Leviticus 19 - Holy living
22/10/23
Scripture
Leviticus 19
Introduction
We continue in the “holiness code”. The second half of Leviticus mirrors the first as the “So what!?” of the scroll.
Chapters 18-20 are like a mini-Torah with commands that mirror the Ten Words [Exodus 20; Deuteronomy 5]. Some of the sexual prohibitions of Leviticus 18 are repeated.
Questions
YHWH is holy
1 And YHWH spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to all the community of the children of Israel, and say to them, ‘You must be holy, because I, YHWH your God, am holy.
The people of God are to be holy because YHWH is holy. We are to be faithful as his “image” [lit. idol1] [Genesis 1:26-27, 5:3, 9:6].
3 Each of you must revere your mother and your father, and you must keep my Sabbaths; I am YHWH your God. 4 You must not turn to idols, and you must not make for yourselves gods of cast metal; I am YHWH your God.
In Exodus 20:12 it is “your father and your mother” and later in Deuteronomy 5:16. Why is the reversed order “your mother and your father” significant? Remember this is a patriarchal society.
5 “ ‘And when you sacrifice a sacrifice of fellowship offerings to YHWH, you must sacrifice it for your acceptance. 6 It must be eaten on the day of your sacrifice and the next day; and the remainder must be burned up in the fire by the third day. 7 And if it is indeed eaten on the third day, it is unclean meat; it shall not be regarded as accepted. 8 And the one who eats it shall bear his guilt, because he has profaned YHWH’s holiness, and that person shall be cut off from his people.
This is repetition of ritual purity laws BUT what were the “fellowship offerings”2? Remember the burnt fat!
Love your neighbor as yourself
9 “ ‘And at your reaping the harvest of your land you must not finish reaping the edge of your field, and you must not glean the remnants of your harvest. 10 And you must not glean your vineyard, and you must not gather your vineyard’s fallen grapes; you must leave them behind for the needy and for the alien; I am YHWH your God.
This was practiced by Orthodox Christians in Cyprus into the 20th century.
Should we still practise this? What might be an application of the principle in our contemporary context?
11 “ ‘You shall not steal, and you shall not deceive, and you shall not lie about a man to his fellow citizen; 12 and you shall not swear falsely in my name, and so one of you profane the name of your God; I am YHWH.
Let’s look at Jesus teaching and practice of taking oaths…
33 “Again you have heard that it was said to the people of old, ‘Do not swear falsely, but fulfill your oaths to the Lord.’ 34 But I say to you, do not swear at all, either by heaven, because it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, because it is the footstool of his feet, or by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the great king. 36 And do not swear by your head, because you are not able to make one hair white or black. 37 But let your statement be ‘Yes, yes; no, no,’ and anything beyond these is from the evil one.
Matthew 5:33–37
…and…
62 And the high priest stood up and* said to him, “Do you reply nothing? What are these people testifying against you?” 63 But Jesus was silent. And the high priest said to him, “I put you under oath by the living God, that you tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God!” 64 Jesus said to him, “You have said it. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
Matthew 26:62–64
Is taking an oath in God’s name ever permitted? What must we be VERY careful not to do? Before answering you may wish to consider the following…
13 “ ‘You shall not exploit your neighbor, and you shall not rob him; a hired worker’s wage you shall not withhold overnight until morning. 14 You shall not curse the deaf, and your shall not put a stumbling block before a blind person, and you shall revere your God; I am YHWH.
15 “ ‘You shall not do injustice in judgment; you shall not show partiality to the powerless; you shall not give preference to the powerful; you shall judge your fellow citizen with justice. 16 You shall not go about with slander among your people; you shall not endanger your neighbor’s life; I am YHWH.
Does God show partiality [Deuteronomy 10 17; Romans 2:11]? Show we favour the poor and needy [Liberation Theology] [Exodus 23:3]?
17 “ ‘You shall not hate your brother in your heart; you shall surely rebuke your fellow citizen, so that you do not incur sin along with him. 18 You shall not seek vengeance, and you shall not harbor a grudge against your fellow citizens; and you shall love your neighbor like yourself; I am YHWH.
Does the Torah only talk about external things?
Against mixtures
19 “ ‘You must keep my statutes: as for your domestic animals, you shall not cause two differing kinds to breed; as for your field, you shall not sow two differing kinds of seed; and, a garment of two differing kinds of woven material should not be worn on you.
Consider also…
9 “You shall not sow your vineyard with differing kinds of seed, so that you shall not forfeit the whole harvest, both the seed that you sowed and the yield of the vineyard.
10 “You shall not plow [poss. euphamism for “breeding”] with an ox and with a donkey yoked together.
11 “You shall not wear woven material made of wool and linen mixed together.
Deuteronomy 22:9–11.
“Plow” may be a euphemism for “breed” [see Judges 14:18]3 making the Leviticus and Deuteronomy prohibitions, more or less, identical.
