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.

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

• 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 case law lesson of strange fire being offered by Nadab and Abihu, and their subsequent execution by Yahweh 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 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)
• 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.

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.

Religious interpretation

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 is thus 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).

Christian views

After the Christian era began, parts of Leviticus began to be interpreted, by Christians, as prophecy of the coming of their messiah, Jesus. To many Christian readers, Leviticus is not literally about law or regulations for worship, but instead a prophecy prefiguring Jesus, regarding in particular, his crucifixion as a sin offering. This interpretation is scripturally referred to within the Epistle to the Hebrews, and Leviticus is said to contain in its law a gospel of the grace of God. Christians state that no-one before the time of Jesus was able to fully understand this.

Academic context

Most modern scholars of biblical criticism support the documentary hypothesis. In this, almost the entirity 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 nethertheless 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 repetetive 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.

See also

• Torah
• The Bible and homosexuality

• Jewish translations:
  • (Jewish Publication Society translation)
  • Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan's translation and commentary at Ort.org
  • translation with Rashi's commentary at Chabad.org

• Christian translations:
  • (New Revised Standard Version)
  • (various versions)

• Translations identifying sources according to the documentary hypothesis:
  • Leviticus with sources highlighted, at Wikisource
  • The law code of Leviticus isolated, at wikisource
  • The description of priestly ritual, in isolation, at wikisource

Related article:

• (Jewish Encyclopedia) Llevíticu

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