What does ‘outside the camp’ mean?
In Numbers 15:35-36, it is clear that the death penalty under the Torah was to be administered ‘outside the camp.’
Yet what were the limits or how far away from the camp of the Israelites was this to be?
As the children of Israel were moving throughout the wilderness, they kept a certain distance between the Wilderness Tabernacle and the encampment or their places of habitation according to their clans each with their standards and ensigns. (Numbers 2).
When they were to follow the Ark of the Covenant around the city of Jericho, this ‘distance’ that they were to keep away from the Ark of the Covenant was specified. 
Joshua 3:3 – “When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord you God, and the priests, the Levites, bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it. Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure. Do not come near it (ark)…”
So they needed 2000 cubits = to 3000 feet / 1000 yards /914 meters, in order to maintain the sanctity of the ark and for the preservation of their own lives. 
According to the Hebrew law, the place of residence for an individual, whether a tent or a house, would extend out from its abode for 1000 yards. If the place of dwelling was in a corporate site such as a walled village, a Levitical town or walled city, then the city limits was 1000 yards/914 meters from the outer walls of the village, town or city.
Moses and Joshua ministering to the Lord.
The House of the Lord, wherein rested the Holy of Holies(The Holiest), and the Ark of the Covenant, was the symbolic dwelling place of the Lord of hosts. To be ‘outside the camp’ or ‘outside the gate’, it would have to be over 1000 yards/914 meters, (2000 cubits) from the Temple Proper, or the residence of God/the abiding place of His Presence.
During the days of Messiah/Jesus Christ, the Sanhedrin,
who governed from the Chamber of Hewn Stones,
(which was on the left side of the Holy of Holiest facing east, or the north side of the Temple proper), used the same calculations to determine the corporate city limits of the city of Jerusalem.
Since the court of the Sanhedrin stood as the center, a radius of 1000 yards/914 meters determined the limits of their encampment.
Outside this perimeter was ‘outside the camp’ 
As such the traditional sites of Jeremiah’s Grotto, the site of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and a small hill north-east of the Damascus Gate would be excluded from this definition of ‘outside the camp’ and thereby excluded as potential sites for the crucifixion of Jesus. 
View from Mt.Olives towards Temple.
Two thousand cubits was also the distance allowed for traveling on the Sabbath:
Marking 2000 cubits, 1000 yards/914 meters from Jerusalem’s Eastern Gate brings us to the summit of the Mount of Olives, to the place where the Red Heifer was sacrificed.
From this location, the High Priest could look directly into the entrance of the Temple as the Red Heifer was sacrificed and its blood sprinkled toward the Temple as an offering to God.
When God gave His specific instructions for marking the 2000-cubit limits of cities, the Israelites were just entering the land promised to them, hundreds of years before David captured Jerusalem and Solomon built the First Temple.
Only God could have specifically designed the Temple and the topographical features of Jerusalem, so that the place of the Red Heifer sacrifice – the place of Yeshua’s sacrifice – would be precisely located on the summit of the Mount of Olives. (Where He will also return to and which will split under His feet at His second coming.)
Every prophetic detail of time and place from Adam, Abraham and Jacob on; included every symbolic meaning of God’s Master Plan of Redemption; which was established at the moment God created the world! (Matthew 25:34; Ephesians 1:4; Hebrews 4:3; 1 Peter 1:20; Revelation 13:8). 
Random processes and random events cannot account for the supernatural precision of the Creator’s design that is clearly evident. God controls and is orchestrating every detail of His plan of salvation, to point to the one true Messiah: Jesus/Yeshua!
Hebrews 13:12-13 – “Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach.”
Carefully looking at this text it’s clear that in order to sanctify us with His death, Jesus, guided by His Father, meticulously fulfilled every detail of the ritual of the red heifer, in which His crucifixion occurred outside the gate, (walls of the city) and outside the camp.
So that that His death would not defile the Temple itself, the location was beyond the limits of 1000 yards, (2000 cubits), set outside the city walls and the closest location beyond the limits of 1000 yards, was near the summit on the southern hill of Mount of Olives.
Is there a literal interpretation? Is the Hebrew author suggesting that the reader retrace the footsteps of Jesus/Yeshua?
In order for Messiah/Christ, to use His own blood for the saving grace and sanctification that it offers to all believers, He would have to suffer and be crucified outside the gates and walls of the city, as preordained since the days of Moses.
