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 Helping San Diego, California and beyond since 1997.
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Helping San Diego, California and beyond since 1997.
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Click here and add this page to your favorites!
{luh - vit' - ih - kuhs}
General Information
Leviticus is the third book of the Pentateuch, or Torah, the first five books of the Bible, which are traditionally ascribed to Moses. Its name is derived from the tribe Levi (the Levites), which had the responsibility for overseeing Israel's ritual worship. Leviticus consists primarily of laws regulating such activity, including sacrificial offerings, the installation of priests, cultic purity (which includes the dietary laws), and a more general legal collection known as the Holiness Code because of its emphasis on God's holiness. These major collections together with several shorter supplements are part of the P source, normally dated to c. 450 BC. Thus, as a book, Leviticus is postexilic, but the individual laws and various collections within the book differ in age, and some are quite ancient.
Bibliography
L Goldberg, Leviticus (1980); S S Kellogg, Studies
in Leviticus (1988); B A Levine, In the Presence of the Lord (1974);
J Milgrom, Cult and Conscience (1976).
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.
It reveals the right principles of human legislation concerning civil government and religion, capital and labor, landholding, the social evil and cognate matters. It reveals the work of Christ by exhibiting the way of salvation through atonement, and showing the present and future position of the believer in His name. In this book Christ is the offerer of sacrifice, He is the offering, and He the priest or mediator who presents the offering.
Thus, as Jukes affirms, Leviticus reveals the work of Christ differently from any other Old Testament book. How wonderful as we thus think of Christ in this threefold way! As the offerer He is the one who became man to meet God's requirements. As the offering He is the victim in His character and work, by which atonement was made for man. As the priest He is the officially appointed intercessor who brings man to God. Finally, this book reveals things to come in the kingdom of Christ by showing us in the Day of Atonement (c. 16) a type of the entering into the heavens of our great High Priest. In the feast of trumpets we have His coming again and the ingathering of the full harvest of redemption. In the sabbatic and jubilee years we have foreshadowed the millennial blessing which follows His second coming.
leviticus
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