Leviticus

Question 1

What are the different laws in the OT?

Answer 1

Scholars have come up with a number of ways to categorize the major topics of biblical laws, but here is my understanding:

Ethical Laws
These are fairly general (not culturally specific) and often expressed in the positive

Ritual Laws
These laws govern such things as sacrifice, festivals, and purity

Civil and Criminal Laws
In the Bible, these two types of laws are combined: most of what we would think of as criminal law is handled as civil law in Israel.
This includes such topics as murder, property rights, injury, etc.

Question 2

What are some of the radical socio economic laws in the OT?

Answer 2

No interest on loans to fellow Israelites (Exodus 22.25)

The Year of Jubilee (Leviticus 25)

The year of Jubilee was established to keep ancestral lands within the original family that owned it. In ancient Israel, land was wealth plus your source of food. You might have to sell it in a bad year to pay debts or to buy food, but every 50 years all land would revert to its original owners. [There is no evidence that this was ever actually done.]

The purpose of these laws was “to prevent the emergence of a permanently impoverished class in Israel” (find source: Borg?)

Jesus said that we would always have the poor with us. Yes, there will always be hard times, but the goal was that no one would stay there.

Question 3

According to scholars, why is sacrifice necessary?

Answer 3

Many scholars have explored various reasons why sacrifice may have been practiced in the ancient world:

Burkert:
Dealing with guilt over taking life for eating
note that animals are not eaten until after the Flood in Genesis 9

De Vaux:
Gift of something of value
Killed to set it aside for sacred use
Burned, turning it into invisible substance that rises to the gods

Smith:
Communion
a shared meal with the gods

Eilberg-Schwartz:
Atonement or Expiation
the blood of the sacrifice is a substitute for that of the sinner

Question 4

Animal sacrifice in the OT:

Answer 4

van Wijk-Bos and Girard:

We have separated ourselves from the slaughter of animals for food. We have factories that do that for us.

Do our animals have a death with value and dignity?

Has this increased intrahuman violence? In other words, as we’ve separated ourselves from killing animals, have we started killing ourselves more?

Leviticus 17.3-4: Any Israelite who slaughters an ox, a lamb or a goat in the camp or outside of it instead of bringing it to the entrance to the tent of meeting to present it as an offering to Yhwh in front of the tabernacle of Yhwh—such persons shall be considered guilty of bloodshed; they have shed blood and must be cut off from their people.

Israelites could only slaughter animals in a religious context. Only in the context of sacrifice.

Question 5

According to Dr. Thomas, why is the sacrificial system necessary?

Answer 5

While there are elements of most of these rationale for sacrifice present in Israelite worship, the main purpose is the maintenance of relationship with God.

This connects well with the Promise-Threat-Fulfillment pattern that we saw in Genesis. In this case, the threat is sin, and sacrifice is a means to keep the promises of God on track.

Sacrifice is a way to deal with the threat of our sin in our relationship with God.

Question 6

Where do we finally see animal sacrifice in Leviticus?

Answer 6

In Leviticus 1-7, we have a type of priestly handbook on how to perform various sacrifices. However, it is when we arrive at Leviticus 8 that we finally have the consecration of the priests to perform the sacrifices and the altar (8.11; the place of sacrifice or Fox’s ‘slaughter-site’).

In Exodus 40.16-38, the Tabernacle was completed in its construction. Here, it is completed by being consecrated with priests and a proper altar for the sacrificial work that will be performed there.

Question 7

What is the point of the Nadav and Avihu stories?

Answer 7

Nadav and Avihu, Aaron’s sons, make a sacrifice that is not of the kind Yhwh commanded (cf. Exodus 30.9). Now, the same fire that consumed the sacrifices two verses earlier comes out from Yhwh’s Glory and consumes the two sons of Aaron.

This story underlines the importance of proper sacrificial procedure. Note how, later in the chapter, Aaron is very careful about sacrificing. This story also stands at the head of the section of Leviticus that concerns ritual purity (chapters 11-17).

Question 8

How does Israel see the glory of God in Leviticus 9?

Answer 8

Leviticus 9.22-24:

Now Moshe and Aharon had entered the Tent of Appointment; when they came out, they blessed the people, and the Glory of Yhwh was seen by the entire people. And fire went out from the presence of Yhwh and consumed, upon the slaughter-site, the offering-up and the fat-parts; when all the people saw, they shouted the flung themselves on their faces.

The sacrifices and the priesthood have been accepted. The glory of the Lord consumes their sacrifice.