Not only that, the author urges the readers to mentally go and watch the crucifixion outside the camp on the Mount of Olives, and watch Him bear ‘His reproach’, or the cross beam of the crucifixion.
Jesus/Yeshua with patibulum – crossbeam.
According to His own plan, our Creator (Colossians 1:15-17) entered His own Creation; (both entering within the earth and entering within a physical human body); to offer Himself for our sins ‘outside the camp’, ‘outside the gate’, on the summit of the Mount of Olives, so that we could have eternal life with Him.
From the summit of the Mount of Olives, Yeshua faced the Temple, just as the Red Heifer faced the Temple while being sacrificed.
At the precise place and the precise time God appointed, foreordaining it all at the very beginning of Creation –
And all that dwell on the earth shall worship Him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Revelation 13:8
The Jewish Wedding and the Parallels that exist between God and the children of Israel and between Yeshua and the Body of believers, include coming events in the End Times.
(YHVH) God in Yeshua saw all Jerusalem and all Jerusalem saw God’s Passover Lamb and Red Heifer.
Literally becoming in person, the (Covenant Passover/Pesach Lamb), fulfilling the Annual Appointed Times/Feasts of the Lord that the Israelites had faithfully rehearsed since God gave them to Moses at Sinai.
Considering the entire scene of the trial and crucifixion of Jesus/Messiah Yeshua. 
Jesus/Yeshua, was condemned and died just before a High Shabbat (Sabbath of the festival Passover). 
He was judged and condemned in the Chamber of Hewn Stones in His Father’s House (the Temple) and in the presence of God, His Father. (God cannot look upon sin.)
As Adam was cast out of the Garden to the East, so also Jesus/Yeshua, accursed and condemned, He was led out through the Eastern Gate away from the presence of His Father.
The Red Heifer had been examined and inspected and was found perfect and without blemish, so Yeshua was examined and interrogated by the High Priest,
the whole Sanhedrin and then Pilate, who could find “no fault in Him”. (Luke 23:4)
In the wilderness The Tabernacle /The Mishkan; the sacrifice was performed in front of the Ohel Mo’ed, (Tent of Meeting). 
The burning of the heifer and the sprinkling of the waters,
are performed in the desert by a priest/kohen outside of the Israelite encampment.
(Later as we see, this was performed on the Mount of Olives outside of walled Jerusalem, east of the Holy Temple.) Both were done in a location from which the Priest/kohen could clearly see into the open entrance to the Holy of Holies.
He would slaughter the heifer and sprinkle its blood 7x in the direction of the Temple. 
He then burned the cow in what was referred to as a ‘wine-press’ and gathered up the ashes of the heifer. 
The Mishnah and the Tosefta to Tractate Parah (chapter 3) describe the location of the burning of the heifer on the Mount of Olives, in a place known as the ‘wine-press,’ due to its shape bring similar to that of a wine-press in which grapes were tread upon. 
This ‘wine-press’ was hewn into the mountain bedrock, beneath which cavities were excavated, in order to create a separation through which impurity could not pass, lest there be a burial site hewn into the bedrock below. 
The Priest/Kohen who sprinkles the blood stands on the Mount of Olives and looks westward to the site of the Holy Temple and from there towards the Holy Temple itself, and in the language of the Mishnah (Meudot 2): “The Priest/Kohen directs his gaze toward the Temple Sanctuary while he is sprinkling the blood of the red heifer.”
The line of view of the Priest/Kohen, who stands on the Mount of Olives and looks toward the entrance to the Temple.
Thus, the priest’s gaze passes through four gates, (above) that stood in one (red) line – through
the gate of the women’s section (Ezrat Nashim), the Nikanor Gate,
the massive entrance to the Ulam (entrance hall of the Holy Temple), and the entrance to the Sanctuary.
These gates increased in height as they approached the Temple.
Thus the lintel of the gate of the Ezrat Nashim was only slightly higher than the level of the floor of the entrance to the Sanctuary. If so, then the location of the burning of the cow on the Mount of Olives should be exactly between the height of the entrance floor and the gate of the Ezrat Nashim.
The Mishnah (rabbinic compilation of Jewish oral law) states that water for the Red Heifer ritual came from the Pool of Siloam in the time of the Temple in Jerusalem.
White As Snow: Signs of the Messiah
“‘Come now, let us settle the matter,’ says the Lord. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.’” (Isaiah 1:18)
Another color change happened naturally when the Red Heifer’s body was completely burned; its ashes turned white and were mixed with pure water called Living Water.
