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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780802402479 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Moody Publishers |
| Publication date: | 10/13/1983 |
| Series: | Everyman's Bible Commentaries |
| Edition description: | New Edition |
| Pages: | 144 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.50(d) |
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Read an Excerpt
Leviticus
God Among His People
By Samuel J. Schultz
Moody Publishers
Copyright © 1983 The Moody Bible Institute of ChicagoAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8024-0247-9
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
TITLE AND PLACE IN THE PENTATEUCH
The third book of the Old Testament was identified among the Hebrew scrolls by its opening word, wayyiqra, "and he called." When it was translated into Greek (in the Septuagint) in the third century B.C., it was entitled Leveitikon or Levitikon, an adjective qualifying Biblion (book). The Latin version (Vulgate) centuries later was entitled The Levitical, from which our English title Leviticus is derived.
The Jews seemed to have a better designation for the scope of this book when in the Mishnah they called it the "priests' law," "priests' book," and "law of offerings." Later, in the Talmud, they designated it as "Law of the priests." The Syrian Christians called it in the Peshitta "the book of the priests."
Although this book deals largely with priestly matters, the Levites are mentioned only once (25:32-34), not in reference to ritual functions but with regard to conditions governing land tenure. A careful reading of the text indicates that the book was addressed to Moses, Aaron, the congregation of Israel, and the priests, to guide them in maintaining a vital relationship with God in matters of worship, religious celebrations, and holy living.
The book of Leviticus is essential to the Pentateuch. The history of Israel began with the establishment of a vital relationship between God and Abraham, delineated in God's covenantal promise to the patriarchs (Gen. 12-50). When God called Moses, His promise was renewed and confirmed through His mighty acts in leading Israel out of Egypt (Ex. 118). As the Israelites were encamped at Mount Sinai, God established His covenant with them as a nation (Ex. 19-24).
The Israelites camped at Mount Sinai approximately one year, leaving under divine guidance on the twentieth day of the second month of the second year after the Exodus (Num. 10:11). While at Mount Sinai, God gave to Israel through Moses the most extensive revelation to be recorded in the Old Testament. Consequently, approximately one third of the Pentateuch (Ex. 19-40; Lev. 1-27; and Num. 1-10) relates to Israel's religion and was revealed to them during that year at Mount Sinai. Although most of the material in this part of the Pentateuch is revelatory, several significant events carry the historical narrative along.
1. Most significant was the establishment of God's covenant with Israel (Ex. 19-24). After that, Moses spent two forty-day periods on Mount Sinai. Most of the rest of that year was devoted to elaborate preparation, making the priestly garments and building the Tabernacle, with all its expensive furnishings (Ex. 25-39).
2. The Tabernacle was erected on the first day of the first month of the second year (Ex. 40) and dedicated as the dwelling place of God in the camp of Israel (cf. Num. 7-8).
3. The priesthood was instituted during an eight-day period (Lev. 8-10) in which the Tabernacle and its furnishings were dedicated (Ex. 40).
4. The Passover was observed on the fourteenth day of this month, marking the first anniversary of the Israelites' exodus from Egypt (Num. 9).
5. On the first day of the second month of the second year, a census was taken and Israel was organized, in preparation for her departure from Sinai on the twentieth day of that month (Num. 1-4).
The longest narrative segment in Leviticus, chapters 8-10, describes the institution of the priesthood. That segment is a very significant link in the Pentateuchal narrative and is basic to an understanding of Israel's relationship with God.
THE MATERIAL OF LEVITICUS
The material of this book lends itself readily to the following divisions:
1. Instructions and laws on sacrifice (chaps. 1-7)
2. Institution of the priesthood (chaps. 8-10)
3. Treatment of uncleanness (chaps. 11-15)
4. The Day of Atonement (chap. 16)
5. Instructions for holy living (chaps. 17-27)
Leviticus has a larger percentage of material attributed to God as the speaker than any other book in the Bible. Repeatedly the statement "God said" or "God commanded" indicates that what follows was given by God to Israel. Moses was the key person to whom and through whom God communicated with His people. Frequently he was instructed to convey God's messages to Aaron, the priests, and to the whole assembly of Israel.
