Leviticus
LEVITICUS
The third book in the Pentateuch; called Leviticus, because it contains principally the laws and regulations relating to the Levites, priests, and sacrifices. The Hebrews call it “the priests law.” In the first section, the various bloody and unbloody sacrifices are minutely described: the burnt offering, the meat, sin, peace, ignorance, and trespass offerings; the sins for which and the mode in which they were to be offered. The fullness of these details not only signified the importance of Gods worship, but forbade all human additions and changes, that might lead to idolatry. The whole scheme was “a shadow of good things to come,” typical of the Lamb “who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot unto God.” Its best commentary is the epistle to the Hebrews.A full account of the consecration of Aaron and his sons as priests, is followed by the instructive narrative of Nadab and Abihu. Then are given the laws respecting personal and ceremonial purifications, a perpetual memento of the defilement of sin, and of the holiness of God. Next follows a description of the great day of Expiation; after which the Jews are warned against the superstitions, idolatry, etc., of the Canaanites; and laws are given guarding their morals, health, and civil order. The observance of their distinguishing festivals is enjoined upon them; and laws are given respecting the Sabbath and the jubilee, vows and tithes. The warnings and promises in the latter part of the book point their attention to the future, and aim to unite the whole nation in serving their covenant God. The book is generally held to be the work of Moses, though he was probably assisted by Aaron. Its date is B. C. 1490. It contains the history of the first month of their second year after leaving Egypt.
Fuente: American Tract Society Bible Dictionary
Leviticus
The third Book of the Bible, named from its contents, as it deals exclusively with the service of God and the religious ceremonies of the Old Testament as carried out by the members of the tribe of Levi, both priests and Levites. It may be divided as follows:
the rites of the sacrifices (1-7)
consecration and installation of the priests (8-10)
the laws of purity (11-16)
the law of holiness (17-22)
religious institutions (23-26)
blessings and curses (26), forcibly illustrating the character of the Mosaic law of fear
New Catholic Dictionary
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Leviticus
The third book of the Pentateuch, so called because it treats of the offices, ministries, rites, and ceremonies of the priests and Levites.
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Transcribed by Thomas J. Bress
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume IXCopyright © 1910 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, October 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, CensorImprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Leviticus
so called in the Vulgate from treating chiefly of the Levitical service; in the Heb. , and he called, being the word with which it begins; in the Sept. ; the third book of the Pentateuch, called also by the later Jews , “law of the priests,” and , “law of offerings.” In our treatment of it we have especial regard to the various sacrifices enumerated.
I. Contents. Leviticus contains the further statement and development of the Sinaitic legislation, the beginnings of which are described in Exodus. It exhibits the historical progress of this legislation; consequently, we must not expect to find the laws detailed in it in a systematic form. There is, nevertheless, a certain order observed, which arose from the nature of the subject, and of which the plan may easily be perceived. The whole is intimately connected with the contents of Exodus, at the conclusion of which book that sanctuary is described with which all external worship was connected (Exodus 35-40).
Leviticus begins by describing the worship itself (chapters 1-17), and concludes with personal distinctions and exhortations as to the worshippers (chapters 18-27). More specifically the book may be divided into seven leading sections.
(I.) The Laws directly relating to Sacrifices (chapters 1-7). At first God spoke to the people out of the thunder and lightning of Sinai, and gave them his holy commandments by the hand of a mediator; but henceforth his presence is to dwell not on the secret top of Sinai, but in the midst of his people, both in their wanderings through the wilderness and afterwards in the Land of Promise. Hence the first directions which Moses receives after the work is finished have reference to the offerings which were to be brought to the door of the tabernacle. As Jehovah draws near to the people in the tabernacle, so the people draw near to Jehovah in the offering. Without offerings none may approach him. The regulations respecting the sacrifices fall into three groups, and each of these groups again consists of a decalogue of instructions. Bertheau has observed that this principle runs through all the laws of Moses. They are all modeled after the pattern of the ten commandments, so that each distinct subject of legislation is always treated of under ten several enactments or provisions. 1. The first group of regulations (chapters 1-3) deals with three kinds of offerings: the burnt-offering (), the meat-offering (), and the thank-offering ( )
a. The burnt-offering (chap. 1) in three sections. It might be either
(1) a male without blemish from the herds ( ) (Lev 1:3-9), or
(2) a male without blemish from the flocks, or lesser cattle () (Lev 1:10-13), or
(3) it might be fowls, an offering of turtle-doves or young pigeons (Lev 1:14-17). The subdivisions are here marked clearly enough, not only by the three kinds of sacrifice, but also by the form in which the enactment is put. Each begins with, “If his offering,” etc., and each ends with, “An offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto Jehovah.”
b. The next group (chapter 2) presents many more difficulties. Its parts are not so clearly marked, either by prominent features in the subject-matter, or by the more technical boundaries of certain initial and final phrases. We have here the meat-offering, or bloodless offering, in four sections:
(1) in its uncooked form, consisting of fine flour with oil and frankincense (Lev 2:1-3);
(2) in its cooked form, of which three different kinds are specified- baked in the oven, fricel, or boiled (Lev 2:4-10);
(3) the prohibition of leaven, and the direction to use salt in all the meat-offerinrgs (Lev 2:11-13);
(4) the oblation of first-fruits (Lev 2:14-16).
c. The Sheltamins, “peace-offering” (A.V.), or “thankoffering” (Ewald) (chapter 3), in three sections. Strictly speaking, this falls under two heads: first, when it is of the herd; and, secondly, when it is of the flock. But this last has again its subdivision; for the offering, when of the flock, may be either a lamb or a goat. Accordingly, the three sections are, Lev 3:1-5; Lev 3:7-11; Lev 3:12-16. Lev 3:6 is merely introductory to the second class of sacrifices, and Lev 3:17 a general conclusion, as in the case of other laws. This concludes the first decalogue of the book.
2. The laws concerning the sin-offering and the trespass- (or guilt-) offering (chapter 4, 5). The sin-offering (chap. 4) is treated of under four specified cases, after a short introduction to the whole in Lev 4:1-2 :
(1) the sin-offering for the priest, Lev 4:3-12;
(2) for the whole congregation, Lev 4:13-21;
(3) for a ruler, Lev 4:22-26;
(4) for one of the common people, Lev 4:27-35.
After these four cases, in which the offering is to be made for four different classes, there follow provisions respecting three several kinds of transgression for which atonement must be made. It is not quite clear whether these should be ranked under the head of the sin-offering or of the trespass-offering. SEE OFFERING. We may, however, follow Bertheau, Baumgarten, and Knobel in regarding them as special instances in which a sin-offering was to be brought. The three cases are: first, when any one hears a curse, and conceals what he hears (Lev 4:1); secondly, when any one touches, without knowing or intending it, any unclean thing (Lev 4:2-3); lastly, when any one takes an oath inconsiderately (Lev 4:4). For each of these cases the same trespass-offering, “a female from the flock, a lamb or kid of the goats,” is appointed; but, with that mercifulness which characterizes the Mosaic law, express provision is made for a less costly offering where the offerer is poor.
This decalogue is then completed by the three regulations respecting the guilt-offering (or trespass-offering): first, when any one sins ” through ignorance in the holy things of Jehovah” (Lev 4:14; Lev 4:16); next, when a person, without knowing it, “commits any of these things which are forbidden to be done by the commandments of Jehovah” (Lev 4:17-19); lastly, when a man lies and swears falsely concerning that which was entrusted to him, etc. (Lev 4:20-26). This decalogue, like the preceding one, has its characteristic words and expressions. The prominent word which introduces so many of the enactments is , “soul” (see Lev 4:2; Lev 4:27; Lev 5:1-2; Lev 5:4; Lev 5:15; Lev 5:17; Lev 6:2), and the phrase, “If a soul shall sin” (Lev 4:2), is, with occasional variations having an equivalent meaning, the distinctive phrase of the section. As in the former decalogue the nature of the offerings, so in this the person and the nature of the offense are the chief features in the several statutes.
3. Naturally upon the law of sacrifices follows the law of the priests’ duties when they offer the sacrifices (chapter 6, 7). Hence we find Moses directed to address himself immediately to Aaron and his sons (Lev 6:2; Lev 6:18 to Lev 6:9; Lev 6:25, A.V.). In this group the different kinds of offerings are named in nearly the same order as in the two preceding decalogues, except that the offering at the consecration of a priest follows, instead of the thankoffering, immediately after the meat-offering, which it resembles, and the thank-offering now appears after the trespass-offering. There are, therefore, in all, six kinds of offering, and in the case of each of these the priest has his distinct duties. Bertheau has very ingeniously so distributed the enactments in which these duties are prescribed as to arrange them all in five decalogues. We will briefly indicate his arrangement.
(1.) The first decalogue.
(a.) “This is the law of the burnt-offering” (Lev 6:9, A.V.), in five enactments, each verse (Lev 6:9-13) containing a separate enactment.
(b.) “‘And this is the law of the meat-offering” (Lev 6:14), again in five enactments, each of which is, as before contained in a single verse (Lev 6:14-18).
(2.) The next decalogue is contained in Lev 6:19-30.
(a.) Lev 6:19 is merely introductory; then follow, in five verses, five distinct directions with regard to the offering at the time of the consecration of the priests, the first in Lev 6:20 the next two in Lev 6:21, the fourth in the former part of Lev 6:22, and the last in the latter part of Lev 6:22 and Lev 6:23.
(b.) “This is the law of the sin-offering” (Lev 6:25). Then the five enactments, each in one verse, except that two verses (Lev 6:27-28) are given to the third.
(3.) The third decalogue is contained in Lev 7:1-10, the laws of the trespass-offering. But it is impossible to avoid a misgiving as to the soundness of Bertheau’s system when we find him making the words “It is most holy,” in Lev 7:1, the first of the ten enactments. This he is obliged to do, as Lev 7:3-4 evidently form but one.
(4.) The fourth decalogue, after an introductory verse (Lev 7:11), is contained in ten verses (Lev 7:12-21).
(5.) The last decalogue consists of certain general laws about the fat, the blood, the wave-breast, etc., and is comprised again in ten verses (Lev 7:23-33), the verses, as before, marking the divisions.
The chapter closes with a brief historical notice of the fact that these several commands were given to Moses on Mount Sinai (Lev 7:35-38).
(II.) An entirely historical section (chapters 8-10), in three parts.
1. In chapter 8 we have the account of the consecration of Aaron and his sons by Moses before the whole congregation. They are washed; he is arrayed in the priestly vestments and anointed with the holy oil; his sons also are arrayed in their garments, and the various offerings appointed are offered.
2. In chapter 9 Aaron offers, eight days after his consecration, his first offering for himself and the people: this comprises for himself a sin- and burnt- offering, and a peace- (or thank-) offering. He blesses the people, and fire comes down from heaven and consumes the burnt-offering.
3. Chapter 10 tells how Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, eager to enjoy the privileges of their new office, and perhaps too much elated by its dignity, forgot or despised the restrictions by which it was fenced round (Exo 30:7, etc.), and, daring to “offer strange fire before Jehovah,” perished because of their presumption.
With the house of Aaron began this wickedness in the sanctuary; with them, therefore, began also the divine punishment. Very touching is the story which follows. Aaron, though forbidden to mourn his loss (Lev 10:6-7), will not eat the sin-offering in the holy place; and when rebuked by Moses, pleads in his defense, “Such things have befallen me: and if I had eaten the sin-offering today, should it have been accepted in the sight of Jehovah?” Moses, the lawgiver and the judge, admits the plea, and honors the natural feelings of the father’s heart, even when it leads to a violation of the letter of the divine commandment.
(II.) The laws concerning purity and impurity, and the appropriate sacrifices and ordinances for putting away impurity (chapters 11-16). The first seven decalogues had reference to the putting away of guilt. By the appointed sacrifices the separation between man and God was healed. The next seven concern themselves with the putting away of impurity. That chapters 11-15 hang together so as to form one series of laws there can be no doubt. Besides that they treat of kindred subjects, they have their characteristic words, , ” unclean,” “uncleanness,” , “clean,” which occur in almost every verse. The only question is about chapter 16, which by its opening is connected immediately with the occurrence related in chapter 10. Historically it would seem, therefore, that chapter 16 ought to have followed chapter 10. As this order is neglected, it would lead us to suspect that some other principle of arrangement than that of historical sequence has been adopted. This we find in the solemn significance of the great day of atonement. The high-priest on that day made atonement “because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions in all their sins” (Lev 16:16), and he “reconciled the holy place and the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar” (Lev 16:20). Delivered from their guilt and cleansed from their pollutions, from that day forward the children of Israel entered upon a new and holy life. This was typified both by the ordinance that the bullock and the goat for the sin-offering were burnt without the camp (Lev 16:27), and also by the sending away of the goat laden with the iniquities of the people into the wilderness. Hence chapter 16 seems to stand most fitly at the end of this second group of seven decalogues. It has reference, we believe, not only (as Bertheau supposes) to the putting away, as by one solemn act, of all those uncleannesses mentioned in chapters 11-15, and for which the various expiations and cleansings there appointed were temporary and insufficient, but also to the making of atonement, in the sense of hiding sin or putting away its guilt. For not only do we find the idea of cleansing as from defilement, but far more prominently the idea of reconciliation. The often-repeated word ), “to cover, to atone,” is the great word of the section.
1. The first decalogue in this group refers to clean and unclean flesh (chapter 6). Five classes of animals are pronounced unclean. The first four enactments declare what animals may or may not be eaten, whether
(1) beasts of the earth (Lev 11:2-8), or
(2) fishes (Lev 11:9-12), or
(3) birds (Lev 11:13-20), or
(4) creeping things with wings.
The next four are intended to guard against pollution by contact with the carcass of any of these animals:
(5) Lev 11:24-26;
(6) Lev 11:27-28;
(7) Lev 11:29-30;
(8) Lev 11:39-40. The ninth and tenth specify the last class of animals which are unclean for food,
(9) Lev 11:41-42, and forbid any other kind of pollution by means of them,
(10) Lev 11:43-45. Lev 11:46-47 are merely a concluding summary.
2. (a.) Women’s purification in childbed (chap. 12). The whole of this chapter, according to Bertheau, constitutes
(1) the first law of this decalogue.
(b.) The remaining nine are to be found in the next chapter (13), which treats of the signs of leprosy in man and in garments:
(2) Lev 13:1-8;
(3) Lev 13:9-17;
(4) Lev 13:18-23;
(5) Lev 13:24-28;
(6) Lev 13:29-37;
(7) Lev 13:38-39;
(8) Lev 13:40-41;
(9) Lev 13:42-46;
(10) Lev 13:47-59.
This arrangement of the several sections is not altogether free from objection, but it is certainly supported by the characteristic mode in which each section opens. Thus, for instance, Lev 12:2 begins with ; Lev 13:2 with , Lev 13:9 with and so on, the same order being always observed, the substantive being placed first, then , and then the verb, except only in Lev 13:42, where the substantive is placed after the verb.
3. “The law of the leper in the day of his cleansing,” i.e., the law which the priest is to observe in purifying the leper (Lev 14:1-32). The priest is mentioned in ten verses, each of which begins one of the ten sections of this law: Lev 14:3-5; Lev 14:11-12; Lev 14:14-16; Lev 14:19-20. In each instance the word is preceded by consecut. with the perf. It is true that in Lev 14:8, and also in Lev 14:14, the word occurs twice; but in both verses there is MS. authority, as well as that of the Vulg. and Arab. versions, for the absence of the second. Lev 14:21-32 may be regarded as a supplemental provision in cases where the leper is too poor to bring the required offering.
4. The leprosy in a house (Lev 14:33-57). It is not so easy here to trace the arrangement noticed in so many other laws. There are no characteristic words or phrases to guide us. Bertheau’s division is as follows:
(1) Lev 14:34-35;
(2) Lev 14:36-37;
(3) Lev 14:38;
(4) Lev 14:39;
(5) Lev 14:40;
(6) Lev 14:41-42;
(7) Lev 14:43-45.
Then, as usual, follows a short summary which closes the statute concerning leprosy, Lev 14:54-57.
5, 6. The law of uncleanness by issue, etc., in two decalogues (Lev 15:1-31). The division is clearly marked, as Bertheau observes, by the form of cleansing, which is so exactly similar in the two principal cases, and which closes each series:
(1) Lev 15:13-15;
(2) Lev 15:28-30. We again give his arrangement, though we do not profess to regard it as in all respects satisfactory.
(a.)
(1) Lev 15:2-3;
(2) Lev 15:4;
(3) Lev 15:5;
(4) Lev 15:6;
(5) Lev 15:7;
(6) Lev 15:8;
(7) Lev 15:9;
(8) Lev 15:10;
(9) Lev 15:11-12 [these Bertheau considers as one enactment, because it is another way of saying that either the man or thing which the unclean person touches is unclean; but, on the same principle, Lev 15:4-5 might just as well form one enactment];
(10) Lev 15:13-15.
(b.)
(1) Lev 15:16;
(2) Lev 15:17;
(3) Lev 15:18;
(4) Lev 15:19;
(5) Lev 15:20;
(6) Lev 15:21;
(7) Lev 15:22;
(8) Lev 15:23;
(9) Lev 15:24;
(10) Lev 15:28-30.
In order to complete this arrangement, he considers Lev 15:25-27 as a kind of supplementary enactment provided for an irregular uncleanness, leaving it as quite uncertain, however, whether this was a later addition or not. Lev 15:32-33 form merely the same general conclusion which we have had before in Lev 14:54-57.
7. The last decalogue of the second group of seven decalogues is to be found in chapter 16, which treats of the great day of atonement. The law itself is contained in Lev 16:1-28. The remaining verses, 29-34, consist of an exhortation to its careful observance. In the act of atonement three persons are concerned: the high-priest, in this instance Aaron; the man who leads away the goat for Azazel into the wilderness; and he who burns the skin, flesh, and dung of the bullock and goat of the sin-offering without the camp. The last two have special purifications assigned them-the second because he has touched the goat laden with the guilt of Israel, the third because he has come in contact with the sin-offering. The ninth and tenth enactments prescribe what these purifications are, each of them concluding with the same formula, , and hence distinguished from each other. The duties of Aaron, consequently, ought, if the division into decades is correct, to be comprised in eight enactments. Now-the name of Aaron is repeated eight times, and in six of these it is preceded by the perf. with 1 consecut., as we observed was the case before when “the priest” was the prominent figure. According to this, then, the decalogue will stand thus:
(1) Lev 16:2, Aaron not to enter the holy place at all times;
(2) Lev 16:3-5, with what sacrifices and in what dress Aaron is to enter the holy place;
(3) Lev 16:6-7, Aaron to offer the bullock for himself, and to set the two goats before Jehovah;
(4) Aaron to cast lots on the two goats;
(5) Lev 16:9-10, Aaron to offer the goat on which the lot falls for Jehovah, and to send away the goat for Azazel into the wilderness; of the goat to make atonement for himself. for his house, and for the whole congregation, as also to purify the altar of incense with the blood;
(7) Lev 16:20-22, Aaron to lay his hands on the living goat, and confess over it all the sins of the children of Israel;
(8) Lev 16:23-25, Aaron after this to take off his linen garments, bathe himself, and put on his priestly garments, and then offer his burnt- offering and that of the congregation;
(9) Lev 16:26, the man by whom the goat is sent into the wilderness to purify himself;
(10) Lev 16:27-28, what is to be done by him who burns the sin-offering without the camp.
(IV.) Laws chiefly intended to mark the Separation between Israel and the Heathen Nations (chapters 17-20). We here reach the great central point, of the book. All going before was but a preparation for this. Two great truths have been established: first, that God call only be approached by means of appointed sacrifices; next, that man in nature and life is full of pollution, which must be cleansed. Now a third is taught, viz., that not by several cleansings for several sins and pollutions can guilt be put away. The several acts of sin are but so many manifestations of the sinful nature. For this, therefore, also must atonement be made by one solemn act, which shall cover all transgressions, and turn away God’s righteous displeasure from Israel. Israel is now reminded that it is the holy nation. The great atonement offered, it is to enter upon a new life. It is a separate nation, sanctified and set apart for the service of God. It may not, therefore, do after the abominations of the heathen by whom it is surrounded. Here, consequently, we find those laws and ordinances which especially distinguish the nation of Israel from all other nations of the earth.