Only then was it sprinkled on the people to purify them from the contamination of contact with death and sin.
When we accept the cleansing of our sins through the blood of Messiah Jesus/Yeshua—who is the source of pure Living Water — we, too, become white as snow/cleansed.
“These are the ones who died in the great tribulation. They have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb and made them white.” (Revelation 7:14)
And just as the Red Heifer was sacrificed outside the camp, so was Yeshua.
“The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Yeshua also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through His own blood.” (Hebrews 13:11–12)
Leviticus 17:11 confirms, “it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life“.
When the scripture says that Jesus was “led away to be crucified” (Matthew 27:31), again we see that
the most prominent passage and path for the temple priests to go outside the city was out the Eastern Gate of the temple, across the Kidron Valley over the Bridge of the Red Heifer to the summit of the Mount of Olives.
There, where the red heifer was slaughtered and burnt (Holocaust), Yeshua was executed on a tree. (1Peter 2:24)
Outside the city wall = same as ‘outside the camp’!
The Red Heifer was then led out the eastern gate of the temple, so also Messiah/Yeshua was led away from the temple out the eastern gate, also away from the presence of His Father. 
As an accused man of sin, Messiah/Yeshua followed the route of Adam and Eve as they were driven from the Garden of Eden and away from the presence of God because of their sin of disobedience.
The Red Heifer was led across the Kidron Valley, walking over the Bridge of the Red Heifer to the summit of the Mount of Olives, and up to the summit of the mount where she was slaughtered, so also Jesus was led by the same route to the place where He is crucified.
The Temple mount looked very different before the Temple was destroyed. The whole section of what is called Solomon’s Stables, left of Triple Gate, did not exist at the time of the Temple. It may have been added to the Mount by Hadrian around 135 AD. 
So even though it looks like the bridge runs up along side the temple mount in the picture in fact it went up the hill and connected to Triple gate, which was once Solomon’s Portico. 
Solomon’s porch in Herod’s Temple.
2000 cubits is approximate length of the bridge, which is the distance required from the Holy of Holies to the Red Heifer Altar.
View showing the length of the Bridge.
This is important because the angle from the end of the bridge, on the lower part of the Mt of Olives, to the Holy of Holies must allow for a person to see through the East Gate, the inner east gate, and through the Temple door, seeing the veil that hung before the Holy of Holies.
Also the Priest performing the Red Heifer sacrifice at the top of the Mount of Olives needed to be able to see the Temple sanctuary to know when to begin the sacrifice. So in this case he would need to be able to see over the top of the East gate and also over the inner east gate.
The bridge is approximately 1,000 feet long and at around a 3 percent grade from the end of the bridge up to Triple gate. (Solomon’s Portico, which had the entrance to the East Gate within it). However it is written that the altar was on the summit (top of the Mount as being directly east of the Temple). 
The way the bridge was constructed it allowed for air to be between the priest and the graves below.
Purity was demanded.
Living water had to be carried up the Mount to the Place of the Red Heifer Sacrifice. For this reason hollows (tunnels/caverns) were cut into the bedrock.
A bowl from the 1st temple period 7th/6th centuries B.C. Jerusalem.
Chosen women gave birth there, and the boys born in the hollow grew up there, never allowed to venture out, for fear of them walking over a grave.
To get the water to the top of the Mt of Olives these boys were carried on large doors up the Mountain while holding rock hewn bowls full of living water.
Near the end of the Red Heifer Bridge was the place of the counting of heads (skull);
where papers were checked before the people could cross the bridge and enter the Temple from the East Gate into the women’s court. 
At the time of Yahshua’s execution we are told that “there [were] many women FROM AFAR beholding”. (Matt 27:55)
The women who had followed him from Galilee and ministered to Him, were allowed only to witness the execution from the Women’s Court Gallery on the Temple Mount.The distance from the Herodian Temple Mount to the execution site on the Mount of Olives was almost half a mile.
This would have been considered quite a distance for spectators who were beholding the execution from across the Kidron Valley.
The only reason they were able to view the execution at all is because of the low eastern wall. It provided them a view which, if his execution had taken place either to the north, south, or west, THEY WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN ABLE TO SEE HIM AT ALL!
