Book of Leviticus


The Book of 'Leviticus is the third book of the Torah and of the Old Testament, also known as the Third Book of Moses'. Many hypotheses presented by scholars as to its origins agree that it developed over a long period of time, reaching its present form during the Persian Period, from 538 to 332 BC, although this is disputed.
Most of its chapters consist of God's speeches to Moses, which he tells Moses to repeat to the Israelites. This takes place within the story of the Israelites' Exodus after they escaped Egypt and reached Mount Sinai. The Book of Exodus narrates how Moses led the Israelites in building the Tabernacle with God's instructions. In Leviticus, God tells the Israelites and their priests, Aaron and his sons, how to make offerings in the Tabernacle and how to conduct themselves while camped around the holy tent sanctuary. Leviticus takes place during the month or month-and-a-half between the completion of the Tabernacle and the Israelites' departure from Sinai.
The instructions of Leviticus emphasize ritual, legal, and moral practices rather than beliefs. Nevertheless, they reflect the world view of the creation story in Genesis 1 that God wishes to live with humans. The book teaches that faithful performance of the sanctuary rituals can make that possible, so long as the people avoid sin and impurity whenever possible. The rituals, especially the sin and guilt offerings, provide the means to gain forgiveness for sins and purification from impurities so that God can continue to live in the Tabernacle in the midst of the people.

Title

The English name Leviticus comes from the Latin Leviticus, which is in turn from the , which is the name of the book in the Septuagint. It refers to the priestly tribe of the Israelites, the Levites: the book contains the laws and rituals they perform. The Greek expression is in turn a variant of the rabbinic Hebrew, 'law of priests', as many of its laws relate to priests.
Consistent with the naming convention for the Pentateuch, in Hebrew the book is called , from the opening of the book, "And He called."

Structure

The outlines from commentaries are similar, though not identical; compare those of Wenham, Hartley, Milgrom, and Watts.
  • Laws on sacrifice
  • *Instructions for the laity on bringing offerings
  • **The types of offering: burnt, cereal, peace, purification, reparation offerings
  • *Instructions for the priests
  • **The various offerings, with the addition of the priests' cereal offering
  • **Summary
  • Institution of the priesthood
  • *Ordination of Aaron and his sons
  • *Aaron makes the first sacrifices
  • *Judgement on Nadab and Abihu
  • Uncleanliness and its treatment
  • *Unclean animals
  • *Childbirth as a source of uncleanliness
  • *Unclean diseases
  • *Cleansing of diseases
  • *Unclean discharges
  • Day of Atonement: purification of the tabernacle from the effects of uncleanliness and sin
  • Prescriptions for practical holiness
  • *Sacrifice and food
  • *Sexual behaviour
  • *Neighbourliness
  • *Grave crimes
  • *Rules for priests
  • *Rules for eating sacrifices
  • *Festivals
  • *Rules for the tabernacle
  • *Blasphemy
  • *Sabbatical and Jubilee years
  • *Exhortation to obey the law: blessing and curse
  • Redemption of votive gifts