Here again we may trace, as before, a group of seven decalogues; but the several decalogues are not so clearly marked, nor are the characteristic phrases and the introductions and conclusions so common. In ch. 18 there are twenty enactments, and in chapter 19, thirty. In chapter 17 on the other hand, there are only six, and in chapter 20 there are fourteen. As it is quite manifest that the enactments in chapter 18 are entirely separated by a fresh usual arrangement of the laws in decalogues, would transpose this chapter, and place it after chapter 19. He observes that the laws in chapter 17, and those in Lev 20:1-9, are akin to one another, and may very well constitute a single decalogue, and, what is of more importance, that the words in Lev 18:1-5 form the natural introduction to this whole group of laws: “And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, I am Jehovah your God. After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do; and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do; neither shall ye walk in their ordinances,” etc. There is, however, a point of connection between chapters 17 and 18 which must not be overlooked, and which seems to indicate that their position in our present text is the right one. All the six enactments in chapter 17 (Lev 17:3-5, Lev 17:6-7, Lev 17:8-9, Lev 17:10-12, Lev 17:13-14, Lev 17:15) bear upon the nature and meaning of the sacrifice to Jehovah as compared with the sacrifices offered to false gods. It would seem, too, that it was necessary to guard against any license to idolatrous practices which might possibly be drawn from the sending of the goat for Azazel into the wilderness, SEE ATONEMENT, DAY OF, especially, perhaps, against the Egyptian custom of appeasing the evil spirit of the wilderness and averting his malice (Hengstenberg, Mose u. Egypten, page 179; Movers, Phonicier, 1:369). To this there may be an allusion in Lev 17:7. Perhaps, however, it is better and more simple to regard the enactments in these two chapters (with Bunsen, Bibelwerk, II, 1:245) as directed against two prevalent heathen practices, the eating of blood and fornication. It is remarkable, as showing how intimately moral and ritual observances were blended together in the Jewish mind, that abstinence “from blood and things strangled, and fornication,” was laid down by the apostles as the only condition of communion to be required of Gentile converts to Christianity. Before we quit this chapter one observation may be made. The rendering of the A.V. in Lev 17:11, “for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul,” should be, “for it is the blood that maketh an atonement by means of the life.” This is important. It is not blood merely as such, but blood as having in it the principle of life that God accepts in sacrifice; for, by thus giving vicariously the life of the dumb animal, the sinner confesses that his own life is forfeit.
In chapter 18, after the introduction to which we have already alluded, Lev 18:1-5 and in which God claims obedience on the double ground that he is Israel’s God, and that to keep his commandments is life (Lev 18:5) there follow twenty enactments concerning unlawful marriages and unnatural lusts. The first ten are contained one in each verse (Lev 18:6-15). The next ten range themselves in like manner with the verses, except that Lev 18:17; Lev 18:23 contain each two. Of the twenty the first fourteen are alike in form, as well as in the repeated .
In chapter 19 are three decalogues, introduced by the words, “Ye shall be holy, for I Jehovah your God am holy,” and ending with, Ye shall observe all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them. I am Jehovah.” The laws here are of a very mixed character, and many of them a repetition merely of previous laws. Of the three decalogues, the first is comprised in Lev 18:3-13, and may be thus distributed:
(1) Lev 19:3, to honor father and mother;
(2) Lev 19:3, to keep the Sabbath;
(3) Lev 19:4, not to turn to idols;
(4) Lev 19:4, not to make molten gods (these two enactments being separated on the same principle as the first and second commandments in the Great Decalogue or Two Tables);
(5) Lev 19:5-8, of thank-offerings;
(6) Lev 19:9-10, of gleaning;
(7) Lev 19:11, not to steal or lie;
(8) Lev 19:12, not to swear falsely;
(9) Lev 19:13, not to defraud one’s neighbor;
(10) Lev 19:13, the wages of him that is hired, etc.
The next decalogue, Lev 19:14-25, Bertheau arranges thus: Lev 19:14, Lev 19:15, Lev 19:16 a, Lev 19:16 b, Lev 19:17, Lev 19:18, Lev 19:19 a, Lev 19:19 b, Lev 19:20-22, Lev 19:23-25. We object, however, to making the words in 19a, “Ye shall keep my statutes,” a separate enactment. There is no reason for this. A much better plan would be to consider Lev 19:17 as consisting of two enactments, which is manifestly the case.
The third decalogue may be thus distributed: Lev 19:26 a, Lev 19:26 b, Lev 19:27, Lev 19:28, Lev 19:29, Lev 19:30, Lev 19:31, Lev 19:32, Lev 19:33-34, Lev 19:35-36.
We have thus found five decalogues in this group. Bertheau completes the number seven by transposing, as we have seen, chapter 17, and placing it immediately before chapter 20. He also transfers Lev 20:27 to what he considers its proper place, viz., after Lev 20:6. It must be confessed that the enactment in Lev 20:27 stands very awkwardly at the end of the chapter, completely isolated as it is from all other enactments; for Lev 20:22-26 are the natural conclusion to this whole section. But, admitting this, another difficulty remains, that, according to him, the seventh decalogue begins at Lev 20:10, and another transposition is necessary, so that Lev 20:7-8 may stand after Lev 20:9, and so conclude the preceding series of ten enactments. It is better, perhaps, to abandon the search for complete symmetry than to adopt a method so violent in order to obtain it.
It should be observed that chapter Lev 18:6-23, and chapter Lev 20:10-21, stand in such a relation to one another that the latter declares the penalties attached to the transgression of many of the commandments given in the former. But, though we may not be able to trace in chapters 17 -20 seven decalogues, in accordance with the theory of which we have been speaking, there can be no doubt that they form a distinct section of themselves, of which Lev 20:22-26 is the proper conclusion.
Like the other sections, it has some characteristic expressions:
(a) Ye shall keep my judgments and my statutes” ( ) occurs Lev 18:4-5; Lev 18:26; Lev 19:37; Lev 20:8; Lev 20:22, but is not met with either in the preceding or the following chapters.
(b) The constantly recurring phrases, “I am Jehovah,” “I am Jehovah your God,” “Be ye holy, for I am holy,” “I am Jehovah which hallow you.” In the earlier sections this phraseology is only found in Lev 11:44-45, and Exo 31:13. In the section which follows (chapter 21-25) it is much more common, this section being in a great measure a continuation of the preceding.
(V.) We come now to the last group of decalogues that contained in chapters Lev 21:1 to Lev 26:2. The subjects comprised in these enactments are
1. The personal purity of the priests. They may not defile themselves for the dead; their wives and daughters must be pure, and they themselves must be free from all personal blemish (chapter 21).
2. The eating of the holy things is permitted only to priests who are free from all uncleanness: they and their household only may eat them (chapter 22:16).
3. The offerings of Israel are to be pure and without blemish (chapter Lev 22:17-33).
4. The last series provides for the due celebration of the great festivals when priests and people were to be gathered together before Jehovah in holy convocation (chapter 23, 25), with an episode (chapter 24).
Up to this point we trace system and purpose in the order of the legislation. Thus, for instance, chapter 11-16 treats of external purity; chapter 17-20 of moral purity; chapter 21-23 of the holiness of the priests, and their duties with regard to holy things; the whole concluding with provisions for the solemn feasts on which all Israel appeared before Jehovah. We will again briefly indicate Bertheau’s groups, and then append some general observations on this whole section.
a. Leviticus 21, ten laws, as follows:
(1) Lev 21:1-3; (2) Lev 21:4; (3) Lev 21:5-6; (4) Lev 21:7-8; (5) Lev 21:9; (6) Lev 21:10-11; (7) Lev 21:12; (8) Lev 21:13-14; (9) Lev 21:17-21; (10) Lev 21:22-23.
The first five laws concern all the priests; the sixth to the eighth, the high- priest; the ninth and tenth, the effects of bodily blemish in particular cases.
b. Lev 22:1-16.
(1) Lev 22:2; (2) Lev 22:3; (3) Lev 22:4; (4) Lev 22:4-7; (5) Lev 22:8-9; (6) Lev 22:10; (7) Lev 22:11; (8) Lev 22:12; (10) Lev 22:14-16.
c. Lev 22:17-33.
(1) Lev 22:18-20; (2) Lev 22:21; (3) Lev 22:22; (4) Lev 22:23; (5) Lev 22:24; (6) Lev 22:25; (7) Lev 22:27; (8) Lev 22:28; (9) Lev 22:29; (10) Lev 22:30; and a general conclusion in Lev 22:31-33.
d. Leviticus 23.
(1) Lev 23:3; (2) Lev 23:5-7; (3) Lev 23:8; (4) Lev 23:9-14; (5) Lev 23:15-21; (6) Lev 23:22; (7) Lev 23:24-25; (8) Lev 23:27-32; (9) Lev 23:34-35; (10) Lev 23:36; Lev 23:37-38 contain the conclusion, or general summing up of the Decalogue.
On the remainder of the chapter, as well as chapter 24, see below.
e. Lev 25:1-22.
(1) Lev 25:2; (2) Lev 25:3-4; (3) Lev 25:5; (4) Lev 25:6; (5) Lev 25:8-10; (6) Lev 25:11-12; (7) Lev 25:13; (9) Lev 25:15; (10) Lev 25:16; with a concluding formula in Lev 25:18-22.
f. Lev 25:23-38.
(1) Lev 25:23-24; (2) Lev 25:25; (3) Lev 25:26-27; (4) Lev 25:28; (5) Lev 25:29; (6) Lev 25:30; (7) Lev 25:31; (8) Lev 25:32-33; (9) Lev 25:34; (10) Lev 25:35-37; the conclusion to the whole in Lev 25:38.
g. Lev 25:39 to Lev 26:2.
(1) Lev 25:39; (2) Lev 25:40-42; (3) Lev 25:43; (4) Lev 25:44-45; (5) Lev 25:46; (6) Lev 25:47-49; (7) Lev 25:50; (8) Lev 25:51-52; (9) Lev 25:53; (10) Lev 25:54.
It will be observed that the above arrangement is only completed by omitting the latter part of chapter 23 and the whole of chapter 24. But it is clear that Lev 23:39-44 is an addition, containing further instructions respecting the Feast of Tabernacles. Lev 23:39, as compared with Lev 23:34, shows that the same feast is referred to; while Lev 23:37-38 are no less manifestly the original conclusion of the laws respecting the feasts which are enumerated in the previous part of the chapter. Chapter 24, again, has a peculiar character of its own. First, we have a command concerning the oil to be used in the lamps belonging to the tabernacle, but this is only a repetition of an enactment already given in Exo 27:20-21, which seems to be its natural place. Then follow directions about the shewbread. These do not occur previously. In Exodus the shewbread is spoken of always as a matter of course. concerning which no regulations are necessary (comp. Exo 25:30; Exo 35:13; Exo 39:36). Lastly come certain enactments arising out of a historical occurrence. The son of an Egyptian father by an Israelitish woman blasphemes the name of Jehovah, and Moses is commanded to stone him in consequence; and this circumstance is the occasion of the following laws being given:
(1) That a blasphemer, whether Israelite or stranger, is to be stoned (comp. Exo 22:28);
(2) That he that kills any man shall surely be put to death (comp. Exo 21:12-27);
(3) That he that kills a beast shall make it good (not found where we might have expected it, in the series of laws Exo 21:28 to Exo 22:16);
(4) That if a man cause a blemish in his neighbor he shall be requited in like manner (comp. Exo 21:22-25).
(5) We have then a repetition in an inverse order of Exo 21:17-18; and
(6) the injunction that there shall be one law for the stranger and the Israelite;
(7) finally, a brief notice of the infliction of the punishment in the case of the son of Shelomith, who blasphemed.
Not another instance is to be found in the whole collection in which any historical circumstance is made the occasion of enacting a law. Then, again, the laws (2), (3), (4), (5), are mostly repetitions of existing laws, and seem here to have no connection with the event to which they are referred. Either, therefore, some other circumstances took place at the same time with which we are not acquainted, or these isolated laws, detached from their proper connection, were grouped together here, in obedience perhaps to some traditional association.
(VI.) These decalogues are now fitly closed by words of promise and threat-promise of largest, richest blessing to those that hearken unto and do these commandments; threats of utter destruction to those that break the covenant of their God. Thus the second great division of the law closes like the first, except that the first part, or Book of the Covenant, ends (Exo 23:20-33) with promises of blessing only. There nothing is said of the judgments which are to follow transgression, because as yet the covenant had not been made. But when once the nation had freely entered into that covenant, they bound themselves to accept its sanctions its penalties, as well as its rewards. Nor call we wonder if in these sanctions the punishment of transgression holds a larger place than the rewards of obedience; for already was it but too plain that “Israel would not obey.” From the first they were a stiff-necked and rebellious race, and from the first the doom of disobedience hung like a fiery sword above their heads.
(VII.) On Vows. The legislation is evidently completed in the last words of the preceding chapter: “These are the statutes, and judgments, and laws which Jehovah made between him and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.” Chapter 27 is an appendix, again closed, however, by a similar formula, which at least shows that the transcriber considered it to be an integral part of the original Mosaic legislation, though he might be at a loss to assign it its place. Bertheau classes it with the other less regularly grouped laws at the beginning of the book of Numbers. He treats the section Leviticus 27 – Num 10:10 as a series of supplements to the Sinaitic legislation.
II. Integrity. This is very generally admitted. Those critics even who are in favor of different documents in the Pentateuch assign nearly the whole of this book to one writer, the Elohist, or author of the original document. According to Knobel, the only portions which are not to be referred to the Elohist are Moses’s rebuke of Aaron because the goat of the sin-offering had been burnt (Lev 10:16-20); the group of laws in chapters 17-20; certain additional enactments respecting the Sabbath and the feasts of Weeks and of Tabernacles (23, part of Lev 23:2, from , and Lev_233, Lev 23:18-19; Lev 23:22; Lev 23:39-44); the punishments ordained for blasphemy, murder, etc, (Lev 24:10-23), the directions respecting the sabbatical year (Lev 25:18-22), and the promises and warnings contained in chapter 26.
With regard to the section chapter 17-20, Knobel does not consider the whole of it to have been borrowed from the same sources. Chapter 17 he believes was introduced here by the Jehovist from some ancient document, while he admits, nevertheless, that it contains certain Elohistic forms of expression, as , “all flesh,” Lev 25:14; , soul” (in the sense of “person”), Lev 25:10-12; Lev 25:15 , ” beast,” Lev 25:13, , “offering,” Lev 25:4, , “a sweet savor,” Lev 25:6; “a statute forever,” and “after your generations,” Lev 25:7. But it cannot be from the Elohist, he argues, because (a) he would have placed it after chapter 7, or at least after chapter 15; (b) he would not have repeated the prohibition of blood, etc., which he had already given; (c) he would have taken a more favorable view of his nation than that implied in Lev 25:7; and, lastly, (d) the phraseology has something of the coloring of chapter 18-20 and 26, which are certainly not Elohistic. Such reasons are too transparently unsatisfactory to need serious discussion. He observes further that the chapter is not altogether Mosaic. The first enactment (Lev 25:1-7) does indeed apply only to Israelites, and holds good, therefore, for the time of Moses. But the remaining three contemplate the case of strangers living among the people, and have a reference to all time.
Chapters 18-20, though they have a Jehovistic coloring, cannot have been originally from the Jehovist. The following peculiarities of language, which are worthy of notice, according to Knobel (Exod. und Leviticus erklart, in the “Kurzg. Exeg. Hdbuch.” 1857), forbid such a supposition, the more so as they occur nowhere else in the O.T.: , “lie down to” and “gender,” Lev 18:23; Lev 19:19; Lev 20:16, , “confusion,” Lev 18:23; Lev 20:12; , “gather,” Lev 19:9; Lev 23:22; , “grape,” Lev 19:10; , “near kinswomen,” Lev 18:17; “scourged,” Lev 19:20; , “free,” ibid.; , print marks,” Lev 19:28; , “vomit,” in the metaphorical sense, Lev 18:25; Lev 18:28; Lev 20:22, ‘, “uncircumcised,” as applied to fruit-trees, Lev 19:23; and , “born,” Lev 18:9; Lev 18:11; as well as the Egyptian word (for such it probably is) , “garment of divers sorts,” which, however, does occur once beside in Deu 22:11.
According to Bunsen, chapter 19 is a genuine part of the Mosaic legislation, given, however, in its original form, not on Sinai, but on the east side of the Jordan; while the general arrangement of the Mosaic laws may perhaps be as late as the time of the judges. He regards it as a very ancient document, based on the Two Tables, of which, and especially of the first, it is, in fact, an extension, consisting of two decalogues and one pentad of laws. Certain expressions in it he considers as implying that the people were already settled in the land (Lev 19:9-10; Lev 19:13; Lev 19:15), while, on the other hand, Lev 19:23 supposes a future occupation of the land. Hence he concludes that the revision of this document by the transcribers was incomplete, whereas all the passages may fairly be interpreted as looking forward to a future settlement in Canaan. The great simplicity and lofty moral character of this section compel us, says Bunsen, to refer it at least to the earlier time of the judges, if not to that of Joshua himself.
III. Authenticity, etc. Some critics, however, such as De Wette, Gramberg, Vatke, and others, have strenuously endeavored to prove that the laws contained in Leviticus originated in a period much later than is usually supposed; but the following observations sufficiently support their Mosaical origin. and show that the whole of Leviticus is historically genuine. The laws in chapters 1-7 contain manifest vestiges of the Mosaical period. Here, as well as in Exodus, when the priests are mentioned, Aaron and his sons are named; as, for instance, in Lev 1:4; Lev 1:7-8; Lev 1:11, etc. The tabernacle is the sanctuary, and no other place of worship is mentioned anywhere (Lev 1:3; Lev 3:8; Lev 3:13, etc.). The Israelites are always described as a congregation (Lev 4:13 sq.), under the command of the elders of the congregation (Lev 4:16), or of a ruler (Lev 4:22). Everything has reference to life in a camp, and that camp commanded by Moses (Lev 4:12; Lev 4:21; Lev 6:11; Lev 14:8; Lev 16:26; Lev 16:28). A later writer could scarcely have placed himself so entirely in the times, and so completely adopted the modes of thinking of the age of Moses; especially if, as has been asserted, these laws gradually sprung from the usages of the people, and were written down at a later period with the object of sanctioning them by the authority of Moses. They so entirely befit the Mosaical age that, in order to adapt them to the requirements of any later period, they must have undergone some modification, accommodation, and a peculiar mode of interpretation. This inconvenience would have been avoided by a person who intended to forge laws in favor of the later modes of Levitical worship. A forger would have endeavored to identify the past as much as possible with the present.
The section in chapter 8-10 is said to have a mythical coloring. This assertion is grounded on the miracle narrated in Lev 9:24. But what could have been the inducement to forge this section? It is said that the priests invented it in order to support the authority of the sacerdotal caste by the solemn ceremony of Aaron’s consecration. But to such an intention the narration of the crime committed by Nadab and Abihu is strikingly opposed. Even Aaron himself here appears to be rather remiss in the observance of the law (comp. Lev 10:16 sq., with Lev 4:22 sq.). Hence it would seem that the forgery arose from an opposite or anti-hierarchical tendency. The fiction would thus appear to have been contrived without any motive which could account for its origin.
In chapter 17 occurs the law which forbids the slaughter of any beast except at the sanctuary. This law could not be strictly kept in Palestine, and had therefore to undergo some modification (Deuteronomy 12). Our opponents cannot show any rational inducement for contriving such a fiction. The law (Lev 17:6-7) is adapted to the nation only while emigrating from Egypt. It was the object of this law to guard the Israelites from falling into the temptation to imitate the Egyptian rites and sacrifices offered to he-goats (, seirim, “devils,” Sept. , Vulg. daemones), which word signifies also daemons represented under the form of hegoats, and which were supposed to inhabit the desert (comp. Jablonsky, Pantlheon AEgyptiacum, 1:272 sq.).
The laws concerning food and purifications appear especially important if we remember that the people emigrated from Egypt. The fundamental principle of these laws is undoubtedly Mosaical, but in the individual application of them there is much that strongly reminds us of Egypt. This is also the case in Leviticus 18 sq., where the lawgiver has manifestly in view the two opposites, Canaan and Egypt. That the lawgiver was intimately acquainted with Egypt is proved by such remarks as hint at the Egyptian marriages with sisters (Lev 18:3); a custom which stands as an exception among the prevailing habits of antiquity (Diod. Siculus, 1:27; Pausanias, Attica, 1:7).
The book of Leviticus has a prophetical character. This is especially manifest in chapters 25, 26, where the law appears in a truly sublime and divine attitude, and when its predictions refer to the whole futurity of the nation. It is impossible to say that these were vaticinia ex eventu, unless we would assert that this book was written at the close of Israelitish history. We must rather grant that passages like this are the real basis on which the authority of later prophets is chiefly built. Such passages prove also in a striking manner that the lawgiver had not merely an external aim, but that his law had a deeper purpose, which was clearly understood by Moses himself. That purpose was to regulate the national life in all its bearings, and to consecrate the whole nation to God. Seen especially, Lev 25:18 sq. Although this section has a general bearing, it is nevertheless manifest that it originated in the times of Moses. At a later period, for instance, it would have been impracticable to promulgate the law concerning the Sabbath and the year of jubilee; for it was soon sufficiently proved how far the nation in reality remained behind the ideal Israel of the law. The sabbatical law bears the impress of a time when the whole legislation, in its fullness and glory, was directly communicated to the people in such a manner as to attract, penetrate, and command.
IV. We must not quit this book without a word on what may be called its spiritual meaning. That so elaborate a ritual looked beyond itself we cannot doubt. It was a prophecy of things to come; a shadow whereof the substance was Christ and his kingdom. We may not always be able to say what the exact relation is between the type and the antitype. Of many things we may be sure that they belonged only to the nation to whom they were given, containing no prophetic significance, but serving as witnesses and signs to them of God’s covenant of grace. We may hesitate to pronounce with Jerome that “every sacrifice, nay, almost every syllable the garments of Aaron and the whole Levitical system breathe of heavenly mysteries;” but we cannot read the Epistle to the Hebrews and not acknowledge that the Levitical priests “served the pattern and type of heavenly things” that the sacrifices of the law pointed to and found their interpretation in the Lamb of God that the ordinances of outward purification signified the truer inward cleansing of the heart and conscience from dead works to serve the living God. One idea, moreover, penetrates the whole of this vast and burdensome ceremonial, and gives it a real glory, even apart from any prophetic significance. Holiness is its end. Holiness is its character. The tabernacle is holy the vessels are holy the offerings are most holy unto Jehovah the garments of the priests are holy. All who approach him whose name is “Holy,” whether priests who minister to him or people who worship before him, must themselves be holy. It would seem as if, amid the camp and dwellings of Israel, was ever to be heard an echo of that solemn strain which fills the courts above, where the seraphim cry one to another, Holy, Holy, Holy.
