Jewish Legislative, Ceremonial, and Moral Laws Question

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Okay quick yet difficult question. In Leviticus there are three types of laws, moral (unchanging), legislative, and ceremonial laws. My question is were the legislative and ceremonial laws commanded by God or were they human in origin based on God’s moral laws?

Thank you for the help.
 
Okay. I know that the ceremonial laws were commanded by God as a means of making the Hebrews holy. However did God command the punishments listed Leviticus for sins like adultery, homosexuality, working on the sabbath, and etc? I cannot find an answer to this. Please help.
 
Anyone? Let me try asking the question differently.
Are the punishments listed in Leviticus 20 commanded by God or allowed by god through Moses command?
 
The first version of the Bible online that I found was the KJV. It seems pretty clear that the commands are attributed to God.

Yes, this is a slippery subject. The decalogue was written on the tablets by God and so that is the “written Torah” according to Jewish commentaries. But, the other commands and statutes that are given in the Torah were given by God to Moses, who then wrote them down. That is referred to as the oral Torah.

If I’m not mistaken, these are the Jewish interpretations of the Torah. The other commands had to come from someplace, in the first consideration. Second, their writing down was attributed to Moses. So where did Moses get these? On Sinai where he was for 40 days.

According to the New Jerome Biblical Commentary, there are few official interpretations of scripture by the Catholic Church. So, you may run into a variety of opinions about the subject.

In a vague way, I’m going to mention that Jesus referred to the Torah as having been written by Moses, with an implied divine source of inspiration.

So, that’s the best understanding that I have at the moment. I don’t have a horse in your race, so I don’t know what confirmation you are searching for.

In Lev is the incident where the man is picking up sticks on the Sabbath and caught doing so. If I recall correctly, they go to Moses to apply the law and punishment, in the form of a question. Moses goes to seek God’s counsel about the punishment. Here, this seems to imply to me divine authorship, inasmuch as even Moses doesn’t exactly kinow how to apply the law.
 
Cliff_Jumper said:
Okay quick yet difficult question. In Leviticus there are three types of laws, moral (unchanging), legislative, and ceremonial laws. My question is were the legislative and ceremonial laws commanded by God or were they human in origin based on God’s moral laws?

Thank you for the help.
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From a Jewish perspective, there are commandments; 613 total. They can be broken down in numerous different ways: One is by positive (248) and negative (365) commandments. Another is:
  • Mishpatim: These include commandments that are deemed to be self-evident, such as not to murder or not to steal.
  • Edot (“testimonies”): They stand as testimonies in religious branches of Judaism. For example, the Shabbath is said to testify to the story that G-d created the world in six days and rested on the seventh day and declared it holy.
  • Chukim. These commandments have no known rationale, and are perceived as pure manifestations of the Divine will.
We believe that all were given to us directly by G-d Himself, and so were the punishments for non-fulfilment.

As an aside, according to Jewish law, to inflict the death penalty is almost impossible. Two eyewitnesses must have seen the perpetrator about to commit the crime and warned him of the potential penalty. The murderer must verbally answer that he chooses to proceed anyway. Twenty-three, rather than the usual three judges, must sit on the rabbinical court, among other requirements; circumstantial evidence is never allowed in a Jewish court hearing a capital case, and a person cannot testify against themselves.

Similarly, a court that executed once in 70 years was referred to as a “bloody court”.

That’s how severe Jewish law takes the death penalty.
 
The entire Torah is so difficile it’s impossible that Moses could have invented all those pieces making the picture within forty days. It took wise men centuries to decode some things in the Torah. It’s devine origin. There’re things that are hard to understand, that make no rational sense, but I believe that these commandments are for us to simply show pure obedience towards Him that is rooted in a feeling of affiliation and love. Even though some might make no sense for us, they seem to have a reason: By giving us these commandments, G-d gave us another opportunity to connect with Him on an even deeper level. Because, following these commandments can even bring you closer to Him than following those that you can understand, as you surrender yourself entirely to Him by doing His will without understanding it. You keep them out of pure devotion and commitment, so you connect your very essence of your being with Him
 
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