Following is a summary of the divine-human communication in Leviticus:
1. Nine times in chapters 1-7 it is stated that God spoke to Moses, giving instructions concerning sacrifices: God spoke to Moses (5:14; 6:1); God told Moses to speak to the Israelites (1:1; 4:1; 7:22, 28); God spoke to Moses with instructions for Aaron (6:8, 19, 24).
2. Chapters 8-10 state only twice that God spoke, once to Moses (8:1) and once to Aaron (10:8). However these chapters repeatedly say that what was being done was in accordance with what God had commanded, The material in 8:4, 5, 9, 13, 17, 21, 29, 34, 36 reflects the instructions previously given to Moses on Mount Sinai (Ex. 29). Leviticus 9:6, 7, 10, 21 seems to be a freer summary of the instructions in Leviticus 1-7; and 10:7, 13, 15 reflect instructions in chapters 6-7. Thus most of the material in chapters 8-10 originated with God's direct communication.
3. The instructions to Moses concerning uncleanness are given in 12:1 (to be conveyed to Israel) and 14:1. Four times God spoke to Moses and Aaron (11:1; 13:1; 14:33; 15:1).
4. The instructions in chapter 16 for observing the Day of Atonement were spoken by God to Moses. The entire chapter is headed by the words "the Lord spoke to Moses," and Moses gave the instructions to Aaron.
5. Throughout the principles and instructions for holy living (chaps. 17-27), the expression "the Lord spoke to Moses" occurs seventeen times. Eleven sections tell of Moses' being directed to give each message to the Israelites (18:1; 19:1; 20:1; 23:1, 9, 23, 26; 24:1, 13; 25:1; 27:1). Two messages were to be conveyed to Aaron (17:1 and 21:16) and four to Aaron and his sons (21:1; 22:1, 17, 26). The principles and instructions as a whole are considered to have their origin in God.
In light of the above summary, it is obvious that most of the content of Leviticus was revelation, communicated to the Israelites through Moses, whom God chose to speak for Him.
WRITTEN FORM
When was the material in Leviticus committed to writing? According to Exodus 19, the Ten Commandments were spoken by God to the Israelites, but in subsequent days written copies were provided for the Israelites (Ex. 24:4; 34:27-28). After that, Moses addressed the whole Israelite community, instructing it to build the Tabernacle as God had commanded (Ex. 35:4-19). When were the instructions concerning the Tabernacle, the priesthood, offerings and observances (the revelations recorded in Exodus 25-31; 35-39; Leviticus 1-27) committed to writing?
Since the turn of the twentieth century, Old Testament scholarship has maintained that Leviticus, together with parts of Genesis, Exodus and Numbers, constituted a literary document composed in exilic times c. 550 B.C. That priestly document (P), according to the classic exposition of Julius Wellhausen, in his Prolegomena to the History of Israel (1878), reflected a religious evolution in which the simple, spontaneous worship of early Israel had developed, by exilic times into a ritualistic legalism. That theory has dominated biblical scholarship for about a century and permeates commentaries, Bible dictionaries and encyclopedias, and textbooks. Even though the view is purely theoretical, it is accepted by modern, naturalistic scholarship as axiomatic and frequently is not subjected to critical examination.
When that theory was advanced by Wellhausen and his fellow scholars in the nineteenth century, relatively little was known about the cultural, literary, and religious customs of the second millennium B.C., the time of Moses. The Wellhausen dictum that Moses could not write, and that writing before the time of David was limited to specialists, was advocated as late as 1893 (cf. H. Schultz, Old Testament Theology, 1:25). Since the turn of the century, archaeological excavations have provided extensive information concerning the cultural context of Old Testament times that necessitates an examination of some of the theories advocated decades ago.
