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Leviticus, Volume 4

ZONDERVAN

Regulations for Sacrifices (1:1–7:38)

Form/Structure/Setting

Lev 1–7 contains regulations for presenting various kinds of sacrifices and for offering different kinds of animals within each sacrificial category. Special attention is paid to the role of the priests in the rituals and to the portions that become the priests' as their source of income. However, there is no extensive treatment of the theological significance of the various sacrifices or of sacrifice in general. Emphasis is on the kinds and forms of sacrificial materials and the rituals for each kind of sacrifice.

This section is bounded by an introduction (1:1–2) and a conclusion (7: [35–36] 37–38). The introduction ties this section to Exod 40, which recounts Moses' setting up of the Tent of Meeting in the wilderness and the divine glory filling it. It carries forward the theme that the directions God had given Moses on the mountain for making the cultic furnishings and setting the cult into operation were carried out exactly according to God's instructions.

This section consists of two units, chaps. 1–5 and chaps. 6–7. Both are concerned with the same sacrifices, but the sacrifices are listed in a different order and treated from a different perspective. The sacrifices in chaps. 1–5 appear in this order:

Whole offering (chap. 1)
Grain offering (chap. 2)
Offering of well-being (chap. 3)
Purification offering (4:1–5:13)
Reparation offering (5:14–26[6:l–7])

The order found in chaps. 6–7 is as follows:

Whole offering (6:1–6 [8–13])
Grain offering (6:7–11 [14–18])
Grain offering at ordination (6:12–16[19–23])
Purification offering (6:17–23 [24–30])
Reparation offering (7:1–10)
Offering of well-being (7:11–21, 28–34)

The primary differences between these two lists are the location of the offering of well-being and the inclusion of the ordination offering in the second list. Rendtorff (Lev, 8) suggests that the order arises from the importance placed on the various sacrifices in different eras. The offering of well-being may, however, appear last in the second list, for in practice it was usually offered after the other sacrifices so that a clan or family might eat a festive meal after the various sacrificial rituals of the day. Moreover, Rainey (Bib 51 [1970] 486–88) differentiates these two lists according to the intent of the units: chaps. 1–5 are didactic and chaps. 6–7 are descriptions of administrative details.

Chaps. 1–5 fall into two parts: chaps. 1–3 and chaps. 4–5. The offerings in chaps. 1–3 concern sacrifices that are offered as a [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], "soothing aroma to Yahweh"—the whole offering [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], the grain offering [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], and the offering of well-being [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]. The rituals for the two offerings involving animals are ordered according to the kind of animal presented. Since these sacrifices may be offered freely by the laity, no occasion is defined for their being offered. The offerings described in chaps. 4–5 concern sacrifices that [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], "expiate," specific sins: the purification offering [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] and the reparation offering [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]. The former offering is regulated according to the status of the person required to make the sacrifice, and the latter offering is regulated according to the nature of the offense. This latter regulation differs from the others in that it lacks a ritual prescription. With the offerings in chaps. 4–5 there are two pericopes that describe typical cases requiring these sacrifices (5:1–7; 5:20–26[6:l–7]). For anyone who had sinned, the presentation of one of these offerings was not optional. That person had to make such an offering to continue as a member of the covenant community.

The formula in 1:2aβ+b encompasses the material in chaps. 1–5, but it serves as a specific heading to chaps. 1 and 3. The regulations for the whole offering and the offering of well-being (3:1–7) are dependent on the case statement [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], "anyone of you who presents an offering to Yahweh." The case is introduced by O, "that" (1:2), and the regulations by [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], "if" (1:3; 3:1). This pattern suggests that at one stage these two offerings followed each other. The regulations for grain offerings (chap. 2) now separate these two sets of regulations; that the regulations for grain offerings are independent from the regulations for the whole offering and the offering of well-being is evidenced by their being headed by a case formula and by the wording of that formula, [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], "a person that." The present location of chap. 2 results from the customary practice of presenting a grain offering with a whole offering.

The authoritative formula [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], "Yahweh spoke to Moses," sets off chap. 4 from chaps. 1–3 and 5:14–26(6:7) from 4:1–5:13. Nevertheless, the formula of chap. 2 accords with that of the purification offering in 4:2. The similar style of [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], "if a person," links together chaps. 2 and 4 along with 5:14–26(6:7). In the present order of the book, then, chaps. 1–5 are tied together by the alternating pattern of the formula for the cases a:b::a:b (chaps. l:2::3:4–5).

