Laws Of Leviticus Research Articles

The Casuistic Law in Leviticus, the New Marmarini Inscription, and the Eloulaia and Nisanaia Festivals

Abstract This paper aims to highlight a series of similarities between Leviticus and an extraordinary Greek inscription that was discovered in Marmarini (Greece) and published during the recent decade (CGRN 225 = SEG 65–376). As this inscription contains instructions and regulations for ritual conduct, as well as reflects many unique Near Eastern features, it serves in this paper as the basis for a new comparative study that has significant ramifications on our understanding of the casuistic law in Leviticus, and the formation of the Priestly material in the Pentateuch.

Julia Rhyder. Centralizing the Cult: The Holiness Legislation in Leviticus 17–26. Forschungen zum Alten Testament 134. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2019. xxi + 484 pp.

Reviewed by: Centralizing the Cult: The Holiness Legislation in Leviticus 17–26 by Julia Rhyder Liane Feldman Julia Rhyder. Centralizing the Cult: The Holiness Legislation in Leviticus 17–26. Forschungen zum Alten Testament 134. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2019. xxi + 484 pp. doi:10.1017/S0364009420000148 Julia Rhyder's recent volume, Centralizing the Cult: The Holiness Legislation in Leviticus 17–26, is a critically important addition to the study of pentateuchal priestly literature. Clearly written and richly detailed, this book revisits one of the most well-trod paths in studies of the Pentateuch's cultic materials and offers a fresh and theoretically sophisticated approach to the question of cultic centralization, and to the study of the literary history of Leviticus 17–26 more broadly. The first three chapters (111 pages) of this book are concerned primarily with a review of scholarship on the concept of centralization (chapter 1), the Holiness Legislation (chapter 2), and the phenomenon of centralization in the Persian period (chapter 3). Textual analysis begins to take center stage in chapters 4 through 7. Chapter 4 argues that Leviticus 1–16 participates in the project of centralization in three ways: by advocating the standardization of ritual practice, by constructing an authoritative priesthood, and by uniting the Israelites in service of the sanctuary and its cult. Rhyder insightfully argues in this chapter that the detailed ritual instructions are best understood as "a form of communal knowledge rather than the prerogative of the priests alone" (139, emphasis original). Chapter 5 takes up the issue of the laws about slaughter and disposal of blood in Leviticus 17. Rhyder makes at least two important and related contributions in this chapter, the first of which is to argue that it is "inappropriate to suggest that H derives its centralizing logic from the claims made in Deut 12" (238). Instead, Rhyder methodically and meticulously demonstrates that the laws in Leviticus 17 primarily draw on concepts that can be found in other P texts, thus negating the need to look to Deuteronomic influence. This chapter also makes one of the strongest cases I have seen for the close literary relationship between Leviticus 16 and 17. Chapter 6 engages the question of calendars and centralized time, blending arguments about ritual standardization from chapter 4 with broader questions about the effects of pilgrimage and festival observance on a centralization project. While primarily focused on Leviticus 23, Rhyder also draws attention to the often-overlooked passage in Leviticus 24:1–9, which she describes as an appendix to P's festival calendar (304). At several points in the book, Rhyder points to texts that are closely linked with P both thematically and linguistically and argues that these links to P "should be read not so much as indicating that these verses are secondary intrusion to H but as a discursive strategy on H's part" (307). I wonder, however, if a simpler explanation for these "P-like" texts in the midst of H might be that they are P. While such an argument could be disputed, the possibility is never addressed. This points to one weakness of the book [End Page 414] as a whole: for all of her insightful and detailed readings, Rhyder at times uncritically accepts that Leviticus 17–26 is a distinct and coherent literary unit even when her readings of individual texts pave the way for a different conclusion. Chapter 7 analyzes the remainder of the Holiness Code and argues that the focus on the holiness of the Israelite community is best understood as advancing a form of "conventionalism" as described by social theorists such as Theodor Adorno. Rhyder argues that the discourse of holiness in H suggests that it is not only concerned with the participation of the Israelites in the cult, but "also with how they should interpret their own experience in light of its centrality" (345, emphasis original). This chapter recasts the concept of communal holiness as part of a larger project concerned above all with loyalty to the deity and his shrine in all facets of one's life. A broader aim of this book is to situate not only the Holiness Code, but it seems all of P, in...

