by Stephen Rodgers

LEVITICUS IN 10 WORDS OR LESS

“A holy God explains how to worship Him.”

TITLE

The English title “Leviticus” comes from the Greek word (Leuitikon) meaning “about the Levites,” whereas the Hebrew title is derived from the books’s very first word (wayyiqra’), translated “And He called.” (Lev 1:1)

As previously mentioned, it is sometimes referred to as the “Third Book of Moses.”

AUTHOR & AUDIENCE

Both Jewish and Christian traditions attribute the five books of the Pentateuch primarily to Moses.  Like Exodus, Leviticus makes explicit claims regarding Mosaic authorship (Lev 1:1;4:1; 6:1; 7:38; 25:1; 26:46; 27:34) as does the New Testament (Rom 10:5).

Furthermore, both the OT (Num 33:2; Jos 8:31; 1Ki 2:3; 2Ki 14:6; Ezr 6:18; Neh 13:1; Dan 9:11,13; Mal 4:4) and the NT (Matt 8:4;Mk 12:26; Lk 16:29; 24:27, 44; Jn 5:46; 7:22; Ac 15:1; Ro 10:19; 1Co 9:9; 2Co 3:15) credit Moses as the author of the Pentateuch.

For more information, see the “Author and Composition” section of the Pentateuch article.

The original audience were the post-Exodus Israelites, in particular the Levites (although the material in the book deals with the laity as well). Later generations of Israelites would have studied the book to learn God’s laws for worship and sacrificial practices.

DATE

Depending on whether one subscribes to an early (ca. 1,446 BC) or late (ca. 1,260 BC) date of the Exodus would determine the time during which Leviticus was written (after the Exodus but prior to Moses’ death). (It should be noted that while good arguments have been put forth in favor of both dates, the majority of scholars surveyed for this series tended to favor an early date).

BACKGROUND & SETTING

Let me begin by pointing out that Leviticus picks up almost exactly where Exodus left off.  However, whereas Exodus primarily concerns itself with the revelation of the moral law, Leviticus focuses more on the revelation of the ceremonial law.

Prior to Mt. Sinai, a number of events had never previously occurred: the presence of God’s glory had never formally resided among the Israelites, a central place of worship had never existed, a structured and regulated system of worship had not been given, and a formal priesthood had not been appointed to function in conjunction with that system of worship.

Up to this point, Israel had only the example of the patriarchs from which to derive their knowledge of how to worship and live before their God.  Coming off centuries of slavery in Egypt however, even these examples were apparently influenced by polytheism and pagan ritual (as evidenced by the golden calf incident in Ex 32).

Unlike the previous two books, no geographical movement occurs in this book.  The people of Israel are encamped at the foot of Mt. Sinai at the beginning of the book of Leviticus, and they are still there one month later when the book of Numbers begins.

HISTORICAL & THEOLOGICAL THEMES

In broad terms, Leviticus deals with three themes: 1) Holiness, 2) Sin/Sacrifice/Atonement, and 3) Worship.  Let’s examine each in some greater detail.

• Holiness: the core theme of Leviticus is holiness, both the holy character of God and the will of God for Israel’s holiness.  God’s holiness is seen as the necessary pre-condition to make the mandate of personal holiness intelligible.  The motive for such holiness is seen in two repeated phrases, “I am the LORD” and “I am holy,” which are used more than 50 times.
• Sin/Sacrifice/Atonement: Since no human is perfect, God provided the sacrificial system as a means of atonement for sins against Him and His law. This is in direct contrast with the underpinnings of other ANE sacrificial systems (see OBJECTIONS).
• Worship: With the establishment of the Tabernacle, God has fulfilled His desire to be present with His people and enjoy fellowship with them. The only acceptable response to this is an appropriate worship to acknowledge who He is, what He has done, and express their love, honor, thanks, and praise.

LITERARY FEATURES

Leviticus is most obviously a handbook of laws and regulations in the form of an oracular directive from a divine Lawgiver.  The phrase “and the LORD spoke to Moses” appears more than 30 times in the book, underscoring the fact that Leviticus is meant to be received as the very words of God.  In fact, a student at a European Bible college once enthused to me that his appreciation of Leviticus stemmed from the fact that of all the books of the Bible, it has the “highest percentage of God talking.  The whole books is almost entirely God talking.”  Granting the fact that we hold all Scripture to be the words of God, I trust you see his point.

From a somewhat different literary perspective, Leviticus has affinities with utopian literature. Literary utopias both describe how people live in an ideal society and also offer an explanation of the institutions and practices that produce the society described.

INTERPRETIVE CHALLENGES

The interpretive challenges involving Leviticus can be generalized into two groups: internal challenges and external challenges.

• Internal challenges typically revolve around questions of how to relate and reconcile the “rituals” of chapters 1-16 with the “ethics” of chapters 17-26.  While there certainly isn’t a 1:1 correspondence between the two sections, it would be unwise to assume that they are two unrelated bodies of material. Both are equally concerned with Israel’s holiness to the LORD.
• External challenges typically revolve around the sociological/historical context of the content.  This is difficult today both because we are far removed from the culture of the ANE, and because Moses didn’t explicate it in great detail, but rather assumed  a certain context of historical understanding. The spiritual principles of the rituals are timeless, being embedded in the nature of God.  The rituals themselves are no longer valid since the church is now under the authority of the New Covenant, not the Old (Heb 7-10).

OBJECTIONS

Objections to Leviticus typically fall into two groups: the sociological group and the moral group.

The various sociological objections have been briefly discussed in the previous section, and for the sake of brevity, will not be dealt with again beyond that.

The moral objections however will be discussed (albeit briefly as well).  These objections generally center on the alleged barbarity of a system of sacrificial atonement, and/or the alleged injustice of a system of sacrificial atonement (incidentally, keep these in mind when we get to the Gospels…they’ll be back).

• Objections to the barbarity of the system could be treated simply as sociological, but to only do so would overlook the distinctiveness of the Israelite system.  The Israelites were hardly unique among their ANE neighbors in sacrificing animals to deity, but the differences were profound.  Other ANE tribes sacrificed animals because they anthropomorphised their pantheon; they assumed their gods had the same desires and appetites as their worshipers.  In this way, sacrifices were essentially nothing more than quid pro quo…a divine form of graft if you will.  In contrast to their neighbors, Israel didn’t offer sacrifices to curry temporary favor, rather they offered sacrifices to atone for sin. That’s the difference between a man-centered system and a God-centered system: the former is bribery and the later is worship.
• Objections to the injustice of the system typically revolve around the acceptability of vicarious redemption.  In other words, is it “fair” for someone or something to pay the price for your wrongdoing?  Again, we’ll deal with this in greater detail when we get to the Gospels, but for now let’s simply point out that if ad arguendo there is a supreme, sovereign, divine Being…then His rules by definition are correct.

NOTABLE QUOTABLES

• Leviticus 11:44
• Leviticus 17:11

DID YOU KNOW?

• Unlike other religions with viewed sacrifices as literally “food for the gods” (Eze 16:20; Psa 50:9-13), Leviticus portrays the Jewish sacrificial system as being metaphorically “food for God” (Lev 21:6, 8, 17, 21; 22:25).
• We often use the phrase “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth” when describing vengeance, but the Biblical basis for it is justice.  Regardless of who had been wronged, the punishment was not to exceed the crime (Lev 24:20).
• The blood sacrifices of Leviticus are specifically contrasted with the death of Christ on the cross in Hebrews 7:27.