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Leviticus
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Leviticus (from Greek ?e??t????, "relating to the Levites") is third book of the Torah (Pentateuch), the name given in Judaism to the first five books of the Hebrew Bible (the Christian Old Testament).
Leviticus contains laws and priestly rituals, but in a wider sense is about the working out of God's covenant with Israel set out in Genesis and Exodus - what is seen in the Torah as the consequences of entering into a special relationship with God.
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Encyclopedia
Leviticus (from Greek ?e??t????, "relating to the Levites") is third book of the Torah (Pentateuch), the name given in Judaism to the first five books of the Hebrew Bible (the Christian Old Testament).
Leviticus contains laws and priestly rituals, but in a wider sense is about the working out of God's covenant with Israel set out in Genesis and Exodus - what is seen in the Torah as the consequences of entering into a special relationship with God. These consequences are set out in terms of community relationships and behaviour.
The first 16 chapters and the last chapter make up the Priestly Code, with rules for ritual cleanliness, sin-offerings, and the Day of Atonement, including Chapter 12 which mandates male circumcision. Chapters 17-26 contain the Holiness Code, including the injunction in chapter 19 to "love one's neighbor as oneself" (the Great Commandment). The book is largely concerned with "abominations", largely dietary and sexual restrictions. The rules are generally addressed to the Israelites, except for the prohibition in chapter 20 against sacrificing children to Molech, which applies equally to "the strangers that sojourn in Israel."
According to tradition, Moses authored Leviticus as well as the other four books of the Torah. Some Biblical scholars believe Leviticus to be almost entirely from the priestly source (P), marked by emphasis on priestly concerns, composed c 550-400 BC, and incorporated into the Torah c 400 BC. Other Biblical scholars have presented evidence for a date of composition in approximately the 15th century BC, based on literary and legal customs of the ancient Near East. See the Composition section below for a discussion of these views.
Title
The English name is derived from the Latin Liber Leviticus, which is derived in turn from the Greek ß?ß???? t? ?e??t????, (biblion to Levitikon), meaning "book of the Levites". The English title is somewhat misleading, as the book makes a very strong distinction between the priesthood, descended from Aaron, and mere Levites. The custom in the Hebrew bible is to name the books of the Torah by their first word, in this case Vayikra , "and He called" - vayikra is also the name of the first weekly Torah reading or parshah in the book.
Summary
The book is generally considered to consist of two large sections, both of which contain several mitzvot.
The first part Leviticus 1-16, and Leviticus 27, constitutes the main portion of the Priestly Code, which describes the details of rituals, and of worship, as well as details of ritual cleanliness and uncleanliness. Within this section are:
- Laws regarding the regulations for different types of sacrifice (Leviticus 1-7):
- Burnt-offerings, meat-offerings, and thank-offerings (Leviticus 1-3)
- Sin-offerings (for unintentional sins), and trespass-offerings (Leviticus 4-5)
- Priestly duties and rights concerning the offering of sacrifices (Leviticus 6-7)
- The practical application of the sacrificial laws, within a narrative of the consecration of Aaron and his sons (Leviticus 8-10)
- Aaron's first offering for himself and the people (Leviticus 8)
- The incident in which "strange fire" is brought to the Tabernacle by Aaron's sons Nadav and Avihu, leading to their death directly at the hands of God for doing so (Leviticus 9-10)
- Laws concerning purity and impurity (Leviticus 11-16)
- Laws about clean and unclean animals (Leviticus 11)
- Laws concerning ritual cleanliness after childbirth (Leviticus 12)
- Laws concerning tzaraath of people, and of clothes and houses, often translated as leprosy, and mildew, respectively (Leviticus 13-14)
- Laws concerning bodily discharges (such as blood, pus, etc.) and purification (Leviticus 15)
- Laws regarding a day of national atonement, Yom Kippur (Leviticus 16)
- Laws concerning the commutation of vows (Leviticus 27)
The second part, Leviticus 17-26, is known as the Holiness Code, and places particular, and noticeable, emphasis on holiness, and the holy; it contains commandments intended not just for the priests but for the whole congregation. It is notably more of a miscellany of laws. Within this section are:
- Laws concerning idolatry, the slaughter of animals, dead animals, and the consumption of blood (Leviticus 17)
- Laws concerning sexual conduct - incest, bestiality, and apparently, same-sex relationships among men, laws concerning sorcery, and moloch (Leviticus 18, and also Leviticus 20, in which penalties are given)
