Leviticus

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Tanakh
Torah | Nevi'im | Ketuvim
Books of the Torah
1. Genesis
2. Exodus
3. Leviticus
4. Numbers
5. Deuteronomy

Leviticus is the third book of the Hebrew Bible, also the third book in the Torah (five books of Moses). Christians refer to the Hebrew Bible as the Old Testament. The English name is derived from the Latin Liber Leviticus which is from the Greek (το) Λευιτικόν (i.e., βιβλίον). In Jewish writings it is customary to cite the book by its first word, Vayikra ויקרא, "and He called". (Vayikra is also the name of the first weekly Torah reading or parshah in the book.) The main points of the book are concerned with legal rules, and priestly ritual. Despite the English title of the work, it is important to note that the book makes a very strong distinction between the priesthood, who are identified as being descended from Aaron, and mere Levites.

Contents

[edit] Summary

The book is generally considered to consist of two large sections, both of which contain several mitzvot, and thus the work constitutes a major source of Jewish law.

The first part Leviticus 1-16, and Leviticus 27, constitutes the main portion of the Priestly Code, which describes the details of rituals, and of worship, as well as details of ritual cleanliness and uncleanliness. Within this section are:

  • Laws regarding the regulations for different types of sacrifice (Leviticus 1-7):
    • Burnt-offerings, meat-offerings, and thank-offerings (Leviticus 1-3)
    • Sin-offerings, and trespass-offerings (Leviticus 4-5)
    • Priestly duties and rights concerning the offering of sacrifices (Leviticus 6-7)
  • The practical application of the sacrificial laws, within a narrative of the consecration of Aaron and his sons (Leviticus 8-10)
    • Aaron's first offering for himself and the people (Leviticus 8)
    • The incident in which "strange fire" is brought to the Tabernacle by Nadab and Abihu, leading to their death directly at the hands of God for doing so (Leviticus 9-10)
  • Laws concerning purity and impurity (Leviticus 11-16)
    • Laws about clean and unclean animals (Leviticus 11)
    • Laws concerning ritual cleanliness after childbirth (Leviticus 12)
    • Laws concerning tzaraath of people, and of clothes and houses, often translated as leprosy, and mildew, respectively (Leviticus 13-14)
    • Laws concerning bodily discharges (such as blood, pus, etc.) and purification (Leviticus 15)
    • Laws regarding a day of national atonement, Yom Kippur (Leviticus 16)
  • Laws concerning the commutation of vows (Leviticus 27)

The Bible contained insights regarding burying human waste and handling the dead. Many of which like quarantine and sanitation, had not been practised or understood until the late 1800s and were not recognized until 1865 by Joseph Lister. See also Ignaz Semmelweis.

The second part, Leviticus 17-26, is known as the Holiness Code, and places particular, and noticeable, emphasis on holiness, and the holy. It is notably more of a miscellany of laws. Within this section are:

  • Laws concerning idolatry, the slaughter of animals, dead animals, and the consumption of blood (Leviticus 17)
  • Laws concerning sexual conduct (including some that are often interpreted as referring to male homosexuality), sorcery, and moloch (Leviticus 18, and also Leviticus 20, in which penalties are given)
  • Laws concerning molten gods, peace-offerings, scraps of the harvest, fraud, the deaf, blind, elderly, and poor, poisoning the well, hate, sex with slaves, self harm, shaving, prostitution, sabbaths, sorcery, familiars, strangers, and just weights and measure (Leviticus 19)
  • Laws concerning priestly conduct, and prohibitions against the disabled, ill, and superfluously blemished, from becoming priests, or becoming sacrifices, for descendants of Aaron, and animals, respectively (Leviticus 21-22)
  • Laws concerning the observation of the annual feasts, and the sabbath, (Leviticus 23)
  • Laws concerning the altar of incense (Leviticus 24:1-9)
  • The case law lesson of a blasphemer being stoned to death, and other applications of the death penalty (Leviticus 24:10-23), including anyone having "a familiar ghost or spirit", a child insulting its parents (Leviticus 20), and a special case for prostitution (burning them alive) (Leviticus 21)
  • Laws concerning the Sabbath and Jubilee years (Leviticus 25)
  • A hortatory conclusion to the section, giving promises regarding obedience to these commandments, and warnings and threats for those that might disobey them, including sending wild animals to devour their children. (Leviticus 26:22)

These ordinances, in the book, are said to have been delivered in the space of a month, specifically the first month of the second year after the exodus. A major Chiastic structure runs through practically all of this book. For more detailed information see the article on Chiastic structure.

[edit] Religious interpretation

[edit] Jewish views

Orthodox Jews believe that this entire book is the word of God, dictated by God to Moses on Mount Sinai. In Talmudic literature, there is evidence that this is the first book of the Tanakh which was taught, in the Rabbinic system of education in Talmudic times. A possible reason may be that, of all the books of the Torah, Leviticus is the closest to being purely devoted to mitzvot and its study thus is able to go hand-in-hand with their performance.

There are two main Midrashim on Leviticus - the halakhic one (Sifra) and a more aggadic one (Vayikra Rabbah).

[edit] Academic context

Many scholars of biblical criticism support the documentary hypothesis. In this, almost the entirety of Leviticus is identified as being from a single earlier document, the priestly source. While this source is said to originate amongst the Aaronid priesthood, Leviticus is nevertheless said to consist of several layers of accretion from earlier collections of laws. The base of this accretion is identified, in the hypothesis, as the Holiness Code, regarded as an early independent document, having a faint relationship with the Covenant Code presented earlier in the bible.

The priestly source is envisioned as a later, rival, version of the stories contained within JE, and the Holiness Code thus being the law code that the priestly source presented as being dictated to Moses at Sinai, in the place of the Covenant Code. On top of this, over time, different writers, of varying levels of narrative competence, ranging from repetitive tedium to case law, inserted laws, some from earlier independent collections. These additional laws, in critical scholarship, are those which subsequently formed the Priestly Code, and thus the other portion of Leviticus.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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