LeNb
While the Old Testament priestly texts, such as those found in Exodus and Leviticus, describe the details of sacred space and time, personnel, and rituals, they say comparatively little about their meaning and theology. The Priestly material (P) does actually use suggestive language that the deity savers their smell (e.g., “a fire-offering of soothing aroma” found 17 times in Lev). In Numbers 28:1–8 Yahweh prescribes in detail his daily menu: “my food for my fire-offering of soothing aroma.”
The Psalms and the Prophets are more explicit about the meaning and role of ritual sacrifice—often with the voice of critique and clarification. In a prophetic psalm Yahweh declares:
If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
for the world and its fullness are mine.
Do I eat the flesh of bulls,
or drink the blood of goats?
Sacrifice to God a thanksgiving (sacrifice),
and fulfilled to the Most High your vows,
and call upon me in the day of distress;
and I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.
The one sacrificing a thanksgiving sacrifice honors me;
the one who keeps my way I will show the salvation of God (Ps 50: 12–15, 23).
Because Yahweh has no needs, the Old Testament reverses the dependence: Yahweh is ready to hear His people’s cries and to deliver them. The purpose of Israelite sacrifice is to express honor and thanksgiving to God.
While the canonical libraries of other Mesopotamian cultures had numerous texts related to divination (COS 1.120) and incantation (COS 1.32, 1.96), the texts of the Old Testament make it clear that Yahweh is not susceptible to manipulation or magic. Instead, they show that Yahweh presents Himself as responsive to cries for help and the tenacious persuasion of words (e.g., Exod 32:9–14). Of greatest value to Yahweh are the altitudes of the worshiper, such as authenticity, fear and joy, and obedience (Pss 5:7, 11; 1 Sam 15:22–23; Hos 6:6).
► The expression of gift or tribute is especially symbolized in the burnt and grain offerings (Lev 1–2), fellowship and communion in the peace and thanksgiving offerings (Lev 3), and atonement in the sin and guilt offerings (Lev 4–5).
Leviticus 1–7 categorizes the sacrifices by their types and functions. There are three voluntary offerings: the burnt, grain, and peace offerings. The burnt and grain offerings symbolize the “tribute” offered to the divine King at his palace/temple. The burnt offering (‘olah), literally “that which ascends” in smoke, is a meat sacrifice. The “laying on of hands” implies a measure of identification with the ritual sacrifice, thus symbolizing the worshiper’s self-dedication to God. The Apostle Paul likely picks up this symbolism:
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship (Rom 12:1, ESV).
The grain offering (minḥah), literally a “gift/tribute,” is vegetarian. It also serves as a “memorial” (Lev 2:2, etc.). The third voluntary offering, the peace offering, could function as an expression of thanksgiving (Lev 7:11), as a fulfillment of a vow, or as a free-will offering (Lev 7:16).
The two atoning sacrifices are similar: “Like the sin offering, like the guilt offering, there is one law for them” (Lev 7:7). The sin offering (Lev 4:2, 22, 27) and the guilt offering (Lev 5:15, 18), however, provide only for “unintentional/inadvertent sin.”
If a person sins unintentionally regarding any of Yahweh’s commandments about things not to be done, and he does one of them … (Lev 4:2).
The nature of “unwitting” sin is spelled out further in the repeated pattern:
“if a person sins unintentionally, and it is hidden from him, when he comes to know it, and he realizes his guilt …”
Numbers 15:22–31 expands on these provisions, and explicitly addresses the issue of intentional sin.
But the person who does it with a high hand, whether a native or sojourner, reviles Yahweh, and that person will be cut off from the midst of his people (Num 15:30).
Info Box: Is there atonement for intentional sins?
These observations beg the obvious question, what about those of us who have sinned intentionally? The rabbis were troubled by this dilemma as well and proposed a solution: “R. Simeon b. Lakish said: Great is repentance, which converts intentional sins into unintentional ones,” a claim that he bases on Ezekiel 33:19 (b. Yoma 86b). Jacob Milgrom argues that a passage in Leviticus itself leads in the same direction (Leviticus 1–16, Anchor Yale Bible, p. 373). The final passage (Lev 6:1–7, paralleled in Num 5:6–8) in the subsection concerning the sin and guilt offerings (Lev 4:1–6:7) uniquely raises cases that are clearly intentional. They involve “lying,” or “oppression” or “swearing falsely.” But if the sinner “realizes his guilt and restores” the loss to the victim and “adds a fifth to it” (i.e., makes restitution), and “brings to Yahweh a ram,” then “the priest shall make atonement on his behalf before Yahweh and it shall be forgiven him.” (Num 5:7 adds, “he shall confess his sin.”) Psalm 51 also bears witness to the power of repentance in the removal of sin.
This close exegesis reveals how Pentateuchal law addresses some of humanity’s fundamental needs. It does not tackle the universal human dilemma of intentional sin and its atonement by theological principle or proposition, but by case study. Leviticus 6:1–7 is very limited in its listing of intentional sins, but they can serve as a sampling by which interpreters can extrapolate to broader cases of intentional sins. Jews call this halakhic exegesis. Halakah was the practice of legal interpretation regarding how one was to “walk” (halak) in Yahweh’s way.
