CHAPTER 1
This is book is often feared and dreaded as the place where
hopes of reading the entire Bible go to die.
OK, so the second half of Exodus was dull, but it at least had the slam
bang first half. There is no moment in
Leviticus that hits the popular imagination.
It’s just a bunch of rituals and rules.
OK, but after all the tabernacle talk, this sounds like an improvement.
This is just about what sort of animals a person should
offer to the Lord for a ritual sacrifice.
Apparently there is some minor distinction between bringing the Lord an
animal from the flock or the herd, but whatever distinction there is – I don’t
see it. In both cases you’re to bring a
male without blemish and offer the same parts. Oh, and the Lord is particular about his birds – pigeons and
turtledoves only.
When you bring an appropriate bird to the priest, the first
thing he does is wring its head off.
Yikes. There is a definite
earthy, bloodiness to these old rituals.
After beheading it, the priest drains the blood and burns it as an
offering. Yup, a bit bloody.
CHAPTER 2
This is about grain offerings. (Of course, as anyone has ever read the story of Cain and Abel
knows, the Lord prefers his meat to vegetables). You’ve got to pour oil and frankincense on it so it’ll smell
sweet when given to the Lord. Baked
goods? Better be unleavened.
You oddity – “You shall season all your grain offerings with
salt. Do not let the salt of the
covenant with your God be lacking from your grain offering.” The footnotes inform that in the ancient
Near East using salt together was a sign of friendship. Huh.
Learn something new every idea.
I really like that line, though: “Do not let the salt of the
covenant with your God be lacking from your grain offering.” I mean, sure it’s no “Remove your sandals
from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground” but it’s
good.
CHAPTER 3
This is all about communion sacrifices. What’s a communion sacrifice, you ask? Good question. Turns out, no one really knows what the exact meaning of the
ancient Hebrew word “shelamin” is – but it’s typically translated as communion
sacrifice. So not only is this a really
boring chapter about a practice that hasn’t been done in nearly 2,000 years,
but we’re don’t quite know what exactly makes it different from others.
Oh, don’t worry though – we know how the practice is supposed to go. Boy do we ever – because that’s what the chapter describes. It’s the same as all other sacrifices apparently. Lot of good this chapter did.
CHAPTER 4
We’re still in the section going over sacrifices.
You know, the Bible is a holy book for two religions –
Christianity and Judaism. The
Christians, however, never engaged in ritual sacrifices. The Jews gave it up after the destruction of
the Second Temple by the Roman Empire. So all these chapters, despite being in
one of those ever so crucial books of the Torah – have had no application to
anyone since nearly the time of Christ.
Actually, this chapter has one nice wrinkle – it gets
involved in the morals of it all. This
is what you should do in case you accidentally commit an affront to the
Lord. Ah, so intent still matters. That’s a nice foundation for justice. What also matters is who does it, as the
priests, community, tribal leader, and average person all have their own ways
to make amends. The higher ranking the
person, the bigger the amends. A priest
or the community as a whole has to sacrifice an entire bull. For a tribal leader, a goat will do. For average guy, a she-goat or female lamb. This is all in case of accidental goof
up. If you intentionally affront the
Lord, you should be cut off from the people.
CHAPTER 5
More penalties for accidental crimes. This is for not giving info under oath,
touching something unclean inadvertently, and various others. You give a sacrifice. There is an effort made to make it
affordable to all. It should be an
animal of the flock, or some birds or at worst some bran floor. The Bible recognizes economic differences
and doesn’t try to treat them all the same.
One theme here throughout is the bloodiness of the
rituals. You get birds having their
necks wrung and the blood sprinkled – and we’ve seen this in nearly every
chapter so far. It’s just how ancient
Hebrew rolled. Earlier I made a joke about
how a priest could make a side gig as a butcher, but that isn’t really a
joke. They should end up knowing animal
anatomy pretty well.
The end of the chapter covers intentional errors. They have to give the same sacrifice
(surprising) but also have to make nice with whomever they did wrong to.
Here’s one thing note over all of this – the way you repay
your mistakes to the Lord is entirely via action. There is nothing about asking for forgiveness or mercy or
anything like this. So far, Leviticus
is all about good works over faith.
CHAPTER 6
This is just instructions to priests. Nothing else. They have to keep the ceremonial fire going, and handle the
offerings. They get whatever leftover grain offerings there are for
themselves.
At least it’s a short chapter.
CHAPTER 7
This is, mercifully, the last chapter on offerings. It’s mostly the same old same old, but
unlikely as it sounds, one fairly important and famous part trips out toward
the end. A dietary law is noted, and I
do believe it’s the first time we’ve seen this one. The Israelites are flatly forbidden by eating any blood. Anyone who does so shall be cut off from the
people. It’s the birth of kosher
meats.
Click here for the next chunk of Leviticus.
Click here for the next chunk of Leviticus.
So all these chapters, despite being in one of those ever so crucial books of the Torah – have had no application to anyone since nearly the time of Christ.
ReplyDeleteWell, not exactly. Yes, the sacrifices themselves are no longer performed; but they serve as a type, or symbols, giving us more foreshadowing of what is to come.
I won't go into a thorough examination of all the meanings behind each of the sacrifices; indeed, I don't think that I could. Instead, I'll just try to hit a few key points. For example, note that all the sacrifices were brought to the priests by the one making the offering. The priests aren't going door to door (tent to tent) collecting animals to be burned.
As you noted, the animals (primarily) are to be males without blemish; more foreshadowing of the big sacrifice that comes much, much later in the Bible.
The innards of the animal get burned up; because sin isn't just external, it's internal, affecting the inner person.
Oil and incense are generally taken to represent the Holy Spirit and prayer, respectively. So it's included in some offerings, such as the meal offering, but not in sin offerings (Lev 5:11).
Sin is constant, meaning that atonement for sin much be continual; therefore, the fire of the altar must never go out (Lev 6:12-13).
So far, Leviticus is all about good works over faith.
Well, sort of (sorta?). Perhaps it can be more accurately stated that it's faith demonstrated by works. That is, the people are doing these works because they accept by faith that this is what God wants and will accept as atonement for their wrongdoings. That's what all the laying of hands on the animals is all about. By faith, the one making the offering is transferring his sins onto the unblemished animal, which is then punished in place of the sinner (yes, more foreshadowing).
What also matters is who does it, as the priests, community, tribal leader, and average person all have their own ways to make amends. The higher ranking the person, the bigger the amends.
Good catch; because (SPOILER ALERT) in the next book, Numbers, we're going to see just what happens when Moses disobeys God.
Peace and Love,
Jimbo
Jimbo,
ReplyDeleteYesterday I read a little of "The Bible with Sources Reveled" by Richard Elliot Friedman. It's about the Torah and the J, E, P, & D sources. Anyhow, in the intro he goes over the evidence for there being four sources, and that includes theological consistency within each other. Quoting from page 12: "In P, atonement for sin is to be achieved only be means of sacrifices that are brought to the Aaronid priests. It is not achieved by mere repentance or through divine mercy. Indeed, in P the words `mercy,' `grace,' `repentance,' and `kindness' never occur." That's what I was thinking of in my comments there. In fact, that faith/works comment was a last second addition, due to what I just read. I'll probably elaborate on it more as I go through Leviticus.
Gotcha; and I agree with P. that, according to the book we're reading (the Bible as a whole, not just Leviticus) there is no remission of sin without bloodshed. But I think the case can be made that there is still Grace, even without it being named as such. Consider, after all:
Delete1) There's no reason why God should accept a sacrifice in place of the actual sinner, other than because He gracefully chooses to do so; and
2) All the sacrifices for sin (except in rare economic circumstances) are animals.
A big reason why animals and not plants are used for sacrifices going back to Genesis (remember Cain and Abel?) is because man has no part in the making of an animal (I mean, you can lead the steer to the cow, but, that's about it); it's all on God (through nature) to create a bull, or a lamb, or whatever. So it's God, with no help from man, creating the offering that man will then give to God for atonement for the man's sin. That is, the man is offering to God that which God has given the man, so there's really no cost to the man for the sacrifice. Which is pretty much the definition of Grace.
Oh, and on a side note, that's one big reason (of many) why beastiality is punished so severely in the Torah. You can't have humans getting directly involved in the animal making process; it might confuse the issue as to who actually made the animal.
Peace and Love,
Jimbo