Leviticus is a Priest text and refers to the "Levite" priesthood, whose line is traced back to Moses' brother, Aaron. All of it concerns the relationship between Yahweh (God) and his holy people. The idea is that Creation is good and any violation of the goodness of Creation must be made right, by atonement (that is, at-one-ment with God). These are rules for being at one with God; that is, since man is bound to do evil, at least there is a set way ("ritual") in which to restore the goodness of Creation, honored every 7th day.
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1: The LORD called Moses, and spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying,
The tent of meeting is symbolic; it means that God now dwells with Israel as a people. The theophany that Moses saw (the burning bush) is now institutionalized or socialized, made a permanent part of the lives of the Israelites. The word "tabernacle," by the way, is mentioned as a verb in the Gospel of John, when God is said to "tabernacle" (dwell) among us in the person of Jesus. Here again we see a direct link to both Testaments.
3: "If a man's offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish; he shall offer it at the door of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted before the LORD;
Since God is holy, offerings (sacrifices) must be without fault, perfect of its kind.
4: he shall lay his hand upon the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him.
There is a suggestion that by laying one's hand on the animal, the evil of the person is transferred to the beast before it is sacrificed; thus the animal is a substitute. These sacrifices, by the way, were bloody and continuous; so the argument goes that Jesus died once and for all to end these sacrifices. Since no animal could equal God's worth, only someone equal to God could equal God's worth; therefore that person had to BE God; but it could not of course BE God, so it had to be God's Son. That's the Christian argument. A transgression (sin, evil, misdeed) was an insult to God's creation and so to God; as such, it deserved death (the blood of the sinner); but God in his mercy allowed a substitute; so the animal of the blood is spilled instead. In some ways this is a powerful reminder of our bad deeds; and one wonders if we'd be better off if, say, everytime we passed a red light or lied about our neighbor we had to sacrifice an animal: first, it would discourage us from doing it again; second, it would remind us what a bad deed actually is: namely, it's an insult to God and to an orderly universe and deserves, if punished fairly, death. Here again, by the way, the Jews might have "sublimated" typical sacrifices of other religions, to actually "feed" the God blood (just like circumcision was rethought by the Jews, no longer as a sex rite but as a covenant rite). Now blood is not to feed a hungry (and possibly unjust) God, but to set things right with a just God.
There is another view of sacrifice; namely that it compensates for the killing of blood while eating meat. It's a reminder that all life is from God and so sacred. So everytime man sheds blood, even to eat an animal, the person must be at one again with God, because he or she broke the taboo against shedding blood. This interpretation does not explain cereal offerings however.
5: Then he shall kill the bull before the LORD; and Aaron's sons the priests shall present the blood, and throw the blood round about against the altar that is at the door of the tent of meeting.
Whenever Aaron is mentioned in his special role as mediator between God and man, we know it's a priestly text (P). The E text goes out of its way to place Moses above Aaron; the P text goes out of its way to place Aaron above Moses.
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13: You shall season your cereal offerings with salt; you shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be lacking from your cereal offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt.
Here we get a key metaphor: the salt of the covenant. Jesus will later call his disciples "the salt of the earth." In fact, the sacrifice rites in effect preserved, like salt, the goodness of Creation by restoring the relationship between the sinner and God.
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1: "If any one sins in that he hears a public adjuration to testify and though he is a witness, whether he has seen or come to know the matter, yet does not speak, he shall bear his iniquity.
Note that one sins by NOT doing as much as by DOING. One has no right to be silent in defense of justice, or "he shall bear his iniquity" (sin). We call these sins of omission; the other sins are sins of commission. An example of the first is seeing someone stealing but not stopping him or reporting him; the second is stealing itself.
2: Or if any one touches an unclean thing, whether the carcass of an unclean beast or a carcass of unclean cattle or a carcass of unclean swarming things, and it is hidden from him, and he has become unclean, he shall be guilty.
Life and death must be separated.
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1: The LORD said to Moses,
2: "If any one sins and commits a breach of faith against the LORD by deceiving his neighbor in a matter of deposit or security, or through robbery, or if he has oppressed his neighbor
3: or has found what was lost and lied about it,
5: he shall restore it in full, and add a fifth to it, and give it to him to whom it belongs, on the day of his guilt offering;
7: and the priest shall make atonement for him before the LORD, and he shall be forgiven for any of the things which one may do and thereby become guilty."
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6: And Moses brought Aaron and his sons, and washed them with water.
7: And he put on him the coat, and girded him with the girdle, and clothed him with the robe, and put the ephod upon him.
8: And he placed the breastpiece on him, and in the breastpiece he put the Urim and the Thummim.
Scholars are unclear what the Urim and Thummim were but believe they were tokens, like the Chinese I-ching, which, by flipping, would answer Yes or No to a question, another kind of prophecy. Such lots survived into the New Testament; after Judas' betrayal of Jesus, lots are thrown to decide his successor, to complete the number 12.