V. Commentaries. The following are the special exegetical helps on the whole or major part of this book, to the most important of which we prefix an asterisk: Origen, Selecta (in Opp. 2:179); also Homiliae (ibid. 4:184); Ephrem Syrus, Explanatio (in Syriac, in Opp. 2:236); Theodoret, Quaestiones (in Greek, in Opp. 1); Isidorus Hispalensis, Commentaria (in Opp. 1); Bede, Quaestiones (in Opp. 8); also In Levit. (ibid. 4); Hesychius, In Levit. (in Greek, Paris, 1581, 4to; also in the Biblia Max. Patr. 12); Claudius Taurinensis, Praefatio (in Mabillon, Veter. Analect. page 90); Hugo St.Victor, Annotationes (in Opp. 1); Rupertus Tuitiensis, In Levit. (in Opp. 1:220); Radulphus Flaviacensis, Commentaria (Col. 1536, folio; also in the Biblia Max. Patr. 17:47); Pesiktha-Minus, Commentarius (includ. Numbers and Deut.] (from the Heb. in Ugolino, Thesaur. 15:997; 16 sq.); Phrygio, AExplanatio [together with 1 Timothy] (Basil. 1543, 4to; 1596, 8vo); Brentius, Commentarii (in Opp. 1); Chytraeus, Enarrationes (Vitemb. 1569, 1575, 8vo) Serranus, Commentarius (Antwp. 1572, 1609, fol.); Brocardus, Interpretatio (L.B. 1580, 8vo); Babington, Notes (in Works, page 349); Pelargus, Commentarins (Lips. 1604, 4to); Lorinus, Commentarii (Ludgun. 1619, 1622; Duac. 1620; Antwerp, 1620, fol.); Willet, Sixfold Commentarie (Lond. 1631, fol.); Franzius, Conmmentarius (Lips. 1696, 4to); Spanheim, Observationes (in Opp. 3:617); Cocceius, Observationes (in Opp. 1:158); *Patrick, Commentary (Lond. 1698, 4to; also in Patrick, Lowth, and Whitby’s Commentary); Dassovius, Scholia (Kilom. 1707, 4to); Hagemann, Betrachtungen (Brunswick, 1741, 4to); *Rosenmller, Scholia (Lips. 1824, 8vo); Horsley, Notes (in Bibl. Crit. 1); *Bertheau, Die Sieben Gruppen Mos. Gesetze (Lpz. 1840, 8vo); James, Sermons (Lond. 1847, 8vo); *Bonar, Commentary (Lond. 1851 [3d ed.], 1861; N.Y. 1851, 8vo); *Bush, Notes (N.Y. 1852,12mo); Cumming, Readings (Lond. 1854, 12mo); *Knobel, Erklarung [includ. Exod.] (volume 2 of the Kurtzgef. Exeg. Hdbch. Lpz. 1857, 8vo); Newton, Thoughts (Lond. 1857,12mo); *Kalisch, Commentary (London, 1857 sq., 2 volumes, 8vo); Seiss, Gospel in Levit. (Phila. 1860, 12mo); *Keil, Commentar (in volume 2 of his Pentateuch, Leipsic, 1862, Edinb. 1866, 8vo); Siphra, Commentar (in Heb. Vienna, 1862, folio); Wogue, Levitique (volume 3 of his Pentateuque, Par. 1864, 8vo); *Murphy, Commentary (Lond. and Andover, 1872, 8vo). SEE PENTATEUCH.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Leviticus
the third book of the Pentateuch; so called in the Vulgate, after the LXX., because it treats chiefly of the Levitical service.
In the first section of the book (1-17), which exhibits the worship itself, there is, (1.) A series of laws (1-7) regarding sacrifices, burnt-offerings, meat-offerings, and thank-offerings (1-3), sin-offerings and trespass-offerings (4; 5), followed by the law of the priestly duties in connection with the offering of sacrifices (6; 7). (2.) An historical section (8-10), giving an account of the consecration of Aaron and his sons (8); Aaron’s first offering for himself and the people (9); Nadab and Abihu’s presumption in offering “strange fire before Jehovah,” and their punishment (10). (3.) Laws concerning purity, and the sacrifices and ordinances for putting away impurity (11-16). An interesting fact may be noted here. Canon Tristram, speaking of the remarkable discoveries regarding the flora and fauna of the Holy Land by the Palestine Exploration officers, makes the following statement:, “Take these two catalogues of the clean and unclean animals in the books of Leviticus [11] and Deuteronomy [14]. There are eleven in Deuteronomy which do not occur in Leviticus, and these are nearly all animals and birds which are not found in Egypt or the Holy Land, but which are numerous in the Arabian desert. They are not named in Leviticus a few weeks after the departure from Egypt; but after the people were thirty-nine years in the desert they are named, a strong proof that the list in Deuteronomy was written at the end of the journey, and the list in Leviticus at the beginning. It fixes the writing of that catalogue to one time and period only, viz., that when the children of Israel were familiar with the fauna and the flora of the desert” (Palest. Expl. Quart., Jan. 1887). (4.) Laws marking the separation between Israel and the heathen (17-20). (5.) Laws about the personal purity of the priests, and their eating of the holy things (20; 21); about the offerings of Israel, that they were to be without blemish (22:17-33); and about the due celebration of the great festivals (23; 25). (6.) Then follow promises and warnings to the people regarding obedience to these commandments, closing with a section on vows.
The various ordinances contained in this book were all delivered in the space of a month (comp. Ex. 40:17; Num. 1:1), the first month of the second year after the Exodus. It is the third book of Moses.
No book contains more of the very words of God. He is almost throughout the whole of it the direct speaker. This book is a prophecy of things to come, a shadow whereof the substance is Christ and his kingdom. The principles on which it is to be interpreted are laid down in the Epistle to the Hebrews. It contains in its complicated ceremonial the gospel of the grace of God.
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Leviticus
Wayyiqra’ is the Hebrew name, from the initial word; the middle book of the Pentateuch. The laws “which the Lord commanded Moses in Mount Sinai, in the day that he commanded the children of Israel to offer their oblations unto the Lord in the wilderness of Sinai” (Lev 7:38). Given between the setting up of the tabernacle and its departure from Sinai, i.e. between the first day of the first month and the 20th day of the second month of the second year of the Exodus (Exo 40:2; Exo 40:17; Num 10:11). Two chief subjects are handled:
(1) Leviticus 1-16, the fundamental ordinances of Israel’s fellowship with Jehovah;
(2) Leviticus 17-27, the laws for hallowing Israel in this covenant fellowship. Privilege and duty, grace conferred and grace inwrought, go hand in hand.
First;
(1) The law of offerings, Leviticus 1-7.
(2) Investiture of Aaron and consecration of priests, Leviticus 8-10.
(3) Rules as to clean and unclean, Leviticus 11-15.
(4) The day of atonement, the summing up of all means of grace for the nation and the church, annually.
Second;
(1) Israel’s life as holy and separate from heathendom, in food, marriage, and toward fellow men, Leviticus 17-20; the mutual connection of Leviticus 18; Leviticus 19; Leviticus 20, is marked by recurring phrases, “I are the Lord,” “ye shall be holy, for I … am holy.”
(2) Holiness of priests and of offerings, Leviticus 21-22.
(3) Holiness shown in the holy convocations, sabbaths, perpetual light in the tabernacle, shewbread, Leviticus 23-24.
(4) Perpetuation of the theocracy by the sabbatical and Jubilee years, the perpetual tenure of land, the redemption of it and bond servants (Leviticus 25); and by fatherly chastisement of the people and restoration on repentance, Leviticus 26.
(5) Appendix on vows, which are not encouraged especially, yet permitted with some restrictions (Leviticus 27).
The only history in Leviticus is that of Aaron’s consecration, Nadab and Abihu’s death, and the doom of the blasphemer (Leviticus 8-10; Lev 24:10-23), a solemn exhibition of Jehovah’s laws in their execution. Aaron’s “holding his peace” under the stroke is a marvelous exhibition of grace; yet his not eating the sin offering in the holy place shows his keen paternal anguish which excused his violation of the letter of the law in Moses’ judgment. As Jehovah drew nigh Israel in the tabernacle, so Israel drew nigh Jehovah in the offering. The sacrificial ordinances fall into three divisions, each division consisting of a Decalogue of directions, a method frequent in the Mosaic law. Many of the divisions are marked by the opening, “and the Lord spoke unto Moses” or such like, or by closing formulas as “this is the law,” etc. (Lev 7:37-38; Lev 11:46-47; Lev 13:59; Lev 14:54-57; Lev 15:32-33).
The direction as to the people’s offerings is distinguished from that as to the priests’ by a repetition of the same formula (Lev 1:2; Lev 6:9; Lev 6:19-20; Lev 6:24-25; Lev 6:21; Lev 6:22). In Lev 5:6 translated not “trespass offering” which is the term for one kind of sin offering (Lev 5:14), namely, for an injury done to some one, “a fine offering” (Num 5:5-8), but “he shall bring as his forfeit,” etc., asham. Also in Lev 23:2 for “feasts” translated “the appointed times.” The Epistle to the Hebrew is the New Testament commentary on Leviticus, showing the correspondence yet superiority of the Antitype to the typical sacrifices. Peter (1Pe 1:16) quotes Lev 11:44, “be ye holy, for I am holy;” but New Testament holiness rises above the restrictions as to meats, seasons, and places (Joh 4:20-24; Acts 10,15).
Psa 89:15; “blessed is the people that know the joyful sound, they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy countenance,” alludes to the Jubilee year enjoined in Leviticus; Isa 61:1-3, and our Lord’s application of the prophecy to Himself, show that the gospel dispensation is the antitype. The exhaustive consummation and final realization of the type shall be in the “times of restitution of all things,” “the regeneration” of the heaven and earth,” “the creature’s deliverance from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God,” “the adoption, to wit the redemption of the body” (Act 3:19-21; Rom 8:19-23; Mat 19:28-29). Leviticus 16 is the grand center of the book. Previously it was shown that God can only be approached by sacrifice, next that man is full of “uncleanness” which needs cleansing.
The annual atonement now teaches that not by several cleansings for several sins and uncleannesses can guilt be removed. One great covering of all transgressions must take place to meet God’s just wrath, and then Israel stands accepted and justified typically (Lev 16:16; Lev 16:20). Hebrew 9 and Hebrew 10, explains antitypically how Christ by one offering once for all and forever perfected them that are being sanctified. In Lev 18:18 the prohibition against marriage with a wife’s sister is during the wife’s lifetime. In Lev 17:11 translated “the soul (nephesh) of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood which makes atonement by means of the soul.” The two reasons of prohibiting blood as food are:
1. It is the vital fluid.
2. It was the appointed typical mean of atonement.
It is not blood as blood, but as containing in it the principle of life, that God accepted. The division into Decalogues is frequent throughout the Mosaic code, based no doubt upon the model of the Ten Commandments, each subject being set forth in ten ordinances, as Bertheau has observed (for details see his Commentary). Leviticus 1-3, contain the first Decalogue, namely, the burnt offering in three sections, the meat offering in four, and the peace offering in three. The second decalogue is in Leviticus 4-5, the sin offering in four cases; three kinds of transgression needing atonement; the trespass offering in three cases. Then, Leviticus 6-7, five Decalogues. Thus, there are seven Decalogues in all as to putting away guilt. The next seven chapters are about putting away impurity, Leviticus 11-16. Then, Leviticus 17-20 contain seven decalogues as to Israel’s holiness. Lastly, Leviticus 21 – 26:2, contain the concluding seven decalogues.
This arrangement leaves unnoticed Lev 23:39-44 and Leviticus 24; because Lev 23:37-38, “these are the feasts,” etc., evidently close chapter 23; Lev 23:39-44 are appended as a fuller description of the feast already noticed in Lev 23:34. And Leviticus 24 sets forth the duty of the people in maintaining public worship, and narrates the stoning of the blasphemer. The decalogues are closed with promises of rich blessing upon obedience, awful threats upon disobedience; the latter predominate, for already Israel had shown its tendency to disobey. The first division of the law, the covenant (Exo 23:20-33), ended with blessings only; for there Israel had not yet betrayed its unfaithfulness: But now (Exodus 32-33) when Israel had shown its backsliding tendency, the second division of the law ends here with threats as well as promises. Leviticus 27, is an appendix, Leviticus 26 having already closed the subject of the book with the words “these are the statutes,” etc. The appendix however is an integral part of the whole, as is marked by its ending with the same formula, “these are the commandments,” etc.
Fuente: Fausset’s Bible Dictionary
LEVITICUS
Israels priesthood was commonly known as the Levitical priesthood (Heb 7:11), and the book that deals more than any other with that priesthood is known as the Levitical book, or Leviticus. The priests, however, were only one family in the tribe of Levi. Matters relating to the non-priestly Levites are dealt with in the next book, Numbers. There is no break between these books, because what we call the five books of Moses (or the Pentateuch) were originally one book (see PENTATEUCH).
Features of the book
God had brought the people of Israel out of Egypt and set them on their way to Canaan, all according to the covenant promises he had given to Abraham. After three months they arrived at Mt Sinai, and there God established his covenant with them. He declared Israel to be his people, and they responded by promising to do whatever he required of them (Gen 12:2; Gen 15:18-21; Gen 17:6-8; Exo 2:24; Exo 6:6-8; Exo 19:4-6; Exo 24:7-8). The regulations that God laid down under the covenant begin in Exodus and carry on through Leviticus into Numbers.
First of all God announced the covenants basic principles and some of its practical requirements (Exodus 20-23). He then gave his plans for a central (but portable) place of worship, the tabernacle, and for a priesthood to oversee religious affairs (Exodus 25- 40). He gave the people a sacrificial system by which they could express their relationship with him (Leviticus 1-10); he set out laws to regulate cleanliness and holiness (Leviticus 11-22); he gave details concerning festivals and other special occasions (Leviticus 23-27); and he outlined certain duties, particularly in relation to the Levites (Numbers 1-10).
A central theme of Leviticus is that priests and common people alike were to be pure in their relations with God and with one another. Because God was holy, they were to be holy (Lev 11:44-45; Lev 20:26). This holiness extended to every part of the peoples lives, including personal cleanliness and public health. The laws of cleanliness, besides having practical usefulness, were an object lesson in a more basic problem, the problem of sin.
In his grace God helped his people deal with sin by giving them the sacrificial system. It taught them the seriousness of sin and gave them a way of approach to him to seek his forgiveness. People did not have to try to squeeze forgiveness from an unwilling God; God himself took the initiative by giving them the blood of animals to make atonement for their sin (Lev 17:11; see BLOOD; SACRIFICE). Whether repentant sinners knew it or not, their sacrifices could not in themselves take away sin. The basis on which God accepted the blood sacrifices of the ancient Israelites was the perfect blood sacrifice yet to be offered, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ (Heb 9:22; Heb 10:1-4; Heb 10:11-14).
Contents of the book
With the tabernacle now completed, God gave the Israelite people his regulations for the sacrifices. There were five basic sacrifices the burnt offering, the cereal offering, the fellowship offering, the sin offering and the guilt offering (1:1-6:7). God gave additional details of these offerings for the priests who officiated (6:8-7:38). Moses ordained Aaron and his four sons as priests, after which they began their duties (8:1-9:24). Two of the sons were struck dead when they tried to act independently of God (10:1-20).
God then set out his requirements in relation to cleanliness. He laid down laws concerning food, disease and bodily health (11:1-15:33), and followed with regulations concerning the Day of Atonement and the sacredness of blood (16:1-17:16). Further instructions on practical holiness concerned sexual relationships and a range of miscellaneous matters (18:1-20:27). There were additional rules specifically concerned with priests (21:1-22:33).
Israel was to have a regulated timetable of festivals to acknowledge the overruling care of God throughout the year (23:1-24:23). Sabbatical and jubilee years were designed to prevent the rich from gaining control over the poor (25:1-55). God promised blessing for obedience, but warned of judgment for disobedience (26:1-46). Honesty was essential at all times, and people had to treat their vows seriously (27:1-34).
Fuente: Bridgeway Bible Dictionary
Leviticus
LEVITICUS
1. Scope.The book has received its title from the name the Levitical book, which was prefixed to it in the LXX [Note: Septuagint.] . Since, however, the special functions of the Levites are not referred to, the scope of the book is better brought out in the title Law of the Priests, which is given to it in the Talmud. As such, Leviticus practically confines itself to legislation, and, except in the section chs. 1726, to priestly legislation. Even the few passages, such as chs. 8 and 10, which are cast in the form of narrative, do not aim at describing what once happened, but use this form in order to prescribe what is to continue. The JE [Note: Jewish Encyclopedia.] narrative, which was a history, does not appear to have been drawn upon; and Leviticus, unlike Exodus and Numbers, offers no exact dates of month and year. The book does not give a history of Israels past, but chiefly embodies some of the rules of the one living institution which persisted in Israel from its formation as a nation to the destruction of the Temple. Since, however, this institution was moulded to meet the nations changing circumstances, the praxis which regulated its services required and received constant modification. Some of these changes can be traced in Leviticus; but it is impossible to detail them in a brief sketch like the present. Readers who wish more details on the ritual can find them and their justification in the art. in Hastings DB [Note: Dictionary of the Bible.] , or in Drivers LOT [Note: OT Introd. to the Literature of the Old Testament.] .
2. SourcesThe general editor is the same as the editor who arranged Exodus in its present form, though a little has been added by later hands. (1) He took from P [Note: Priestly Narrative.] that history of the sacred institutions which appeared in Exo 25:1-40; Exo 26:1-37; Exo 27:1-21; Exo 28:1-43; Exo 29:1-46 (see Exodus): chs. 8, 9, with Exo 10:12-15 (which supplements Exo 9:21), Exo 10:1-7 (Exo 10:16-20) Exo 16:2-4; Exo 16:6; Exo 16:12 f., Exo 24:1-9, These sections are not all of the same period.
Thus ch. 8, which relates the anointing of the priests, is the fulfilment of Exo 29:1-46 and Exo 40:12-15. It formed part of that expansion of Exo 25:1-40; Exo 26:1-37; Exo 27:1-21; Exo 28:1-43; Exo 29:1-46 which now occupies Exo 35:1-35; Exo 36:1-38; Exo 37:1-29; Exo 38:1-31; Exo 39:1-43; Exo 40:1-38, and to which also belong Exo 24:1-4 on the Tabernacle lamps, Exo 24:5-9 on the shewbreadsections which in some inexplicable way have strayed into their present incongruous position. Ch. 9 with Exo 10:12-15, which recounts the sacrifices at the inauguration of the Tabernacle, originally formed the sequel of Exo 25:1-40; Exo 26:1-37; Exo 27:1-21; Exo 28:1-43; Exo 29:1-46, and was followed by Exo 10:1-7 (the story of Nadab and Abihu offering strange fire), and was closed by Exo 16:2-4; Exo 16:6; Exo 16:12 f. (the rule as to the time and way for Aaron to approach the Holy Place which had thus vindicated its awful sanctity). Exo 10:16-20 (on the goat of the sin-offering) is a later addition, and gives an interesting illustration of the way in which it was sought to reconcile differences in the older laws (cf. it with Exo 9:15 and Exo 6:24-30).
(2) Chs. 16.Into this framework the editor has fitted laws from other sources. Thus he seems to have separated ch. 8 from its natural position after Exo 40:1-38, because he counted it suitable, after the Tabernacle was set up and before the priests were anointed or the Tabernacle inaugurated, to insert the laws prescribing the sacrifices which the priests when anointed were to offer in the Tabernacle.
This law-book has its own history, and in particular once existed in two sections. Thus Lev 6:8 to Lev 7:21, with its subscription Lev 7:37 f., was originally a code addressed to the priests, dealing with matters ancillary to the sacrifices, and especially concerned with the priestly dues. Because of this esoteric character of the little code, Lev 6:20-23 (on the priests meal-offering) was inserted. With the exception of that section, each of the regulations is introduced by the formula this is the law of; and this formula appears in the subscription. It represents the early rules on this subject.
Again, Lev 1:1 to Lev 6:7 is a book addressed to the people, defining their sacrifices, but it has received large modification. From a comparison of Lev 1:2 f. with Lev 3:1 it is evident that ch. 3 (the law of the peace-offering) once followed immediately on ch. 1 (the burnt-offering). These are probably very old. The different formul used in ch. 2 (3rd person in Lev 3:1-3; Lev 3:2 nd person in Lev 3:4 ff.) and its intrusive position prove that the law of the meal-offering has been developed. A comparison between the law of the sin-offering in ch. 4 and similar laws elsewhere proves how largely this part of the ritual has been elaborated. Thus the sin-offering for the congregation is a bullock in Lev 3:14 instead of the goat of Lev 9:15 and Num 15:24; and the high priests sin-offering (Num 15:3-12) is more elaborate than that in Num 9:8-11 and Num 29:10-14; Lev 5:1-13 (examples of unintentional sins which require a sin-offering, and mitigations for the case of those who cannot afford a lamb or a goat) has suffered change, since Lev 5:2-3 evidently break the connexion between Lev 5:1 and Lev 5:4. It is, however, older than ch. 4, though the relation is specially difficult to define. Lev 5:15 to Lev 6:7 defines the cases which require a guilt-offering, and makes it clear that originally this sacrifice was a composition for fraud practised upon God (Lev 5:15 ff.) or man (Lev 6:1-7). When he united these codes on the sacrifices, the editor added a rule (Lev 7:22-25) forbidding fat and blood more expressively than Lev 3:17, and a rule (Lev 7:28-34) giving heave leg and wave breast to the priest, and a subscription (Lev 7:35 f.).