The material found in chaps. 6–7 is a composite of instructions [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] concerning other details about the sacrifices. It is especially concerned with the holiness of the sacrifices and the proper handling of the remains after the sacrificial ritual has been performed. There is, furthermore, special interest in the parts that the priests receive. A major insertion deals with the daily grain offering presented by a priest at his ordination. At the core of this section are five instructions pertaining to the various sacrifices: the whole offering (6:1–6[8–13]), the grain offering (6:7–11 [14–18]), the purification offering (6:17–23[24–30]), the reparation offering (7:1–10), and the offering of well-being (7:11–21). The instruction for the offering of well-being also has attracted two extended portions from the large corpus for instruction of the laity; the first pericope contains regulations about the eating of fat and blood (7:22–27), and the second gives more details about the various kinds of offerings of well-being (7:28–34). In the present setting this material, which is addressed to the priests, is included to increase the laity's knowledge about procedures at a cultic center. This position is supported by the broader heading about speaking to the Israelites at l:2aa, which applies to all of chaps. 1–7 in the final form of Leviticus. The merit of this position is confirmed by the directions to "speak to the Israelites" in 7:23aa and 28aa, which supplement the restrictive headings to speak to Aaron and his sons found in 6:2aa (9aa) and 18aa (25aa). The inclusion of these later pericopes in the corpus of chaps. 6–7 makes sense only if the final editor perceived that the audience of these chapters was the whole community. In this light chaps. 6–7 are composed from material taken from the priestly corpus and set here for the further instruction of the laity in the procedures of the cult. The two headings addressed to the priests have been preserved in order to communicate to the laity that they are learning professional information that may not be modified by them. The laity learn why the priests do certain things and what portions of an offering are the priests' rightful income. Moreover, this teaching equips the laity to make sure that the priests are doing their task properly. This leads to greater involvement of the laity in the ritual worship of Yahweh, rather than their dependence on the priests and passivity in the rituals at the sanctuary.

At the end of this section is a complex summary statement (7:35–38). Vv 35–36 are the conclusion to chaps. 6–7, but vv 37–38 serve to conclude chaps. 1–7. They make a tie back to 1:1. But they differ from 1:1, for in them Moses receives the laws on Mount Sinai rather than from the Tent of Meeting. Hoffmann (1:20–24) posits that the corpus found in chaps. 6–7 was given on Mount Sinai along with the material in Exod 25–31. In making mention of Mount Sinai, it establishes a connection with the report of Moses' ascension of Mount Sinai in Exod 24:15–18. Moreover, the presence of only one mention of the consecration sacrifice in chaps. 1–7, at 6:12–16[19–23], and its position in the list after the reparation offering rather than after the grain offering as its location in 6:12 are additional evidences that this list is not the exclusive summary to chaps. 6–7. Rather this summary ties chaps. 1–7 into Exod 29–40, and it points forward to Lev 9. The design of this concluding formula is not to contradict 1:1, in which Moses receives the revelation from the Tent of Meeting, but to tie chaps. 1–7 into the larger corpus of Exod 25–Num 10.

What is the historical setting for these regulations of sacrifices? They go back to the origin of Israel as a nation at Mount Sinai. As soon as Israel became the people of God under the covenant, their sacrificial practices, which had roots reaching far back into the patriarchal era, had to be regulated to conform to the worship of the one true God. Pure worship was essential in order to fulfill the commandment "you shall have no other gods before me" (Exod 20:3). Given the human proneness to sinning, maintaining fellowship with the holy God, the very purpose of the covenant, would be possible only if the people had ready access to means of atonement. The sacrificial system was inaugurated to provide that access. In other words, from its very inception a community or nation that worshiped Yahweh had to have cultic and sacrificial standards that were regulated to correspond to the exclusive demands of Yahweh, their holy God. The tradition recognizes this necessity, for it regularly underlines the authority of these regulations with the formula "Yahweh spoke to Moses."

These sacrificial instructions were composed for the instruction of the laity about the regulations for the presentation of sacrifices, particularly those presented by an individual. They may have had a place in the cultic ritual. The priest may have recited a specific regulation for the sacrifice being presented before beginning the ritual, or a priest may have delivered them each day when he began to receive public sacrifices. The fact that the basic ritual consists of short, simple sentences, as Koch (Priesterschrift, 45–61) has demonstrated, indicates that these rituals were originally composed for oral instruction. During the pre-exilic era these instructions would have been housed at the central shrine and at other altars throughout the land. Thus the laity scattered throughout the promised land would have access to them. When Jerusalem became the cultic center, a copy, becoming the standard copy, would have been kept at the Temple.