- Laws concerning molten gods, peace-offerings, scraps of the harvest, fraud, the deaf, blind, elderly, and poor, poisoning the well, hate, sex with slaves, self harm, shaving, prostitution, sabbaths, sorcery, familiars, strangers, and just weights and measure (Leviticus 19)
- Laws concerning priestly conduct, and prohibitions against the disabled, ill, and superfluously blemished, from becoming priests, or becoming sacrifices, for descendants of Aaron, and animals, respectively (Leviticus 21-22)
- Laws concerning the observation of the annual feasts, and the sabbath, (Leviticus 23)
- Laws concerning the altar of incense (Leviticus 24:1-9)
- The case law lesson of a blasphemer being stoned to death, and other applications of the death penalty (Leviticus 24:10-23), including anyone having "a familiar ghost or spirit", a child insulting its parents (Leviticus 20), and a special case for prostitution (burning them alive) (Leviticus 21)
- Laws concerning the Sabbath, Jubilee years and slavery. (Leviticus 25).
- A hortatory conclusion to the section, giving promises regarding obedience to these commandments, and warnings and threats for those that might disobey them, including sending wild animals to devour their children. (Leviticus 26:22)
These ordinances, in the book, are said to have been delivered in the space of a month, specifically the first month of the second year after the exodus. A major Chiastic structure runs through practically all of this book. For more detailed information see the article on Chiastic structure.
Composition
- Some portions below are adapted from the article on Biblical Jubilees, insofar as those sections pertain to the question of the authorship of Leviticus.
According to traditional belief, Leviticus is the word of Yahweh, dictated to Moses from the Tent of Meeting before Mount Sinai. Since Julius Wellhausen formulated the documentary hypothesis in the late 19th century, various rationalist scholars have regarded Leviticus as being almost entirely a product of the priestly source, originating amongst the Aaronid priesthood c 550-400 BC. According to the presuppositions of these scholars, Leviticus consists of several layers of laws. The base of this accretion is the Holiness Code (chapters 17-26), regarded as an early independent document with a faint relationship with the Covenant Code presented earlier in the Bible.
Wellhausen regarded the Priestly source as a later, rival, version of the stories contained within JE (a hypothetical intermediate source text of the Torah), the Holiness Code thus being the law code that the priestly source presented as being dictated to Moses at Sinai, in the place of the Covenant Code. Different writers inserted laws, some from earlier independent collections. These additional laws, in the views of those who follow Wellhausen's theories, are those which subsequently formed the Priestly Code, and thus the other portion of Leviticus.
More recent scholarship regarding the origin of Leviticus
Wellhausen's theory that the Book of Leviticus, and specifically its "priestly" parts, was written in the exilic or post-exilic period has always been challenged by Biblical expositors who have, with the highest level of scholarship, maintained the traditional position of Judaism and Christianity for the Mosaic authorship of the book. Conservative scholars have cited textual, literary, and historical considerations that confirm such an early date of composition, arguing also that Wellhausen ignored the archaeological arguments that were becoming available even in his own day but which contradicted his presuppositions. In the 20th century, however, the theories of Wellhausen and others who date the legislation of Leviticus to the exilic period or later were also disputed by scholars who generally do not have a conservative view of the Scripture. Yehezekel Kaufmann argued that the book of Ezekiel quotes from the Sabbatical and Jubilee legislation (part of the so-called "Holiness Code" of Leviticus), which must have been in existence before Ezekiel's quoted from it. This argument has been expanded by Risa Levitt Kohn. Kohn examined in detail the 97 terms and phrases that are shared between Ezekiel and the Priestly Code. She concluded:
In each of these examples, the direction of influence moves from P to Ezekiel. A term or expression with a positive connotation in P takes on a negative overtone in Ezekiel…Ezekiel parodies P language by using terms antithetically. It is virtually impossible to imagine that the Priestly Writer would have composed Israelite history by transforming images of Israel's apostasy and subsequent downfall from Ezekiel into images conveying the exceptional covenant and unique relationship between Israel and Yahweh. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine that the Priestly Writer could have turned Ezekiel's land of exile (??? ???????) into Israel's land of promise, Israel's enemies (??? ????) in to a sign of fecundity, or Israel's abundant sin (???? ???) into a sign of Yahweh's covenant. It is, however, plausible that Ezekiel, writing in exile, re-evaluated P's portrayal of Israel's uniqueness, cynically inverting these images so that what was once a "pleasing odor to Yahweh" symbolizes impiety and irreverance.