(3) Chs. 1115.The priests, however, had other functions in the life of the people besides those immediately connected with the sacrifices. It was their business to determine on all questions connected with uncleanness. As soon, therefore, as the editor had described the inauguration of the Tabernacle and the priesthood, he grouped together a series of regulations bearing on this side of the priestly duties.
Chs. 1115 deal with this more civil yet priestly function. The rules in ch. 11 on clean and unclean animals (Lev 11:2-23; Lev 11:41-45, with their subscription Lev 11:46 f.) appear in a more primitive form in Deu 14:4-20, and have probably been taken from the Law of Holiness (see below). The law of defilement from touching unclean animals and all carcases (Lev 11:24-29), which prescribes also the purification required in case of neglect of the regulations, is ignored in the subscription Lev 11:46 f. and must be an insertion. Chs. 12, 15 prescribe the forms of purification after childbirth and after certain physical secretions. In their basis these rules are very old, but the careful detail of derivative uncleanness (cf. esp. Lev 15:1-12; Lev 15:19-27) shows where a slow elaboration has been at work. Chs. 13, 14 contain a series of directions for the diagnosis of leprosy in human beings, clothing, leather, and houses, and for the method of purification. The primitive character of the prescribed purification (Lev 14:2-8), along with the fact that this can be carried out apart from the Temple, proves the early origin of the rules. The gravity of the task thus imposed on the priest and the serious issues involved make it even probable that the directions were not left to the discretion of individuals, but were early committed to writing.
(4) In ch. 16 the sacrificial ritual culminates in the Day of Atonement. This embodies very old elements (see Azazel), but has been so altered that its original character is no longer to be distinguished. The chapter in its present form contains two parts. The historical introduction (Lev 16:1-4; Lev 16:6; Lev 16:12 f., once connected with ch. 10) prescribes how and when the high priest may approach the Holy Place. The ritual of the Day of Atonement (Lev 16:5; Lev 16:7-10; Lev 16:15-34) was united with this, because it defines the purpose for which the high priest made his annual entry. The place given to this ritual after chs. 1115 is appropriate, because in its sacrifices priest and people united to make atonement for the sanctuary and holy things, and purge them from the pollution contracted through the forms of uncleanness specified in these chapters.
(5) Law of Holiness or H.Chs. 1726 form an independent body of laws, which have had their own history, and which, after receiving something of their peculiar form from an earlier collector, have been incorporated, after considerable modifications by the general editor, into the greater law-book. That these were once independent is proved by: (a) the long hortatory conclusion in ch. 26 and the opening instructions as to the place of sacrifice; (b) the presence in them of matters which have already been dealt with (cf., e.g., Lev 17:10-14 with Lev 7:26 f., Lev 19:6-8 with Lev 7:15-18, Lev 20:25 with ch. 11); (c) the fact that the laws have a much wider scope than those of chs. 116. But this early code has not survived in its integrity, for (i.) certain subjects are broken off before completion (Lev 19:5-8, Lev 20:25); and (ii.) the arrangement of subjects shows a considerable confusion (cf. Lev 19:5-8; Lev 19:20-22, Lev 20:27).
Ch. 17 prescribes that all animals suitable for sacrifice must be slain at the sanctuary, that such animals, when sacrificed, must be offered to Jahweh alone, that blood and the flesh of carcases must not be eaten. If Lev 17:1-6 were ever in force while the Israelites inhabited Palestine, the order requiring every goat, sheep, or ox which was slaughtered to be brought to the Jerusalem Temple practically made it illegal to kill these animals. P [Note: Priestly Narrative.] , which required all sacrifices to be brought to the Jerusalem Temple as the only sanctuary, permitted all animals to be freely slaughtered, but forbade the eating of fat and blood. Probably the code, in its early form, recognized the local sanctuaries, and required the slaughter of animals suitable for sacrifice to take place before the Lord, i.e. at ooe of these accessible shrines. The change is due to the desire to discredit these shrines.
Ch. 18 is a series of laws on incest (and Molech-worship), with admonitory introduction and conclusion. Ch. 19 contains a group of miscellaneous laws, with introduction and conclusion. These laws, which are curt and direct, give an interesting view of the morals of early Israel, and should be compared and contrasted with the relative sections in Exo 20:1-26; Exo 21:1-36; Exo 22:1-31; Exo 23:1-33, Deu 22:1-30; Deu 23:1-25; Deu 24:1-22; Deu 25:1-19. Ch. 20, which is different in character from the preceding chapters, prescribes in general penalties for certain offences already specified. In it Lev 20:10-21 (with the penalties for incest) may be the conclusion of ch. 18. The fact, however, that it is followed by a conclusion (Lev 18:22-24), while ch. 18 is provided with its own, has led some to count the two sections independent. Again, Lev 18:25 f. show where laws corresponding with ch. 11, if not that collection itself, originally stood in H [Note: Law of Holiness.] ; Lev 18:2-6 (against Molech-worship), Lev 18:6; Lev 18:2 (against traffic with familiar spirits), Lev 18:9 (against cursing father or mother) may have been brought together here, because, like most of the laws in Lev 18:10-21, they prescribe the death-penalty.
Chs. 21, 22 deal with priests and offerings. They state the ceremonial restraints required of the priests in their domestic life (Lev 21:1-15), demand bodily perfection in every officiating priest (Lev 21:16-24), ordain that sacrificial food may be eaten only by those who are ceremonially clean and who can claim membership in a priestly family (Lev 22:1-16), and require the sacrificial animals to be perfect (Lev 22:17-25). Three minor regulations as to the sacrifices (Lev 22:26-30) are followed by an exhortation (Lev 22:31-33). Not only the recurrent formula, I am the Lord, but the insistence on a ceremonial holiness, which characterizes the early code, proves that the basis of these chapters is old. The material has been largely revised by P [Note: Priestly Narrative.] , but the elaborate analysis cannot be entered into here.
Ch. 23 is a calendar of the sacred seasons, which has necessarily received much change. In general, it may be said that Lev 23:8-20; Lev 23:22; Lev 23:39 b, Lev 23:40-43, though not left without minor modifications, belong to the early code. Here the festivals still represent the religious life of a people which is settled on the land and engaged in agriculture. No more precise date than, e.g., when ye reap the harvest of your land, is laid down for a festival, because no other was practicable. The people celebrated the harvest when the harvest was gathered. The other sections (Lev 23:1-8; Lev 23:21; Lev 23:23-39 ac, Lev 23:44) give rigid dates and betray the change which became necessary, as soon as many of the worshippers were no longer agriculturists and were scattered beyond the limits of Palestine. The definite dates prescribed by a centralized priesthood became a necessity of the national and religious life. These later sections come from P [Note: Priestly Narrative.] .
Ch. 24 (on Lev 24:1-9 see above) deals with blasphemy (Lev 24:15 f.) and injuries to men and cattle (Lev 24:17-22). These early sections closely resemble ch. 20, and may once have stood in closer connexion with it. The penalty pronounced on blasphemy was specially interesting to P [Note: Priestly Narrative.] , and was illustrated by an incident taken from the desert-wanderings (Lev 24:10-14; Lev 24:23; cf. Num 15:32-35).
Ch. 25 contains the rules for the Sabbatical year (Lev 25:1-7; Lev 25:20-22) and those for the year of Jubilee (Lev 25:8-19; Lev 25:23-55). The section, Lev 25:20-22, has been separated from its original context in order to make the regulations contained in it apply to the Jubilee as well as the Sabbatical year. The analysis of the chapter is very uncertain. H [Note: Law of Holiness.] seems to have contained the rule as to the Sabbatical year (cf. Lev 25:1-7 with Exo 23:10 f. and note the prominent interest in agriculture). In connexion with the Jubilee, it ordered that land must not be alienated absolutely, but must revert to its original owners at the Jubilee (Lev 25:13-15). It also provided for the relief of an impoverished Israelite by ordering: (a) that his land might be redeemed by a kinsman (Lev 25:25); (b) that usury was not to be exacted from him (Lev 25:35-38); (c) that, when he was in bondage, he must be treated humanely (Lev 25:39-40 a, Lev 25:43; Lev 25:47; Lev 25:53; Lev 25:55). P [Note: Priestly Narrative.] took over this early law with a number of modifications, added fresh regulations as to the redemption of land (Lev 25:9 b, Lev 25:10-12; Lev 25:23; Lev 25:25-34), and especially extended the benefits of the Jubilee from land to persons (Lev 25:40-42; Lev 25:44-45; Lev 25:48-52; Lev 25:54). A comparison of Lev 25:40-42 with Deu 15:12-18 suggests that in the course of time the latter rule had proved impracticable, and that this relaxation was designed to take its place.
Ch. 26, after two fragments, of which Lev 26:1 is parallel to Lev 19:4; Lev 26:2 identical with Lev 19:30, contains the hortatory conclusion (Lev 26:3-45), which the collector of H [Note: Law of Holiness.] appended to his law-book. It closes with the subscription (Lev 26:46), which the editor of Leviticus added when he inserted the collection in is present position. The resemblances between Lev 26:3-45 and the Book of Ezekiel are too numerous to be catalogued here, but they deserve special attention.
As H [Note: Law of Holiness.] is evidently incomplete and its character is strongly marked, efforts have been made to detect fragments of its legislation in other parts of the Pentateuch. In particular, Exo 31:13-14 a, Lev 11:1-23; Lev 11:41-47, Num 15:37-41 have been asigned to it. It is necessary, however, to remember that undue stress should not be laid on the appearance of such characteristic formul as I am the Lord, I am the Lord which sanctify you, since, when once some laws had been countersigned by these formul, it was natural to introduce them into others. Even in the case of Lev 11:1-23, all that can be said is that similar legislation must have been in H [Note: Law of Holiness.] ; it is unwise to suppose that this section belonged to H [Note: Law of Holiness.] , for laws of this type must have appeared in several of the codes, and in the nature of the case the language used could not greatly vary.
The law-book which is obtained after the excision of the later elements is a valuable survival of one of the codes which represented and guided the life of early Israel under the monarchy. To estimate it, both in its uniqueness and in its common characteristics, it is useful briefly to compare H [Note: Law of Holiness.] with the other codes which have come down. Thus it agrees with Deut. and the Book of the Covenant (Exo 20:1-26; Exo 21:1-36; Exo 22:1-31; Exo 23:1-33) in the prominence given to the social as well as to the ceremonial life of the people, and in the recognition that this life is still largely an agricultural life. Its closer affinity to the Book of the Covenant is found in the concise formul into which its laws are cast, as though they were meant for direct popular use, and in the fact that these laws are addressed to the people, not to the priest. It resembles Deut. very closely in forbidding certain forms of idolatry and semi-heathen practices which were common in Palestine. The two codes are penetrated throughout by the sense that what gives Israel its distinctive character is its religion, though they express this in different waysH [Note: Law of Holiness.] dogmatically forbidding (for I am the Lord), Deut. developing the reason why some things are forbidden. On the other hand, Dent. betrays the existence of a more complex and developed social life than H [Note: Law of Holiness.] , though the basis for both is still the land. Thus H [Note: Law of Holiness.] leaves the great festivals connected with the agricultural life, while Deut. seeks to add historical motives to them, and thus prepares for the time when the people, even though torn from the land, can find a bond of national and religious life in these festivals. Again, to H [Note: Law of Holiness.] the centralized priesthood and developed ritual of Deut. are unknown: it ignores the central sanctuary and the Levites. The chief distinction between H [Note: Law of Holiness.] and the Book of the Covenant is that H [Note: Law of Holiness.] is more detailed and shows a larger interest in the ceremonial side of Israels life. The latter point must not, however, be pressed too far, since H [Note: Law of Holiness.] has not survived in its entirety, and, having passed through the hands of a Priestly editor, may have retained more particularly those sections which interested him, and which therefore may have been made to appear relatively more conspicuous.
Further, when compared with P [Note: Priestly Narrative.] , H [Note: Law of Holiness.] does not conceive of Israel as grouped round the sanctuary, but regards the local sanctuaries as forming an element in the popular life. It knows nothing of the centralized and hierarchical priesthood, and the priesthood it knows is one side of a larger life, not its controlling factor. Its sacrifices are the older and simpler burnt-offering and thank-offering, without the development of guilt- and sin-offerings. Though Lev 6:2-7 be taken to represent the early sin-offering required by this code, its place is very secondary compared with P [Note: Priestly Narrative.] . The laws of H [Note: Law of Holiness.] are generally cast into concise formul to meet practical needs. They are backed continually by religion, but the religion supplies a sanction and a command rather than a reason and a motive. The book is specially conscious of Israels religion as one which requires separation from all heathen pollution. Holiness is separateness, for I Jahweh sanctify you. The period at which the laws were compiled is still debated, but the affinity between H [Note: Law of Holiness.] and Ezekiel is so close that a direct connexion must be presumed. This affinity does not consist in common phrases, nor can it be measured by identity of language; it shows itself in the common point of view which justified Ezekiel in borrowing phrases, because no others could be found which were so adequate to embody his meaning. To both holiness is the stamp of Israels religion, and this holiness is largely construed as absence of ceremonial pollutiona pollution which includes more than ethical elements. The law-book probably arose at some sanctuary other than Jerusalem, and expressed and determined the religious life which centred there. As such, it offers a welcome and pleasant sketch of pre-exilic Israelitish life. It probably owed its survival through the Exile, in spite of the superior influence of Deut., to the fact that it deeply influenced the thought of Ezekiel. The priest-prophet preserved a book to which he owed so much; and it is not impossible that certain features in the conclusion (Eze 26:4-21) which have seemed to several to point to the Exile, may be due to Ezekiel himself or to a member of his school.
Ch. 27 contains rules on the commutation of vows and tithes. It belongs to P [Note: Priestly Narrative.] , and owes its present position to the fact that it presupposes the year of Jubilee (ch. 25).
A. C. Welch.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Leviticus
The third book of Moses bears this name; and it appears to derive its name from the Septuagint, who called it the book of Leviticus, from containing the laws of the Levitical priesthood.
Fuente: The Poor Mans Concordance and Dictionary to the Sacred Scriptures
Leviticus
le-viti-kus:
I.GENERAL DATA
1.Name
2.Character of Book
3.Unity of Book: Law of Holiness
Examination of Critical Theory
II.STRUCTURE
1.Modern Analyses
(1)Theories of Disintegration
(2)Reasons for Dismemberment
(3)Insufficiency of These Reasons
2.Structure of the Biblical Text
(1)Structure in General
(2)Structure of the Individual Pericopes
III.ORIGIN
1.Against the Wellhausen Hypothesis
(1)The Argument from Silence
(2)Attitude of Prophets toward Sacrificial System
(3)The People’s Disobedience
(4)Indiscriminate Sacrificing
(5)Deuteronomy and Priestly Code
2.Connection with Mosaic Period
(1)Priestly Code and Desert Conditions
(2)Unity and Construction Point to Mosaic Origin
IV.THE SIGNIFICANCE
1.Positive
(1)The Law Contains God’s Will
(2)The Law Prepares for the Understanding of Christianity
(3)The Law as a Tutor unto Christ
2.Negative
LITERATURE
I. General Data.
1. Name:
The third book of the Pentateuch is generally named by the Jews according to the first word, , wayyikra’ (Origen , Ouikra, by the Septuagint called according to its contents , Leuitikon, or , Leueitikon, by the Vulgate, accordingly, Leviticus (i.e. Liber), sometimes Leviticum). The Jews have also another name taken from its contents, namely, , torath kohanm, Law of the Priests.
2. Character of Book:
As a matter of fact ordinances pertaining to the priesthood, to the Levitical system, and to the cults constitute a most important part of this book; but specifically religious and ethical commands, as we find them, e.g. in Lev 18 through 20, are not wanting; and there are also some historical sections, which, however, are again connected with the matter referring to the cults, namely the consecration of the priests in Lev 8 and 9, the sin and the punishment of two sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu (Lev 10:1 ff), and the account of the stoning of a blasphemer (Lev 24:10 ff). Of the Levites, on the other hand, the book does not treat at all. They are mentioned only once and that incidentally in Lev 25:32 ff. The laws are stated to have been given behar snay (Lev 7:38; Lev 25:1; Lev 26:46; Lev 27:34), which expression, on account of Lev 11, in which Yahweh is described as speaking to Moses out of the tent of meeting, is not to be translated upon but at Mt. Sinai. The connection of this book with the preceding and following books, i.e. Exodus and Numbers, which is commonly acknowledged as being the case, at least in some sense, leaves for the contents of Leviticus exactly the period of a single month, since the last chronological statement of Exo 40:17 as the time of the erection of the tabernacle mentions the 1st day of the 1st month of the 2nd year of the Exodus, and Num 1:1 takes us to the 1st day of the 2nd month of the same year. Within this time of one month the consecration of the priests fills out 8 days (Lev 8:33; Lev 9:1). A sequence in time is indicated only by Lev 16:1, which directly connects with what is reported in Lev 10 concerning Nadab and Abihu. In the same way the ordinances given in Lev 10:6 ff are connected with the events described in 8:1 through 10:5. The laws are described as being revelations of Yahweh, generally given to Moses (compare Lev 1:1; Lev 4:1; Lev 5:14; Lev 6:19, Lev 6:24 (Hebrew 12, 17); Lev 7:22, Lev 7:28, etc.); sometimes to Moses and Aaron (compare Lev 11:1; Lev 13:1; Lev 14:33; Lev 15:1, etc.), and, rarely, to Aaron alone (Lev 10:8). In Lev 10:12 ff, Moses gives some directions to the priests, which are based on a former revelation (compare Lev 6:16 (Hebrew 9) ff; Lev 7:37 ff). In Lev 10:16 ff, we have a difference of opinion between Moses and Aaron, or rather his sons, which was decided on the basis of an independent application of principles given in Leviticus. Most of these commands are to be announced to Israel (Lev 1:2; Lev 4:2; Lev 7:23, Lev 7:19; Lev 9:3 ff; Lev 11:2; Lev 12:2; Lev 15:2; Lev 18:2, etc.); others to the priests (Lev 6:9, Lev 6:25 (Hebrew 2, 18); Lev 21:2; Lev 22:2, etc.); or to the priests and the Israelites (Lev 17:2; Lev 22:18), while the directions in reference to the Day of Atonement, with which Aaron was primarily concerned (Lev 16:2), beginning with Lev 16:29, without a special superscription, are undeniably changed into injunctions addressed to all Israel; compare also Lev 21:24 and Lev 21:2. As the Book of Exodus treats of the communion which God offers on His part to Israel and which culminates at last in His dwelling in the tent of meeting (Exo 40:34 ff; compare under EXODUS, I., 2.), the Book of Leviticus contains the ordinances which were to be carried out by the Israelites in religious, ethical and cultural matters, in order to restore and maintain this communion with God, notwithstanding the imperfections and the guilt of the Israelites. And as this book thus with good reason occupies its well established place in the story of the founding and in the earliest history of theocracy, so too even a casual survey and intelligent glance at the contents of the book will show that we have here a well-arranged and organic unity, a conviction which is only confirmed and strengthened by the presentation of the structure of the book in detail (see under II., below).
3. Unity of Book: Law of Holiness:
As a rule, critics are accustomed first of all to regard Lev 17 through 25 or 26 as an independent section, and find in these chapters a legal code that is considered to have existed at one time as a group by itself, before it was united with the other parts.
It is indeed true that a series of peculiarities have been found in these chapters of Leviticus. To these peculiarities belongs the frequent repetition of the formula: I am Yahweh your God (Lev 18:2, Lev 18:4; Lev 19:2, Lev 19:4, etc.); or I am Yahweh (Lev 18:5, Lev 18:6, Lev 18:21; Lev 19:14, Lev 19:16, etc.), or I am Yahweh … who hath separated you (Lev 20:24), or who sanctifieth you (Lev 20:8; Lev 21:8, Lev 21:15, Lev 21:23, etc.). To these peculiarities belong the references in words, or, in fact, to the land of Canaan, into which Israel is to be led (Lev 18:3, Lev 18:14 ff; Lev 19:23 ff, 29; Lev 20:22 ff; 23; 25), and also to Egypt, out of which He has led the people (Lev 18:3; Lev 19:34; Lev 22:33; Lev 26:13, Lev 26:15, etc.); as, further, the demand for sanctification (Lev 19:2), or the warning against desecration (Lev 19:12; Lev 21:23, etc.), both based on the holiness of Yahweh. In addition, a number of peculiar expressions are repeatedly found in these chapters. Because of their contents these chapters have, since Klostermann, generally been designated by the letter H (i.e. Law of Holiness); or, according to the suggestion of Dillmann, by the letter S (i.e. Sinaitic Law), because, according to Lev 25:1; Lev 26:46, they are said to have been given at Mt. Sinai, and because in certain critical circles it was at one time claimed that these chapters contain old laws from the Mosaic period, although these had been changed in form. These earlier views have apparently now been discarded by the critics entirely.
Examination of Critical Theory.