Actually, writing dates back to about 3100 B.C. Egyptian and Akkadian literature has provided evidence of extensive literary interests in the Nile and Tigris-Euphrates centers of education as early as the middle of the third millennium B.C. Before 1929, very few texts of the West Semitic dialects, to which biblical Hebrew belongs, could be traced to earlier than 900 B.C., but the discovery of Ugarit (1929), a Northwest Semitic language quite closely related to Hebrew and Canaanite/Phoenician, gives evidence for its common use along the Mediterranean coast during the thirteenth-fourteenth century B.C. Excavations at Mari along the Euphrates (1930) date the use of the West Semitic dialects back to the eighteenth century B.C. Now the recent discovery of the Ebla-Mardikh literature points to an extensive use of the West Semitic dialects throughout the Kingdom of Ebla, about 2400 B.C.
Thus, significantly, the West Semitic dialects to which Hebrew belongs were in use in the heart of the Fertile Crescent about four centuries before the time of Abraham and approximately a thousand years before the Mosaic era. In the light of that historical and cultural background, it would seem quite appropriate to believe that Moses would have used the Hebrew language to record matters that he considered important for his people, Israel, to know as they settled in Canaan.
In view of the priestly nature of the book of Leviticus, it is important, in considering Moses as author, to note the literary involvement of the priesthood in the ancient Near East.
Early in the third millennium B.C., the Sumerians established the tradition of giving the priesthood responsibility for all forms of education. In major areas of concern, such as the cultus, medicine, civil administration, and law, the important procedural canons were usually committed to writing very early. Those were transmitted in written form by scribes and pupils, without editing or changes in the text. In Egypt, such literature as the "Pyramid texts," medical texts, and Memphite theology, which magnified deity Ptah as the First Cause, was written down in the third millennium B.C.
Scribal practice in the Near East indicates that commonly used liturgies and rituals were committed to writing and passed on for centuries and communicated to the people orally from the written copies. Priestly traditions related to the cultus were especially important and were preserved in writing for repeated usage.
No statement in the book of Leviticus ascribes authorship to Moses. In the book of Exodus certain sections are credited to him (17:14; 24:4; 34:27). The last two references tell of Moses' writing down the material revealed to him at Mount Sinai. Because the bulk of Leviticus was given through direct revelation, it seems logical that Moses would have been equally concerned about preserving it for future generations and thus would have committed it to writing soon after communicating it orally to his people.
During the early years of his life, Moses had been educated in Egypt. In all likelihood he was familiar with, if not involved with, the literary activities of the Egyptian priests who were responsible for education. Since it was customary for the priesthood to commit religious rituals and medical and administrative instructions to writing, it is certainly probable that Moses would have done the same when he was responsible for those matters.
When the materials for building the Tabernacle were collected, Moses assigned the Levites, under the direction of Ithamar, son of Aaron, to make a record of the contributions (Ex. 28:21). It is thus reasonable to assume that Moses asked the Levites and priests also to record the instructions that God communicated to him on Mount Sinai, which may have involved them in research and the writing of the entire Pentateuch before Moses died.
Of particular interest is the literary form in Leviticus of the regulations concerning sacrifices (1:1–7:38). The purity of the Hebrew text in these chapters, which contain only minor difficulties, leads Harrison to conclude that this sacrificial legislation is "an original, unadulterated core of Hebrew" writing. It was characteristic in ancient Near Eastern nations to exercise great care in transmitting priestly material in the exact form in which it had been written by the scribes.
The conclusion of that legislation (7:37-38) is written in a colophon form frequently used in ancient Mesopotamian documents. The colophon–often containing the title or designation, the date of writing, and the name of the owner or scribe–was usually the conclusion of a tablet. In the book of Genesis, eleven such literary units are identified by "these are the generations of." As was characteristic in a colophon, the material here is identified as commanded by God (cf. the title in 1:1) and given by Moses, the owner or scribe to whom God gave the regulations "on Mount Sinai on the day He commanded the Israelites to bring their offerings to the Lord, in the Desert of Sinai" (7:38).
