Leviticus 18

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Leviticus 18 is a chapter of the Biblical book of Leviticus. It narrates part of the instructions given to Moses by God on Mount Sinai. The chapter deals with a number of sexual activities considered 'unclean' or 'abominable'. Although the chapter is principally concerned with incest, it also contains laws related to bestiality and "lying with a man as with a woman." This single reference to homosexual activity (verse 22) has, in recent years, made its interpretation a focus of debate among Christians and Jews (see Homosexuality and Christianity and Jewish views of homosexuality).

Leviticus 18 is generally regarded as part of the holiness code of Leviticus 11-26, and its sexual prohibitions are largely paralleled by Leviticus 20 (except that chapter has more emphasis on punishment).

1 The chapter in full (NRSV)
2 Incest
3 Homosexuality
4 The nature and scope of the prohibitions
5 References

[edit] The chapter in full (NRSV)

¹ The LORD spoke to Moses, saying:

² Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: I am the LORD your God.

³ You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not follow their statutes.

⁴ My ordinances you shall observe and my statutes you shall keep, following them: I am the LORD your God.

⁵ You shall keep my statutes and my ordinances; by doing so one shall live: I am the LORD.

⁶ None of you shall approach anyone near of kin to uncover nakedness: I am the LORD.

⁷ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father, which is the nakedness of your mother; she is your mother, you shall not uncover her nakedness.

⁸ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's wife; it is the nakedness of your father.

⁹ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your sister, your father's daughter or your mother's daughter, whether born at home or born abroad.

¹⁰ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your son's daughter or of your daughter's daughter, for their nakedness is your own nakedness.

¹¹ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's wife's daughter, begotten by your father, since she is your sister.

¹² You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's sister; she is your father's flesh.

¹³ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother's sister, for she is your mother's flesh.

¹⁴ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's brother, that is, you shall not approach his wife; she is your aunt.

¹⁵ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your daughter-in-law: she is your son's wife; you shall not uncover her nakedness.

¹⁶ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother's wife; it is your brother's nakedness.

¹⁷ You shall not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter, and you shall not take her son's daughter or her daughter's daughter to uncover her nakedness; they are your flesh; it is depravity.

¹⁸ And you shall not take a woman as a rival to her sister, uncovering her nakedness while her sister is still alive.

¹⁹ You shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness while she is in her menstrual uncleanness.

²⁰ You shall not have sexual relations with your kinsman's wife, and defile yourself with her.

²¹ You shall not give any of your offspring to sacrifice them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the LORD.

²² You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.

²³ You shall not have sexual relations with any animal and defile yourself with it, nor shall any woman give herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it: it is perversion.

²⁴ Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, for by all these practices the nations I am casting out before you have defiled themselves.

²⁵ Thus the land became defiled; and I punished it for its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants.

²⁶ But you shall keep my statutes and my ordinances and commit none of these abominations, either the citizen or the alien who resides among you

²⁷ (for the inhabitants of the land, who were before you, committed all of these abominations, and the land became defiled);

²⁸ otherwise the land will vomit you out for defiling it, as it vomited out the nation that was before you.

²⁹ For whoever commits any of these abominations shall be cut off from their people.

³⁰ So keep my charge not to commit any of these abominations that were done before you, and not to defile yourselves by them: I am the LORD your God.

[edit] Incest

The incest laws are given from a male perspective, and are quite extensive, comprising not only relations with immediate blood relatives, but also relatives by marriage, and blood relatives of those with whom one has a sexual relationship. The laws do not explicitly forbid sex between a man and his daughter, but verse 17 does prohibit sex with both a woman and her daughter. Presumably, a man has sex with his wife and so any female children by that wife (his daughters) are also forbidden to him. Yet, this is still a modern interpretation derived from a Talmudic reading of the texts [1].

[edit] Homosexuality

For more details on this topic, see The Bible and homosexuality.

Traditionally, 18:22 has been read as a clear condemnation of male homosexual acts, the debate has then been over the hermeneutical question of whether and how, this text applies to the modern Christian or Jewish situation (see The Bible and homosexuality for that debate).