The Jewish Dietary Laws in the Ancient World by Jordan D. Rosenblum

Reviewed by: The Jewish Dietary Laws in the Ancient World by Jordan D. Rosenblum Zev Garber jordan d. rosenblum, The Jewish Dietary Laws in the Ancient World (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2017). Pp. xiii + 193. $99.99. Jordan D. Rosenblum is interested in one subject: how ancient Jews defended the kosher laws and how ancient Others—including the Greeks, Romans, and early Christians—critiqued these practices. Regarding the purpose and practice of kashrut in the Torah compared to food habits by Others in the ancient Near East, for example, researchers and scholars are not of one opinion. There is a mass of evidence, often contradictory, about the motives—social, political, psychopathic, religious—that appear to have influenced societal permitted and nonpermitted animal–fish–fowl food hunt and preparation, by whose authority, and so forth. It seems that there is no satisfactory explanation of humanity's propensity to pollute, uproot, and kill living forms in water, land, and air. Yet there are examples of cultural and religious thought defending the legitimacy of culinary practices. The goal of this book is to examine this paradox in the dicta of Jewish dietary belief and practice as defended within (Self) and critiqued from without (Other). For Rosenblum, how cultures critique and defend their religious food practices covers the spectrum of human behavior and thought. Patterns of food gathering generate diet and table manners. Food language and ways reflect conceivable abuse and misuse. For example, Hebrew leḥem ("bread") and qārôb ("near," exemplified by mealtime activity and companionship) are semantically related to milḥāmâ ("war") and qorbān (here, sacrificial animal [End Page 323] offering), societal activities that extend life by taking life. Nonetheless, battle for leḥem is instinctive, and selfless caring and devotion to the welfare of animals is a core Jewish concern suggested by the biblical-rabbinic teaching against animal cruelty (ṣacar bacalê ḥayyim). This instruction and other teachings have guarded the value of animal life in the study of Jewish religion. Raḥămîm ("merciful compassion," from reḥem, "mother's womb") and Menschlichkeit (decent behavior) are experienced by humans in relation to the ascendency of the animal from victim to shared kindred with humans. To explicate answers to a whole array of Jewish dietary regulations, R. resorts to a plethora of stories, teachings, and case histories from kosher food trends and how ancient Greeks, Romans, and early Christians critiqued these practices. The chapters are informed by pages of footnotes, a selected bibliography, and a wide range of sources, including Hebrew Scriptures, rabbinic sources, Greco-Roman and early church writings, medieval sources, and contemporary scholarship. In the introduction, Rosenblum charts the book's divisions and sections and explains his rationale for selection and interpretation. Kosher laws are first encountered in the Torah, but it is in ancient biblical interpretation that the basic meaning and applied innovative practice related to biblical dietary regulations are extracted. In R.'s methodology, core beliefs are seeded in revelation, reason, and allegory and are informed by a variety of issues, including theological, moral, political, social, and financial considerations. R. is less interested in an inclusive discussion of items and issues (e.g., women and kashrut—there is no detailed discussion of why Esther [Greek addition] does not partake of the king's food or why Judith provides her own food when eating at the table of the non-Jewish general Holofernes) than in illustrating genres and their features. The result is a thinking person's literary guide to ancient Jewish dietary mores that complements nicely epochal approaches in the study of Judaism. Drawing from the wells of Jewish scriptural, rabbinic (tannaitic and amoraic), and Hellenistic tradition and contrasting Hellenistic non-Jewish examples, Rosenbloom depicts the kosher ethos in sociological, religious, and ethical categories to bring about a caring and moral society. R.'s writing is disciplined; his research is well founded; and his goal is to clarify the muddle that exists in academic and religious approaches. In chap. 1, R. lists and summarizes primary biblical verses and themes related to kashrut but without explanations of context. For example, the dietary laws in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 are divine...