Consequently, the material regulating sacrifices is regarded as authentic second-millennium literature. In content and form it is so similar to other literature of that period that it is reasonable to assign the authorship to Moses.
Moses may have been acquainted with quite a few languages of the Fertile Crescent. During the New Kingdom era, Egypt was the most powerful kingdom in the Near East, extending its conquest and control up to the Euphrates River and beyond. Most likely Moses was familiar with the Northwest Semitic language, which included the Eblaite, Hebrew, and other Canaanite languages such as Phoenician and Ugaritic (which used a local cuneiform alphabet). He may also have known the East Semitic (Sumero-Akkadian) common to the Tigris-Euphrates region.
Moses also had training in the history and religion of his forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, especially in regard to the promises God had made to Israel. Being personally involved with Israel's religion he was aware of its uniqueness in contrast to the religions of the Egyptians and Canaanites. Thus he had a basic concern that the Israelites carefully maintain a vital relationship with God. (That concern was later expressed in his oral communication to all Israel, recorded in Deuteronomy.) Consequently he would have been careful to preserve in writing the revelatory material entrusted to him to communicate to Israel. It would have been quite normal to write the revelations down soon after he had communicated them orally to the priests and the assembly of Israel.
Crucial to the question of when and by whom the book of Leviticus was written is an understanding of revelation and inspiration. Throughout the text, the statement that God spoke to Moses (and Aaron) occurs thirty-eight times. If that frequent assertion is accepted as trustworthy, then God communicated orally with Moses in giving His revelation. Does the modern scholar who accepts the standard critical view that Leviticus was written around 550 B.C. accept the material as divinely revealed to Moses? If so, then we may look for some documentation or evidence that the material was transmitted with accuracy for so many centuries after being revealed to Moses. Would inspiration or the guidance of the Holy Spirit ensure that what had been transmitted orally for such a long time would be recorded accurately?
From a human perspective it is reasonable to assume that the reliability of the account would correlate to the proximity in time between the first written copy and Moses himself, the recipient of divine revelation. If Moses had recorded the content of God's revelation without divine aid, the written copy would have been subject to error. If one recognizes with the New Testament writers that the Old Testament was written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, then the written text can be accepted as a trustworthy and reliable account of what God had revealed to Moses. It was, in fact, accepted as such in New Testament times.
So we see that the book of Leviticus is more than mere history or an ordinary manual for priests. In addition to Moses' historical, cultural, and religious context, one should recognize that God spoke, and Moses listened and communicated God's revelation to the Israelites, who had been miraculously delivered from Egyptian bondage. Since Moses had written other historical, legal, and revelatory material for his people, as indicated in Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, we can be confident that soon after his oral communication, the Leviticus material was committed to writing for future generations.
THEOLOGICAL CONTEXT
The narrative of Leviticus portrays Israel, an independent nation, in relationship with God. The book gives instructions for many aspects of everyday life, in which the Israelites were to reflect that they were God's holy people. Under the guidance of the priesthood, they were taught to maintain a right relationship with God through sacrifices and offerings. If the relationship was broken through sin, it could be restored through the proper offering. Observances of the feasts and seasons incorporated into their pattern of living a continual reminder that they were God's people.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Leviticus by Samuel J. Schultz. Copyright © 1983 The Moody Bible Institute of Chicago. Excerpted by permission of Moody Publishers.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents
Preface,1. Introduction,
2. God Among His People,
3. Worship Offerings and Sacrifices,
4. Clean and Unclean,
5. The Day of Atonement,
6. Living as God's Holy People,
7. Religious Festivals,
8. Solemn Choices,
Select Bibliography,