All the walls which were there were high, EXCEPT THE WALL IN THE EAST, so that the priest who burned the heifer, STANDING ON THE TOP OF THE MOUNT OF OLIVES, and directing himself to look, saw THROUGH THE GATEWAY OF THE SANCTUARY, at the time when he sprinkled the blood [Mishnah, Perek 2].
The Mishnah connects the sacrifice of the Red Heifer, which we know occurred on the Mount of Olives, with the low Eastern Wall. Since this was the only site where the High Priest might have a view of the front of the Sanctuary at all, and we know the Women’s Court was two-storied on the east, this statement also connects the execution site with the Mount of Olives. But to confirm that this is so, we also have evidence that it was not Mount Scopus, a part of the Olivet chain, to which the rabbis referred, but the Rosh of the Mount of Olives, because this spot is connected with the Eastern Gate.
There were five gates to the Temple inclosure (i.e. the temple precincts)…THE EASTERN GATE, upon which was a representation of the city of Shushan, and BY IT THE HIGH-PRIEST WHO BURNED THE RED HEIFER, AND ALL WHO ASSISTED, WENT OUT UPON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES [Mishnah, Perek 1].
It was, in fact, only here where the rending of the veil and the breaking of the stone lintel above the veil might have been viewed. Since we are told that even the Roman centurion saw “all these things” happen, it again confirms that the execution site was somewhere on the Mount of Olives.
A tearing of this curtain IN FRONT OF THE BUILDING at the time of the afternoon sacrifices would have been public and very dramatic in effect. IT WOULD HAVE BEEN VISIBLE FROM THE MOUNT OF OLIVES [Erich H. Kiehl, The Passion, p. 141].
Looking from the Temple Mount area towards the East to the Mount of Olives.
The fact is the individuals witnessing these events (those near the execution site) could not have seen them FROM ANY OTHER VANTAGE POINT IN JERUSALEM!
From noon until 3:00 P.M. it is stated in the gospels that “darkness” engulfed the land [Mark 15:33].
Now it was noonday, and darkness prevailed over all Judea, and they were afraid and distressed FOR FEAR THE SUN HAD SET WHILE HE WAS STILL ALIVE. For it is written for them that the sun should not set upon one put to death. and one of them said, “Give him gall with vinegar to drink.” And they mixed them and gave it to him. And they fulfilled all things and brought their sins to an end upon their own heads. AND MANY WENT ABOUT WITH LAMPS, SUPPOSING IT WAS NIGHT, AND FELL. and the [Master] cried out, “My power, my power, thou hast forsaken me.” And, saying this, he was taken up. And in the same hour the curtain of the temple of Jerusalem was torn in two [Gospel of Peter, ed. Burton H. Throckmorton, Jr., Gospel Parallels, p. 183].
By 3:00 P.M. an earthquake had occurred, damaging the Temple. Jerome, who had access to the Gospel of the Nazareans, clearly states that the thirty-ton stone lintel which held the veils in place was destroyed at the time of the earthquake.
In the Gospel that is written in Hebrew letters we read, not that the curtain of the temple was torn, but that THE ASTONISHINGLY LARGE LINTEL OF THE TEMPLE COLLAPSED [To Matt. 27:51 cf. Gospel of the Nazareans (in Jerome, Letter 120 to Hedibia and Commentary on Matthew 27:51); ed. Burton H. Throckmorton, Jr. Gospel Parallels, p. 184].
The collapse of the stone lintel that supported the massive Nicanor Gate would have rended the veils that hung from it. The suggestion that the veils still hung “unrended” over the Temple entrance some years later does not, in any way, refute the tearing of those veils hanging there at the time of Yahshua’s death. The fact is there were two new curtains made each year.
Simeon ben Gamaliel said in the name of R. Simeon, deputy [high priest]: The curtain was a handbreadth thick and was woven on seventy-two strands, each strand consisting of twenty-four threads. Its length was forty cubits and its breadth twenty cubits, made up in its entirety of eighty myriads [of threads]. THEY USED TO MAKE TWO CURTAINS EVERY YEAR, AND THREE HUNDRED PRIESTS WERE REQUIRED TO IMMERSE THEM [ed. Bialik and Ravnitsky, The Book of Legends, Sefer Ha-Aggadah, 160-61:6].
Jesus/Yeshua would have been crucified with a view to the Holy of Holies.
That is why the Roman soldier could see the veil as it was rent in two, and also see the tombs open and the dead coming back to life and go into the city. 
