Levitus Laws: Who Are They Aimed At?

The Book of Leviticus is the third book of the Torah and the Old Testament, and many of its chapters consist of God's speeches to Moses, which he tells Moses to repeat to the Israelites. It takes place during the Israelites' Exodus after they escaped Egypt and reached Mount Sinai. The instructions of Leviticus emphasise ritual, legal, and moral practices rather than beliefs.

The laws of Leviticus apply to the Israelites and their priests, Aaron and his sons, and teach them how to make offerings in the Tabernacle and how to conduct themselves while camped around the holy tent sanctuary.

Rituals and sacrifices

The Book of Leviticus is the third book of the Torah (the Pentateuch) and of the Old Testament, also known as the Third Book of Moses. It contains God's speeches to Moses, which he tells Moses to repeat to the Israelites. The instructions of Leviticus emphasize ritual, legal, and moral practices rather than beliefs.

The laws on sacrifice are as follows:

• Instructions for the laity on bringing offerings
• The types of offering: burnt, cereal, peace, purification, reparation (or sin) offerings
• Instructions for the priests
• The various offerings, with the addition of the priests' cereal offering
• Institution of the priesthood
• Ordination of Aaron and his sons
• Aaron makes the first sacrifices
• Judgement on Nadab and Abihu

The various offerings, with the addition of the priests' cereal offering (6:1–7:36)

The Book of Leviticus is a book full of laws. When reading the book of Leviticus, one cannot automatically assume that every law is still applicable today. However, one cannot automatically ignore every law that is found in the book of Leviticus.

There are three types of laws in Leviticus:

• The ceremonial law was given to the nation of Israel for a particular purpose. These are the laws that were given to the nation of Israel for the purpose of separating them from their Gentile neighbors. These laws are for a specific nation, at a specific time, and for a specific purpose.
• The civil law, like the ceremonial law, was given to the nation of Israel in their particular culture. The civil law had a different purpose than the ceremonial, but like the ceremonial, it was not meant for all people or all times.
• The moral law is unlike the other two types in that the moral law is not for a particular culture or for a particular time period. The moral law can also be described as the natural law. This isn’t because it is natural to obey the law, but because it is the way God created the natural world to function.

Dietary restrictions

The dietary restrictions in Leviticus are part of the ceremonial law, given to the nation of Israel for a particular purpose. These are the laws that were given to the nation of Israel for the purpose of separating them from their Gentile neighbors. These laws are for a specific nation, at a specific time, and for a specific purpose.

The laws in Leviticus include rules about offerings, clean and unclean foods, diseases, bodily discharges, sexual taboos, and priestly conduct.

The following are some of the dietary restrictions in Leviticus:

• Eating fat (3:17)
• Eating blood (3:17)
• Eating an animal which doesn’t both chew cud and has a divided hoof (cf: camel, rabbit, pig) (11:4-7)
• Touching the carcass of any of the above (problems here for rugby) (11:8)
• Eating – or touching the carcass of – any seafood without fins or scales (11:10-12)
• Eating – or touching the carcass of – eagle, the vulture, the black vulture, the red kite, any kind of black kite, any kind of raven, the horned owl, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk, the little owl, the cormorant, the great owl, the white owl, the desert owl, the osprey, the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe and the bat. (11:13-19)
• Eating – or touching the carcass of – flying insects with four legs, unless those legs are jointed (11:20-22)
• Eating any animal which walks on all four and has paws (good news for cats) (11:27)
• Eating – or touching the carcass of – the weasel, the rat, any kind of great lizard, the gecko, the monitor lizard, the wall lizard, the skink and the chameleon (11:29)
• Eating – or touching the carcass of – any creature which crawls on many legs, or its belly (11:41-42)
• Eating fruit from a tree within four years of planting it (19:23)

Sexual taboos

The Book of Leviticus is the third book of the Torah and the Old Testament, and is also known as the Third Book of Moses. It consists of God's speeches to Moses, which he tells Moses to repeat to the Israelites. The instructions emphasise ritual, legal, and moral practices.

The Levitical Law, or Levitical Code, is a set of commandments given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai. The laws are detailed in the Book of Leviticus and other books of Moses. The laws cover a range of topics, including sexual behaviour, neighbourliness, grave crimes, rules for priests, rules for eating sacrifices, festivals, rules for the tabernacle, blasphemy, the sabbatical and jubilee years, and rules for slavery.

The Levitical Law is often confused with the Mosaic Law, which refers to the legal and religious system of Judaism given by God to Moses. The Mosaic Law includes the Ten Commandments, the Law of Moses, and the 613 Mitzvot. The Levitical Law is a subset of the Mosaic Law.

The Levitical Law was given to the Israelites after they escaped Egypt and reached Mount Sinai. It was intended to set the Israelites apart from other nations and give them an identity as the people of God. The laws were also designed to demonstrate the holiness of God and show that humans could never meet God's standards on their own.

The Levitical Law is not directly applicable to Christians, as Christ's death and resurrection fulfilled the law. However, some Christians believe that certain principles of the Levitical Law, such as holiness and love for God and neighbours, are still relevant today.

• Having sex with your mother (Leviticus 18:7)
• Having sex with your father's wife (Leviticus 18:8)
• Having sex with your sister (Leviticus 18:9)
• Having sex with your granddaughter (Leviticus 18:10)
• Having sex with your half-sister (Leviticus 18:11)
• Having sex with your biological aunt (Leviticus 18:12-13)
• Having sex with your uncle's wife (Leviticus 18:14)
• Having sex with your daughter-in-law (Leviticus 18:15)
• Having sex with your sister-in-law (Leviticus 18:16)
• Having sex with a woman and also having sex with her daughter or granddaughter (Leviticus 18:17)
• Having sex with a woman during her period (Leviticus 18:19)
• Having sex with your neighbour's wife (Leviticus 18:20)
• Having sex with a man "as one does with a woman" (Leviticus 18:22)
• Having sex with an animal (Leviticus 18:23)

Priestly conduct

The Book of Leviticus is the third book of the Torah and of the Old Testament, also known as the Third Book of Moses. It is a book full of laws, and as we read the book of Leviticus, it is important to understand how we should understand the book we are reading. Because the book is full of so many laws, we have to consider, should we be following these laws? And if not, why don’t we follow them?