We, however, do not believe that it is at all justifiable to separate these laws as a special legal code from the other chapters. In the first place, these peculiarities, even if such are found here more frequently than elsewhere, are not restricted to these chapters exclusively. The Decalogue (Exo 20:2) begins with the words, I am Yahweh thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Exo 22:31 contains the demand, Ye shall be holy men unto me. Exo 29:44, Exo 29:45 contains a promise that God will dwell in the midst of the Israelites, so that they shall learn that He is Yahweh, their God, who has brought them out of Egypt in order to dwell in their midst as Yahweh, their God (compare, further, Exo 6:6-8; Exo 31:13 f; Lev 10:10, Lev 10:11; Lev 11:44; Num 15:37-41; Num 33:52 f, 55 f; Deu 14:2, Deu 14:21). It is a more than risky undertaking to find in these and in other sections scattered remnants of H, especially if these are seen to be indispensable in the connection in which they are found, and when no reason can be given why they should be separated from this collection of laws. Then, too, the differences of opinion on the part of the critics in assigning these different parts to H, do not make us favorably inclined to the whole hypothesis. Hoffmann, especially (Die wichtigsten Instanzen gegen die Graf-Wellhausensche Hypothese, 16 ff), has shown how impossible it is to separate H from the other ordinances of the Priestly Code in so radical a manner. In saying this we do not at all wish to deny the peculiar character of these chapters, only we do not believe that Lev 17 can be added or Lev 26 can be taken away from this section; for in Lev 17 all the characteristic peculiarities of the Holiness Law are lacking; and, on the other hand, in Lev 26 the expression I am Yahweh your God, or a similar one in Lev 26:12, Lev 26:13, Lev 26:14 f, is found. The subscription in Lev 26:46 connects Lev 26 with the preceding; and, further, the reference to the Sabbatical year as described in Lev 25, found in Lev 26:34 f, 43, is not to be overlooked. Finally, also, other legal codes, such as that in the first Book of the Covenant (Exo 23:20-33) and that of Dt (27:11-28:68) close with the offer of a blessing or a curse.
The chapters under consideration (Lev 18 through 26) are most closely connected with each other solely through their contents, which have found expression in a particular form, without these facts being sufficient to justify the claim of their being a separate legal code. For since in Lev 1 through 17 all those things which separate the Israelites from their God have been considered and bridged over (compare Lev 1 through 7, the laws concerning sacrifices; Lev 8 through 10, the mediatorship of the priests; Lev 11 through 15, the unclean things; Lev 16, the Day of Atonement; Lev 17, the use made of blood), we find in Lev 18 through 26 an account of the God-pleasing conduct, which admits of nothing that desecrates; namely, Lev 18 through 20 contain laws dealing with marriage and chastity and other matters of a religious, ethical or cultural kind, together with the punishments that follow their transgression; Lev 21 f determine the true character of the priests and of the sacred oblations; Lev 23 f, the consecration of the seasons, of life and death, etc.; Lev 25, the Sabbath and the Jubilee year; Lev 26 contains the offer of a blessing or a curse. Lev 1 through 17 have, as it were, a negative character; Lev 18 through 26 a positive character. In Lev 1 through 17 the consciousness of what is unclean, imperfect and guilty is awakened and the possibility of their removal demonstrated; while in Lev 18 through 26 the norm of a holy life is set forth. Even if these two parts at certain places show so great a likeness that the occurrence of an interchange of ordinances could be regarded as possible, nevertheless the peculiar character of each part is plainly recognized; and this is also a very essential argument for the view that both parts have one and the same author, who intentionally brought the two parts into closer connection and yet separated the one from the other. On this supposition the peculiarities of Lev 18 through 26 are sufficiently explained, and also the positive contents of these chapters and the fact that just these chapters are referred to in pre-exilic literature oftener than is the case with Lev 1 through 17, and particularly the close connection between Ezekiel and H is to be regarded as a consequence of the common tendency of both authors and not as the result of their having used a common source (see EZEKIEL, II, 2). In Lev 26:46 we have what is clearly a conclusion, which corresponds to Lev 25:1; Lev 7:37 f; Lev 1:1, and accordingly regards Lev 1 through 26 as a unity; while Lev 27, which treats of vows and of tithes, with its separate subscription in Lev 27:34, shows that it is an appendix or a supplement, which is, however, in many ways connected with the rest of the book, so that this addition cannot, without further grounds, be regarded as pointing to another author.
II. Structure.
1. Modern Analyses:
Modern criticism ascribes the entire Book of Leviticus, being a special legal code, to the Priestly Code (P). The questions which arise in connection with this claim will be discussed under III, below. At this point we must first try to awaken a consciousness of the fact, that in this special particular, too, the documentary theory has entered upon the stage of total disintegration; that the reasons assigned for the separation of the sources are constantly becoming more arbitrary and subjective; and that the absurd consequences to which they consistently lead from the very outset arouse distrust as to the correctness of the process. Just as in the historical parts the critics have for long been no longer content with J (Jahwist) and E (Elohist), but have added a J1 and Later additions to J, an E1 and Later additions to E, and as Sievers and Gunkel have gone farther, and in detail have completely shattered both J and E into entirely separate fragments (see GENESIS), So the Priestly Code (P), too, is beginning to experience the same fate. It is high time that, for both the historical and the legal sections, the opposite course be taken, and that we turn from the dismemberment to the combination of these documents; that we seek out and emphasize those features which, in form and content, unite the text into a clear unity. For this reason we lay the greatest stress on these in this section, which deals with the structure of the book, and which treats of the matter (1) negatively and (2) positively (see also EXODUS, II.).
(1) Theories of Disintegration.
We have already seen in the article DAY OF ATONEMENT in connection with Lev 16 an example of these attempts at dissection, and here still add several examples in order to strengthen the impression on this subject.
(a) General Considerations:
If we for the present disregard the details, then, according to Bertholet (Kurzer Hand-Kommentar zum Alten Testament), not only Lev 17 through 26 (see, above, under I.) at one time existed as a separate legal corpus, but also the sacrificial legislation in Lev 1 through 7, and also the laws concerning the clean and the unclean in Lev 11 through 15. Concerning Lev 16 see above. Then, too, Lev 27 is regarded as a supplement and is ascribed to a different author. Finally, the so-called fundamental document of P (marked Pg) contained only parts from Lev 9 f (also a few matters from Lev 8), as also one of the three threads of Lev 16, for Lev 8 through 10, it is said, described the consecration of the priests demanded in Ex 25 ff, which also are regarded as a part of Pg, and Lev 16:1 is claimed to connect again with Lev 10 (compare on this point DAY OF ATONEMENT). All these separate parts of Leviticus (i.e. Lev 1 through 7; 8 through 10; 11 through 15; 16; 17 through 26; 27) are further divided into a number of more or less independent subparts; thus, e.g., Lev 1 through 7, containing the sacrificial laws, are made to consist of two parts, namely, Lev 1 through 5 and Lev 6 through 7; or the laws concerning the clean and the unclean in Lev 11 through 15 are divided into the separate pieces, Lev 11; Lev 12:1-8; 13:1 through 46; and these are regarded as having existed at one time and in a certain manner independently and separated from each other. But how complicated in detail the composition is considered to be, we can see from Lev 17 through 26.
(b) Lev 17:1 Considered in Detail:
While Baentsch (Hand-Kommentar zum Alten Testament) accepts, to begin with, three fundamental strata (H1 = Lev 18 through 20 and certain portions from Lev 23 through 25; H2 = Lev 21 f; H3 = Lev 17), Bertholet, too (op. cit., x), regards the development of these chapters as follows: In detail we feel justified in separating the following pieces: (i) Lev 17:3, Lev 17:4 (5, 7a), 8, 9, 10-14; (ii) Lev 18:7-10, Lev 18:12-20, Lev 18:22 f; and this united with (iii) Lev 19:3 f, 11 f, 27 f, 30, 31, 35, 36, which was probably done by the author of (iii). The following were inserted by the person who united these parts, namely, Lev 18:6, Lev 18:27, Lev 18:25, Lev 18:26, Lev 18:28, Lev 18:30; (iv) Lev 19:9, Lev 19:10, Lev 19:13-18, Lev 19:19, Lev 19:29, Lev 19:32; (v) Lev 19:5-8, Lev 19:23-26; (vi) Lev 20:2(3), 6(27); (vii) Lev 20:9, Lev 20:10-21; Lev 19:20; (viii) Lev 21:1-5, Lev 21:7, Lev 21:9-15, Lev 21:17-24; Lev 22:3, Lev 22:8, Lev 22:10-14, Lev 22:18-25, Lev 22:27-30; (ix) Lev 23:10-20, Lev 23:39-43; (x) Lev 24:15-22, except verses 16ab; (xi) Lev 25:2-7 (4), 18-22, 35-38, 39, 40a, 42 f, 47, 53, 15; (xii) Lev 25:8, Lev 25:9, Lev 25:10, Lev 25:13, Lev 25:14-16, Lev 25:17, Lev 25:24 f. In uniting these pieces Rh (the Redactor of the Law of Holiness) seems to have added de suo the following: Lev 17:5 (beginning); Lev 18:2-5, Lev 18:21, Lev 18:24, Lev 18:26,Lev 18:29; Lev 19:33 f, 37; Lev 20:4 f, 7 f, 22-26; Lev 21:6, Lev 21:8; Lev 22:2, Lev 22:9, Lev 22:15 f, 31-33; Lev 23:22; Lev 25:11 f; Lev 26:1 f. At the same time he united with these an older parenetic section, 26:3-45, which, by inserting Lev 26:10, Lev 26:34 f, 39-43, he changed into a concluding address of this small legal code. All the rest that is found in Lev 17 through 26 seems to be the result of a revision in the spirit of the Priestly Code (P), not, however, as though originally it all came from the hand of Rp (Redactor P). That he rather added and worked together older pieces from P (which did not belong to Pg) is seen from an analysis of Lev 23… As far as the time when these parts were worked together is concerned, we have a reliable terminus ad quem in a comparison of Neh 8:14-18 with Lev 23:36 (P), 39 ff (H). Only we must from the outset remember, that still, after the uniting of these different parts, the marks of the editorial pen are to be noticed in the following Lev 17 through 26, i.e. that after this union a number of additions were yet made to the text. This is sure as far as Lev 23:26-32 is concerned, and is probable as to Lev 24:1-9, Lev 24:10-14, Lev 24:23; Lev 25:32-34; and that this editorial work even went so far as to put sections from P in the place of parts of H can possibly be concluded from Lev 24:1-9.
(c) Extravagance of Critical Treatment:
This is also true of all the other sections, as can be seen by a reference to the books of Bertholet and Baentsch. What should surprise us most, the complicated and external manner in which our Biblical text, which has such a wonderful history back of it, is declared by the critics to have originated, or the keenness of the critics, who, with the ease of child’s play, are able to detect and trace out this growth and development of the text, and can do more than hear the grass grow? But this amazement is thrust into the ackground when we contemplate what becomes of the Bible text under the manipulations of the critics. The compass of this article makes it impossible to give even as much as a general survey of the often totally divergent and contradictory schemes of Baentsch and Bertholet and others on the distribution of this book among different sources; and still less possible is it to give a criticism of these in detail. But this critical method really condemns itself more thoroughly than any examination of its claims would. All who are not yet entirely hypnotized by the spell of the documentary hypothesis will feel that by this method all genuine scientific research is brought to an end. If the way in which this book originated had been so complicated, it certainly could never have been again reconstructed.
(2) Reasons for Dismemberment.
We must at this place confine ourselves to mentioning and discussing several typical reasons which are urged in favor of a distribution among different authors.
(a) Alleged Repetitions:
We find in the parts belonging to P a number of so-called repetitions. In Lev 1 through 7 we find a twofold discussion of the five kinds of sacrifices (1-5; Lev 6:1 ff); in Lev 20 punitive measures are enacted for deeds which had been described already in Lev 18; in Lev 19:3, Lev 19:10; Lev 23:3; Lev 26:2 the Sabbath command is intensified; in Lev 19:5 ff; Lev 22:29 f, we find commands which had been touched upon already in Lev 7:15 ff; Lev 19:9 f we find almost verbally repeated in Lev 23:22; Lev 24:2 ff repeats ordinances concerning the golden candlestick from Exo 27:20 ff, etc. The existence of these repetitions cannot be denied; but is the conclusion drawn from this fact correct? It certainly is possible that one and the same author could have handled the same materials at different places and from different viewpoints, as is the case in Lev 1 through 7 in regard to the sacrifices. Lev 18 and 20 (misdeeds and punishments) are even necessarily and mutually supplementary. Specially important laws can have been repeated, in order to emphasize and impress them all the more; or they are placed in peculiar relations or in a unique light (compare, e.g., Lev 24:1 ff, the command in reference to the golden candlestick in the pericope Lev 23 through 24; see below). Accordingly, as soon as we can furnish a reason for the repetition, it becomes unobjectionable; and often, when this is not the case, the objections are unremoved if we ascribe the repetitions to a new author, who made the repetition by way of an explanation (see EXODUS, II., 2., (5)).
(b) Separation of Materials:
Other reasons will probably be found in uniting or separating materials that are related. That Lev 16 is connected with Lev 8 through 10, and these connect with Ex 25 ff, is said to prove that this had been the original order in these sections. But why should materials that are clearly connected be without any reason torn asunder by the insertion of foreign data? Or has the interpolator perhaps had reasons of his own for doing this? Why are not these breaks ascribed to the original author? The sacrificial laws in Lev 1 through 7 are properly placed before Lev 8 through 10, because in these latter chapters the sacrifices are described as already being made (Lev 9:7, Lev 9:15, the sin offering; Lev 9:7, Lev 9:12, Lev 9:16, the burnt offering; Lev 9:17; Lev 10:12, the meal offering; Lev 9:18, the peace offering; Lev 9:3 f, all kinds). In the same way Lev 11 through 15, through Lev 15:31, are inwardly connected with Lev 16, since these chapters speak of the defiling of the dwelling-place of Yahweh, from which the Day of Atonement delivers (Lev 16:16 f, 33). As a matter of course, the original writer as well as a later redactor could have at times also connected parts in a looser or more external manner. In this way, in Lev 7:22 ff, the command not to eat of the fats or of the blood has been joined to the ordinances with reference to the use of the peace offerings in Lev 7:19 ff. This again is the case when, in Lev 2, Lev 2:11-13 have been inserted in the list of the different kinds of meal offering; when after the general scheme of sin offerings, according to the hierarchical order and rank in Lev 4, a number of special cases are mentioned in Lev 5:1 ff; and when in Lev 5:7 ff commands are given to prevent too great poverty; or when in Lev 6:19 ff the priestly meal offerings are found connected with other ordinances with references to the meat offerings in general (Lev 6:14 ff); or when the share that belongs to the priest (Lev 7:8 ff) is found connected with his claim to the guilt offering (Lev 7:1 ff); or the touching of the meat offering by something unclean (Lev 7:19 ff) is found connected with the ordinances concerning the peace offerings; or when in Lev 11 the ordinances dealing with the unclean animals gradually pass over into ordinances concerning the touching of these animals, as is already indicated by the subscription Lev 11:4, Lev 11:6 f (compare with Lev 11:2). Still more would it be natural to unite different parts in other ways also. In this way the ordinances dealing with the character of the sacrifices in Lev 22:17-30 could, regarded by themselves, be placed also in Lev 1 through 7. But in Lev 22 they are also well placed. On the other hand, the character of Lev 1 through 7 would have become too complicated if they were inserted here. In such matters the author must have freedom of action.
(c) Change of Singular and Plural:
Further, the frequent change between the singular and the plural in the addresses found in the laws which are given to a body of persons is without further thought used by the critics as a proof of a diversity of authors in the section under consideration (compare Lev 10:12 ff; Lev 19:9, Lev 19:11 ff, 15 ff, etc.). But how easily this change in numbers can be explained! In case the plural is used, the body of the people are regarded as having been distributed into individuals; and in the case of a more stringent application the plural can at once be converted into the singular, since the author is thinking now only of separate individuals. Naturally, too, the singular is used as soon as the author thinks again rather of the people as a whole. Sometimes the change is made suddenly within one and the same verse or run of thought; and this in itself ought to have banished the thought of a difference of authors in such cases. In the case of an interpolator or redactor, it is from the outset all the more probable that he would have paid more attention to the person used in the addresses than that this would have been done by the original writer, who was completely absorbed by the subject-matter. Besides, such a change in number is frequently found in other connections also; compare in the Book of the Covenant (Exo 22:20-25, Exo 22:29 f; Exo 23:9 ff; compare Deu 12:2 ff, 13 ff). In regard to these passages, also, the modern critics are accustomed to draw the same conclusion; and in these cases, too, this is hasty. In the same way the change in the laws from the 3rd to the 2nd person can best be explained as the work of the lawgiver himself, before whose mind the persons addressed are more vividly present and who, when speaking in the 2nd person, becomes personal (compare Lev 2:4 ff with Lev 2:1-3, and also Lev 1:2; Lev 3:17; Lev 6:18, Lev 6:21, Lev 6:25 ff).
(d) Proofs of Religious Development:
A greater importance seemingly must be attributed to the reasons based on a difference in the terminology or on contradictions in the laws, as these appear to lead to a religio-historical development. But the following examples are intended to show how all important it is to be slow in the acceptance of the materials which the critics offer in this connection.
(3) Insufficiency of These Reasons.
(a) In Lev 5:1-7, in the section treating of the sin offering (4:1 through 5:13), we find the word ‘asham, which also signifies guilt offering (compare Lev 5:14 ff; Lev 7:1 ff). Accordingly, it is claimed, the author of Lev 5:1-7 was not yet acquainted with the difference between the two kinds of offerings, and that this part is older than that in Lev 4:1 ff; Lev 5:14 ff. However, in Lev 5:1 ff the word ‘asham is evidently used in the sense of repentance, and does not signify sin offering at all; at any rate, already in Lev 5:6 f we find the characteristic term hatta’th to designate the latter, and thus this section appears as entirely in harmony with the connection.
(b) Critics find a contradiction in Lev 6:26; Lev 7:33, Lev 7:37, and in Lev 6:29; Lev 7:31, Lev 7:36, since in the first case the officiating priest and in the other case the entire college of priests is described as participating in the sacrifice. In reply it is to be said that the first set of passages treat of the individual concrete cases, while the second set speak of the general principle. In Lev 7:8 f, however, where the individual officiating priest is actually put in express contrast with all the sons of Aaron, the matter under consideration is a difference in the meal offerings, which, beginning with Lev 2, could be regarded as known. Why this difference is made in the use of this sacrifice is no longer intelligible to us, as we no longer retain these sacrifices, nor are we in possession of the oral instruction which possibly accompanied the written formulation of these laws; but this is a matter entirely independent of the question as to the author.
(c) According to Exo 29:7; Lev 4:3, Lev 4:5, Lev 4:16; Lev 6:20, Lev 6:22; Lev 8:12; Lev 16:32; Lev 21:10, Lev 21:12, the high priest is the only one who is anointed; while, on the other hand, in Exo 28:41; Exo 29:21; Exo 30:30; Exo 40:15; Lev 7:36; Lev 10:7, all the priests are anointed. But the text as it reads does not make it impossible that there was a double anointing. According to the first set of passages, Aaron is anointed in such a manner that the anointing oil is poured out upon his head (compare especially Exo 29:7 and Lev 8:12). Then, too, he and all his sons are anointed in such a way that a mixture of the oil and of the blood is sprinkled upon them and on their garments (compare especially Exo 29:21 and Lev 8:30). Were we here dealing with a difference in reference to theory and the ranks of the priesthood, as these discussions were current at the time of the exile (see III., below), then surely the victorious party would have seen to it that their views alone would have been reproduced in these laws, and the opposing views would have been suppressed. But now both anointings are found side by side, and even in one and the same chapter!
(d) The different punishments prescribed for carnal intercourse with a woman during her periods in Lev 15:24 and Lev 20:18 are easily explained by the fact that, in the first passage, the periods are spoken of which only set in during the act, and in the second passage, those which had already set in before.
(e) As far as the difference in terminology is concerned, it must be remembered that in their claims the critics either overlook that intentional differences may decide the preference for certain words or expressions; or else they ignore the fact that it is possible in almost every section of a writer’s work to find some expressions which are always, or at least often, peculiar to him; or finally, they in an inexcusable way ignore the freedom of selection which a writer has between different synonyms or his choice in using these.
All in all, it must be said that however much we acknowledge the keenness and the industry of the modern critics in clearing up many difficulties, and the fact that they bring up many questions that demand answers, it nevertheless is the fact that they take the matter of solving these problems entirely too easily, by arbitrarily claiming different authors, without taking note of the fact that by doing this the real difficulty is not removed, but is only transferred to another place. What could possibly be accepted as satisfactory in one single instance, namely that through the thoughtlessness of an editor discrepancies in form or matter had found their way into the text, is at once claimed to be the regular mode of solving these difficulties – a procedure that is itself thoughtlessness. On the other hand, the critics overlook the fact that it makes little difference for the religious and the ethical value of these commands, whether logical, systematic, linguistic or aesthetic correctness in all their parts has been attained or not; to which must yet be added, that a failure in the one particular may at the same time be an advantage in the other. In this respect we need recall only the anacoluths of the apostle Paul.
2. Structure of the Biblical Text:
(1) Structure in General.