Matt 27:50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.
27:51 And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom;
and the earth shook and the rocks were split.
27:52 The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; 27
:53 and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many.
The curtain tore at the exact moment Jesus/Yeshua died and the priests were sacrificing the Passover Lamb.
Note here again the reference to the women looking on from afar off. However, they had the line of sight to the Mount of Olives from the Women’s Court.
Legally, family and friends were not allowed to be present during the Roman executions until near the time of death, when they were called for last-minute words.
It was only when Yeshua had spoken these final words that He said “I thirst”, and after having been offered a merciful drink of water mixed with wine, declared “It is finished”.
Jesus was offered a second drink, which He accepted. It is ‘pocsa’, a sour wine popular at that time. Jesus accepted this drink because of two important images. The drink was given on the “stalk of a hyssop plant”.
(Same type of Hyssop branch as used by the High Priest in the Red Heifer sacrifice. Jesus/Yeshua is our High Priest.)
Remember that these events occurred at the Feast of the Passover. During this feast, hyssop was used to apply the blood of the Passover lamb to the wooden DOOR posts (the last Hebrew letter Tav!) of the Israelites. (Everything is connected, see previous posts.)
Again, it is interesting the end of this hyssop stalk
pointed to the blood of the Perfect Lamb which was applied to the wooden cross for the salvation of all mankind.
Hence the scripture:
John 19:25-27 Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, he said to his mother, Woman, behold your son! Then He said to the disciple, “Behold your mother.” John 13:23
‘Saw His mother.’
Why say it that way if she had been there all along?
Interestingly, most of the visuals tell us that they were present at the crucifixion the whole time.
‘And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home’.
19:28 After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. 19:29 Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. 19:30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.
27:54 Now the centurion, and those who were with him keeping guard over Jesus, when they saw the earthquake and the things that were happening, became very frightened and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”
Mar 15:37 And Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed His last. 15:38 And the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.
15:39 When the centurion, who was standing right in front of Him, saw the way He breathed His last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” 
The centurion, standing in front of Jesus, need only turn his head to see the veil torn in two and the dead being raised and walking toward the city. 
This is only possible if Jesus was crucified on the Mt of Olives straight across from the Temple.
The Red Heifer bridge would have ended between Zechariah’s tomb and the road to Jericho, straight across from the blocked up gate in the east wall of the Temple Mount. The place of stoning for the Jews would have been near by the end of the bridge, so that when a person died they would be before God (represented by the Holy of Holies) and they would be responsible for their own sins.
It is said that the Centurion that stood guard across from Jesus at his crucifixion saw the torn veil of the Holy of Holies at the time, which means this is the same area the Roman’s crucified Jewish prisoners. Jesus was one of three being hung on a cross that day, which further indicates this as a place regularly used by them.
The Roman’s always crucified people on the main roads going into cities that they ruled over as a warning to travelers, and this was sort of a crossroads with one road leading to the city and another leading to the Red Heifer bridge which lead to the Temple. They may have chosen a place above the road where He could be mocked by the travelers.
The two criminals might well have gone through much the same process as Yahshua himself did. What is certain is that each was excommunicated from the community of Israel.
As the shofar sounded the blasts announcing excommunication from the congregation of Israel on the Pinnacle of the Temple a flagman (lactee), stood near the southeastern cloisters of the Women’s Court near the Miphkad Gate with a red flag. 
Each man would have been led separately over the Red Heifer bridge to the execution site on the “ridge” (or “cranium”, “spine”) of the Mount of Olives (Gulgoleth). A second lactee riding a white horse and carrying a wooden plaque on which the charge was written, led the execution party to that public square, the gathering place for the festal pilgrims situated near the Bazaars of Annas. Pilate had written on that plaque that Yahshua was the KING OF ISRAEL! No other charge was represented on the plaque.
THE MYSTERY OF THE RED HEIFER REVEALED IN MESSIAH YESHUA
The spiritual significance of the Red Heifer is considered by ancient and modern Jewish sages and scholars to be one of the greatest mysteries.
However, the mystery of Solomon’s chok is fully revealed in the sacrifice of Messiah Jesus/Yeshua.
The uniqueness of the sacrifice.
Symbol of the Color of Blood and the Impartation of New Life
An unusual aspect of the Red Heifer is it being female rather than male. The symbolism of this has also been a great mystery:
It has been conjectured that the use of a female, though sacrificial animals were usually males, symbolized the imparting of new life to those who had been defiled by contact with death.