10: Then Moses took the anointing oil, and anointed the tabernacle and all that was in it, and consecrated them.
The act of anointing is where we get the word "Messiah," which means "anointed." This has caused many problems in later readings of Messianic prophecies; which, though originally meant for priests (and then the anointed kings beginning with King Saul) was later transferred to Jesus, as King.
12: And he poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron's head, and anointed him, to consecrate him.
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23: And Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting; and when they came out they blessed the people, and the glory of the LORD appeared to all the people.
24: And fire came forth from before the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the fat upon the altar; and when all the people saw it, they shouted, and fell on their faces.
This shows that God is present among the Israelites.
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1: Now Nadab and Abi'hu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer, and put fire in it, and laid incense on it, and offered unholy fire before the LORD, such as he had not commanded them.
2: And fire came forth from the presence of the LORD and devoured them, and they died before the LORD.
8: And the LORD spoke to Aaron, saying,
10: You are to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean;
11: and you are to teach the people of Israel all the statutes which the LORD has spoken to them by Moses."
The main idea is that 1. God is holy, 2. The holy cannot mix with the unholy, 3. People must become holy before God or will die, as two of Aaron's sons did. That may not sound just, but the point had to be strongly made; like strongly making a distinction between right and wrong, when, today, people tend to fudge the difference: "Oh, sure I gossiped about her, but she's not very well liked," etc. As if it makes a difference. The point of this scene, above, is that sin does make a difference, between life and death. Of course the text also insures that Aaron's family line (the Aaronid priests) will have sole authority, even over the Levites.
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Now follows the famous dietary laws, which St. Peter, after having a vision, rejected in the New Testament (Acts). Jesus himself said, "Only what comes out of the body is unclean, not what goes into it." These dietary laws are called "kosher" in Hebrew. I'm just giving some of these laws (but Jewish scholars have traced 613 commandments in the Torah, not just the famous Ten Commandments). Pigs (pork) are not kosher in Jewish diets; that includes ham, etc. Because of Peter's vision of a sheet with all foods in it, Christians ignore the dietary laws. Jesus had replaced Moses as Lawmaker: "It is not what goes into a person that defiles him, but what comes out."
These are sensible cautions; if a dead insect falls into your pot, break the pot (not the expensive pots, though!). Note that a seed is clean, unless water has touched it, because water starts the process of life; and life and death cannot mix (just like in leaven).
38: [I]f water is put on the seed and any part of their carcass falls on it, it is unclean.
45: For I am the LORD who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God; you shall therefore be holy, for I am holy."
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1: The LORD said to Moses,
2: "Say to the people of Israel, If a woman conceives, and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days, as during her menstruation.
Note the double standard here: a woman is impure twice as long for having a female child! As for the fact of impurity: blood and life do not mix, so the woman is impure.
3: And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.
This is the act of circumcision we already noted. Jesus was a Jew and therefore circumcised in the same way. Christians honor this day on New Year's Day (7 days after Christmas), called in the Catholic Calendar, the Feast of the Circumcision.
5: But if she bears a female child, she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her menstruation; she shall continue in the blood of her purifying for sixty-six days.
6: "And when the days of her purifying are completed, whether for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the door of the tent of meeting a lamb a year old for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering,
8: And if she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtledoves or two young pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering; and the priest shall make atonement for her, and she shall be clean."
Jesus' mother sacrificed two doves; she was too poor to make a more expensive sacrifice.
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1: The LORD said to Moses and Aaron,
2: "When a man has on the skin of his body a swelling or an eruption or a spot, and it turns into a leprous disease on the skin of his body, then he shall be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons the priests,
3: and the priest shall examine the diseased spot on the skin of his body; and if the hair in the diseased spot has turned white and the disease appears to be deeper than the skin of his body, it is a leprous disease; when the priest has examined him he shall pronounce him unclean.
45: "The leper who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry, `Unclean, unclean.'
46: He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease; he shall dwell alone in a habitation outside the camp.
The word often translated as "leprosy" really means any skin disorder, not the leprosy we know. The main point is to separate life from death; dying skin is death and must be separated from the life. These rules make sense today, though we have other ways to protect the healthy.
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This is the main holy day in the Jewish calendar, called Yom Kippur ("kippur" means atonement). The sins of the people are put on the goat and the goat is then kicked out into the wilderness (the wilderness is "anti-Creation"). We get our modern word "scapegoat" from this text. This text can be read as a type of Jesus' scapegoat death; Jesus took the sins of the people on his own head.20: "And when he has made an end of atoning for the holy place and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall present a live goat;
21: and Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins; and he shall put them upon the head of the goat, and send him away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness.
31: It is a sabbath of solemn rest to you, and you shall afflict yourselves; it is a statute for ever.
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10: "If any man of the house of Israel or of the strangers that sojourn among them eats blood, I will set my face against that person.
11: For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it for you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement, by reason of the life.
This is a clear explanation of the meaning of blood in the sacrifice.
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1: And the LORD said to Moses,
21: You shall not give any of your children to devote them by fire to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the LORD.