However, there are also debates as to the meaning of the verse itself:

Some note that it uses the Hebrew phrase, לֹא תִשְׁכַּב "lō ṯiškaḇ", which could be referring to any form of laying down to rest. In the surrounding sexual-condemnation passages v.20 and v.23, the phrase לֹא־תִתֵּן שְׁכָבְתְּךָ "lō-ṯittēn šəḵoḇtəḵā" is used, which is quite specifically about sex. Some argue that the lack of parallelism between these statements is an indicator that passage v.22 is deliberately phrased to not talk explicitly about sex.

Others note v.22 concerns מִשְׁכְּבֵי אִשָּׁה "miškəḇē ʼiššā", literally "the bed(chambers) of (a) woman." They argue that, while this can be an indirect reference to sexuality, it is never used as directly as the English translation seems to indicate. They note that מִשְׁכַּב "miškaḇ" can only used euphemistically to refer to sex, e.g. Numbers 31:18, lit. "women who have known man in the bed of man." They deny that this is a euphemistic use. Also, תִּשְׁכַּב "tiškaḇ" could refer to any form of rest (Gen 19:4, 28:11-13, 47:30, Exd 22:27, Lev 14:47, 26:6, Num 23:24, et al).

Conservative theologians have responded that there are many instances of תִּשְׁכַּב "tiškaḇ" referring explicitly to sex (Gen 19:34, 26:10, 30:15-16, 34:2, 35:22, 39:7, Exd 22:16, 22:19, et al). Moreover, they argue, the entire context of Leviticus 18 seems to deal with sexual things, and that this rendition of "lie with" is likewise sexual [2].

Liberal theologians have responded to this by noting that v.21 immediately precedes v.22, but is not sexual, hence the context is broken in at least one, and possibly two, passages, before getting reasserted by the parallelism of v.20 and v.23.

Some also dispute the type of condemnation present in v.22. The verse identifies that the form of condemnation is תֹּועֵבָה "tōʻēḇā". The earlier crimes referenced in Leviticus 18 (the nakedness crimes), are specifically identified as זִמָּה zimmā. תֹּועֵבָה "Tōʻēḇā" is a word strictly concerning the sin of idolatry (Gen 43:32, 46:34, Exd 8:26, Deut 7:25, 13:12-14, et al). זִמָּה Zimmā seems a more appropriate word to talk about sexual crimes (Lev 18:17, 19:29, 20:14, Judges 20:5-6, Jer 13:27, Eze 16:26-27, et al).

[edit] The nature and scope of the prohibitions

Historically, there has been some debate as to whether these laws should be regarded as ethical laws (and therefore universal) or cultic/ritual (and thus particular). Jewish interpretations have generally resisted such a dichotomy.

Some Christian theology has made such a distinction - holding that 'Old Testament' cleanliness Laws were cultic laws abolished by Jesus. (Passages such as Matthew 15:11 and Mark 7:19 can be cited in support of this abolition, however, passages such as the introduction to the Antithesis of the Law, in the Gospel of Matthew, seem to point in the opposite direction.)

Interpretations holding that Leviticus 18 is talking about moral law, argue that the word "to'evah" (or "ta'ba") used as "abomination," is not used for cleanliness laws. They also typically point at the Lev 20:13 pronouncement of death upon all people who betray Lev 18:22. They suggest that these are indicators that Lev 18:22 concerns moral sin, not simply ritual uncleanliness. (It is noteworthy in this context that laws of ritual purity and cleanliness such as unclean animals, are described as "abomination")

Others argue that this view is too narrow and out of context. They point the reader to passages v.24-v.30, where "to'evah" occurs 4 times, and the word defile, in derived forms from the Hebrew root word "tame," occurs 6 times. Derivatives of this same word are used throughout Leviticus 11, and it is argued that, these refer to food cleanliness the same as some interpret Jesus to have revoked.