hebrew words say far more about Christianity than they do about the texts in which they originally occurred.

'Sin' is the commonly accepted word for 'chayt'. However, the concept in Judaism is a world away from the concept in Christianity. Sticking to the Christianized English meanings guarantees that you and anyone else will misinterpret the texts.

Answer 5

In accord with quite a few of the translations on Bible Gateway, it is a correct renderning: