Leviticus

Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching

Samuel E. Balentine

• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9781611649314
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

This volume in the popular Interpretation series presents the book of Leviticus. It focuses on the history of Israel during this time when Israel's life was marked by the various ritual sacrifices and observances commanded by God for the ordering of the nation's life.

Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching is a distinctive resource for those who interpret the Bible in the church. Planned and written specifically for teaching and preaching needs, this critically acclaimed biblical commentary is a major contribution to scholarship and ministry.

PART ONE

The Gift of Sacrifice

LEVITICUS 1–7

Leviticus 1–7 introduces the gifts of sacrifice. Two series of instructions identify the gifts and outline how they are to be brought to God. The first (1:3–6:7; MT: 1:3–5:26) deals with five major offerings, each presented from the perspective of the donor: burnt offerings, cereal offerings, well-being offerings, purification offerings, and reparation offerings. The first three of these are voluntary offerings; the last two are required. The second series (6:8–7:36; MT: 6:1–7:36) addresses the same offerings, this time from the perspective of the priests. The two sets of instructions are framed by an introduction (1:1–2) and a conclusion (7:37–38) that tie all the offerings to the revelation from God to Moses at the tent of meeting that was erected at Sinai (cf. Exodus 25–31, 35–40).

Leviticus 1:1–17

Burnt Offerings

The instructions concerning burnt offerings move from the general to the specific. An introductory statement (vv. 1–2) addresses the general category of animal “gifts” (qorbān: NRSV: “offering”) that anyone may bring to God. Three subunits define these gifts as burnt offerings “from the herd” (vv. 3–9), “from the flock” (vv. 10–13), and “of birds” (vv. 14–16). The instructions concerning these gifts are given in considerable detail, first in the section dealing with offerings from the herd, then a second and third time, with some variations, in the sections dealing with the flock and the birds. Readers may be tempted to rush past the details in order to find more quickly the theology they convey. The search for theological meaning is clearly important. It is prudent to remember, however, that here and throughout Leviticus, the journey toward understanding necessarily runs through, not around, the specifics of the text. To recast a popular saying, readers of Leviticus will find that “God is in the details.”

Introduction (1:1–2)

The first words of Leviticus are designed to introduce a special revelatory experience in the history of Israel. According to the final arrangement of the Pentateuch, God has “summoned (yiqrāʾ) Moses” on three previous occasions. In Exod. 3:4, God summons Moses from the burning bush in order to disclose the name YHWH that would mark God’s special relationship with Israel. In Exod. 19:3, God summons Moses a second time, on this occasion from Mount Sinai, and gives to him the Ten Commandments. On the third occasion, Exod. 24:16, God summons Moses from the cloud that has covered Mount Sinai; what follows are God’s instructions for building the tabernacle (Exodus 25–31). Leviticus 1:1 announces that God summons Moses from the newly erected “tent of meeting” (see Exodus 35–40), also called the “tabernacle” (cf. Lev. 8:10; 15:31; 17:4; 26:11), which has now become the only specific place in all creation that is described as being filled with the “glory of the Lord” (Exod. 40:35; Fretheim, Exodus, p. 315). Leviticus presents what God now says to Moses, and what Moses must now speak to the whole community of Israel, as the most immediate and intimate revelation from God available in the cosmos.

This is surely an astonishing claim. The closest parallel in Christian Scripture is the assertion that God is fully present in Jesus (John 1:14–16). The Christian community will typically hear and embrace the latter claim as a requisite part of its credo. For many Christians, however, the revelation from Leviticus is passively ignored or actively shunned. The introductory verse serves notice that Leviticus, with all its instructions and rituals, claims to be an essential part of the ongoing revelation from God to humanity. To hear and respond to its disclosures is to draw near to the very presence of God.

The term tent of meeting designates the structure built at Sinai as the place where God and people “meet” or “come together.” In the priestly traditions of Exodus, the construction and purpose of the tent/tabernacle explicate creation theology. The theophany in which God discloses to Moses the instructions for the tabernacle begins on the seventh day (Exod. 24:16). The instructions are then conveyed through seven speeches, each distinguished by the introductory formula “The Lord said/spoke to Moses” (Exod. 25:1; 30:11, 17, 22, 34; 31:1, 12). The seventh speech (31:12–17) concludes the instructions by specifying God’s plans for the Sabbath day, thus echoing the seventh-day celebration in the creational account of Gen. 2:1–4. The construction of the tabernacle begins by returning to the instructions concerning the Sabbath day (Exod. 35:2–3), following which the work is done “just as the Lord had commanded Moses,” a phrase that repeats seven times in Exod. 40:17–33. The conclusion formula in Exod. 40:33—“So Moses finished the work”—recalls the similar notice in Gen. 2:2—“God finished the work” (on these and other parallels, see Balentine, pp. 136–41). Such parallels suggest that the construction of the tabernacle completes the work God began in creating the world. A necessary part of creation’s completion, Leviticus insists, are these instructions enabling ordinary people to come into the presence of a holy God.