Milgrom argues that mixtures belong to sacred space…
[T]he cherubim flanking the ark were mixtures (Ezek 1:5-11), as were the divine guardians in Mesopotamia…The most favored prohibition against mixtures is that of a violation of the order God brought into the world by separating species. That theory could explain the mating prohibition but it has no relevance for the following two prohibitions, about mixing seeds and clothing. [T]he most plausible explanation in my estimation is that mixtures belong to the sacred sphere, namely, the sanctuary as do its officiants, the priests. Thus, the lower cover of the tabernacle and the curtain closing off that part of the sacred enclosure are a mixture of linen and wool. The high priest ephod, breastplate and belt contain the same mixture as well. [cf. Ex 28 :26 (the tabernacle curtain), 39] For the ordinary priest, this mixture is limited to his belt (Ex 39:29) and the Israelite is conceded this mixture by the insertion of a single blue thread of wool in his linen tassels as recognized by the rabbis. Since linen is flax, blue must be wool. And…the tassels serve[d] the layman [religious Jewish male] as a royal scepter.4
Why the prohibition on mixtures according to Milgrom? You can disagree! Is there a contemporary application?
More Torah [lit. instruction]
Read through these closing instructions, many of which we have seen before, and note an that stand out…
20 “ ‘And when a man lies with a woman and there is an emission of semen and she is a female slave promised to a man, and she indeed has not been ransomed or freedom has not been given to her, there shall be an obligation to compensate; they shall not be put to death, because she has not been freed. 21 And he shall bring his guilt offering to YHWH at the tent of assembly’s entrance: a ram for a guilt offering. 22 And the priest shall make atonement for him before YHWH with the ram of the guilt offering for his sin that he committed, and so his sin that he committed shall be forgiven him.
23 “ ‘And when you have come into the land and you plant any tree for food, you shall regard its fruit as unharvestable; for three years it shall be forbidden for you; it shall not be eaten. 24 And in the fourth year all its fruit shall be holy, offerings of praise for YHWH. 25 And in the fifth year you shall eat its fruit to increase its yield for you; I am YHWH your God.
26 “ ‘You must not eat anything with the blood; your shall not practice divination, nor shall you interpret signs. 27 You shall not round off the corner hair of your head, and you shall not trim the corner of your beard. 28 And you shall not make a slash in your body for a dead person, nor shall you make on yourselves a tattoo’s mark; I am YHWH.
29 “ ‘You shall not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, lest the land be prostituted and the land fill up with depravity. 30 You shall keep my Sabbaths, and you shall revere my sanctuary; I am YHWH.
31 “ ‘You shall not turn to the mediums and to the soothsayers; you shall not seek them to become unclean with them; I am YHWH your God.
32 “ ‘Before old age you shall get up, and you shall show respect for an old person; and you shall revere your God; I am YHWH.
33 “ ‘And when an alien dwells with you in your land, you shall not oppress him. 34 The alien who is dwelling with you shall be like a native among you, and your shall love him like yourself, because you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am YHWH your God.
35 “ ‘You shall not commit injustice in regulation, in measurement, in weight, or volume. 36 You must have honest balances, honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin; I am YHWH your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt.
37 “ ‘Thus you shall keep all my statutes and all my regulations, and you shall do them; I am YHWH.’ ”
What commands surprised you or do you think we need to remember our times?
More
Bible Project’s Guide to Leviticus»
Bible Project’s Leviticus Scroll podcasts»
Michael Heiser’s Naked Bible podcast 63: Introducing Leviticus»
"I. צֶלֶם (ṣě·lěm): n.masc.;...image, idol, i.e., a created and formed artifact that is worshiped as or as representing a pagan deity (Nu 33:52; 2Ki 11:18; 2Ch 23:17; Eze 7:20; 16:17; 23:14; Am 5:26+), note: for another interp in Ps 39:7[EB 6]; 73:20, see 7513; 2. LN 58.58–58.62 image, likeness, i.e., that which is a pattern, model, or example of something (Ge 1:26, 27(2×); 5:3; 9:6+), note: the exact reference of whether this is moral, ethical, physical, nature, etc. is not clear; 3. LN 6.96–6.101 model, figures, i.e., a two or three dimensional painted or sculptured representation of something, but not necessarily a worship object (1Sa 6:5(2×),11+)" James Swanson, Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament) (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997).
שֶׁ֫לֶם [[(šě·lěm)]] n.[m.] sacrifice for alliance or friendship, ‘peace-offering’ (expl. disputed: orig. sacrif. for alliance Di; al. peace-offering (mark of peace with God), 𝔊Sm K Pr εἰρηνική, De StaG i. 496 WeHeid. 71 (fellowship between God and worshippers)". Francis Brown, Samuel Rolles Driver, and Charles Augustus Briggs, Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977), 1023.
Heiser compares this to bringing a gift when you visit someone’s home. There is no sin mentioned. This an act of friendship toward God. [S. Heiser, Michael. Notes on Leviticus: from the Naked Bible Podcast (p. 30). BlindSpot Press. Kindle Edition].
Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 17–22: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, vol. 3A, 1658.
Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 17–22: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, vol. 2, 1659.