The most effective antidote against the craze to split up the text in the manner described above will be found in the exposition of all those features which unite this text into one inseparable whole. What we have tried to demonstrate in the arts GENESIS; EXODUS, II.; DAY OF ATONEMENT (compare also EZEKIEL, I, 2, (2)) can be repeated at this point. The Book of Leviticus shows all the marks of being a well-constructed and organic literary product, which in its fundamental characteristics has already been outlined under I above. And as this was done in the several articles just cited, we can here add further, as a corroborative factor in favor of the acceptance of an inner literary unity of the book, that the division of the book into its logical parts, even down to minute details, is here, as is so often the case elsewhere, not only virtually self-evident in many particulars, but that the use made of typical numbers in many passages in this adjustment of the parts almost forces itself upon our recognition. In other places the same is at least suggested, and can be traced throughout the book without the least violence to the text. The system need not be forced upon the materials. We often find sections but loosely connected with the preceding parts (compare under 1 above) and not united in a strictly logical manner, but which are nevertheless related in thought and association of ideas. In harmony with the division of the Book of Gen we find at once that the general contents, as mentioned under I above, easily fall into 10 pericopes, and it is seen that these consist of 2 sets each of 5 pericopes together with an appendix.
(a) Ten Pericopes in Two Parts:
Part I, the separation from God and the removal of this separation: (i) Lev 1 through 7; (ii) Lev 8 through 10; (iii) Lev 11 through 15; (iv) Lev 16; (v) Lev 17.
Part II, the normal conduct of the people of God: (i) Lev 18 through 20; (ii) Lev 21 through 22; (iii) Lev 23 through 24; (iv) Lev 25; (v) Lev 26.
Appendix, Lev 27; compare for the number 10 the division of Ex 1:8 through 7:7; 7:8 through 13:16; 13:17 through 18:27; also the Decalogue, Exo 20:1 ff; 21:1 through 23:19; 32:1 through 35:1; and see EXODUS, II., 2.; and in Lev probably Lev 18:6-18; Lev 19:9-18, and with considerable certainty 19:1-37 (see below).
(b) Correspondence and Connections:
I leave out of consideration in this case the question whether an intentional correspondence among the different parts be traced or not, even in their details. Thus, e.g.; when the 2nd pericope (Lev 8 through 10 and 21 f) treats particularly of the order of the priests, or when the 4th pericope of the 2nd set (Lev 25) states that the beginning of the Year of Jubilee fell on the 10th day of the 7th month, i.e. on the Day of Atonement as described in Lev 16, in the 4th pericope of the 1st set (compare Lev 25:9 with Lev 16:29); or when both sets close with two shorter pericopes, which evidently express high stages of development (Lev 16 and 17, respectively, Lev 25 and 26 treating of the Day of Atonement, of the use made of blood and the purposes of blood for the altar or the Jubilee Year, of the blessing and the curse).
And, as far as the order in other respects is concerned, it is throughout to be regarded as founded in the subject-matter itself that Lev 1 through 17 must precede Lev 18 through 26. First that which separates the people from God must be removed, and then only is a God-pleasing conduct possible. Just as easily, and in agreement with the context, it is possible that the consecration of the priests in Lev 8 through 10 presupposes the sacrificial torah (Lev 1 through 7; compare under 1 above) and follows the latter, and is immediately introduced by the mention made of the installation sacrifices for which otherwise there are no reasons assigned in the concluding formula in Lev 7:37 (compare Lev 8:22-32). The Day of Atonement (Lev 16), which in Lev 16:16 f and Lev 16:33 is spoken of in connection with the purification of the sanctuary, is in turn introduced by Lev 11 through 15, or more particularly by the remark in Lev 15:31, where mention is made of the pollution of the dwelling-place of Yahweh. And on the other hand, the ordinances dealing with the priests (Lev 8 through 10) in Lev 10:10, where the command is given to discriminate between what is holy and what is unholy and to teach Israel accordingly, already point to the contents of Lev 11 through 15. The sacrifices, with which the first part in Lev 1 through 7 begins, are taken up again by the conclusion in Lev 17, in the commandment concerning the blood for the altar. The second part, too, already at the beginning (Lev 18 through 20) in its religiously cultural and ethical ordinances, shows in the clearest possible manner what matters it proposes to discuss. In this way the systematic structure of the book is apparent in all particulars.
Close connections: comparison with Exodus: And, further, the different pericopes are also so closely Connected among themselves and with the corresponding pericopes in the books of Ex and Nu, that many have thought it necessary to regard them as a special body of laws. But the connection is so close and involves all the details so thoroughly, that all efforts to divide and distribute them after the examples described under 1 above must fail absolutely. We shall now give the proofs for the different pericopes in Lev, but in such a manner as to take into consideration also Ex 25 through 31; 35 ff, treating of the tabernacle and its utensils and the Aaronitic priesthood, which are most intimately connected with Lev. All details in this matter will be left out of consideration.
(i) Tabernacle and priesthood: That Lev 8 through 10 (the consecration of the priests, etc.), together with Ex 25 ff, constitutes a single whole is accepted on all hands. But the tent of meeting and its utensils, and also the priesthood, both with and without any emphasis on the Aaronitic origin, are presupposed also in almost each one of the other pericopes of Leviticus; compare for Lev 1 through 7, e.g., Lev 1:3, Lev 1:1; Lev 3:2, Lev 3:8, Lev 3:13; Lev 4:4, Lev 4:5, Lev 4:7, Lev 4:14, Lev 4:16, Lev 4:18; Lev 6:26 (tent of meeting); Lev 1:5, Lev 1:12; Lev 3:5; Lev 4:7, Lev 4:25, Lev 4:30; Lev 6:12 (altar of burnt sacrifices); Lev 4:7, Lev 4:18 (altar of incense sacrifices); Lev 4:6, Lev 4:17 (veil); Lev 6:9, Lev 6:19 (court); Lev 1:5, Lev 1:7, Lev 1:8, Lev 1:11; Lev 2:2; Lev 3:2, Lev 3:5, Lev 3:8, Lev 3:13; Lev 6:9, Lev 6:14, Lev 6:16, Lev 6:20, Lev 6:25, etc. (Aaron and his sons as priests); for Lev 11 through 15 see Lev 12:4, Lev 12:6; Lev 14:11, Lev 14:23; Lev 15:14, Lev 15:29, Lev 15:31 (sanctuary, tent of meeting, dwelling-place); Lev 11:1; Lev 12:6 f; Lev 13:1 ff; Lev 14:2 ff, 33 ff; Lev 15:1 (priesthood); for Lev 16 see Lev 16:2, Lev 16:7, Lev 16:16 f, 20, 23, 13 (sanctuary and Holy of Holies tent of meeting); Lev 16:2, Lev 16:12 (veil); Lev 16:2, Lev 16:13 ff (lid of the Ark of the Covenant); Lev 16:12, Lev 16:18, Lev 16:20, Lev 16:33 (altar); Lev 16:1 ff (Aaronitic priesthood); for Lev 17 see Lev 17:4-6, Lev 17:9 (tent of meeting); Lev 17:6, Lev 17:11 (altar); Lev 17:5 (priesthood); for Lev 18 through 20 see Lev 19:30, Lev 19:21 (sanctuary of Yahweh, tent of meeting); Lev 19:22 (priesthood); for Lev 21 f see Lev 21:12 (sanctuary); Lev 21:23 (sanctuaries of Yahweh); Lev 21:23 (veil, altar); Lev 21:1 ff, 21 (Aaronitic priesthood); for Lev 23; 24 see Lev 23:2, Lev 23:4, Lev 23:21, Lev 23:24, Lev 23:27, Lev 23:36 f (sanctuary); Lev 24:1 ff (candlestick, tent of meeting); Lev 24:5 ff (table of showbread); Lev 23:10, Lev 23:20 (priesthood); Lev 24:3, Lev 24:1 (Aaronitic priesthood); for Lev 26 see Lev 26:2, Lev 26:11, Lev 26:31 (sanctuary, dwelling-place of Yahweh, sanctuaries); for Lev 27 see Lev 27:10, Lev 27:33 (sanctuary); Lev 27:8 ff (priesthood).
(ii) In the same way the sacrificial laws of Lev 1 through 7 are mentioned in the following pericopes as matters that are well known. For Lev 8 through 10 see Lev 9:7, Lev 9:15 (sin offering); Lev 9:7, Lev 9:12, Lev 9:16 (burnt offering); Lev 9:17; Lev 10:12 (meal offering); Lev 9:18 (peace offering); Lev 9:3 f (all together); compare also Exo 29:14, Exo 29:18, Exo 29:28. In Lev 9:21; Lev 10:14 f (wave-breasts and heave-thigh) direct reference is made to Lev 7:30-36. In the same manner Lev 10:16 ff presupposes the ordinances dealing with the different ways of offering the sin offerings in Lev 4:3 ff, 13 ff; Lev 6:24-30; for Lev 11 through 15 see Lev 12:6 ff; Lev 14:12 ff (compare especially Lev 14:13 with Lev 4:24); Lev 14:21 ff; Lev 15:14 f, 29 f; for Lev 16 see Lev 16:3, Lev 16:5 f, 9, 11, 15, 24 f, 27; for Lev 17 see Lev 17:5 ff, 8, 11; for Lev 18 through 20 see Lev 19:6 ff, 21 f (here is therefore the ‘asham found in H, which is claimed to be of a later date); for Lev 21 f see Lev 21:6, Lev 21:21 f; Lev 22:17 ff, 29 f; for Lev 23; 24 see Lev 23:12 f; Lev 18:19, Lev 18:27, 37; Lev 24:9; for Lev 26 see Lev 26:30 f; for Lev 27 compare Lev 27:15, Lev 27:19, Lev 27:27, Lev 27:31 with Lev 5:16; Lev 6:5.
(iii) Laws on clean and unclean: The laws in reference to the clean and the unclean in Lev 11 through 15 are also interwoven with the whole book. For Lev 1 through 7 see Lev 5:2 f; Lev 6:27; Lev 7:19 ff; for Lev 8 through 10 see Lev 10:10 f; for Lev 16 see Lev 16:16, Lev 16:19; for Lev 17 see Lev 17:13, Lev 17:15 f; for Lev 18 through 20 compare Lev 20:25 with Lev 11:44, and in general with Lev 11; for Lev 21 f see Lev 21:10; Lev 13:45; Lev 22:3 ff with Lev 13 through 15; for Lev 27 see Lev 27:11 and Lev 27:27, as also Lev 11.
(iv) The laws in reference to the Day of Atonement found in Lev 16 are prepared for by those found in Lev 11 through 15, namely, in Lev 14:4 ff, 49 ff (the ceremony with the two birds in connection with the purification from leprosy), and in Lev 15:31 (compare Lev 16:16, Lev 16:19; see above). For Lev 23; 24 compare Lev 23:26 ff with Lev 16:29 if, and for Lev 25:9 with Lev 16:29 see above; compare also Exo 30:10.
(v) Leviticus 17 is re-echoed in Lev 1 through 7 (Lev 7:26 f) and in Lev 18 through 20 (Lev 19:26).
(vi) Finally Lev 25 (Year of Rest and Year of Jubilee) is presupposed in Lev 26:34 f, 43 and in Lev 27:17 ff, 23 f.
The above, however, by no means exhausts this list of references and similar thoughts, and we have here given only some leading illustrations. What literary tricks must be resorted to when, over against this overwhelming mass of evidence, critics yet insist that the different parts of the book were originally independent writings, especially, too, when the entire tabernacle and utensils of the Aaronitic priesthood, the Day of Atonement, the Year of Jubilee, the whole sacrificial scheme and the laws dealing with the great festivals, the restriction of the slaying of the sacrificial animals to the central sanctuary, are regarded as the products of imagination alone, according to the Wellhausen hypothesis (compare III, below, and see also EXODUS, III., 5.; DAY OF ATONEMENT; EZEKIEL, II, 2). And how little is gained in addition when, as is sometimes done, in a most arbitrary manner, the statements found in Lev 1 through 3 concerning the tabernacle of revelation (tent of meeting) and concerning Aaron’s sons, or concerning Aaron and his sons together, are regarded as later additions. In Lev and Ex 25 ff; 35 ff, everything is so entirely of one and the same character and has so clearly emanated from one and the same spirit, that it is impossible to separate from this product any constituent parts and to unite these into groups that were originally independent, then to split up these still further and to trace the parts to their sources, and even to construct a scheme of religious and historical development on this reconstruction of the sources.
(2) Structure of the Individual Pericopes.
As the windows and the column capitals of a medieval cathedral are arranged according to different schemes and this divergence is regarded as an enrichment of the structure, thus, too, we find it to be in the structure of the various pericopes of the Book of Leviticus. These latter, too, possess a certain symphony of different tones, but all are rhythmically arranged, and only when united do they produce the entire symphony.
(a) The Laws Concerning the Sacrifices (Leviticus 1 through 7):
In the first place, the five different kinds of sacrifices in Israel are mentioned in succession twice, in Lev 1:1 through 7:21: Part I, Lev 1 through 5, namely (i) Lev 1, burnt offerings; (ii) Lev 2, meal offering; (iii) Lev 3, peace offerings; (iv) 4:1 through 5:13, sin offering; (v) Lev 5:14 -26, guilt offering; Part II, 6:1 through 7:21, namely (i) Lev 6:8-13, burnt offerings; (ii) Lev 6:14-23, meal offering; (iii) Lev 6:24-30, sin offering; (iv) Lev 7:1-7 with appendix, Lev 7:8-10, dealing with that part of the sacrifices which belongs to the priest (see under 1., above), guilt offering; (v) Lev 7:11-21, peace offerings. With this is found connected in Lev 7:22-27 the prohibition of the use of the fat or the blood, and in Lev 7:28-36, the laws concerning the wave-breast and the heave-thigh. We have accordingly at once twelve of these laws (compare on Ex 25:1 through 30:10 in article on EXODUS, II., 2., (5) and on EZEKIEL, I, 2, 5)). But even apart from this we have no right to ascribe Lev 1 through 5 and 6:1 through 7:21, on the ground that they are duplicates, to different authors.
That there is a difference between these two accounts is proved, not only by the fact that the first set of laws from Lev 1 through 5 is addressed to all the Israelites (compare Lev 1:2; Lev 4:2), and the second set Lev 6:8; Lev 7:21 to Aaron and his sons (compare Lev 6:9, Lev 6:25); but the second set has also in content a number of altogether different viewpoints as compared with the first set, so that the same author found himself induced or compelled to write both sets. On the other hand, the fact that both have the same author is evident from the very close connection between the two sections. In addition to the fact that both make mention of all five kinds of sacrifices, we can yet compare Lev 3:5 with Lev 6:22 (fat pieces of the peace offering over the burnt sacrifices upon the pieces of wood); and, further, the express reference of Lev 6:17 to Lev 4, while Lev 6:30 presupposes the distinct separation of the sin offering, the blood of which is brought into the tent of meeting, from the other sacrifices, as these are given in Lev 4:3 ff, 13 ff over against Lev 4:22 ff, 27 ff. Leviticus 4, with its reference to the peace offerings (Lev 4:10, Lev 4:26, Lev 4:31, Lev 4:35), is again most closely connected with Lev 3. We must accordingly insist that the whole account is most intimately interwoven. Over against this, the omission within the first set, Lev 1 through 5, in Lev 5:14-16, of the ritual for the peace offering, is sufficiently explained only by the fact that this ritual was to be used in the second set (6:8 through 7:21), and here for the first time only in Lev 7:1-15, which fact again speaks for the same author for both sets and against the supposition that they were merely mechanically united by a redactor. The fact that the second set 6:8 through 7:21 has a different order from that of Lev 1 through 5, by uniting the sin offering immediately with the meal offering (Lev 6:24 ff with Lev 6:14-23), is probably on account of the similar ordinances in Lev 7:9 and Lev 7:19 (manner of eating the meal offering and the sin offering). On the other hand, the position of the peace offering at the close of the second set (Lev 7:11 ff) furnished the possibility of giving to the piece of the entire pericope embraced in Lev 7:22-27, Lev 7:28-36 a suitable conclusion; since Lev 7:22 ff (prohibition of the eating of the fat and the blood), connected with Lev 7:19 ff, contained in Lev 7:28 ff an ordinance that pertained to the peace offering (heave-breast and wave-thigh). At any rate, these last two pieces are to be regarded separately from the rest, since they are no longer addressed to the priests, as is 6:8 through 7:21, but to all Israel; compare Lev 7:23, Lev 7:29. On some other data less intimately connected with the matter, compare above under 1.
(b) Consecration of priests and related matters (Lev 8 through 10):
In this pericope, as in the following, down to Lev 17 inclusive, but especially from Lev 11 on, the principle of division on the basis of the number four predominates, in many cases in the details, too; so that this could scarcely be regarded as an accidental feature (compare also the history of Abraham in Gen 12 through 26; further, in Ex 35:4 through 40:38; and in EXODUS, II., 2., (7); Lev 16, under DAY OF ATONEMENT; Dt 12 through 26, too, is probably to be divided on this principle, even to the minutest details (compare finally Lev 21 through 22:16; Lev 22:17-30; Lev 23 f and 26).
(i) Leviticus 8, treating of the first seven days of the consecration of the priests: The outline is found in Lev 8:2, namely Aaron, the sacred garments, the anointing oil, the bullock of the sin offering, two rams, unleavened bread (compare Lev 8:6, Lev 8:7 ff, 10 ff, 14 ff, 18 ff, 22 ff, 26 ff). (ii) Leviticus 9 the first sacrifices of Aaron and his sons on the 8th day (Lev 9:2-4 contain the outline, after the manner of Lev 8:2; compare Lev 9:7 ff, 11 ff, the sin offering and the burnt offering of Aaron, with Lev 9:2; also Lev 9:15-18, treating of what the people brought for the sacrifices, with Lev 9:3 f; but it is to be noticed that the meal offering and the peace offering (Lev 9:17, Lev 9:18) are given in inverted order from that found in Lev 9:3 f). Here too we find the number seven, if we add the burnt offering for the morning (Lev 9:17). (iii) Lev 10:1-7, the sin of Nadab and Abihu and their punishment by death; (iv) Lev 10:8-20, ordinances concerning the priests, occasioned by 8:1 through 10:7 and provided with a new superscription in Lev 10:8, namely Lev 10:8, dealing with the prohibition of the use of wine and intoxicants; Lev 10:9 f, distinction between the holy and the unholy; Lev 10:12-15, the eating of the sacred oblations; Lev 10:16-20, the treatment of the goat for the sin offering.
(c) Laws Concerning the Clean and Unclean (Lev 11 through 15):
(i) Lev 11, treating of clean and unclean animals. The outline of the chief contents is found in Lev 11:46 with a free transposition of one number. There are accordingly four pieces, namely, Lev 11:2-8, quadrupeds; Lev 11:9-12, water animals; Lev 11:13-23, birds (with an appendix, treating of contact with the unclean, Lev 11:24-28, which give a summary of the animals mentioned (see under 1.); 11:29-45, the small animals upon the earth (again in four subdivisions, namely, (i) Lev 11:29-38; (ii) Lev 11:39 ff; (iii) Lev 11:41 f; (iv) Lev 11:44 f).
(ii) Lev 12:1-8 treats of women in confinement, also in four pieces (Lev 12:2-4, birth of a male child; Lev 12:5, birth of a female child; Lev 12:6 f, purification ceremony; Lev 12:8, ordinances in case of extreme poverty). These parts are not joined logically, but in a rather external manner.
(iii) The passage 13:1 through 14:53, containing the laws of leprosy, with the subscription in Lev 14:54 ff. (Because seven points are to be enumerated, Lev 14:55 (garments and houses), this is not as in its further exposition separated from the other laws and is placed in their midst.) The exposition contains four pieces, namely, 13:1-44, leprosy on human beings (with concluding Lev 13:45 f), with seven subdivisions, of which the first five longer ones are constructed along fairly parallel lines, and again can be divided into four sub-subdivisions, namely, Lev 13:1-8; Lev 1:9-17; 1:18-23; 1:24-28; 1:29-37; 1:38 f; 1:40-44. The significance of the number seven for the structure (see (2), (b), i, above) is akin to that found, e.g., in Ex 24:18b through 31:18 (see EXODUS, II., 2., (5)); Lev 8; 9 (see above); Lev 23; 25; and 27; and possibly Lev 26:3-13, 14-39 (see below); finally, the whole Book of Ex is divided into seven parts (see EXODUS, II., 1.). Lev 13:47-59, leprosy in connection with garments, with four subdivisions, namely Lev 13:47-50; Lev 13:51 f; Lev 13:53 f; Lev 13:55 ff. The last subdivision can again be readily separated into four sub-subdivisions, namely, Lev 13:55; Lev 13:56; Lev 13:57; Lev 13:58; 14:1-32, purifications (Lev 14:2 being a special superscription), with 4 subdivisions, namely, (i) Lev 14:2-3, the leper before the priest; (ii) Lev 14:3-9, the purification ceremonies on the first seven days, again divided into 4 sub-subdivisions: Lev 14:3 f; Lev 14:5-7; Lev 14:8; Lev 14:9; (iii) Lev 14:10-20, the ceremony of the eighth day (4 sacrifices, namely Lev 14:12-18, guilt offering; Lev 14:19, sin offering; Lev 14:19, burnt offering; Lev 14:20, meal offering; in the 4 sacrifices (5:12 through 6:7) there are again 4 different actions: Lev 14:14; Lev 14:15 f; Lev 14:17; Lev 14:18; (iv) Lev 14:21-32 (in cases of poverty) 14:33-53, leprosy in houses, with four subdivisions: Lev 14:33-35; Lev 14:36-38; Lev 14:39-42; Lev 14:43-53.