John Bergsma provides a further argument against an exilic or post-exilic date for the "Holiness Code" of Leviticus and its Jubilee and Sabbatical-year legislation, saying that the Sitz im Leben (life situation) of the exilic or post-exilic period is not at all addressed by this legislation.
Finally, if the only purpose of the jubilee legislation was to serve as a pretext for the return of the exiles' lands, certainly much simpler laws than the jubilee could have been written and ascribed to Moses. All that would be necessary is a short statement mandating the return of property to any Israelite who returned after being exiled. In point of fact, precisely such brief, pointed laws are extant in the Mesopotamian codes, for example, the code of Hammurabi §27 and the Laws of Eshnuna §29. But on the contrary, the jubilee legislation never addresses the situation of exile. The only form of land alienation addressed in the text is sale by owner…If the priesthood in the early Persian period really wanted a legal pretext for the return of lost lands, they would surely have written themselves a law that directly addressed their situation.
Bergsma therefore points out the incongruity of Wellhausen's ascribing an exilic or post-exilic date to Leviticus and its Jubilee and Sabbatical-year legislation, since this would conflict with the Sitz im Leben of Israel during, and after, the exile. In addition, Bergsma shows that the problem that this legislation was addressing was a problem recognized by the kings of Babylon in the second millennium BC, which naturally suggests the possibility of a much earlier date of codification for Leviticus. These Babylonian kings (to whom could be added Ammizaduga) occasionally issued decrees for the cancellation of debts and/or the return of the people to the lands they had sold. Such "clean slate" decrees were intended to redress the tendency of debtors, in ancient societies, to become hopelessly in debt to their creditors, thus accumulating most of the arable land into the control of a wealthy few. Once Wellhausen's presupposition-based approach is abandoned in favor of examining the historical backgrounds of the ancient Near East, a setting for the origin of the Jubilee and Sabbatical legislation, and indeed the whole book of Leviticus, in the mid-second millennium BC becomes entirely plausible. This is in contrast to the approach of the Documentary Hypothesis that places this legislation in a time when it had no practical application in addressing the urgent needs of a population returning to their homeland from the Babylonian exile.
The Jubilee Calendar as evidence for Mosaic authorship
A recent development has been the study of the pre-exilic calendar of Jubilee and Sabbatical cycles and the importance of that calendar in determining the date of composition of Leviticus. The calendar has been cited in various articles for its importance in establishing the date of the Exodus and the chronology of the judges period in Biblical history.