Rabbi Jesus employs the same mode of exegesis in his citations of Hosea 6:6 in Matthew’s Gospel: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” He first applies this verse to the Pharisees’ question, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” (Matt 9:10–13), and later to their accusation when his disciples “do what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath” (Matt 12:1–8). One may wonder what ritual sacrifice has to do with table fellowship or Sabbath observance, but they all touch on the broader halakhic concern of the relative place of ritual law within God’s values. In Jesus’ view, God’s priorities place mercy toward human need above ritual observance.
Sacred Personnel: Priests and Levites
Although the book is called Leviticus, the term “Levite” surfaces only in connection with “the cities of the Levites,” which forms a section appended to the year of Jubilee (Lev 25:32–34). Elsewhere attention is given exclusively to the priests, who are “Aaron’s sons” (Lev 1:5; 21:1), as they are throughout the Priestly and Holiness Codes.
Sacred Time: Sabbath and Festivals
Similar to other Semitic cultures, the Israelites observed sacred times, wherein the people would commemorate the deity. In the earliest liturgical calendars of the Hebrew Bible (Exod 23:14–17, E; 34:18–23, J), the pilgrimage festivals are noted by their agricultural names:
• Unleavened Bread (during the barley harvest)
• Harvest (wheat harvest)
• Ingathering (fruit and olive harvest)
The pre-exilic calendars of J and E, along with D, followed the Canaanite calendar, where Unleavened Bread/Passover occurred in the month of Abib (Exod 34:18; 23:14; Deut 16:1; Gezer Calendar). The term abib is used elsewhere where it means an “ear” of barley grain (Exod 9:31). Hence, this month commemorates the barley festival. Tabernacles occurs “at the end of the year” in the fall (Exod 34:22; 23:16) at the grape harvest (Deut 16:13). In the pre-exilic period therefore the new year began in the fall.
In the later calendars (Lev 23, H; Num 28–29, P; Deut 16, D) these festivals are resignified to commemorate Yahweh’s saving deeds through which He formed His people:
• Passover (the exodus)
• Weeks/Pentecost (Sinai law)
• Tabernacles (the wilderness journey)
The biblical writers thus incorporated the celebration of Yahweh’s goodness in bountiful harvests (e.g., Psa 65) with the collective memories of his saving power, provision, and instruction (Torah). The later, (post-)exilic calendars of P and H follow the Babylonian calendar, where the new year begins in the spring. Hence, Passover occurs on “the fourteenth day” of “the first month” (Num 28:16; Lev 23:5). While the earlier calendars flexed with the agricultural harvests, the later calendars fix the particular dates of the year. The Babylonian influence likely reflects the Babylonian exile, and thus indicates a later date for these calendars and literary strands.
Rituals, such as those prescribed for Passover, could enact a narrative memory fundamental to the worshipers’ identity as the people of God. Its preferred means of celebration was as a collective during the pilgrimage festival at the Jerusalem temple (Deut 16:2, 5–6), but it could also be adapted as a domestic rite during the Babylonian exile (Exod 12:1–20, 28, 40–51).
Israelite worship divulges an extraordinary theological tension: in spite of the repeated prohibitions of idols and images of God, these calendars stipulate that three times a year, worshipers should “see the face of Yahweh” (the original wording in Exod 23:14–17; 34:20, 23–24; Deut 16:16). At the risk of suggesting that Yahweh could be imaged, the Bible maintains this metaphor of summoning God’s people to have a personal audience with the divine King at His palace.
Unique to the Old Testament is the observance of Sabbath, a ritual of simply “ceasing” ( שׁבת, shbt) from work to commemorate Yahweh as creator (Exod 20:8–11) and social liberator (Deut 5:12–15).
Rabbi Jesus and OT Law
“You shall love your neighbor.” The book of Leviticus was certainly known to Jesus and some passages were fundamental to his teaching. In the Gospels of Mark (Mark 12:28–34) and Matthew (Matt 22:34–40), a scribe/lawyer asked Jesus, “Which commandment is the first of all?” Jesus answers with two: the first is from the Shema of Deuteronomy 6:4–5 (“… you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart …”) and the second from Leviticus 19:18 (“you shall love your neighbor as yourself”). (This pairing mirrors the two tablets of the 10 Commandments, also central to the Hebrew Bible.) In Luke’s Gospel (Luke 10:25–28) the lawyer asked, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus answered his question with a question, “What is written in the Law?,” to which the lawyer responds with the same answer. Clearly, the linking of these “you shall love” verses from separate books in Torah was not unique to Jesus but was known within Judaism. Jewish Second Temple texts attest to this (Testament of Issachar 5:2; 7:6; Testament of Dan 5:3; Philo, Special Laws, II 63).
