Leviticus

Leviticus, book of the Old Testament, third of the five biblical books called the Pentateuch. It was first called Leviticus by the ancient Greek translators of the Bible because most of the book consists of sacrificial and other ritual laws prescribed for the priests of the tribe of Levi. The Jews, who know each book of the Pentateuch either by the first word or by the first significant word of the Hebrew text, entitle Leviticus Vayikra (Hebrew, “And He Called”).

Leviticus concerns the Levitical priests and their functions (see Levites). It contains the cultic laws, moral teachings, and social regulations that the “Lord said to Moses” (a phrase repeated in the first verse of each of these chapters: 4, 6, 8, 11-20, 22-25, 27) after the raising of the tabernacle. Chapters 1-7 contain two law codes concerning sacrificial worship; the first (1:1-6:7) addressed to “the people of Israel” (1:2), and the second (6:8-7:38) addressed to “Aaron and his sons” (6:9), that is, to the priests. Chapters 8-10 provide a detailed account of the consecration of Aaron and his sons to the priesthood. Chapters 11-15 contain dietary and sanitary laws, including a list of the unclean and the clean animals that may not or may be eaten (chap. 11), and procedures of purification following childbirth (chap. 12) and discharges from the body (chap. 15). Chapter 16 concerns the Day of Atonement (see Yom Kippur).

The next ten chapters (chap. 17-26) are designated by some scholars as the “Law of Holiness,” or “Holiness Code,” mainly because of recurring reference in them to the ritual holiness of objects and persons and the frequent appearance of God in the first person (20:7-8, for example). Included in the Holiness Code are ethical admonitions, ceremonial laws, and social regulations. Among them are prohibitions against eating carcasses and meat with blood (chap. 17); prohibitions against “abominable” sexual customs (chap. 18); moral injunctions (chap. 19); laws concerning the priesthood and sacrifice (chap. 21, 22); a calendar of religious feasts (chap. 23); regulations connected with the tabernacle (24:1-9); and laws on land, usury, and slavery (chap. 25). Also included is an exhortation favoring strict observance of the laws (chap. 26). Chapter 27, the last chapter of Leviticus, concerns vows and tithes.

Scholars maintain that the codes preserved in Leviticus were compiled by priests of the Temple in Jerusalem in the 5th century bc. Customs and cultic materials dating from earlier periods and belonging to other Israelite sanctuaries were incorporated at that time into such priestly compilations as part of a larger centralized system of ethical injunctions and ceremonial law governing the social and religious affairs of the postexilic Jewish community. The Holiness Code, for instance, is assigned to the 7th century bc by some scholars, because they feel that it is similar in spirit and language to the 7th-century Deuteronomic code.