Biblical Theology

Biblical Theology John Thomas Willis, Christopher T. Begg, Thomas Hieke, and William J. Urbrock 1353. John Barton, "Old Testament Ethics: Story or Style?" Sibyls, Scriptures, and Scrolls, 113-29 [see #1505]. Conservatives deal with the Bible on the lines of legalism, opposing same-sex marriage, while endorsing keeping the Sabbath, tithing, and capital punishment. Liberals oppose the idea of normative OT regulations such as the laws in Leviticus, and highlight rather the overall character, drift, and emphasis of OT texts based on loving God with all the heart and one's neighbor as oneself. B. proposes that the best course in thinking about OT ethics is to read the OT as a guide to a style of living, a source of mottos and epigrams for the good life, and a text that can shape the reader in significant ways. It may be time for the domination of narrative in Christian readings of the OT to yield to a more wisdom-centered approach, and for the Bible to be seen as contributing to the construction of a lifestyle, rather than as telling a story meant to serve as a paradigm for the story of our own lives.—J.W. 1354. Luigi Castangia, "Abissi del cosmo e dell'uomo. Gli inferi nel pensiero biblico," HT 26 (2017) 47-60. C.'s essay deals with the underworld in the Bible, with a focus on poetic texts. In so doing, he presents an etymological analysis of the Bible's main "underworld terms" (šĕʾôl, šaḥat, tĕhôm, and mĕṣûlâ) that serves to highlight the close connections between biblical and ANE texts regarding the underworld. The meaning of each term is sketched by C. in light of the contexts in which it occurs. The second part of C.'s essay focuses on Jonah 2 and Proverbs, noting that in these texts the Bible's cosmological language for the underworld undergoes an anthropological and ethical transposition, in which cosmological depths become an abyss of distress or a chasm of evil and sin. This metaphorical dynamic does not, however, occur in all cases. Rather, certain underworld terms remain anchored in their cosmological sense, while others [End Page 461] more readily lend themselves to the above-mentioned shift. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] 1355. Cyprien Comte, "L'espoir de Dieu: Conversion (Shoûv) humaine et repentir (Niḥām) de YHWH dans la Bible hébraïque," BLE 119 (2018) 73-89. Five texts of the Hebrew Bible present human conversion (šûb) as the cause of Yhwh's own "repentance" (niḥām). In 1 Samuel 15, Saul "turns away" (šûb) from God's will, with the result that God "repents" of having made him king of Israel and announces his rejection. The other four texts, i.e., Jer 18:1-12 (Jeremiah's visit to the potter's workshop); Jeremiah 26 (Jeremiah's trial); Joel (the prophet's call to repentance); and Jonah 3–4 (Jonah in Nineveh) report a prophetic summons to repentance and—in most instances—the hearers' response to these. Divine "repentance," grounded as this is in Yhwh's mercy, i.e., his readiness to "adapt" his own behavior in response to humans' behavior in the face of his words to them, surfaces particularly in contexts of prophetic discourse, the aim of which is to evoke conversion from the hearers. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] 1356. Alexander Deeg, "'Auch für dich' und das messianische 'Heute.' Überlegungen zur Hermeneutik des Alten Testaments aus homiletischer Perspektive," Hermeneutik des Alten Testaments, 166-87 [see #1531]. D. is a professor of practical theology in the Evangelical Faculty of the University of Leipzig who is heavily involved in the Christian-Jewish dialogue. His essay features reflections concerning the use of the OT in Christian preaching. The essay's five overarching headings are as follows: (1) The Co-existence of Christianity and Judaism and Israel's Bible, or: The Setting in Life of Christian Hermeneutics of the OT; (2) Contemporary Challenges for a Sermon on the OT; (3) The OT as a Context for Truth and Tonality in the Church's Proclamation: Hermeneutical Considerations; (4) "For You...

The Conflation of Purity and Prohibition: An Interpretation of Leviticus 18:19

In recent years, there has been a surge in the study of ritual impurity and its relationship to immorality (or, perhaps more accurately, prohibited activity) in biblical literature and early Judaism. Yet relatively scant attention has been paid to one of the most important topics pertaining to impurity—the menstrual laws of Leviticus (the laws of[niddah]) and their development in early Jewish texts. Theniddahlaws are uniquely important because they appear both in the context of ritual-impurity legislation (Leviticus 12 and Leviticus 15) and in the context of legislation concerning prohibited acts (Lev 18:19 and Lev 20:18). Or, to put it another way: biblical menstrual laws comprise both impurity and prohibition elements.