The timing of the pre-exilic Jubilee and Sabbatical-year calendar is established from the Hebrew text of Ezekiel 40:1, which states that Ezekiel saw his vision on New Years Day (Rosh HaShanah), on the tenth of the month, but it was only at the beginning of a Jubilee year that Rosh HaShanah was on the tenth of the month (Leviticus 25:9). See the Jubilee article for a fuller development of why this textual argument is consistent with the tradition of the Babylonian Talmud and the Seder Olam Rabbah that Ezekiel saw his vision at the beginning of the 17th Jubilee and that there was another Jubilee in the 18th year of Josiah, which modern scholarship has determined was 49 years before Ezekiel's Jubilee. These considerations would place the first year of the first Jubilee/Sabbatical cycle in 1406 BC. The Jubilee/Sabbatical-year calendar built on Ezekiel's Jubilee is also consistent with activities associated with a Sabbatical year such as the public reading of the Law (Deuteronomy 31:10, 2 Kings 23:2, 2 Chronicles 17:7-9) or a year of voluntarily refraining from sowing and reaping (2 Kings 19:29, Isaiah 37:30). Rodger Young has argued that the fact that all these activities fit exactly into the seven-year Sabbatical cycle and the 49-year Jubilee cycle that are established based on Ezekiel's Jubilee is evidence that the Jubilee and Sabbatical-year legislation was known all the time that Israel was in its land, and that furthermore the counting for these cycles must have started in 1406 BC, the date for the entrance into Canaan that is derived from a literal reading of 1 Kings 6:1. These observations cannot be reconciled with Wellhausen's theory that this legislation was invented in the post-exilic period. Young contrasts this evidence with the theories of those who dissect the historical texts of Scripture in order to accommodate a supposed evolutionary development of Israel's religion, thereby denying all elements of the supernatural in the writing of Scripture:
For many years, Biblical scholars of a non-conservative persuasion have played the game of assigning the writing of the Pentateuch to late-date editors, including the imaginary P, P1, P2, PH (or H) and their ephemeral rivals D, Dtr, dtr1, and dtr2. But late-date theories have no explanation for the evidence that has been presented showing that the calendar of Jubilee and Sabbatical years was known all through Israel’s time in its land, and the counting for these years started in 1406 BC . . . The Jubilee cycles therefore show which of the two competing ideas for the authorship of Leviticus is true. The book of Leviticus is the only credible source for the legislation of the Jubilee cycles that has ever been postulated. Therefore at least this one book of the Pentateuch must have been in the possession of Israel when it entered Canaan. This simple statement explains all the references to Jubilee and Sabbatical years found in Scripture. Until a better explanation is given for the many phenomena that have been cited, the traditional explanation that this legislation is from God, as it says it is, and was given by revelation to Moses at Mt. Sinai in 1446–1445 BC, as dated from both the Jubilee cycles and a literal reading of 1 Kings 6:1, is the most intellectually satisfying explanation, even if it is not likely to be accepted by those afflicted with a terminal case of anti-supernatural bias.
Leviticus in subsequent tradition
Jewish mitzvoh
Leviticus constitutes a major source of Jewish law. In Talmudic literature, there is evidence that this is the first book of the Tanakh which was taught, in the Rabbinic system of education in Talmudic times. A possible reason may be that, of all the books of the Torah, Leviticus is the closest to being purely devoted to mitzvot and its study thus is able to go hand-in-hand with their performance.
There are two main Midrashim on Leviticus - the halakhic one (Sifra) and a more aggadic one (Vayikra Rabbah).
Christian antinomianism
Most Christians believe that Leviticus is the word of God, but do not consider themselves to be bound by its laws, due to the antinomianism of passages such as Paul's 1 Corinthians 10:23-26, which permits believers to "eat anything sold in the meat market, without raising questions of conscience".
See also
External links
Online translations of Leviticus:
- Jewish translations:
- (Jewish Publication Society translation)
- Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan's translation and commentary at Ort.org
- translation with Rashi's commentary at Chabad.org
- (Hebrew - English at Mechon-Mamre.org)
Related article:
- (Jewish Encyclopedia)
- (chaver.com)
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Free Online Bibliography on Leviticus:
- [https://wwwdbunil.unil.ch/bibil/?MIval=/bi/en/bibilhome&BiMenu=10&BiMain=21&BiTypeRech=5&WINSIZE=50&affiche=2&Submit=1&rech=vedid=2522 BiBIL]
- Lego reenactments of key passages of Leviticus http://www.thebricktestament.com/the_law/index.html
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