Toward this end, Lev. 1:2 addresses the “people of Israel” as ʾādām (NRSV: “any [of you]”), the same term that Gen. 1:26–27 uses to describe the creation of human beings (ʾādām) in the image of God. The term is all-inclusive and signals that all persons, regardless of gender, race, or economic station, are summoned and enabled to respond to these first divine words from the tent. Elsewhere Leviticus uses ʾādām, or the equivalent term nepeš, “person” (2:1; 4:2; 5:1, 2; etc.; NRSV: “anyone”; “any of you”), in ways that suggest the invitation extends to resident aliens and foreigners as well as Israelites (Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, pp. 144–45). The response that is invited is to “bring” (yaqrîb) an “offering” (qorbān). The verb, which specifies the performative act, has the sense of “drawing near” and in a cultic setting means to approach God for the purpose of making a presentation or offering. The noun, which derives from the verb, specifies the object that is presented to God. The term qorbān, which is unique to the Priestly tradition, is inclusive of a variety of offerings and sacrifices. Common to all is the basic sense of “gift,” that is, a presentation intended to please, satisfy, delight the recipient.

“If the Offering Is a Burnt Offering from the Herd” (1:3–9)

Under the general category of gifts offered to God, the instructions now proceed to describe three subtypes of the specific offering known as the “burnt offering.” The burnt offering (ʿōlâ) is the most frequently mentioned and likely the most ancient of the offerings used in Israel. Although its history is complicated (for a full discussion, see Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, pp. 172–76), the burnt offering appears to have served a wide variety of emotional, psychological, and religious purposes, including entreaty (1 Sam. 13:12), appeasement (1 Sam. 7:9; 2 Sam. 24:21–25), thanksgiving (Lev. 22:17–19; Num. 15:3), and expiation, which is the purpose singled out in Lev. 1:4 (cf. Lev. 9:7; 14:20; 16:24). The distinguishing feature of the ʿōlâ (literally, “that which ascends”) is that the entire animal (with the exception of the skin; cf. Lev. 7:8) is burned on the altar. According to the Hebrew expression in verse 9, the whole animal is “turned into smoke,” thus producing a pleasing aroma that ascends toward heaven and pleases God. The designation of the burnt offering as the first of the offerings conforms to the practice in other lists, where it consistently precedes other types of sacrifices. This practice may have signaled nothing more than a practical, perhaps administrative way of arranging the offerings (Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, p. 146). It is instructive to speculate whether the burnt offering may also have served as the “inviting offering,” that is, the initial gift designed to attract God’s attention, thereby inviting a gracious response to those who desire to approach God’s presence (Kaiser, p. 1010).

Each of the subtypes is introduced with a conditional clause beginning with “if” (vv. 3, 10, 14), which is followed by prescriptions for the offering. Three types of animals—an unblemished male from the herd (e.g., bull or ox; vv. 3–9), an unblemished male from the flock (sheep or goat; vv. 10–13), or birds (doves or pigeons; vv. 14–17)—may be selected for the burnt offering. The choices are arranged on a sliding scale of cost to the donor. The most costly gift is the bull, which only the wealthy could afford to sacrifice. The least costly is the offering of birds, which are more plentiful and thus more obtainable, even by the poor, who may not have or be able to afford to spare anything from the herd or the flock. There is no suggestion that God values the choices differently, just as there is no suggestion that God regards the offerings of the wealthy as more desirable or efficacious than those of the poor. In each case the legitimate hope and expectation of every donor is that the gift will be “an offering … of pleasing odor to the Lord” (vv. 9, 13, 17).

“If the offering is a burnt offering from the herd” (v. 3), the following seven general prescriptions obtain:

•Presentation (v. 3). The donor brings an unblemished male to the sacrificial altar located at the entrance of the tent of meeting. In a spatial sense, the sacrificial altar is located in the outer court between the entrance to the entire tabernacle complex and the Holy Place. In a theological sense, the “entrance of the tent” is the place for the ritual enactment of the intersection between God and people, between the holy and the common. As Gorman puts it, “God and humans come together in the actualization of the story they share. In ritual, God and people … construct, enact, and actualize a community that is identified not only in, by, and through its story but also in, by, and through its ritual” (Gorman, Divine Presence and Community, 25).

•Laying a hand on the animal’s head (v. 4). The purpose of this symbolic act is not entirely clear. It certainly conveys the idea of ownership; that is, donors indicate by this gesture that the animal belongs to them and that they desire that it be acceptable on their behalf. Beyond this, some commentators reference the hand-laying rite in Lev. 16:21–22, which suggests a symbolic transference of sin from the donor to the animal (e.g., Kaiser, p. 1011; Gerstenberger, p. 28). Because the offering described here is voluntary and spontaneously motivated, one not required by sin or guilt, it is questionable whether transference of sin is the primary idea.