(iv) Leviticus 15, sickness or natural issues, with 4 subdivisions, namely, Lev 15:1-15, checked or running issues together with their purification (Lev 15:3-12 contain 12 laws: Lev 15:3; Lev 15:4; Lev 15:4; Lev 15:5; Lev 15:6; Lev 15:7; Lev 15:8; Lev 15:9; Lev 15:10; Lev 15:10; Lev 15:11; Lev 15:12); Lev 15:16-18, issue of seed; Lev 15:19-24, periods; Lev 15:25-30, other flows of blood and their purification. Lev 15:1-15 and Lev 15:16-18 refer to men, and Lev 15:19-24 and Lev 15:25-30 to women; and in addition to these implied suggestions, as Lev 15:1-15 and Lev 15:25-30 to dealing with abnormal issues and their purification ceremonies, Lev 15:16-18 and Lev 15:19-24 deal with normal issues.
(d) The Day of Atonement (Lev 16):
See IV., 1., (2), 2., and under ATONEMENT, DAY OF.
(e) Uses and significance of the blood of sacrifices (Lev 17):
(i) Lev 17:3-7, only one place for killing the Sacrifices and the rejection of all foreign cultures; (ii) Lev 17:8, Lev 17:9, only one place for sacrificing; (iii) Lev 17:10-14, prohibitive of eating the blood; (iv) Lev 17:15, pertaining to carcasses of animals found dead or which have been torn by wild beasts.
Here the form and the contents of the section have been brought into perfect harmony by the author. Lev 17:3 ff, 8 ff, 10 ff, 13 ff begin with same words, and each contains a similar formula in reference to the punishment, while logically Lev 17:10 ff and 13 ff are evidently only subdivisions of the third part in Lev 17:10-14, which treats of the prohibition of eating blood. In the fourth division, again, while in substance connected with the rest, there is lacking the formal agreement with the first three divisions.
(f) (g) (Lev 18 through 20; 21):
These naturally fall each into 2 parts. Leviticus 18 through 20 contain (i) Lev 18 f, religious and ethical laws; (ii) Lev 20, laws dealing with punishments.
(f i) Religious and ethical laws (Lev 18 f):
(a) Leviticus 18:
Ordinances with reference to marriage and chastity. Lev 18:1-5, introductory; Lev 18:6-18, prohibition of marriage between kindred of blood; Lev 18:19-23, prohibition of other sexual sins; Lev 18:24-30, warnings.
The subdivision can perhaps be divided into 10 subordinate parts, if it is permitted to combine the different degrees of relationship mentioned in Lev 18:12-14 (namely, Lev 18:7, Lev 18:8, Lev 18:9, Lev 18:10, Lev 18:11, Lev 18:12-14, Lev 18:15, Lev 18:16, Lev 18:17, Lev 18:18). Since it, of itself, manifestly consists of 5 ordinances (Lev 18:19, Lev 18:20, Lev 18:21, Lev 18:22, Lev 18:23), this whole section, if we are permitted to divide it into 5 commandments (Lev 18:2, Lev 18:3, Lev 18:3, Lev 18:4, Lev 18:5) and also into 5 (Lev 18:24 f, 26-28, 29, 30a, 30b), would contain 5 X 5 words; but this is uncertain.
(b) Leviticus 19:
Various commands of the deepest significance. In order to discover the divisions of this chapter we must note the characteristic formula, I am Yahweh, your Gods or a similar expression, which often appears at the beginning and at the end of certain divisions, e.g. in series (1) (9) and (10), but which in the middle series appears in each case only once, and which in all the series is found also at the conclusion.
In this way we can compute 10 tetralogues. Thus after the superscription in Lev 19:2 containing a summary, we have (i) Lev 19:3, Lev 19:1 (Lev 19:3, Lev 19:3, Lev 19:4, Lev 19:4); (ii) Lev 19:5-10 (Lev 19:5 f, 7 f, 9, 10); (iii) Lev 19:11 f (Lev 19:11, Lev 19:11(?), 11b(?), 12); (iv) Lev 19:13 f (Lev 19:13, Lev 19:13, Lev 19:14, Lev 19:14); (v) Lev 19:15 f (15a, 15b, 16a, 16b); (vi) Lev 19:17 f (Lev 19:17, Lev 19:17, Lev 19:18, Lev 19:18); (vii) Lev 19:19-25 (Lev 19:19, Lev 19:19, Lev 19:20-22, Lev 19:23-25); (viii) Lev 19:26-28 (Lev 19:26, Lev 19:26, Lev 19:27, Lev 19:28), (ix) Lev 19:29-32 (Lev 19:29, Lev 19:30, Lev 19:31, Lev 19:32); (x) Lev 19:33-36 (Lev 19:33, Lev 19:14, Lev 19:35, Lev 19:36); Lev 19:37 constitutes the conclusion of the whole. (Note that the number ten here is certain in the conviction of the present writer; but he is not quite so sure of the number of subdivisions within the main divisions; we may have to do here with pentalogues and not with tetralogues. If this is the case, then the agreements with Lev 18 would under certain circumstances be even greater.)
Possibly groupings of two can yet form a closer union (compare on Ex 1 through 18; 21 through 23, EXODUS, II., 2., (1-4)). At any rate (iii) and (iv) can be summarized under the general heading of defrauding one’s neighbors; (v) and (vi) under that of observation of the laws; (vii) and (viii) under that of heathen abuses; while (ix) and (x) perhaps intentionally mingle together the religious and cultural and ethical elements, in order thereby already to express that all these things are most intimately connected (but compare also Lev 19:12, Lev 19:14, Lev 19:17, in the middle sections). In Lev 19:5 ff, 20 ff, 23 ff, the author develops his subject somewhat more fully.
(f ii) Laws dealing with punishments (Lev 20):
The regulations in reference to punishments stand in such close relation to the contents of Lev 18 and to parts of Lev 19, that it is absolutely incomprehensible how the Critics can assign these three chapters to different authors. Even if certain regulations of Lev 18 are not found here in Lev 20:7, Lev 20:10, Lev 20:17, Lev 20:18, and even if another order has been followed, this variation, which doubtless also hangs together with a new grouping of the materials, is rather an advantage than a disadvantage for the whole. It is impossible to conceive that a redactor would have altered anything in two entirely parallel and similar texts, or would himself have written a parallel text differing from the other. Leviticus 20 can probably be divided into 4 parts, namely, (i) Lev 20:1-8, punishments for idolatry and witchcraft with a concluding formula, Lev 20:7 f; (ii) Lev 20:9-18, punishment of death for ten crimes, all of which, with the exception of the first, are of a sexual nature (Lev 20:9-18). It is a question whether the first in the second group (Lev 20:14), i.e. the sixth in the whole series, was intended to be made prominent by the peculiar character of the punishment (burning to death); (iii) Lev 20:19-21, other sexual sins, with lighter punishments; (iv) Lev 20:22-27, with 4 subdivisions (warning, Lev 20:22 f; promise, Lev 20:24; emphatic repetitions of two commands already given, Lev 20:25 ff; (compare with Lev 11:44 ff, and in general with Lev 11); and Lev 20:27 with Lev 19:26, Lev 19:31; Lev 20:6). Perfectly certain in this chapter is the fact that the different kinds of punishments are likewise decisive for their order. It is doubtless not to be regarded as accidental that both at the beginning and at the end death by stoning is mentioned.
(g) (Lev 21:1 through 22:33):
(i) Laws concerning the quality of the priests (21:1-22, Lev 21:16); and (ii) concerning sacred oblations (Lev 22:17-30) with the subscription Lev 22:31-33.
(g i) Qualities of Priests:
Lev 21:1 through 22:16 in four sections (Lev 21:1 ff, 10 ff, 16 ff; Lev 22:1 ff; note also in Lev 21:18-20 the 12 blemishes; in Lev 22:4-8 the 7 cases of uncleanness).
(g ii) Sacred oblations:
Lev 22:17-30 in four sections (Lev 22:18-20, Lev 22:21-25, Lev 22:26-28, Lev 22:29 f).
(h) Consecration of seasons, etc. (Lev 23; 24):
(i) Lev 23, laws for the feasts (7 sections, namely, Lev 23:3, Lev 23:4 f, 6-14, 15-22, 23-25, 26-32, 33-36, with the appendix that in every particular suits the connection, in Lev 23:39 ff, added to the feast of the tabernacles); (ii) Lev 24:1-4, treating of the sacred candlestick, which represents the moral conduct of the Israelites, and for this reason suits admirably in the connection; as this is true also of (iii) Lev 24:5-9, treating of the showbread, which represents the results of the labor of Israel; (iv) Lev 24:10-23, containing the report of the punishment of a blasphemer of God and of one who cursed.
Probably the example was made of a person who took the name of God in vain at the time which this chapter describes. But possibly there is a still closer connection to be found with that which precedes. The showbread and the candlestick were found in the holy place, which with its utensils pictured the relation of Israel’s character to their God; while the utensils in the Holy of Holies indicated God’s relation to His people (compare Hengstenberg, Beitrage, III, 644 ff). But since the holy place, in addition to the showbread and the candlestick, contained only the incense altar, which symbolized the prayers of Israel, and as the blasphemer represents the exact opposite of prayer, it is probable that in Lev 24:10 ff prayer is indicated by its counterpart. This section consists of 4 parts, namely, Lev 24:10-12; Lev 24:13-14; Lev 24:15-22 (giving a series of punishments for certain wrongdoings which are more or less closely connected with that found in the text); Lev 24:23.
(i) Sabbatic and Jubilee Years (Lev 25):
Sabbatic and Jubilee years in 7 sections, namely, Lev 25:1-7; Lev 25:8-12; 25:13-28; Lev 25:29-34; Lev 25:35-38; Lev 25:39-46; Lev 25:47-55.
(j) Conclusion:
Curse and blessing (Lev 26): The grand concluding chapter, offering a curse and a blessing and containing all the prophetic utterances of later times in a nutshell, namely, (i) Lev 26:1-2, repetition of four important demands (Lev 26:1, Lev 26:1, Lev 26:2, Lev 26:2); (ii) Lev 26:3-13, the blessing, possibly to be divided into 7 stages, one more spiritual than the other; (iii) 26:4-39, the curse, possibly to be divided into seven stages, one more intense than the other (compare also the play on words 7 times repeated, in reference to shabbath, possibly found in Lev 26:34 f, and certainly found in Lev 26:18, Lev 26:21, Lev 26:24, Lev 26:27 f); (iv) Lev 26:40-45, the mercy finally shown by Yahweh for His covenant’s sake.
(k) Appendix:
Finally, the appendix in Lev 27, dealing with vows and tithes, in 7 parts, namely, Lev 27:1-8; Lev 27:9-13; Lev 27:14-15; Lev 27:16-21; Lev 27:26 f; Lev 27:28-29; Lev 27:30-33.
III. Origin.
1. Against the Wellhausen Hypothesis:
As in the article ATONEMENT, DAY OF, I., 2., (2), we took a stand against the modern attempts at splitting up the text, and in III, 1 against theory of the late origin of the whole pericope, we must, after trying under II to prove the unity of the Book of Leviticus, yet examine the modern claim that the book as a whole is the product of later times. Since the entire book is ascribed to the Priestly Code (see II., 1. above), the answer to the question as to the time when it was written will depend on the attitude which we take toward the Wellhausen hypothesis, which insists that the Priestly Code was not published until the time of the exile in 444 BC (Neh 8 through 10).
(1) The Argument from Silence.
One of the most important proofs for this claim is the argument from silence (argumentum e silentio). How careful one must be in making use of this argument can be seen from the fact that, e.g., the high priest with his full title is mentioned but a single time in the entire Book of Leviticus, namely in Lev 21:10; and that the Levites are not mentioned save once (Lev 25:32 ff), and then incidentally. As is well known, it is the adherents of the Wellhausen hypothesis themselves who now claim that the bulk of the entire literature of the Old Testament originated in the post-exilic period and long after the year 444 BC. Leaving out of consideration for the present the Books of Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah, all of which describe the history of Israel from the standpoint of the Priestly Code (P), we note that this later literature is not any richer in its references to P than is the older literature; and that in those cases where such references are found in this literature assigned to a late period, it is just as difficult to decide whether these passages refer merely to a custom or to a codified set of laws.
(2) Attitude of Prophets Toward Sacrificial System.
A further proof against the pre-exilic origin of the priestly legislation is found in what is claimed to be the hostile attitude of the prophets to the sacrificial system (compare Amo 5:21 ff; Amo 4:4 f; Hos 6:6; Mic 6:6 ff; Isa 1:11 ff; Jer 6:20; Jer 7:21 ff; Psa 40:6; Psa 50:8, Psa 50:9; Psa 51:16 f). But this cannot possibly be an absolute antithesis; for in this case, it would be directed also against the Books of the Covenant and, in part, too, against Deuteronomy, which books in Exo 20:24; Exo 22:19; Exo 23:18; Exo 34:25; Deu 12:5 f, 11, 13, 17, 26; Deu 15:19-23; Deu 16:2, Deu 16:5 f; Deu 17:1; Deu 18:1, Deu 18:3 also give directions for sacrifices, and which, at least in part, are yet regarded as older writings. Further, these passages under discussion are also, in part, assigned to a later and even a very late period (compare even such cases as Psa 40:6; Psa 50:8 f; Psa 51:16 f; Mic 6:6 ff, and in addition also Mal 1:10), i.e. they are assigned to a time in which, according to the views of the critics, the priestly laws are said to have had their origin or were already regarded as authoritative. As a rule, the prophets make sacrifices, Sabbaths, sacred places and persons a part of their pictures of the future; cf, as far as sacrifices are concerned, e.g. Jer 17:26; Jer 31:14; Jer 33:14 ff. Finally, Lev 26:31 shows how, under certain circumstances, even P can declare sacrifices to be useless.
(3) The People’s Disobedience.
Further, the transgressions of the Levitical laws in the course of Israel’s history cannot be regarded as a proof of the non-existence of the priestly legislation in pre-exilic times. This is clear from an analogous case. Idolatry was forbidden by the Books of the Covenant (Ex 20 through 24; 34), which are recognized as ancient documents; but according to 2 Ki 22 the pious king Josiah down to the year 622 BC takes no offense at idolatry. Even after the reformation, which had been inaugurated in consequence of the finding of the Book of the Law in the temple during the reign of Josiah (2 Ki 22 f), idolatry was again practiced in Israel, as is proved by Ezek 8 and Jer 44, notwithstanding that the Books of the Covenant and Deuteronomy already were extant at that time, even according to the views of the critics.
But let us pass on to P itself, and not forget that the directions given for the Jubilee Year (Lev 25), according to Jewish tradition, were never actually observed. According to the reasoning of the critics, this law could not be in existence even in the present day. According to all reports the transgressions of the Divine ordinances began even as early as the Mosaic period; compare Ex 32 (J, E, golden calf); Amo 5:25; Ezek 20; Deu 12:8 and also Lev 17:7 (sacrifice to the Satyrs in Priestly Code). This condition of affairs can readily be understood because the religion of Yahweh does not claim to be an emanation from the spirit of the people, but the result of a revelation from on high. In the light of these facts can we be surprised, that in the times of the Judges, when a great prophetic leader was so often not to be found in Israel, the apostasy was so great and so widespread? But all of these cases of disobedience, that have been demonstrated as actual facts in Israel’s history, are not able to eliminate the fact that there are many data to prove the existence of a central sanctuary already in the earliest history of the people, which fact presupposes as a matter of course that there were also laws for the cults in existence (see EXODUS, III., 5.). We must further not forget how the sacrifices of the sons of Samuel (1Sa 2:11 ff), notwithstanding all their arbitrary conduct, presupposes such passages as Lev 7:30-32; Lev 10:15; Exo 29:31 f; Lev 8:31; Num 6:19 f; Lev 7:23-32; or that the high priest, as described in Priestly Code, is already before the year 444 BC as well-known a character as he is after the exile (compare EZEKIEL, II, 2); or that the question of Hag 2:11 ff takes into consideration a code of cult- laws, and that the answer is given on the basis of Lev 6:27; Num 19:22.
(4) Indiscriminate Sacrificing.
To this must be added that the transgressions, to which the critics appeal in proof of their claims, and which they abuse for their own purposes, must in part be interpreted differently from what they are. In the case of sacrificing indiscriminately at any place whatever, and by any person whatever, we have in many cases to deal with extraordinary instances of theophanies (compare Jdg 2:1 ff; Jdg 6:11 ff; Jdg 13:1 ff), as these had been foreseen in Exo 20:24. Even the Book of Deuteronomy does not insist throughout (compare Deu 16:21) that the sacrifices, must be made at one and the same place (compare also PC: Lev 24:31; Josh 22). After the rejection of Shiloh, at which the central sanctuary had been deposited, as recorded in 1 Sam 4, the cultural ordinances of Priestly Code, as we learn from Jer 7:11 ff; Jer 26:6; Psa 78:59 ff, became more or less a dead letter. Even the Books of Chronicles, which throughout record history from the standpoint of the Priestly Code, at this period and down to the dedication of the temple take no offense at the cultural acts of a Solomon in contrast with their attitude toward the conduct of Uzziah (see 2Ch 1:6; 2Ch 6:1-4; 2Ch 7:1-7, as compared with 2Ch 26:16 ff). In the same way the pious people in the Northern Kingdom, after it had, by Divine consent, been separated from the Southern, could not do otherwise than erect altars for themselves, since they could not participate in the worship of the calves in Bethel and Dan. Further, modern criticism overlooks the fact that what is regular and normal is much less liable to be reported in historical narrative than that which is irregular and abnormal.
(5) Deuteronomy and Priestly Code.
It is not possible at this place to enter into further details; we accordingly refer only to EXODUS, III. and IV.; DAY OF ATONEMENT, and especially EZEKIEL, II, 2, where the proof has been furnished that this prophet belongs to a later period than Priestly Code as far as Ezek 40 through 48 (containing his picture of the future) in general is concerned, and as far as Eze 44:4 ff (where it is claimed that the prophet first introduces the distinction between priests and Levites) in particular is concerned. All the important problems that are connected with this matter, especially the difficulties which result from the Wellhausen hypothesis, when the questions as to the purpose, the form, the success and the origin of the priestly legislation come under consideration, are discussed in my book, Are the Critics Right? The result of this investigation is all the more noteworthy, as I was myself formerly an adherent of the Wellhausen school, but was forced to the conclusion that this hypothesis is untenable.
We have here yet to refer to the one fact that the relation of Deuteronomy (D) and the Priestly Code (P), as far as Leviticus in particular is concerned, justifies the scheme of P followed by D as the historical order, while Wellhausen makes D older than P. Deu 10:8 f; Deu 33:8 ff presuppose more detailed ordinances in reference to the priests such as those which have been given in P. The book of Deuteronomy further takes into account different kinds of sacrifices (compare Deu 12:5 f, 11, 13, 17, 26; Deu 15:19-23; Deu 17:1; Deu 18:1, Deu 18:3, such as are described in Lev 1 ff). The law in Dt 14 (ordinances with reference to what is clean) agrees almost word for word with Lev 11, and is in such perfect harmony with the linguistic peculiarities of Priestly Code, that Lev 11 must be regarded as the original, and not vice versa. Deu 24:8 f refers directly to the injunctions concerning leprosy, as we find these in Lev 13 f, and the Deuteronomic passage is doubtless modeled after that of Lev. Deu 12:15, Deu 12:22; Deu 15:22 cannot be understood at all, except in the light of Lev 17:13. Deu 26:14 ff again expressly takes into account ideas that have been taken from Lev 22:3 ff. As far as the laws dealing with the great feasts in Dt 16 are concerned, it is impossible to understand Deu 16:9 without Lev 23:15 ff, 10 f; and the designation feast of tabernacles in Deu 16:13 ff cannot even be understood without a reference to such a law as we find in Lev 23:39 ff. The other passages to be discussed on this subject lead us to the following results.
2. Connection with Mosaic Period:
Even if the Book of Deuteronomy were the product of the 7th century BC, the facts that have been stated above would nevertheless disprove the claim of the Wellhausen hypothesis as to an exilic or post-exilic date for the Priestly Code. But if Deuteronomy, even in its essential and fundamental parts, merely, is Mosaic (compare Are the Critics Right? 1-55), then the Priestly Code which is still older than Dt must also belong to the Mosaic period.
(1) Priestly Code and Desert Conditions.
This conclusion is in this point confirmed still further by a series of facts. As Deuteronomy permits the firstborn to be ransomed (Deu 14:22 ff), but the Priestly Code demands their consecration in natura (Lev 27:26 f; compare Num 18:15 ff), the latter ordinances could be preferred and enforced only during the wandering in the desert, where the whole nation was in the neighborhood of the sanctuary. The fact that the ordinances dealing with the domestic celebration of the Passover in the private houses on the 14th of Nisan and the holy convocation on the 15th of Nisan at the sanctuary could be carried out only during the wanderings in the desert (compare Exo 12:3 ff, 6; Lev 23:5; Num 28:16; Lev 27:6 ff; Num 28:17 ff), and that this was changed in Deu 16:5 f to correspond to changed conditions, can be seen by reference to EXODUS, III., 3. Still more important is a third command in Lev 17 in comparison with Dt 12. The commandment that every animal that is to be slain is to be brought to the central sanctuary can have a purpose only for the Mosaic period, and could not even have been invented at a later period. Because of the entrance of Israel into Canaan, the Book of Deuteronomy changes this ordinance in such a way that from this time on the killing of the animals is permitted at any place (Deu 12:13 ff, 20 ff). The different commands in reference to the carcasses of animals that have died and of those torn to pieces are all dependent on Lev 17. In Deu 14:21, it was possible to forbid the use of such animals absolutely for Israel, because from now on, and in contrast to Lev 17, the killing of sacrificial animals was permitted at any place (Lev 17:13 ff). In Exo 22:30 all use of such meat could be forbidden, because Lev 17, with its command to bring all blood to the sanctuary, had not yet been given. Leviticus, now, on the other hand, forbids this use only to the priests (Lev 22:8), and sees in this use in the case of the other Israelites only a transitory defilement (compare Lev 17:15; Lev 11:40); and in Lev 7:24 forbids only the use of the fat, but not of the meat of these animals; for now, according to Lev 17:1 ff, all the killing is a sacrifice which only those who are clean were permitted to eat and which could not be secured at all times (compare Hoffmann, op. cit., 23 f).
