Leviticus

• Introductory Matters
• • According to the Documentary Hypothesis, Leviticus was a product of the Priestly school
  • • Questions still remain as to whether the provisions in Leviticus came before or after Deuteronomy
    • Most scholars see evidence of very old material and practices in Leviticus
  • Continues the legislation begun in Exodus (Exod. 25-31, 35-40) and leads into the legislation in Numbers (Num. 3, 5-7)
  • Name is the Latin form of the Greek name Levitikon referring to those matters which concerned the priests
  • Predominantly a book concerning how to worship God in cult and life - worship is not confined to public worship but spills over into everyday life
  • Contemporary view of Leviticus
  • • Probably the most misunderstood and least appreciated book - considered by many to be boring and not applicable to faith today
    • All of the words in Leviticus are portrayed as being from the mouth of God just as are the Ten Commandments - many people, however, who do believe God spoke the Ten Commandments, do not believe the words in Leviticus also came from the mouth of God - this view of "selective inspiration" is difficult to defend
    • An extremely important book because it provides insight as to how a person is to worship God - the detailed methods of worshiping God recorded in Leviticus may not be appropriate for contemporary religious practice but the spirit behind the methods is always appropriate
• Message of the Book
• • Sacrifices (1:1-7:38)
  • • Describes five types of sacrifices
    • • Whole burnt offering
      • Grain offering
      • "Peace" offering
      • Sin offering
      • Guilt offering
    • These sacrifices meet the needs of both public and private worship
    • Sacrifices served two purposes
    • • Expiation
      • Apotropaic purposes
    • Despite the material in Leviticus about these offerings, it is difficult to understand them completely, exactly when they were offered, and precisely what they intended to accomplish
    • Emphasis
    • • Proper performance of the rituals - not legalism but the attempt to give God the best in the best manner - worship is not to be slipshod
      • Give the best - offerings were to be the best a person could afford (thus the sliding scale from valuable animals to birds) - sacrifices were to be a sacrifice
  • Consecration of the priests to the priestly office (8:1-10:20)
  • • The priesthood was a prestigious and dangerous office - it was both a privilege and a chore to stand between people and God - such an office could not be entered lightly
    • Leviticus 10 especially shows the dangers of being a priest
  • Laws regarding clean and unclean (11:1-15:33)
  • • Clean and unclean animals (11:1-47)
    • • Why were some animals unclean?
      • • Ethical - the more blood consumed, the more bloodthirsty a person became - by limiting the animals that can be eaten, we limit our killing
        • Aesthetic - some animals do not look fit to eat
        • Theological - avoid animals that other nations used as sacrifices other than the typical animals (e.g., cattle, sheep, goats, birds)
        • Hygienic - some animals were difficult to prepare and cook so were avoided
        • Things that are mixed - do not eat animals that seem to have the characteristics of two environments or two species
        • Not domesticated - preferred animals raised by humans or found close by (e.g., deer)
        • Digestion - animals who did not choose their own food carefully were avoided
        • Locomotion - animals that did not move appropriate to their environment were avoided - cloven hooves (like human toes) on land and scales and fins in the water were appropriate
      • May be a combination of the above - at this stage it is difficult to know precisely why some animals were avoided
      • Eating is important and not everything in God's creation is to be consumed by humans
    • Sexually-related discharges and birth of children (12:1-8)
    • • The sexual processes, especially the birth of a child, were regarded by Israel and other nations as "unclean" because mysterious powers were at work - in childbirth especially the woman entered into God's activity of creation
      • Interestingly a woman is impure twice as long after giving birth to a daughter (12:5 - 66 days) than for a son (12:4 - 33 days) - perhaps this was because a daughter would have a greater role in human reproduction through carrying the child and giving birth than would a son
    • Leprosy (13:1-14:57)
    • • No evidence of leprosy in the Ancient Near East exists until the time of Alexander the Great (late 4^th century B.C.E.)
      • Leviticus probably defined leprosy in humans as various skin diseases that refused to clear up within a reasonable time and led to flaking and in houses as various types of fungi
      • A person who had a skin disease was no longer whole and thus unfit to worship God in the official cult - any disease could make a person unfit to worship God in the official cult but skin diseases were very visible and thus were singled out
      • Skin diseases and fungi, the difficulty in getting rid of them, and the fact that they sometimes spread made it imperative to confine the impurity until it was certain that it was gone
    • Sexual discharges (15:1-33)
  • Day of Atonement (16:1-34)
  • • Was and is the holiest day of the year
    • Hebrew name is Yom Kippur
    • Significant elements
    • • Conducted by the chief priest who wore special vestments for the ceremony
      • Performed rituals to remove his sin, the sin of the priestly family, and the sin of all Israel
      • Only time during the year when anyone entered the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle/Temple - chief priest entered bringing some of the sacrificial blood and sprinkled some of the blood between the cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant
      • Two goats were used
      • • One goat was sacrificed
        • The chief priest would place his hands on the head of the other goat and confess the sins of Israel
        • Someone would lead the goat into the wilderness and leave it there beautifully symbolizing the sins being carried away
        • The mention that the goat went to Azazel (16:10,25) is interesting - Azazel was the demonic ruler of the wilderness - the rite may go back to pre-monotheistic times but certainly emphasized the sins being utterly removed
      • Provided an annual experience of forgiveness for the community and individual
    • Lasted for a full 24 hours - fasting was and continues to be practiced as an integral part of the day