While this commandment might sound straightforward to most of us, the lawyer thinks he may have found a loophole. He asks, “who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29). In this case, the lawyer may actually be on to something. Here’s the literary context of the second great commandment:
You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor: I am the Lord. “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord (Lev 19:16–18, ESV).
In this context “your neighbor” is your fellow Hebrew, not explicitly anyone else, certainly not a Samaritan. That is why there is a later addition to this chapter in Leviticus that repeats the commandment but expands the direct object of “you shall love.”
“When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you 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 (Lev 19:33–34, ESV).
God reminds the people that their personal experiences of being strangers in a strange land were to inform their ethics and behaviors toward the other. Jesus responds to the lawyer’s question with the well-known Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30–37, which is actually a Jewish midrash on 2 Chr 28:5–15).
Ritual Purity and Kosher Diet. When we return to the second greatest commandment in Leviticus 19:18 in order to read it in context, we might be surprised by the very next verse:
You shall keep my statutes. You shall not let your cattle breed with a different kind. You shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor shall you wear a garment of cloth made of two kinds of material (Lev 19:19, ESV).
Adjacent to the command, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself,” are four more divine “you shall” commands, three of which pertain to ritual purity. So, how should we as Christians, or how did Jesus himself, distinguish which OT laws apply to Jesus’ disciples? By what criteria can we sift through the OT to discern which parts we are to observe as Christians?
To answer this question we shall consider Jesus’s teaching on pure and impure foods (Mark 7:14–23):
There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him (Mark 7:15, ESV).
When Christians hear teaching such as this, it tends to resonate with them and they see no problem with it. But a Jewish audience would be in shock, which explains why “his disciples asked him about the parable.” It sounds like a direct contradiction of Leviticus 11, which distinguishes “the living creatures that you may eat” from the “unclean” animals that “you may not eat.” These food laws stipulate the “kosher” diet of Judaism. “Each who touches them becomes unclean/impure” (Lev 11:26). These regulations conclude with a stern admonition:
For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls on the ground. 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” (Lev 11:44–45, ESV).
Kosher diet was not mere ritual; it is presented as an essential marker for the Israelites as Yahweh’s “holy” people and indeed as an acknowledgement of God as “holy.” So how can Jesus overturn these food laws that symbolize holiness? His stated reason, to our surprise, does not stem from rabbinic exegesis of the OT, but from biology and human experience.
And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person” (Mark 7:18–23, ESV).
What people eat ultimately does not affect them, but the attitudes, words, and actions they display spring from within them. And so the Markan narrator infers, “Thus he declared all foods clean.” For Jesus “purity” does not define a ritual boundary marking religious identity; rather purity defines an inner character that avoids social harm.
Sermon on the Mount. Another telling passage in the Gospels is the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5–7), which is the principal section in Matthew’s Gospel where Rabbi Jesus unpacks how he interprets the Scriptures for his “disciples/students” (Matt 5:1), “teaching them to observe all” that he “commanded” (Matt 28:19–20). But before we explore how Jesus interprets the Old Testament, we will first consider his key Old Testament verses, namely the 10 Commandments, in their own right (Exod 20:1–17; Deut 5:6—21). As just noted, the first four commandments enjoin respect for God and the remaining six respect for one’s neighbor. Each of them is enforceable, in the sense that they refer to observable behaviors, with the exception of the tenth commandment: “You shall not covet.” This one refers to interior longing or desire. Evidently the Ten Commandments are not a traditional lawcode for state enforcement; they also speak to the aspirations of the people of God. While specific persons and objects of “coveting” are listed in the verse, that is, items of your neighbor’s household, this attitude of longing could also apply to any of the preceding nine commandments. Coveting your neighbor’s wife could lead to adultery or to murder. Coveting your neighbor’s property could lead to theft or to bearing false witness. Coveting money could lead to Sabbath violation. Coveting a business deal could lead to invoking Yahweh’s name in a vain oath. In this respect, the tenth commandment provides a hermeneutical key that helps in interpreting the entire set.
Jesus opens the Sermon on the Mount with a disclaimer: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matt 5:17, ESV). He asserts this because everything he is about to say sounds like he is abolishing the Law and the Prophets: “You have heard that it was said …, but I say to you …” Key to his sermon is defining or redefining “righteousness”:
For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven (Matt 5:20, ESV).
The first two instances stem from the 10 Commandments (“You shall not murder” and “You shall not commit adultery”), and in each case Jesus internalizes the commandment from an action to an attitude. One might wonder on what exegetical basis he makes this interpretive move, but his halakhic extension of the prohibition, “You shall not commit adultery,” is telling:
But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matt 5:28, ESV).
The Greek word usually translated “lustful” is the same word found in the Septuagintal version of the tenth commandment, “You shall not covet (ἐπιθυμέω).” It would seem that Jesus uses the interior attitude embedded in this final commandment as a hermeneutical key to interpret the standard of “righteousness” articulated in one of Judaism’s fundamental texts. Much to the surprise of his audience, Jesus actually raises the bar for righteousness by going beyond mere behaviors to one’s words and the attitudes of the heart.