The Group Identity of the Human Beneficiaries in the Sabbatical Year (Lev 25:6).

AbstractAccording to the sabbatical year law in Leviticus, the land of Israel must lie fallow during one year after six years of cultivation (Lev 25:2-5). During this sabbatical year, people may eat without cultivating the land (Lev 25:6). When we consider the human beneficiaries of this law, it is noted that not only the Israelites but also non-Israelites are included. In this respect an important question arises: do the beneficiaries constitute a particular social institution, or are they social categories chosen ad hoc by the author? In this contribution, we will make a proposal as to the group identity of the human beneficiaries in the sabbatical year law in Lev 25:6.

The Relationship between the Sacrificial Laws and the Other Laws in Leviticus 19

The present paper addresses the question of the surprising presence in Leviticus 19 of two sacrificial regulations among mainly moral commandments. It attempts to show that far from being out of place these laws sum up the ethic imposed on Israelites in two main principles: the principle of restraint when dealing with fellow countrymen and the principle of absence of all contact with spiritual beings other than God.

음식 규례와 거룩 : 레위기 음식법의 신학과 해석

초록·키워드 목차 오류제보하기 등록된 정보가 없습니다. 1. 들어가는 말2. 레위기 11장의 구조3. 레위기 음식법 규정의 신학과 해석4. 바리새파 전통의 음식법의 신학과 해석5. 나가는 말참고문헌초록Abstract

Illuminating Leviticus: A Study of Its Laws and Institutions in the Light of Biblical Narratives (review)

Illuminating Leviticus: A Study of Its Laws and Institutions in the Light of Biblical Narratives, by Calum Carmichael. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006. 212 pp. $55.00. For a biblical scholar to claim that he is able to explain how every law in the Pentateuch came to be formulated and why the Pentateuch is a unique combination of law and narrative (Law, Legend, and Incest in the Bible: Leviticus 18-20 [Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1997], p. vii) and to spend forty years demonstrating his theory, he is either in a state of delusion for such a long time or he has made one of the most important discoveries since the rise of critical study of the Pentateuch. And that's why on the one hand Carmichael's theory has been regarded as cogent and persuasive (by N. Wyatt in his review of Law, Legend, and Incest in the Bible [SOTS Book List 1988, p. 142], but on the other hand as controversial and extreme (by B. S. Jackson [SOTS Book List 2000, p. 142]). The theory that biblical laws are responses to narratives (Genesis to 2 Kings) and not to social situations is the central claim of a series of books and articles published in the last forty years in Carmichael's long academic life. The publication under review is the latest harvest of Carmichael's effort to verify his theory. The beginning of this research program can be traced back to his article Laws, Wisdom and Historical Traditions in JSS 12 (1967): 198-206, an effort later developed into his first book The Laws of Deuteronomy (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1974), which was supplemented by a similar book entitled Law and Narrative in the Bible: The Evidence of the Deuteronomic Laws and the Decalogue (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1985). The method of linking laws to narratives that Carmichael applied to the laws in Deuteronomy was applied to Leviticus 19 in chapter 2 of his book The Spirit of Biblical Law (Athens and London: University of Georgia Press, 1996). The main substance of this chapter now appears in Law, Legend, and Incest in the Bible: Leviticus 18-20, published a year later. Thus, Illuminating Leviticus is Carmichael's second book devoted entirely to elucidating the connections between laws in Leviticus and stories in Genesis-2 Kings, which now focuses on the rules in Lev. 10-17 and 21-25. In the Introduction, Carmichael reiterates his view: the laws in the Torah are didactic in nature and were not written for juridical proceedings but for the recipients to reflect on their own (literary) history so as to knowhow they should conduct themselves in the present (p. 8). Existing attempts to relate biblical laws to real-life problems and situations are dismissed as speculative (p. 9) - more or less in the manner in which he dismissed Noth's view as being no warrant in his first book (for a critique of which see Bernard M. Levison's article in HTR 83:3 [1990]: 227-57). Chapter 1 of the book focuses on Leviticus 10-14. Carmichael suggests that Lev. 10 addresses the unacceptable behavior of Eli's sons in 1 Samuel. Lev. 11 was inspired by the mention of clean and unclean animals in the flood story in Genesis. Childbirth (Lev. 12) came to the legislator's attention because he was reading 1 Samuel 3, 4 in which childbirth is mentioned. Chapter 2 relates Lev. 15 (uncleanness due to discharges) to David's uncleanness (1 Samuel 20: 26). I found Chapter 3 one of the most interesting chapters of the book because there Carmichael draws our attention to ancient or medieval Jewish sources which contain precedents for what he is now doing - connecting the ritual of Yom Kippur (Lev. …

