The Book of Leviticus


Book Description

Wenham's study on the Book of Leviticus is a contribution to The New International Commentary on the Old Testament. Like its companion series on the New Testament, this commentary devotes considerable care to ahieving a balance between technical information and homiletic-devotional interpretation.




The Book of Leviticus


Book Description

This collection of essays examines Leviticus in its compositional and literary context, issues of cult and sacrifice in Leviticus, Leviticus on the priesthood, and Leviticus in translation and interpretation. The volume will serve biblical studies well long into the future.




Leviticus


Book Description

The book of Leviticus provides two different theologies related to God’s presence within ancient Israel. Leviticus 1–16 was written by an elite caste of priests (P), and Leviticus 17–26 (H) was added to the book to “democratize” access to God. While the Priestly work has hardly inspired lay readers, the Holiness Writings provide some of the most inspiring and well-known verses from the Bible. This volume shows how gender dynamics shift between the static worldview of P and the dynamic approach of H and that, ironically, as holiness expands from the priests to the people, from the temple to the land of Israel, gender behaviors become more highly regulated. This complicates associations between power and gender dynamics and opens the door to questions about the relationships between power, gender, and theological perspectives.




Who Shall Ascend the Mountain of the Lord?


Book Description

How can creatures made from dust become members of God's household "forever"? In this New Studies in Biblical Theology volume, Michael Morales explores the narrative context, literary structure and theology of Leviticus, following its dramatic movement from the tabernacle to the temple—and from the earthly to the heavenly Mount Zion in the New Testament.




Leviticus


Book Description

Leviticus has been called irrelevant, primitive, and a backwater of the Bible, even by scholars and people of faith who treasure Scripture. Many find it alienating, or, at minimum, confusing. In Leviticus: You Have No Idea Rabbi Maurice D. Harris offers readers surprising new ways of looking at the Bible's least popular (and least understood) book. Grounded in his progressive religious values and beliefs, Rabbi Harris approaches the various laws, rituals, and stories of Leviticus with an open-minded curiosity about what we can learn today about life, ethics, God, and higher meaning by studying this text. Taking the Bible seriously but not literally, Harris uses a plain-spoken, accessible style to explain confusing elements of Leviticus. He explores topics that matter to many of us in contemporary society, including LGBT equality, the dangers of religious fundamentalism, the impacts of childhood trauma, criminal justice reform, and more. With this book, the author invites us into an ancient text that, read with care, challenges us to be better people and help repair this broken world.




Leviticus


Book Description

This volume in the popular Interpretation series presents the book of Leviticus. It focuses on the history of Israel during this time when Israel's life was marked by the various ritual sacrifices and observances commanded by God for the ordering of the nation's life. Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching is a distinctive resource for those who interpret the Bible in the church. Planned and written specifically for teaching and preaching needs, this critically acclaimed biblical commentary is a major contribution to scholarship and ministry.




“I Will Walk Among You”


Book Description

The well-known parallels between Genesis and Leviticus invite further reflection, particularly in regard to the rhetorical and theological purpose of their lexical, syntactical, and conceptual correspondences. This volume investigates the possibility that the final-form text of Leviticus is an indirect reference to Genesis 1–3 and examines the rhetorical significance of such an allusion. The face of Pentateuch scholarship has shifted dramatically in the last forty years, resulting in the questioning of many received truths and the employment of a host of new, renewed, and often competing methodologies by biblical scholars. This study sits at the intersection of these recent interpretive trends. G. Geoffrey Harper uses insights from the fields of intertextuality, rhetorical criticism, and speech act theory to create a methodological framework, which he applies to three Leviticus pericopes. Chapters 11, 16, and 26 are examined in turn, and for each the assessment of potential parallels at lexical, syntactical, and conceptual levels reveals a complex web of interconnected allusion to the creation and Eden narratives of Genesis 1 and 2–3. Moreover, Harper probes the theological and rhetorical import of these intertextual connections and explores how Leviticus ought to be understood in its Pentateuchal context. This comprehensive study of the connections between these two sections of the Hebrew Bible sheds light on both the literary artistry of these ancient texts and the persuasive purposes that lie behind their composition.




Leviticus as Literature


Book Description

Offering a new and controversial interpretation of Leviticus this book sets out an anthropological perspective on the Jewish purity laws.




Reflections on the Book of Leviticus


Book Description

The theme that unifies the diverse contents of this biblical work is that of holiness, as the text asserts: Ye shall be holy; for I the Lord your God am holy (Lev. 19:2). The burden of the work is set forth guidelines as to how the children of Israel were to attain that goal. One of the great practical issues dealt with in Leviticus is the problem of connecting with the one and only God through the practice of a form of worship that is superficially similar to but at the same time radically different from the modes of worship practiced by the other peoples of the ancient world, which almost universally included sacrificial rites. Because it was extremely difficult for one to relate to a deity that could not be depicted graphically, sacrificial rites were also prescribed for the children of Israel as a concession to human weakness, but were designed in a manner to leave little if any room for human inventiveness, which if left unchecked would likely result in idolatrous practices. Accordingly, the ancient rites were infused with layers of detailed instructions and obscure symbolisms that make the text difficult to comprehend, while raising important ethical considerations that are an essential aspect of the biblical concept of holiness. This study explores some of the profound ideas that lie buried beneath the surface of this extremely complex biblical text.




The Book Of Leviticus


Book Description

The Book of Leviticus The Book of Leviticus is the third book of The Old Testament. It lies in the center of the Pentateuch, between Exodus and Numbers. Today's readers are often put off by the book's lists of laws regarding diet, sacrifice, and social behavior. But within these highly detailed directives we discover the holiness-the separateness, distinction, and utter "otherness"-of God. And we learn how sin devastates humanity's relationship with their Creator. The overall message of Leviticus is sanctification. The book communicates that receiving God's forgiveness and acceptance should be followed by holy living and spiritual growth. In Leviticus we learn that God loves to be approached, but we must do so on His terms. Leviticus can be challenging to read, as it is filled with detailed instructions--like how to conduct various kinds of sacrifices, how to recognize various symptoms of skin disease, and other matters of ritual purity that seem to have no relevance to modern Christians. As you read Leviticus, realize that you're reading not a narrative text, but a ritual text, whose theology is expressed not in stories, but in the details of rituals and in the worldview behind them. Keep in mind that the priestly writers of the book believed certain things about God and the world. They believed God created the world in a very ordered way, with distinct boundaries, and that ritual mirrored and actualized those cosmic boundaries so that the holy God could dwell in the midst of people prone to sin without destroying them. Structure: I. Laws on Sacrifice (1:1-7:38) II. Institution of the Priesthood (8:1-10:20) III. Uncleanness and its Treatment (11:1-16:34) IV. Prescriptions for Practical Holiness (17:1-27:34) Features: perfect for personal use or to give as a gift to celebrate special occasions like graduations, baptisms, birthdays, or achievements Easy-to-read 38 Pages