Leithart.com | Bible - OT - Leviticus Archives

Category Archive: Bible - OT - Leviticus

Sacrifice and death - November 15, 2007
It has been customary since the middle ages to define sacrifice in terms of death. To sacrifice is to give something over to destruction. Roy Gane points out in his Cult and Character that this does not conform to the...

Prematurely white - November 14, 2007
In his stimulating essay on Leviticus 13 (available from Biblical Horizons), Jim Jordan reflects on the fact that a white hair in the flesh makes a man unclean. White hair is associated with glory, and so the uncleanness results from...

Sacrificial sequence - November 08, 2007
Hicks again: He organizes his discussion of the New Covenant fulfillment of the sacrificial system in the phrases "life surrendered," "life transformed," and "life shared." Reconciliation is made on the basis of life surrendered, blood shed, but that's not the...

Burning flesh - November 08, 2007
FCN Hicks writes in his 1946 book on sacrifice that the burning of an animal on the altar was not destructive but transforming: "The offering is not destroyed but transformed, sublimated, etherealised, so that it can ascend in smoke to...

Fat, Body Parts, Liver Lobes - November 01, 2007
In her Leviticus as Literature, the late Mary Douglas offers some interesting possibilities for interpreting the prohibition of eating fat and for the arrangement of animal portions on the altar. Her interpretation is guided by her recognition of analogies between...

Kiuchi on Leviticus - May 08, 2007
Some initial observations on Nobuyoshi Kiuchi's recent commentary on Leviticus in the Apollos series from IVP. 1) Kiuchi intriguingly translates hata and hatta't, traditionally rendered in terms of "sin" or "purification" in terms of "hiding": "hata and hatta't mean 'to...

Cleanse, consecrate, atone - November 16, 2006
Jay Sklar of Covenant Seminary carefully examined the uses of various terms for cleansing, consecrating, and atonement, particularly aiming to distinguish "atone" (Heb kpr) from the others. He took aim particularly at Milgrom's claim that kipper "means purge and nothing...

Impurity and caste - May 01, 2006
Mary Douglas has observed that "Levitical impurity is a fact of biology, common to all persons, and also a result of specific moral offences that anyone is liable to commit such as lying or stealing . . . Biblical impurity...

Feast of Booths - December 01, 2005
John Kleinig suggests that Luke's account of the Transfiguration alludes to the feast of booths: Luke "alone of the Gospel writers relates that the transfiguration occurred on the eighth day after Peter's confession of faith (Lk 9:28). The transfiguration was...

Animal classifications - November 22, 2005
Naphtali Meshel of the Hebrew University gave an interesting paper on the dietary laws of Lev and Deuteronomy. He noted that Deut 14 divides animals simply into two categories - pure and impure. Impure animals are both ritually defiling (their...

Disfigured Israel - November 10, 2005
By my count, there are twelve disfigurements listed in Leviticus 21:18-20 that disqualify a priest from serving at the altar and in the tabernacle: blind, lame, slit, deformed, broken foot, broken hand, hunchback, dwarf, defect of eye, eczema, scabs, crushed...

Shared Nakedness - November 03, 2005
Leviticus 18 describes sexual sin as occasions of exposure, as "uncovering nakedness." At times, the nakedness is not only an individual's, but is shared. The reason given for the prohibition of maternal incest in Lev 18:8 is that the mother's...

Blood and life - October 27, 2005
In his recent Concordia commentary on Leviticus, John Kleinig gives a good summary of what I think is the best explanation of the blood prohibtiion of Lev 17: "many animists regard blood as the most potent of all ritual substances....

Uncleanness and the body - September 29, 2005
In his recent commentary on Leviticus (Baker), Allen Ross suggests that genital discharges were defiling because "The nature of God is so different from our human condition that the two conflict. The law made it clear that bodily functions prevent...

RPW and Leviticus 10 - September 15, 2005
Leviticus 10 is often cited in support of the Reformed "Regulative Principle of Worship." It does support that principle, but not if the principle is formulated, as it often is, as "whatever is not commanded is forbidden." The sin of...

Sin and Impurity - September 08, 2005
Milgrom says that the "purification offering" deals with impurity and not with sin. Kiuchi says that it deals also with sin, suggesting that the "problem of terminology arises from the fact that the cultic law distinguishes between physical uncleanness and...

Made sin - September 08, 2005
John Kleinig suggests in his commentary on Leviticus that 2 Cor 5:21 refers to Jesus' fulfillment of the rites of Leviticus 4-5: "Even though Jesus was singless, God offered Jesus as the 'sin offering' for human sin. In this case...

Sexual Laws of Leviticus 18 - November 01, 2004
The sexual laws of Leviticus 18 have long been puzzling on a couple of levels. The logic of the arrangement of the laws is difficult to discern; the gaps in the laws seems inexplicable (no prohibition, for instance, of father-daughter...

No Name - October 19, 2004
Walsh has this intriguing comment about the man stone to death for blasphemy in Lev 24: "The man is oddly anonymous, although his Israelite mother, his maternal grandfather, and his tribal forefather are all named. This is a more subtle...

Ministerial Conference Outline #1 - September 15, 2004
Here is an outline of a lecture I will be giving at the Christ Church Ministerial Conference later this month. In addition to some new material, it includes material from various earlier outlines and notes posted on this site. INTRODUCTION...

Calf of Purification - April 01, 2004
On the eighth day of the rite of �filling the hand,�EAaron began his service at the altar. His first offering was a �calf�E(Heb. �egel), which served as a purification offering for himself and (apparently) his household (Leviticus 9:2, 8). This...

Priest and Lampstand - March 31, 2004
Leviticus 21:10-15 describes the particular regulations governing the priest who is �highest among his brothers,�Eand justifies these regulations by saying that �the consecration of the anointing oil of his God is upon him�E(v. 12b). The word �consecration�Etranslates nzr, elsewhere used...

Permission is given to use material on this site, provided the source is cited, blog entries are republished in full, and the author is notified in advance.