The Manumission Laws in Leviticus and Deuteronomy: The Jeremiah Connection

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.) The complex relationship between the legislation in Deuteronomy (D) and the Code (H) in Leviticus continues to provide fruitful avenues of inquiry for researchers into the formation and function of biblical law. These two legal collections provide an invaluable resource for studying the thought of disparate Israelite religious groups living in relative temporal proximity to each other, both inheriting a common intellectual, cultic, and sociological legacy of a much older Israelite culture. There is general agreement that D emerges from the scribes associated with Josiah's court in the late seventh century B.C.E.; no such consensus exists, though, with respect to H.1 While many scholars agree that the work arises from a Holiness School faction of the Zadokite priesthood,2 they remain divided on the matter of a date for the composition of H in its present form. Israel Knohl and Jacob MUgrom argue for a Hezekian origin for the legislation, pointing to features in the H laws that presuppose life in the land among a mixed rural/urban populace and the prophetic critiques of the eighth century B.C.E.3 There is much to recommend this position, and many scholars consequentiy view H as a source for the (re)visionary hermeneutics of the D scribes.4 Nevertheless, more recent examinations of the relationship between pentateuchal legal collections have made clear that the authors of H have taken up legislation originating in D at certain points. Bernard Levinson has made a strong case for the slave manumission law in H (Lev 25:39-46) as an exegetical response to its parallel in D, and a study by Jeffrey Stackert further reinforces Levinson's view.5 Although this need not preclude viewing the ideology of H (and perhaps even some of its laws) as originating during Hezekiah's reign,6 the exegetical development of D laws in the current form of H makes clear that the latter underwent significant development during a period subsequent to D. But if D indeed emerged in 622 B.C.E.,7 it is unclear whether the subsequent response in H should be seen as a late preexilic, exilic, or even early postexilic reflex.8 One might argue that the emphasis on the jubilee in the H manumission law is evidence that the law was developed before the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of its inhabitants. From this perspective, the prospect of an active jubilee cycle (a mytho-sacral institution bound to hinterland life) would apply only while the author and the authence still resided on their native soil.9 However, this would cause more difficulty man it would purport to rectify. Binding slave manumission to the fifty-year jubilee cycle is a dramatic departure from the D legislation that serves as the audior's source, since in D (as well as in the earlier Covenant Code), the slave is given a six-year term of servitude with release in the seventh. This term is specific to each slave on a case-by-case basis with independent periods of term initiation; as many commentators recognize, it strains credulity to imagine that the end of a six-year term of one slave would automatically coincide with the end of every other slave's term of servitude as well. The result would be no defined period of servitude for any slave: in waiting for the jubilee as the time of release, some terms could conceivably last over forty years while others could last less than one.10 The economic problems are readily apparent. Slavery in ancient Israel was rooted in matters of financial debt,11 and someone who entered servitude only a year before the jubilee could not be expected to work off a debt that traditionally required six years of service, disadvantaging the slave owner in terms of fair restitution. The difficulty is felt on the other side of the equation as well, as extended tenures of servitude disadvantage the slave and leave room for abuse. The H author must have been aware of this; legitimizing financial disadvantages could hardly qualify as a way of reinforcing national holiness. …

Making Sense of Sex: A Study of Leviticus 18

This study exposes the implicit logic of the sexual laws in Leviticus 18 and thereby throws light on the problematic relationship between these laws and the chapter’s introductory and concluding material. The sexual laws were arranged in a tripartite scheme that addressed relations according to family, clan or tribe, and nation, moving outward from the nearest relations to the most distant. Thus the sexual laws circumscribed both internal and external boundaries in Israelite life. As part of the Holiness Code the sexual laws are presented in Leviticus 18 to define Israel’s life in the face of outside, cultural competitors. The discovery of this scheme in the sexual laws builds upon Mary Douglas’s analysis of other priestly traditions.