The color red, being the color of blood, may have been the token of life.
By the shedding of His blood, Messiah Yeshua cleanses us from spiritual death resulting from sin and imparts eternal life, the free gift of salvation through His sacrifice for sin atonement.
The physical body of Messiah Yeshua was conceived by the power of the Spirit of God from the “seed of a woman” (Genesis 3:15; Luke 1:35). Perhaps another significance of the Red Heifer being female relates to the seed of a woman being used by God to bring forth the Messiah, by the power of His Holy Spirit.
Some believe that the significance of the heifer being “red” is symbolic of the red blood of the Messiah Jesus without which there can be no cleansing.
The paradox of the red heifer sacrifice suggests profound truth about the sacrificial death of Yeshua our Savior. The kohen (priest) who sprinkled the ashes of the red heifer became tamei (unclean) himself, even though the defiled person became tahor (pure).
The picture of the priest here is one of sacrificial love – the giving up of one’s own spiritual purity so that another person can regain his purity… “Sprinkle me with hyssop, and I will be clean” (Psalm 51:7). Just so, Yeshua willingly became unclean on our behalf – through our contact with sin and death – so that we could become clean (Isa. 53:4, 2 Cor. 5:21, Gal. 3:3, Eph. 5:2, Titus 2:14).
Because of Yeshua, the impure become pure, even though He became impure through His offering. Because of Him, we have been cleansed from our sins “by a better sprinkling” than that which the Tabernacle of Moses could afford (Matt. 26:28, Heb. 9:14, 12:24, Eph. 1:7, 1 Pet. 1:2,18-19, Rom. 5:9; Col. 1:14, 1 John 1:7, etc.).
The sages of the Talmud had it partly right…. Yeshua’s sacrifice as our “Red Heifer” indeed preceded the “rebuilding” of the Temple (John 2:19) – though this Temple is one made “without human hands” by the power of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 26:26-28, 1 Cor. 12:27, Eph. 4:4,11-12, Col. 1:24, etc.).
The followers of the Messiah are now part of the Temple of His Body (1 Cor. 3:16, 12:27) and are called “living stones” (1 Pet. 2:5).
The sacrifice of the tenth Red Heifer — Yeshua — instituted a new priesthood after the order of Malki-Tzedek (Heb. 5:10 with 1 Pet. 2:5) that replaces the older Levitical priesthood of Aaron (Heb. 13:10).
Beloved, we have been cleansed from our sins by a better sprinkling than that which the tent of Moses could afford (Matt. 26:28, Heb. 9:14, 12:24, Eph. 1:7, 1 Pet. 1:2,18-19, Rom. 5:9; Col. 1:14, 1 John 1:7, etc.).
This typology was inclusive of the both the bullocks and the goats which were used as sin offerings and the red heifer which was used for purification and holiness (from sin or defilement) of the Levites and the temple premises.
Hebrews 9:13-14: “For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the Living God.”
That the early church believers recognized the relationship between the Jesus and the Red Heifer is depicted in the Letter of Barnabas (8:2) written about 90 CE which stated, “The calf is Jesus: the sinful men offering it are those who led him to the slaughter.”
The parah adumah sacrifice was entirely unique for the following reasons: it was the only sacrifice that specifically required an animal of a particular color. This animal was extremely rare and entirely unique, in fact it is recorded by Maimonides in his commentary to the mishna that, 9 perfectly red heifers parah adumah were prepared from the time the Commandments were given to Moses until the destruction of the second Temple.
Mishnah 5, Tractate Parah –
“The 1st heifer that was burned was under the supervision of Moses on that 2nd day of Nissan in the second year from the Exodus.
The 2nd heifer was burned under the supervision of Ezra;
2 were burned by Shimon Ha Tzaddik;
2 were burned by Yochanan, the High Priest,
the 7th by Eliehoenai, the son of He-Kof,
the 8th by Hanamel, the Egyptian,
the 9th by Ishmael, son of Piabi and
the 10th will be burned in the time of the (for us Messiah Jesus) Moschiach.”
“… and the tenth red heifer will be accomplished by the king, the Messiah; may he be revealed speedily, Amen, May it be God’s will.”
For us as believers we can say WAS prepared.
is the urn or vessel that contains the ashes of the red heifer that was used in the Mishkhan or Wilderness Sanctuary and in Solomon’s Temple.