The story of Nadab and Avihu is an example of what happens when you don’t perform a proper sacrifice.

Question 9

What is the democratization of holiness?

Answer 9

When we arrive at Leviticus 18-26, we reach a portion of the book that scholars call the ‘Holiness Code’ for its focus on holiness. Here, the ideals of holiness are expanded to encompass the entire people of Israel. For this reason, I call it the ‘democratization of holiness.’ This spread of holiness to the whole people of Israel ties back to Exodus 19.6, where God says that Israel will be a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

The Holiness Code (Leviticus 18-26)

Does address priestly holiness (chs. 21-22)
But, also general holiness of the people (chs. 18-20, 25)
Holy time / days (ch. 23)
Leviticus 19.2b: “Holy are you to be, for holy am I, Yhwh your God!”

Question 10

Give examples of the maintenance of boundaries in the holiness code.

Answer 10

Purity and holiness are, to a large extent, about the maintenance of boundaries:

holy / profane

purity / pollution

permitted / forbidden

sexual relations
foods
Israelites / others

priests / Levites / the rest of Israel

Question 11

Give examples of the maintenance of boundaries in the holiness code.

Answer 11

Much of this material is about maintaining proper boundaries:

life and death
why touching a corpse makes you impure, for example
human and non-human
family relationships
the reason for the many laws regarding who can have sex
the body / world boundary
the reason behind the laws that say that you are impure because of bodily discharges

Ultimately, this is about maintaining order (holding off disorder/chaos).

Question 12

How does Leviticus define “unclean”?

Answer 12

טָמֵא / tamei / unclean

stained
polluted
radioactive
tainted
ritually challenged

Question 13

Describe the holiness, clean, unclean spectrum:

Answer 13

Most Israelites spent their life in the clean area, moving to unclean due to any number of contaminants. The goal was to perform the rituals necessary to remain clean. Holiness was reserved for the holy place, utensils, and people (priests and Levites). However, the Holiness Code seeks to expand holiness to the whole people.

Question 14

What are the different levels of holiness?

Answer 14

Holy of Holies
Courts
Temple
Jerusalem
Judea
Gentile Lands

Question 15

What are some other main points in cleanliness and holiness?

Answer 15

Maintaining relationship with God
Communication
Communion
the Land

Question 16

What are some options on how Christians should read Leviticus and the holiness code?

Answer 16

Stuart and Fee, in their book, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, outline one approach to understanding the place of biblical law. I think their perspective is quite common among evangelical Christianity.

If a law is specifically re-affirmed in the New Testament, then it is binding on Christians.

In general, ritual and civil/criminal law is not binding on Christians.

It is either culturally-bound or has been superceded by Christ.

Ethical laws are generally binding on Christians.

Jacob Milgrom, in his 3 volume commentary on Leviticus, outlines quite a different approach:

Biblical law was intended for the community of Israel living in the Promised Land. Therefore, the laws are only binding on those living within the boundaries of the biblical Israel.

Question 17

How does Dr. Thomas think we should approach the holiness code and OT law?

Answer 17

I can’t tell you that. I can tell you that the approaches of Stuart, Fee, and Milgrom all seem inadequate to me. They too easily dismiss large portions of the biblical law as irrelevant to us.

My emerging approach:

Biblical laws have general principles behind them that we may learn from, even if the details of an individual law are very culturally-bound.

For example, Leviticus 19.27-28 outlaws trimming your beard, scarification, or tattoos. Most contemporary Christians don’t really have much problem with these things as a religious issue, although perhaps more on a cultural level. In the wider context of this passage, however, the discussion is about practices connected with the worship of other gods. These things, then, are outlawed because they were connected with foreign religious practices. So, perhaps we could interpret this to mean that we should avoid any practices which are commonly seen as indicating that one is a member of a non-Christian sect of some sort. Just a thought…

Question 18

What is meant by “sacrifice” in Leviticus?

Answer 18

The actual killing and burning of an animal, not just giving up something. The NT takes this and uses it as a lens to look at Jesus’ death.

Question 19

What does Gorman say about sacrifice?

Answer 19

That it is accompanied by creation of sacred space.

Question 20

What two examples of purity does Dr. Thomas give in his video?

Answer 20

The coffee in the mug, and the spit in his hand. We are ok with things in the proper place, but as soon as they come out of that place, they are unclean. One of the main purification rituals is the sprinkling of blood, in the same way that we see alcohol as having purification properties. They are thinking reasonably.

Question 21

What does holiness have to do with in Leviticus?

Answer 21

Restoring relationship with God and avoiding threats to our relationship with him.