Purity, Conversion and the Evidence Based Movements

This article explores parallels between some aspects of the history of Judaeo Christianity and recent writing promoting evidence based medicine (EBM). Taking as a starting point Kristeva’s and Douglas’ investigations of Old Testament dietary regulation, it proposes that rigorous attention to research intake fulfils a similar symbolic function within these EBM texts as the strict dietary laws of Leviticus. It is noted that EBM texts also feature accounts of personal conversion central to evangelical religious discourse. The article examines two texts that promote EBM, published in 1991 and 1996, adopting a discourse analytic approach to identify the fundamental themes upon which these texts rely. While the earlier text features a harsh separation between wisdom and superstition, it is asked to what extent the more recent account of EBM, which appears to set up a new relationship between ‘external’ evidence and the realm of individual (professional) judgement, reflects one aspect of the new dispensation of the Christian New Testament and a movement away from strict dietary laws. It concludes that such parallels are only partial.

People and Land in the Holiness Code: An Exegetical Study of the Ideational Framework of the Law in Leviticus 17-26

Book Review| October 01 1999 People and Land in the Holiness Code: An Exegetical Study of the Ideational Framework of the Law in Leviticus 17-26 People and Land in the Holiness Code: An Exegetical Study of the Ideational Framework of the Law in Leviticus 17-26, Jan Joosten. Risa Levitt Kohn Risa Levitt Kohn Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Journal of Biblical Literature (1999) 118 (3): 536–537. https://doi.org/10.2307/3268194 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Risa Levitt Kohn; People and Land in the Holiness Code: An Exegetical Study of the Ideational Framework of the Law in Leviticus 17-26. Journal of Biblical Literature 1 January 1999; 118 (3): 536–537. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/3268194 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectiveSBL PressJournal of Biblical Literature Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Article PDF first page preview Close Modal Issue Section: Book Reviews You do not currently have access to this content.

Mythical Roots of Women's Impurity in the Laws of Leviticus: Gendered Mathematics of the Pure and Impure

AbstractIn the biblical book of Leviticus, the whole life of the Hebrew people is codified under the aspect of purity and impurity, and the reintegration into purity. When read in the light of gender, these prescriptions show that women are twice as impure as men, while their monetary value is half. Using the semiotic approach developed by A. J. Greimas, this study shows that, beneath the religious discourse obscuring this valuation, is an equally gendered ideology. The source of this valuation is not the foundational events which engender mosaic law, but its roots are to be found in deeper mythical ground. For the condition of women to change, the issue of their impurity—inferiority must be treated at this level. A striking example illustrating this argument is the persistence of purification rites related to the menstrual cycle in modern Orthodox Judaism. Over the course of centuries, the code that contains them has become obsolete. Nevertheless, they remain in place through successive reinterpretations, which do not address the real reason for their existence.

Laws of Leviticus 19

The perplexing arrangement of the laws in Leviticus 19 invariably invites comment about their seeming lack of order. Scholars have used the miscellaneous character of the laws as evidence for their originating in different sources, times, and places, before finding a common location in Leviticus 19. Thinking that delineates source after source depends upon a misunderstanding of how lawgivers formulated biblical laws. A different picture emerges once one takes stock of a process of legal formulation; this process, which is deeply implanted in every part of the Pentateuch, accounts for the Pentateuch's unique integration of law and narrative.

The Grain Harvest Laws of Leviticus 23:9-22 and Numbers 28:26-31

The Grain Harvest Laws of Leviticus 23:9-22 and Numbers 28:26-31