Our exposition of Lev 17:1 ff is, however, in another respect also of the greatest significance, for in Lev 17:4-6, Lev 17:8 f the tent of meeting is presupposed as existing; in Lev 17:5, Lev 17:8 also different kinds of sacrifices, and in Lev 17:6 the priesthood; so that at once further ordinances concerning the tent of meeting, the sacrificial code, the priesthood, such as we find in Ex 25 ff; 35 ff; Lev 1 through 7; Ex 29; Lev 8 through 10:21 ff, were possible and necessary, and these very laws must probably originate in and date from the Mosaic period. This same conclusion is sustained by the following considerations. For what other source or time could be in harmony with such statements found very often in other parts of Leviticus also, as into the camp in Lev 4:11 ff; Lev 6:11; Lev 13:46; Lev 14:3, Lev 14:8 (unconscious contrast to later times); Lev 14:33 ff, 40, 41, 45, 53; Lev 16:26-28; Lev 24:10-23; or into the desert, in Lev 16:10, Lev 16:21 f. In Lev 6:15, Lev 6:18; Lev 6:6 (compare also Lev 27:2 ff), the words according to thy estimation are addressed personally to Moses. In Lev 6:20 a calculation is based on the day on which Aaron was consecrated to the priesthood, while Lev 6:22 is the first that has general coloring. Such hints, which, as it were, have only been accidentally scattered in the body of the laws, and which point to the situation of the lawgiver and of his times, are of especial value for the argument in favor of the Mosaic origin of these laws. Further, we everywhere find that Aaron and his sons are as yet the only incumbents of the priestly office (compare Lev 1:5, Lev 1:7, Lev 1:8, Lev 1:11; Lev 2:3; Lev 3:13; Lev 6:9, Lev 6:14, Lev 6:16, etc.). All the laws claim to have been given through Moses or Aaron or through both at Mt. Sinai (see I. above). And who, in later times, if it was the purpose to magnify the priesthood of Aaron, would have thought of inventing the fact that on the Day of Atonement and on other occasions it was necessary for Aaron to bring a burnt offering and a sin offering for himself (Lev 16; 8 through 10; Lev 6:19 ff), or that Moses in his view of a certain cultural act had been mistaken (compare Lev 10:16 ff)? The law concerning the Jubilee Year (Lev 25) presupposes that each tribe is confined in its own district and is not intermingled with the other tribes, a presupposition which was no longer possible after the occupation of Canaan, and is accordingly thinkable only in the Mosaic times. And now let us remember that this fact, when we recall (see II., above) that the unity of the book was proved, is a ground for claiming that the entire book dates from the Mosaic period. As far as Leviticus at least is concerned, there is nothing found in the book that calls for a later date. Lev 18:24 ff can be regarded as post-Mosaic only if we translate these verses thoughtlessly, as though the inhabitants of the country were here described as being expelled earlier. On the other hand, in Lev 18:24, just as is the case with the parallel passage, Lev 20:22 ff, the idea is, without any doubt, that Israel is not yet in the Holy Land. Accordingly the waw consecutives at this place are to be regarded not as indicating temporal but logical sequences. In the passage Lev 18:27, we further find the archaic form ha’el for ha’elleh; compare in the Pentateuch Gen 19:8, Gen 19:25; Gen 26:3, Gen 26:4; Deu 4:42; Deu 7:22; Deu 19:11. Just as little does Lev 26 take us into the exilic period. Only dogmatical prejudices can take offense at prediction of the exile. Lev 26 cannot be regarded as a prophecy after the event, for the reason, too, that the restoration of the people by God’s pardon is here promised (compare Lev 26:40 ff). And, too, the exile is not the only punishment with which Israel is threatened; and finally as far as Israel is concerned, by the side of the statements concerning their dwelling in one single country (Lev 26:34, Lev 26:38, Lev 26:41, Lev 26:44), it is also said that they are to be scattered among many nations and countries (compare Lev 26:23, Lev 26:26, Lev 26:39).
(2) Unity and Construction Point to Mosaic Origin.
If to this we yet add the unity of the thought and of the external construction, looking at the whole matter, we do not see anything that would lead us to accept a post-Mosaic period for this book. Then, too, it is from the outset in itself only probable that Moses gave his people a body of cult-laws and did not leave this matter to chance. We need only think of the great role which among the oriental peoples was assigned to their religious cults. It is indeed nowhere said, in so many words, that Moses wrote even the laws of the Priestly Code. But the references made by Deuteronomy to the Priestly Code; the fact that Nu 33, which also is credited to Moses, is characterized by the style of Priestly Code; further, that the author of Deuteronomy could write in the style of P (compare Dt 14 with Lev 11); and, per contra, that the author of Lev 26 had the mastery of the style peculiar to Deuteronomy (compare Dt 28) – all this makes it probable that Moses even wrote these things himself; at any rate, no reasons can be cited against this view. Very interesting in connection with the question of the unity of the Pentateuch are the close connecting links between Lev 18:24 ff; Lev 20:22 ff, and JE. The question whether Moses in the composition of the book made use of his own notes or of those of others, cannot be decided; but this is an irrelevant matter. What the facts may be in reference to the development of other ordinances, which have taken different forms in the Books of the Covenant and in Priestly Code, or in Deuteronomy and in Priestly Code, and whether the existence of these differences in the cases of particular laws compels us to accept later additions, cannot be discussed at this place. Yet from the outset it is to be emphasized that already in the Mosaic period there could possibly have been reasons for changing some of these laws; especially was this so in the Book of Deuteronomy, just before the people entered the promised land (compare e.g. the laws concerning tithes, Deu 12:6 f, 17 ff; Deu 14:22 ff; Deu 26:12 ff; Lev 27:30 ff; Num 18:20 ff, or the laws concerning contributions for sacrifices, Deu 18:3; Lev 7:29 ff).
Then, too, the decision whether this development took place as early as the time of Moses or not is not to be made dependent on the possibility of our being able to explain the reasons for such changes. We lack both the daily practice in these cultural ordinances, as also the oral instruction which makes these ordinances intelligible. The manner in which in Lev 1 ff the different kinds of sacrifices are introduced sounds as though these were already known to the people and were practiced by them, except in the case of sin and guilt offerings. This is further in harmony with earlier narratives, which already report concerning sacrifices. It is possible that in this way we can also explain a certain relationship between the Jewish sacrificial ritual and that of Babylon (compare Zimmern, Beitrage zur Kenntnis der babylonischen Religion). The ordinances in reference to the clean and the unclean may also have emanated from religious and ethical ideas which are older than Moses’ times. In this matter the thought was decisive, that everything that was impure, everything that suggested death or decay or sin or displeasure to God, should be kept separated and apart from the religion of Yahweh. In all such cases it is not the newness of the laws but their adaptability to the character and spirit of the Yahweh-religion that is to be regarded as the decisive factor.
IV. The Significance.
1. Positive:
(1) The Law Contains God’s Will.
The law contains God’s will, although in transitory form. In the article EZEKIEL under II, 2, (3) we have referred to the fact that Leviticism is an important and necessary stage in the development of true religion, and that the entire Old Testament did not advance beyond this stage and was not intended to go beyond it. The leading prophets (Isa 40 ff, Jeremiah, Ezekiel), even in their visions of the future, cling to the temple, sacrifices, holy oblations, sacred seasons and persons. Christianity was the first to discard this external shell, after it had ripened the kernel that was concealed in this shell (compare worship in the spirit and in the truth, Joh 4:20-24). Down to this time, kernel and shell were inseparably united. This must not be forgotten, if we would appreciate the Book of Leviticus properly. It is true that this book to a large extent deals with laws and ordinances, to which we Christians should not and need not return (compare the voice from heaven to Peter, Act 10:15, What God hath cleansed, make not thou common, and Paul’s opposition to all work-righteousness that was based on compliance with these external institutions, e.g. in Romans, Galatians, Colossians, as also his independent attitude over against the Jewish law in those cases where it could not be taken into consideration as the way to salvation; compare Act 21:17 ff; Rom 14:1 ff; 1Co 9:19 ff). But these laws and ordinances were something more than merely external matters, since they contained the highest religious thoughts. We surely should not forget from the outset that Lev 19 contains also the word, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself (Lev 19:18), a command which in Lev 19:33 f is even made to cover the strangers too, and which by Jesus, next to the absolute love demanded for God, is designated as the chief commandment of the law (Mat 22:39); and when in Lev 19:17 f the hatred of the brother and desire for revenge on him are forbidden, we already seem to breathe atmosphere of Christianity. The entire Lev 19 is, in addition, as it were, a sermon on almost all of the commandments of the Decalogue, the abiding authority of which the Christian, after the example and interpretation of Jesus, will at once recognize. But as the Decalogue itself is found enclosed in the specifically Jewish national shell (compare Exo 20:2, exodus out of Egypt; Exo 20:8, Sabbath commandment; Exo 20:12, promise of the holy land; Exo 20:17, slaves), so, too, this is the case in Lev 19 (compare Lev 19:3, Lev 19:6 ff, 20-22, 23-25, 29, 30, 33 f). But how little the specifically Levitical ordinances, in the narrower sense of the term, exclude the spiritual factor, and how closely they are interwoven with the deepest of thoughts, can be seen from Lev 26, according to which all merely external sacrifices, into which formalism naturally the Levitical legal code could degenerate, do not protect from punishment, if the heart remains uncircumcised (Lev 26:30 f, 41).
Above all, there are four leading thoughts which are emphasized forcibly, particularly by the legal system of Priestly Code. In reality all times, all places, all property, all persons are sacred to God. But as it is impossible that this ideal should be realized in view of the imperfections and guilt of man, it was decided that certain particular seasons and places, gifts and persons should be separated from others, and that in these this sacredness should be realized as far as possible, and that these representatives should by their mere existence continually remind the people of God’s more comprehensive claims, and at the same time arouse and maintain the consciousness that their entire life was to be saturated by the thoughts of a holy God and His demands. From this point of view, none of the particular laws are worthless; and when they are once appreciated in this their central significance, we can understand that each law has its share in the eternal authority of the law (compare Mat 5:17 f). Paul, too, who absolutely rejects the law as a way to salvation expresses no doubt that the law really contains the will of God (Rom 8:3 f); and he declares that it was the purpose of the sending of Jesus, that the demands made upon us by the law should be fulfilled; and in Rom 13:10 he tells us that love is the fulfillment of the law (compare Rom 13:8); and according to Rom 7:12, it is certain that the law is holy and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.
(2) The Law Prepares for the Understanding of Christianity.
But the ceremonial law, too, contains not only the demands of God’s will. It prepares also for the understanding of the work, the person and the mission of Jesus. In Exo 25:8; Exo 29:45 f; Exo 40:34 ff the indwelling of God in the tent of meeting is declared, which prophesied the incarnation of God in Christ Jesus (Joh 1:14); and then the indwelling of God through the Holy Spirit in the Christian congregation (1Pe 2:5; Eph 4:12) and in the individual (1Co 3:16; 1Co 6:19; 2Co 6:16; Joh 14:23). Through the sacrificial system in Lev 1 through 7, and the ordinances of the Day of Atonement (Lev 16), we are enabled to understand the character of sin, of grace and of the forgiveness of sin (compare ATONEMENT, DAY OF, II.). Let us remember to what extent Jesus and Paul, the Epistle to the Hebrews, and the other New Testament writings operate with Old Testament thoughts, particularly with those of Lev (priest-hood, sacrifices, atonement, Passover, signification of blood, etc.), and Paul correctly says that the righteousness of God was prophesied, not only by the prophets, but also by the law (Rom 3:21).
(3) The Law as a Tutor Unto Christ.
Finally, the ceremonial law too has the purpose to protect Israel from the errors of the heathen, a thought that is especially emphasized in the Law of Holiness (compare Lev 18:3, Lev 18:14 ff; Lev 19:26 ff; Lev 20:2 ff, 22 ff; Lev 26:1) and which is in harmony with the elementary stage of Israel’s education in the Old Testament, when the people still stood in need of the tutor … unto Christ (Gal 3:23 f; Gal 4:1). This already leads us over to the negative side, which Paul particularly emphasizes.
2. Negative:
The law is in itself holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good (Rom 7:12), but it has lost its power because the flesh of man is sinful (compare Rom 8:3); and thus it happens that the law is the occasion for sin and leads to a knowledge of sin and to an increase of sin (compare Rom 3:20; Rom 4:15; Rom 5:20; Rom 7:13); and this shall be brought about according to the purposes of God in order that in upright hearts the desire for forgiveness should arise. It is true that nothing was so well adapted as were the details of the law, to bring to consciousness in the untutored mind that in which man yet came short of the Divine commands. And as far as the removal of the guilt was concerned, nothing was needed except the reference to this in order to make men feel their imperfections (compare Heb 7 through 10). God merely out of grace was for the time being contented with the blood of goats and of calves as a means for atonement; He was already counting on the forgiveness in Christ (Rom 3:25). All the sacrifices in Lev 1 through 7, e.g., did not make the ritual of the Day of Atonement superfluous (Lev 16); and in this case the very man who brought the sacrifice was also a sinful creature who must first secure the forgiveness of God for himself. Only Jesus, at once the perfect priest and the perfect sacrifice, has achieved the perfect redemption. It accordingly remains a fact that the righteousness which avails before God can be secured only through faith in Jesus Christ, and not through the deeds of the law (Romans and Galatians).
The law with its incomplete atonement and with its arousing of the consciousness of sin drives man to Jesus; and this is its negative significance. Jesus, however, who Himself has fulfilled the demands of the law, gives us through His spirit the power, that the law with its demands (1., (1) above) may no longer stand threateningly over against us, but is now written in our hearts. In this way the Old Testament law is fulfilled in its transitory form, and at the same time becomes superfluous, after its eternal contents have been recognized, maintained and surpassed.
Literature.
Commentaries by Ryssel, Lange, Keil, Strack, Baentsch, Bertholet; especially for the Law of Holiness see Horst, Lev 17 through 26 and Ezk; Wurster, Zeitschrift fur alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, 1884, 112 ff; Baentsch, Das Heiligkeitsgesetz; Klostermann, Der Pentateuch, 368 ff; Delitzsch, Zeitschrift fur kirch. Wissenschaft und Leben, 1880, 617 ff; Intros to the Old Testament by Baudissin, Strack, Kuenen, Konig, Cornill, Driver, Sellin; Archaeology, by Benzinger, Nowack; History of Israel, by Kohler, Konig, Kittel, Oettli, Klostermann, Stade, Wellhausen; for kindred laws in Babylonia, compare Zimmern, Beitrage zur Kenntnis der babyl. Religion; against the Graf-Wellhausen hypothesis, Moller, Are the Critics Right? (ibid., Literature), and article EZEKIEL in this Encyclopedia; Orr, Orr, The Problem of the Old Testament; Wiener, Wiener, Essays in Pentateuchal Criticism, Wiener, Origin of the Pentateuch; Hoffmann, Die wichtigsten Instanzen gegen die Graf-Wellhausensche Hypothese; Kegel, Wilh. Vatke und die Graf-Wellhausensche Hypothese.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Leviticus
Leviticus, the third book of Moses.
Contents.Leviticus contains the further statement and development of the Sinaitic legislation, the beginnings of which are described in Exodus. It exhibits the historical progress of this legislation; consequently we must not expect to find the laws detailed in it in a systematic form. There is, nevertheless, a certain order observed, which arose from the nature of the subject, and of which the plan may easily be perceived. The whole is intimately connected with the contents of Exodus, at the conclusion of which book that sanctuary is described with which all external worship was connected (Exodus 35-40).
Some critics have strenuously endeavored to prove that the laws contained in Leviticus originated in a period much later than is usually supposed. But the following observations sufficiently support their Mosaical origin, and show that the whole of Leviticus is historically genuine. The laws in Leviticus 1-7 contain manifest vestiges of the Mosaical period. Here, as well as in Exodus, when the priests are mentioned, Aaron and his sons are named; as, for instance, in Lev 1:5; Lev 1:7-8; Lev 1:11, etc. The tabernacle is the sanctuary, and no other place of worship is mentioned anywhere. Expressions like the following constantly occur, before the tabernacle of the congregation, or the door of the tabernacle of the congregation (Lev 1:3; Lev 3:8; Lev 3:13, etc.). The Israelites are always described as a congregation (Lev 4:13, sq.), under the command of the elders of the congregation (Lev 4:15), or of a ruler (Lev 4:22). Everything has a reference to life in a camp, and that camp commanded by Moses (Lev 4:12; Lev 4:21; Lev 6:11; Lev 14:8; Lev 16:26; Lev 16:28). A later writer could scarcely have placed himself so entirely in the times, and so completely adopted the modes of thinking of the age, of Moses: especially if, as has been asserted, these laws gradually sprung from the usages of the people, and were written down at a later period with the object of sanctioning them by the authority of Moses. They so entirely befit the Mosaical age, that, in order to adapt them to the requirements of any later period, they must have undergone some modification, accommodation, and a peculiar mode of interpretation. This inconvenience would have been avoided by a person who intended to forge laws in favor of the later modes of Levitical worship. A forger would have endeavored to identify the past as much as possible with the present.
In Leviticus 17 occurs the law which forbids the slaughter of any beast except at the sanctuary. This law could not be strictly kept in Palestine, and had therefore to undergo some modification (Deuteronomy 12). Our opponents cannot show any rational inducement for contriving such a fiction. The law (Lev 17:6-7) is adapted to the nation only while emigrating from Egypt. It was the object of this law to guard the Israelites from falling into the temptation to imitate the Egyptian rites and sacrifices offered to he-goats; which word signifies also demons represented under the form of he goats, and which were supposed to inhabit the desert.
The laws concerning food and purifications appear especially important if we remember that the people emigrated from Egypt. The fundamental principle of these laws is undoubtedly Mosaical, but in the individual application of them there is much which strongly reminds us of Egypt. This is also the case in Leviticus 18, sq., where the lawgiver has manifestly in view the two opposites, Canaan and Egypt. That the lawgiver was intimately acquainted with Egypt, is proved by such remarks as those about the Egyptian marriages with sisters (Lev 18:3); a custom which stands as an exception among the prevailing habits of antiquity.
The book of Leviticus has a prophetical character. The lawgiver represents to himself the future history of his people. This prophetical character is especially manifest in Leviticus 25, 26, where the law appears in a truly sublime and divine attitude, and when its predictions refer to the whole futurity of the nation. It is impossible to say that these were prophecies delivered after the event, unless we would assert that this book was written at the close of Israelitish history. We must rather grant that passages like this are the real basis on which the authority of later prophets is chiefly built. Such passages prove also, in a striking manner, that the lawgiver had not merely an external aim, but that his law had a deeper purpose, which was clearly understood by Moses himself. That purpose was to regulate the national life in all its bearings, and to consecrate the whole nation to God. See especially Lev 25:18, sq.
But this ideal tendency of the law does not preclude its applicability to matters of fact. The law had not merely an ideal, but also a real character, evidenced by its relation to the faithlessness and disobedience of the nation. The whole future history of the covenant people was regulated by the law, which has manifested its eternal power and truth in the history of the people of Israel. Although this section has a general bearing, it is nevertheless manifest that it originated in the times of Moses. At a later period, for instance, it would have been impracticable to promulgate the law concerning the Sabbath and the year of Jubilee: for it was soon sufficiently proved how far the nation in reality remained behind the ideal Israel of the law. The sabbatical law bears the impress of a time when the whole legislation, in its fullness and glory, was directly communicated to the people, in such a manner as to attract, penetrate, and command.
Fuente: Popular Cyclopedia Biblical Literature
Leviticus
Leviticus (le-vt’i-ks), relating to the Levites. The name of the third book of the Pentateuch. Only the chapters 8-10 are history; the rest treats of the Levitical servicesnamely, chaps. 1-7, the laws of offerings; 8-10, the consecration of Aaron and his family; 11-15, the laws concerning that which is clean and that which is unclean; 16, the atonement as the sum-total of all means of grace; 17-20, the separation of Israel from heathendom in food, marriage, etc.; 21, 22, the holiness of priests and offerings; 23, 24, the holiness of convocations, Sabbaths; 25, on redemption; 26, on repentance; 27, on vows.
Fuente: People’s Dictionary of the Bible
Leviticus
a canonical book of Scripture, being the third book of the Pentateuch of Moses; thus called because it contains principally the laws and regulations relating to the Levites, priests, and sacrifices; for which reason the Hebrews call it the law of the priests, because it includes many ordinances concerning their services. See PENTATEUCH.