It is very likely that these regulations fell out of use during the various eras of apostasy in the history of ancient Israel. And it can be supposed that in various eras the regulations were used differently than suggested above. Thus they had a long and complex history of transmission before they came into their present form. Additions were incorporated to give authority to local practices. Other changes were made to bring the regulations into line with changing social and cultic practices. During seasons of conflict with the encroachment of specific pagan practices into the true worship of Yahweh, statutes and exhortations were incorporated to warn the people of the danger of such practices. Furthermore, words and phrases were added to the corpus to clarify details, to explain archaic terms, and to regulate more precisely various practices.

Such editorial activity took place throughout the time of the Judges and the Kingdom. There were, furthermore, periods of major changes in the cult, times that would have inspired such editorial work on the cultic corpus. Some of those times may be mentioned. David made Jerusalem the cultic center by bringing the ark to Jerusalem (2 Sam 6; 1 Chr 15–16). He did much to organize the orders of the priests and Levites to serve at the new cult center and to establish the choral music of the cult (1 Chr 15:10–24; 16:37–42; 23:1–24:3). Solomon followed David's ordinances at the new Temple (2 Chr 8:14–15). Nevertheless, he did not have as great an impact on the ordering of the priests and matters of worship as did David, his father. Later, during the various reform movements, various changes were made at the Temple, especially under Hezekiah (2 Chr 29–31) and Josiah (2 Chr 34:1–35:19). Certain practices would have been stressed and new procedures introduced both to correct improper practices and to set up barriers against syncretistic or pagan abuses. The fact that Hezekiah had to pulverize Nehushtan, the bronze serpent that Moses had lifted up in the wilderness for the people to be healed from the bite of fiery serpents (2 Kgs 18:4; Num 21:4–9), bears witness to how a sacred relic could be turned into an object of idolatry and the radical changes that these reforming kings undertook to establish pure worship of Yahweh. Under the reform of Hezekiah and even more so under that of Josiah, especially with their making Jerusalem the single cultic center, the ancient regulations had to be edited in order to standardize the variant, permissible practices from outlying shrines and in order to prohibit variant practices judged to be syncretistic. That is, the regulations that went back to Moses were treated as an ongoing tradition until they became canonized in the Pentateuch around the time of the exile. The term "ongoing" means that these regulations were adjusted to incorporate changing practices. The basic regulations had their authority from the revelation of the covenant at Mount Sinai. Nevertheless, God continued to speak to Israel. Therefore, all changes and adjustments were considered fully authoritative, and thus they were preserved under the authoritative heading "Yahweh spoke to Moses."

With the trauma of the exile, which threatened the existence of Israel as the people of God, the priests realized that the various cultic traditions and standards needed to be collected, arranged, and preserved. Their work preserved the traditions of their ancestors in the document that is called the Pentateuch.

Regarding the genre of this section of Leviticus, these regulations may be classified as rituals (Rendtorff, Lev, 18–20). Another possible category for them is instructions [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]. But who is being instructed? Rainey (Bib 51 [1970] 486) says that this corpus is "a pedagogical classification for the training of sacerdotal specialists." While this classification is possible, the material is addressed to the laity, as the terms [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], "one" (1:2; 3:1), and [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], "person" (2:1; 4:2), indicate. Furthermore, the content of this corpus is directive, not detailed and exhaustive. This is confirmed by the use of [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.], "instruction," in the section addressed to the priests in chaps. 6–7 but not in chaps. 1–5 or those parts of chap. 7 addressed to the people. Specific details, such as directions about where the layman is to stand in relation to the priest and the animal, the type of knife to be used in the slaughter, the precise manner of slaughter, and what the laity and the priest are to say are missing. Priests had to know all of these details. Thus it is hard to see how these texts were the manual of instructions for priests. Rather they are a basic outline of the procedure for sacrifice with emphasis on the ritual acts to be performed by the laity and the priest. As Noth (20) states, the laity learned about their responsibilities for presenting sacrifices and those acts that they must let the priest perform. Thus, as Rainey says, these regulations in chaps. 1–5 are didactic and those in chaps. 6–7 are descriptions of administrative details.

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Excerpted from Leviticus, Volume 4 by John E. Hartley, Bruce M. Metzger, David A. Hubbard, Glenn W. Barker. Copyright © 1992 Thomas Nelson, Inc.. Excerpted by permission of ZONDERVAN.
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