•Slaughter (v. 5). Having presented and claimed ownership of the animal, the donor ritually slaughters it by cutting its throat. The ritual is enacted “before the Lord,” which indicates that to this point the process continues to take place in the outer court. The rabbis add that both the animal and the donor must face west, toward the sanctuary, which further indicates that the sacrifice is intentionally and specifically directed to God (Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, p. 155).

•Presentation of the blood (v. 5b). From this point forward the responsibility for presenting the offering shifts from the donor to the priests, since only the priests can ascend to the altar (1 Sam. 2:28). The priests “dash” or “throw” the blood against the sides of the altar, a ritual reminder that in priestly theology, “the life of the flesh is in the blood” (Lev. 17:11). Priestly sensitivity to bloodshed is based on the understanding that the taking of a life, whether animal or human, is a dangerous act. God alone sets the boundaries that mark where life begins and ends.

The rationale for this theology may be traced to the Priestly account of the proscriptions regarding blood in Genesis 9. In the postflood world, God reissues the creational commission for humans to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth (Gen. 9:1, 7; cf. Gen. 1:28). Within this summons to life there is, however, a pointed, thrice-repeated warning that God will “require a reckoning” (v. 5) for the shedding of blood. The warning applies to eating the blood of animals and to shedding human blood. Both cases serve as a reminder that the taking of life, carelessly, needlessly, even sacrificially, moves one into the area of God’s domain. With this proscription in place, God reissues a covenantal promise that now extends to all creation (vv. 9–10, 12–13, 15–17). The promise is God’s unilateral commitment to life. Humans are summoned to participate in this promise and sustain its claim, because they have been created in the image of God (v. 6; cf. Gen. 1:27). Leviticus enjoins such imaging of God by instructing that the killing of an animal be enacted ritually and in a sacred place where blood/life is returned to God.

•Flaying the animal (vv. 6–8). The donor skins and quarters the animal. The priest stokes the fire, arranges the wood, and places the animal parts on the fire. Special attention is given to the head and the suet, the fat that surrounds the internal organs. There appears to be a careful ordering in the placement of the items on the altar—meat quarters, head, suet, then entrails and legs (see v. 9)—although the significance of the arrangement is not clear. One suggestive proposal is that body parts are stacked in a hierarchy that corresponds to the hierarchical gradations of holiness in the tabernacle (Douglas, Leviticus as Literature, pp. 66–86). Thus the head and meat quarters correspond to the tabernacle’s outer court area, the first level of holiness; the suet, which may be viewed anatomically as the middle area that separates the upper body (head) from the lower abdomen (entrails), correspond to the middle area of the tabernacle complex, the Holy Place, which constitutes the second level of holiness; the entrails (including the genital organs?) correspond to the Holy of Holies, the most sacred part of the tabernacle. In other words, at the apex of the burnt offering, the place where the sacrifice begins the last step in the ascent to God, the priest places the most holy part of the animal’s anatomy: the entrails, the innermost being of the body, the place from which life itself—human or animal—is generated.

•Washing the entrails and legs (v. 9a). The donor washes the entrails to remove the dung, and the legs presumably to remove any uncleanness caused by contact with semen, urine, or contaminations from the ground. The ritual of washing reflects the priestly concern to avoid defiling the holy by having it come into contact with anything unclean. Distinguishing between the clean and the unclean, particularly with reference to food, body fluids, and skin diseases, is the principal concern of Leviticus 11–15. Readers will find further discussion of the issues in the commentary on these chapters.

•Burning (v. 9b). The priest burns the whole offering on the altar. The verb, hiqtîr, literally “turn into smoke,” is instructive for two reasons. First, it is not the normal word for “burn” (śārap), which is used for nonsacrificial incineration; it is rather a distinctive term for offerings to God on the altar (e.g., 3:11: suet; 6:8: cereal; 8:20–21: meat). Second, the root qtr has to do with “smoke.” In this verbal form the precise meaning is “to turn something into smoke.” The primary sense is that the burnt offering goes up as smoke. From a theological perspective, one may say that the act of burning is more concerned with transformation than with incineration (Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, pp. 160–61). What has been placed on the altar is literally an animal. The ritual has transformed the animal into something else—smoke—and this smoke now requires a new name. It now ascends as a “gift” (ʾiššēh; NRSV: “offering”), a food offering specifically and intentionally given to God. More important, this gift is purposeful. Its express purpose is to provide a “pleasing odor to the Lord” (cf. vv. 13, 17). The donor desires and expects that the gift will give pleasure to...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Series Preface
• Preface
• Dedicaion
• Contents
• Introduction
• Part One The Gift of Sacrifice Leviticus 1–7
• Part Two Ordination, Holy Worship, and Unholy Behavior Leviticus 8–10
• Part Three Instructions on Purity and Impurity Leviticus 11–15
• Part Four The Day of Purification Leviticus 16:1–34
• Part Five The Holiness Code Leviticus 17–27
• Bibliography