Sacrifice to Molech was common. The Jews "sublimated" sacrifice, with moral purpose.
22: You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.
This has caused grief among homosexual men and women. V. 28 links possession of the land to moral conduct. To sin is to corrupt the land as well as oneself. This was true in Greek culture too, as in Oedipus Rex.
23: And you shall not lie with any beast:
28: lest the land vomit you out, when you defile it, as it vomited out the nation that was before you.
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1: And the LORD said to Moses,
2: "You shall be holy; for I the LORD your God am holy.
9: "When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field to its very border, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest.
10: And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the sojourner: I am the LORD your God.
15: "You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.
Note the danger lies both ways: favoring the weak or the strong; they're both wrong. The goal is justice, as the Deuteronomist writer will say. Note that Jesus is credited with a "new law," but the command not even to hate one's brother is clearly stated here. This is not a behavioral law, based on conduct, but merely on thought or feeling as is the commandment not to covet:
17: "You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason with your neighbor, lest you bear sin because of him.
18: You shall not take vengeance or bear any grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.
33: "When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong.
34: He shall be as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.
35: "You shall do no wrong in judgment, in measures of length or weight or quantity.
36: I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.
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10: "Both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death.
24: I am the LORD your God, who have separated you from the peoples.
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1: And the LORD said to Moses,
20: You shall not offer anything that has a blemish, for it will not be acceptable for you.
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4: "These are the appointed feasts of the LORD.
5: In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening, is the LORD's passover.
Passover is later taken over by Christians as Easter, another kind of resurrection or rebirth from death to life, also in spring. Note the difference between the Feast of Passover and the week-long feast of Unleavened Bread.
6: And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread to the LORD; seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.
10: "Say to the people of Israel, When you come into the land which I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest;
11: and he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, that you may find acceptance; on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.
15: "And you shall count from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven full weeks shall they be,
16: counting fifty days to the morrow after the seventh sabbath; then you shall present a cereal offering of new grain to the LORD."
This is the feast of weeks, fifty days later. This became Pentecost in the Christian calendar, when the new Christians spoke in tongues, inspired by the Holy Spirit (book of Acts). Churches of the Holy Spirit are called Pentecostal churches.
24: "In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a day of solemn rest, a memorial proclaimed with blast of trumpets, a holy convocation.
25: You shall do no laborious work; and you shall present an offering by fire to the LORD."
26: And the LORD said to Moses,
27: "On the tenth day of this seventh month is the day of atonement; and you shall afflict yourselves and present an offering by fire to the LORD.
This is the scapegoat ritual we noted above.
34: "On the fifteenth day of this seventh month and for seven days is the feast of booths to the LORD.
This Feast of Booths honors the time the Israelites lived in the Wilderness, though this is not mentioned here, only later. (The meaning of these feasts were revised over time; as with the Passover, which was probably an agrarian (agriculture) feast, but later linked to the founding historical event of the Jewish people: the Exodus.
42: You shall dwell in booths for seven days; all that are native in Israel shall dwell in booths,
43: that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God."
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1: The LORD said to Moses on Mount Sinai,
2: "Say to the people of Israel, When you come into the land which I give you, the land shall keep a sabbath to the LORD.
3: Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in its fruits;
4: but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to the LORD; you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard.
This is the sabbatical year, honoring Genesis's creation again. This is still observed among faculty, who deserve a sabbatical every 7 years.
8: "And you shall count seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall be to you forty-nine years.
10: And you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants; it shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his family.
11: A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be to you; in it you shall neither sow, nor reap what grows of itself, nor gather the grapes from the undressed vines.
12: For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you; you shall eat what it yields out of the field.
13: "In this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his property.
23: The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with me.
This idea of being strangers on the earth continues in the New Testament, as in 1 Peter, addressed to "God's elect, strangers in the world" (1.1). Note one cannot exploit one's neighbor; this motif of Redemption is wonderfully developed in the book of Ruth and continues in the story of Jesus:
25: "If your brother becomes poor, and sells part of his property, then his next of kin shall come and redeem what his brother has sold.
35: "And if your brother becomes poor, and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall maintain him; as a stranger and a sojourner he shall live with you.
36: Take no interest from him or increase, but fear your God; that your brother may live beside you.
37: You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit.
Morality and freedom are entwined in history:
38: I am the LORD your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.
55: The people of Israel are my servants, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.
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13: I am the LORD your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves; and I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.
14: "But if you will not listen to me,
33: I will scatter you among the nations; and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities a waste.
34: "Then the land shall rest, and enjoy its sabbaths.
Leviticus concludes with blessings and curses similar to treaties between a superior and inferior nation: rewards if one follows the contract, curses if one doesn't. But this covenant promises dignity instead of slavery. Note the sarcasm: if God's people do not observe rest (the Sabbath) as they should, they will do so against their will: the land will observe the Sabbath while they are exiled from it. This was a later addition, referring to the Exile.
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