When you read the book of Leviticus, you cannot automatically assume that every law you read still applies today. But at the same time, you cannot automatically ignore every law that is found in the book of Leviticus. You have to discern, is this a law that was for a particular time and place or was it timeless?

The 3 Types of Laws in Leviticus

The ceremonial law was given to the nation of Israel for a particular purpose. These are the laws that were given to the nation of Israel for the purpose of separating them from their Gentile neighbors. These laws are for a specific nation, at a specific time, and for a specific purpose.

The civil law, like the ceremonial law, was given to the nation of Israel in their particular culture. The civil law had a different purpose than the ceremonial, but like the ceremonial, it was not meant for all people or all times.

The civil laws were the laws given to the nation of Israel for managing the civil affairs of the people. It gave laws that suggested how to run a business, punishment for crimes, and even the treatment of slaves. These laws do not apply to us in our culture.

The moral law is unlike the other 2 types in that the moral law is not to a particular culture or for a particular time period. The moral law can also be described as the natural law. This isn’t because it is natural to obey the law, but because it is the way God created the natural world to function.

The moral law is timeless. It exists before, during, and after the culture in which it was given.

The book of Leviticus takes place during the month or month-and-a-half between the completion of the Tabernacle and the Israelites' departure from Sinai. The instructions of Leviticus emphasize ritual, legal, and moral practices rather than beliefs. Nevertheless, they reflect the world view of the creation story in Genesis 1 that God wishes to live with humans. The book teaches that faithful performance of the sanctuary rituals can make that possible, so long as the people avoid sin and impurity whenever possible. The rituals, especially the sin and guilt offerings, provide the means to gain forgiveness for sins and purification from impurities so that God can continue to live in the Tabernacle in the midst of the people.

The English name Leviticus comes from the Latin Leviticus, which is in turn from the Ancient Greek: Λευιτικόν (Leuitikon), referring to the priestly tribe of the Israelites, 'Levi'. The Greek expression is in turn a variant of the rabbinic Hebrew torat kohanim, 'law of priests', as many of its laws relate to priests.

The entire composition of the book of Leviticus is Priestly literature. Most scholars see chapters 1–16 (the Priestly code) and chapters 17–26 (the Holiness code) as the work of two related schools, but while the Holiness material employs the same technical terms as the Priestly code, it broadens their meaning from pure ritual to the theological and moral, turning the ritual of the Priestly code into a model for the relationship of Israel to Yahweh: as the tabernacle, which is apart from uncleanliness, becomes holy by the presence of Yahweh, so he will dwell among Israel when Israel receives purification (becomes holy) and separates from other peoples. The ritual instructions in the Priestly code apparently grew from priests giving instruction and answering questions about ritual matters; the Holiness code (or H) used to be a separate document, later becoming part of Leviticus, but it seems better to think of the Holiness authors as editors who worked with the Priestly code and actually produced Leviticus as it is now extant.

The main function of the priests is service at the altar, and only the sons of Aaron are priests in the full sense. In chapter 10, God kills Nadab and Abihu, the oldest sons of Aaron, for offering "strange incense". Aaron has two sons left. Commentators have read various messages in the incident: a reflection of struggles between priestly factions in the post-Exilic period; or a warning against offering incense outside the Temple, where there might be the risk of invoking strange gods. In any case, there has been a pollution of the sanctuary by the bodies of the two dead priests, leading into the next theme, holiness.

Ritual purity is essential for an Israelite to be able to approach Yahweh and remain part of the community. Uncleanliness threatens holiness; chapters 11–15 review the various causes of uncleanliness and describe the rituals that will restore cleanliness; one is to maintain cleanliness through observation of the rules on sexual behaviour, family relations, land ownership, worship, sacrifice, and observance of holy days.

Yahweh dwells with Israel in the Tabernacle. All of the priestly ritual focuses on Yahweh and the construction and maintenance of a holy space, but sin generates impurity, as do everyday events such as childbirth and menstruation; impurity pollutes the holy dwelling place. Failure to purify the sacred space ritually could result in God's leaving, which would be disastrous.

Chapters 17–26 are the Holiness code. It begins with a prohibition on all ritual slaughter of animals, and then prohibits a long list of sexual contacts and also child sacrifice. The "holiness" injunctions which give the code its name begin with the next section: there are penalties for the worship of Molech, consulting mediums and wizards, cursing one's parents and engaging in unlawful sex. Priests receive instruction on mourning rituals and acceptable bodily defects. The punishment for blasphemy is death, and there is the setting of rules for eating sacrifices; there is an explanation of the calendar, and there are rules for sabbatical and Jubilee years; there are rules for oil lamps and bread in the sanctuary; and there are rules for slavery. The code ends by telling the Israelites they must choose between the law and prosperity on the one hand, or, on the other, horrible punishments, the worst of which will be expulsion from the land.

Chapter 27 is a disparate and probably late addition telling about persons and things serving as dedication to the Lord and how one can redeem, instead of fulfill, vows.

The majority of scholars have concluded that the Pentateuch received its final form during the Persian period (538–332 BC). Nevertheless, Leviticus had a long period of growth before reaching that form.

The

Moral laws