    Summary

Chapters 1–5 describe the various sacrifices from the sacrificers' point of view, although the priests are essential for handling the blood. Chapters 6–7 go over much the same ground, but from the point of view of the priest, who, as the one actually carrying out the sacrifice and dividing the "portions", needs to know how to do it. Sacrifices are between God, the priest, and the offers, although in some cases the entire sacrifice is a single portion to God—i.e., burnt to ashes.
Chapters 8–10 describe how Moses consecrates Aaron and his sons as the first priests, the first sacrifices, and God's destruction of two of Aaron's sons for ritual offenses. The purpose is to underline the character of altar priesthood as an Aaronite privilege, and the responsibilities and dangers of their position.
With sacrifice and priesthood established, chapters 11–15 instruct the lay people on purity. Eating certain animals produces uncleanliness, as does giving birth; certain skin diseases are unclean, as are certain conditions affecting walls and clothing ; and unusual bodily discharges, including female menses and male emissions, are unclean. The reasoning behind the food rules are obscure; for the rest the guiding principle seems to be that all these conditions involve a loss of "life force", usually but not always blood.
Chapter 16 concerns the Day of Atonement. This is the only day on which the High Priest is to enter the holiest part of the sanctuary, the holy of holies. He is to sacrifice a bull for the sins of the priests, and a goat for the sins of the laypeople. The priest is to send a second goat into the desert to "Azazel", bearing the sins of the whole people. Azazel's identity is unknown, with some Christian tradition linking him to a fallen angel, older English Bible translations like the King James Version translating it as "a scapegoat".
Chapters 17–26 are the Holiness code. It begins with a prohibition on all unauthorized ritual slaughter of animals, and then prohibits a long list of sexual contacts and also child sacrifice. The "holiness" injunctions which give the code its name begin with the next section: there are penalties for the worship of Molech, consulting mediums and wizards, cursing one's parents and engaging in unlawful sex. Priests receive instruction on mourning rituals and acceptable bodily defects. The punishment for blasphemy is death, and there is the setting of rules for eating sacrifices; there is an explanation of the calendar, and there are rules for sabbatical and Jubilee years; there are rules for oil lamps and bread in the sanctuary; and there are rules for slavery. The code ends by telling the Israelites they must choose between the law and prosperity on the one hand, or, on the other, horrible punishments, the worst of which will be expulsion from the land.
Chapter 27 is a disparate and probably late addition telling about persons and things serving as dedication to the Lord and how one can redeem, instead of fulfill, vows.

Composition

The majority of scholars have concluded that the Pentateuch received its final form during the Persian period. Nevertheless, Leviticus had a long period of growth before reaching that form.
The entire composition of the book of Leviticus is Priestly literature. Most scholars see chapters 1–16 and chapters 17–26 as the work of two related schools, but while the Holiness material employs the same technical terms as the Priestly code, it broadens their meaning from pure ritual to the theological and moral, turning the ritual of the Priestly code into a model for the relationship of Israel to Yahweh: as the tabernacle, which is apart from uncleanliness, becomes holy by the presence of Yahweh, so he will dwell among Israel when Israel receives purification and separates from other peoples. The ritual instructions in the Priestly code apparently grew from priests giving instruction and answering questions about ritual matters; the Holiness code used to be a separate document, later becoming part of Leviticus, but it seems better to think of the Holiness authors as editors who worked with the Priestly code and actually produced Leviticus as is now extant.

Themes

Sacrifice and ritual

Many scholars argue that the rituals of Leviticus have a theological meaning concerning Israel's relationship with its God. Jacob Milgrom was especially influential in spreading this view. He maintained that the priestly regulations in Leviticus expressed a rational system of theological thought. The writers expected them to be put into practice in Israel's temple, so the rituals would express this theology as well, as well as ethical concern for the poor. Milgrom also argued that the book's purity regulations have a basis in ethical thinking. Many other interpreters have followed Milgrom in exploring the theological and ethical implications of Leviticus's regulations, though some have questioned how systematic they really are. Ritual, therefore, is not taking a series of actions for their own sake, but a means of maintaining the relationship between God, humanity, and the world.

Kehuna (Jewish priesthood)

The main function of the priests is service at the altar, and only the sons of Aaron are priests in the full sense.
In chapter 10, God kills Nadab and Abihu, the oldest sons of Aaron, for offering "strange incense". Aaron has two sons left. Commentators have read various messages in the incident: a reflection of struggles between priestly factions in the post-Exilic period ; or a warning against offering incense outside the Temple, where there might be the risk of invoking strange gods. In any case, there has been a pollution of the sanctuary by the bodies of the two dead priests, leading into the next theme, holiness.

Uncleanliness and purity

Ritual purity is essential for an Israelite to be able to approach Yahweh and remain part of the community. Uncleanliness threatens holiness; chapters 11–15 review the various causes of uncleanliness and describe the rituals which will restore cleanliness; one is to maintain cleanliness through observation of the rules on sexual behaviour, family relations, land ownership, worship, sacrifice, and observance of holy days.
Yahweh dwells with Israel in the Tabernacle. All of the priestly ritual focuses on Yahweh and the construction and maintenance of a holy space, but sin generates impurity, as do everyday events such as childbirth and menstruation; impurity pollutes the holy dwelling place. Failure to purify the sacred space ritually could result in God's leaving, which would be disastrous.