• • "Holiness Code" (17:1-26:46)
  • • Some of the oldest legislation in the Hebrew Bible
    • Laws relating to how Israel should be a holy people under a holy God
    • Some elements
    • • Blood could not be eaten because the life of an animal (and a person) was in the blood (17:10-16) - one should not consume the life of another - blood was to be used only for making atonement
      • Sexual conduct was carefully regulated (18:6-30)
      • Religious piety was to exhibit itself in daily behavior (19:1-37)
      • Each person was to treat every other person as a person of worth and do their best to ensure life for the other person (19:9-18) - the "Golden Rule" is in 19:18 although it can be read as applying only to fellow Israelites rather than to all people
      • Prohibition against marrying close relatives
      • • Tempting because Israelites were not to marry outsiders and were to marry in their own tribe - the patriarchs had also found wives from relatives back in the home country (Gen. 24:15, 29:12)
        • Yet incest was to be avoided
      • Calendar of festivals (23:1-44)
      • • Sabbath - every 7^th day
        • Passover - 14^th day of first month
        • Feast of Unleavened Bread - 15^th day of first month and celebrated for 7 days
        • Feast of Weeks/Pentecost - 50 days after Feast of Unleavened Bread
        • New Moon - 1^st day of seventh month
        • Day of Atonement - 10^th day of seventh month
        • Feast of Booths/Tabernacles - 15^th day of seventh month and celebrated for 7 days
      • Provision for gleaning (23:22)
      • • Fields should not be completely harvested - some produce should be left for the poor and strangers to gather so they can feed themselves
        • Later Ruth would glean in the fields (Ruth 2:2)
      • Lex talionus (24:17-21)
      • • Law of retaliation - what has been done to me, I can do the same (but no more) back to the perpetrator
        • Often in societies of the day, infliction of an injury would result in the death of the perpetrator
        • An "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" (24:20) was an improvement that curtailed such uncontrolled, awful vengeance
      • Special years (25:1-55)
      • • Sabbath year
        • • Every seventh year
          • Elements (25:1-7, Deut. 15:1-18)
          • • Fields would lie fallow
            • Slaves would be freed
            • Debts would be forgiven
        • Jubilee Year
        • • Every 50^th year
          • Elements (25:8-55)
          • • Fields would lie fallow
            • Slaves would be freed
            • Land would be returned to its original owner
        • These special years were never practiced in Israel
      • Concludes with a listing of the blessings of obeying God and the curses of disobeying Him (26:3-46)
  • Religious vows (27:1-34)
  • • May be an appendix to the book
    • Discusses the value of gifts dedicated to God and how to redeem those gifts back from dedication to God
    • May reflect a later tendency to give the money equivalent of the gift rather than the gift itself

Artwork by Jacob de Wit from the Bible Picture Library of Photo Art (c) Christian Computer Art, 1994-97