LEVITICUS ויקרא

The Leviticus nook is primarily concerned with priests (members of the priestly tribe of Levi) and their duties. Although Leviticus is basically a book of laws, it also contains some narrative text.

Leviticus, (Latin: “of the Levites”), Hebrew Wayiqra, third book of the Latin Vulgate Bible, the name of which designates its contents as a book (or manual) primarily concerned with priests (members of the priestly tribe of Levi) and their duties. Although Leviticus is basically a book of laws, it also contains some narrative text (chapters 8–9, 10:1–7, 10:16–20, and 24:10–14).

The book is usually divided into five parts: sacrificial laws (chapters 1–7); the inauguration of the priesthood and laws governing their office (chapters 8–10); laws for ceremonial purity (chapters 11–16); laws governing the people’s holiness (chapters 17–26); and a supplement concerning offerings to the sanctuary and religious vows (chapter 27).

Scholars agree that Leviticus belongs to the Priestly (P) source of the Pentateuchal traditions. This material is dated according to one theory to the 7th century BCE and is regarded as the law upon which Ezra and Nehemiah based their reform.

Older material, however, is preserved in P, particularly the “Holiness Code” (chapters 17–26), dating from ancient times.

The cultic and priestly laws presented in Exodus are expanded to take up virtually the whole of Leviticus, the Latin Vulgate title for the third of the Five Books of Moses, which may be translated the Book (or Manual) of Priests. With one exception (chapters 8–10), the narrative portions are brief connective or introductory devices to give an ostensibly narrative framework for the detailed lists of precepts that provide the book’s content.

The source of Leviticus, both for the legal and narrative passages, is definitely identified as P; it is the only book in the so-called Tetrateuch to which a single source is attributed. Apparently, the book consists of materials from various periods, some of them going back to the time of Moses, which were put together at a later date, possibly during or after the Babylonian Exile. Recent scholarship tends to emphasize the ancient origin of much of the material, as opposed to the previous tendency to ascribe a late, even post-exilic date.

Despite its content and its dry, repetitive style, many interpreters caution against taking Leviticus as merely a dull, spiritless manual of priestly ritual, holding that it is strictly inseparable from the ethical emphasis and spiritual fervour of the religion of ancient Israel. It is in Leviticus that the so-called law of love, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself,” first appears. The rituals set forth drily here probably presuppose an inward state in offering to God, as well as humanitarian and compassionate ethics.

Mount Sinai is renowned as the principal site of divine revelation in Jewish history, where God is purported to have appeared to Moses and given him the Ten Commandments.

Mount Sinai, also called Mountain of Moses or Mount Hareh, Hebrew Har Sinai, Arabic Jabal Mūsā, granitic peak of the south-central Sinai Peninsula, Janūb Sīnāʾ (South Sinai). Mount Sinai is renowned as the principal site of divine revelation in Jewish history, where God is purported to have appeared to Moses and given him the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20; Deuteronomy 5). According to Jewish tradition, not only the decalogue but also the entire corpus of biblical text and interpretation was revealed to Moses on Sinai.

The mountain is also sacred in both the Christian and Islamic traditions. Because scholars differ as to the route of the Israelite exodus from Egypt and the place-names in the scriptural account cannot be identified in terms of present sites, a positive identification of the biblical Mount Sinai cannot be made. Mount Sinai itself, however, has long been accepted as the site in the traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.