What is Leviticus?

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I see a lot of confusion about individual verses: don’t eat shellfish, don’t wear mixed fabrics, kill people who engage in homosexual acts, etc.

We don’t take Genesis literally, though we believe it contains truth. Should I look at Leviticus in the same way; that it represents the best understanding of God by his faithful at the time it was written? Or must I believe that God literally commanded these absurdities? Is there another option I’ve missed?
 
I recommend a good Catholic commentary to understand it. The Aquinas Study Bible on the link below has plenty of resources on it.
 
Binary said:
I see a lot of confusion about individual verses: don’t eat shellfish, don’t wear mixed fabrics, kill people who engage in homosexual acts, etc.

We don’t take Genesis literally, though we believe it contains truth. Should I look at Leviticus in the same way; that it represents the best understanding of God by his faithful at the time it was written? Or must I believe that God literally commanded these absurdities? Is there another option I’ve missed?
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The laws you mention were parts of the Mosaic Law, a revealed application of Natural Law to a unique people during a certain period of history. The individual precepts of the Mosaic Law no longer have legally binding force in this the age of the Church, but the Natural Law which undergirded it remains perennially valid, and this together with the historical and typological value of the books make them still good reading for Christians.
 
COPLAND_3 said:
I recommend a good Catholic commentary to understand it. The Aquinas Study Bible on the link below has plenty of resources on it.
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WOW! That is an absolutely amazing website… Thank you so VERY much! May God bless you! I will definitely be making a dissertation on this site! Again, thank you very much! 😃
 
Aelred_Minor said:
The laws you mention were parts of the Mosaic Law, a revealed application of Natural Law to a unique people during a certain period of history. The individual precepts of the Mosaic Law no longer have legally binding force in this the age of the Church, but the Natural Law which undergirded it remains perennially valid, and this together with the historical and typological value of the books make them still good reading for Christians.
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I must misunderstand Natural Law then. From what I have been taught, it is that law which is accessible to all reasonable men through observation and deduction. Natural Law is unchanging because human nature is unchanging. I can see how things like the prohibition of mixed garments and eating shellfish could be valid and binding, just as in parts of the world Catholics are prohibited from eating meat on Fridays under pain of sin. But under pain of death (e.g. Leviticus 20 13)? How can a man forfeit his right to life with a sexual sin?
 
Leviticus is a training manual. The first part is for priests and the second part is for ordinary Jewish people.

Leviticus 17 through 22 is known as the “Holiness Code” or the code of conduct which every Jew was supposed to abide by. Children were taught to read from the Holiness Code so that they learned how they were expected to behave even as they learned their ABC’s.

It’s a training manual for priestly worship and lay behavior.

-Tim-
 
TimothyH said:
Leviticus is a training manual. The first part is for priests and the second part is for ordinary Jewish people.

Leviticus 17 through 22 is known as the “Holiness Code” or the code of conduct which every Jew was supposed to abide by. Children were taught to read from the Holiness Code so that they learned how they were expected to behave even as they learned their ABC’s.

It’s a training manual for priestly worship and lay behavior.

-Tim-
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I never heard that before. It sounds like a very valid point. Could you refer me to a scholarly source on that? I always knew it was about Mosaic Law but that detail provides even more context.
 
hockeyfan said:
I never heard that before. It sounds like a very valid point. Could you refer me to a scholarly source on that? I always knew it was about Mosaic Law but that detail provides even more context.
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Jeff Cavins spoke about it in one of the lessons in “The Bible Timeline” Bible study from Great Adventure Bible Studies.

I should not have made such a unilateral statement though. I really shouldn’t pin God’s word down to just one purpose. It puts God in a box and makes me look like I think I know it all.

But Jeff did mention at the beginning of the study that Leviticus is not one of the narrative books of the Bible, that it is not part of the storyline, and recommended that it not be read in the order that it appears in the Bible. It fits into the story between where Moses recieves the Law from God and where Israel crosses the Jordan and enters the promised land, but it is supplemental to the story, enhances and explains the story, but not part of the narrative thread or storyline itself.

How the law was given to Moses was told in Exodus.

Numbers is mostly a record of how civil society was arranged and of military campaigns.

Dueteronomy is a record of three of Moses major addresses to the people, each arranged into a story first, followed by the law, and conlcuded with an exhortation to the people. The word deuteronomion means “Second Law” or “Copy of the law” and the book is so named because it goes over much of the law a second time. Dueteronomy 29-30 is Moses’ farewell address, given right before he is to die, and is moving to read in that context.

***I call heaven and earth today to witness against you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, by loving the LORD, your God, obeying his voice, and holding fast to him. For that will mean life for you, a long life for you to live on the land which the LORD swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give to them.

When Moses had finished speaking these words to all Israel, he said to them, I am now one hundred and twenty years old and am no longer able to go out and come in; besides, the LORD has said to me, Do not cross this Jordan.* (Dueteronomy 30:19-20, 31:1-2)**

Dueteronomy 30 was the first reading I ever did as a reader at Mass and as God would have it, we had just finished that lesson in our Bible study. It was humbling to proclaim the blessing and curse, life and death of the Mosaic Covenant from Moses’ farewell speech in front of 800 people at Mass. My voice cracked and I couldn’t catch my breath.

Forvgive me the digression… :o

Exodus is certainly part of the storyline. Some of the part of the Book of Numbers are part of the storyline too, with stories of military campaigns and how society was orderd, but much of Numbers can be dry military statistics. Portions of Dueteronomy are narrative - telling the story - but other parts are just a restatement of the Law.

Leviticus fits into the Bible as a supplemental book, after the storyline is understood. At the end of studying the Pentateuch, right before we were to start studing Joshua, Jeff Cavins said, “OK, now that you understand the story, now go back and read Leviticus.” That is when he explained that it was a used as a basic guide to priests on how they were to vest, how they were to sacrifice, how they were to identify leaprosy and what they were to do about it, and as a basic code of conduct for ordinary Jews.

If you ever get a chance to go through “The Bible Timeline” by Great Adventur/Jeff Cavins, you will not regret it. I’m hosting the study in my home starting June 12 for the second time. That’s how good I think it is. Anyone near Marietta/Kennesaw Georgia is welcome to join.

-Tim-
 
By the way, I think Copeland made that website. I never looked at it before today but it is an amazing site.

I will definitely be exploring.

-Tim-
 
Binary said:
I must misunderstand Natural Law then. From what I have been taught, it is that law which is accessible to all reasonable men through observation and deduction. Natural Law is unchanging because human nature is unchanging. I can see how things like the prohibition of mixed garments and eating shellfish could be valid and binding, just as in parts of the world Catholics are prohibited from eating meat on Fridays under pain of sin. But under pain of death (e.g. Leviticus 20 13)? How can a man forfeit his right to life with a sexual sin?
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The Levitical laws were part of a covenant. Covenants create families. That’s what covenants are, they are agreements to enter into a family relationship with another. That is why marriage is a covenant, because it is an agreement to create a family relationship. It is an agreement to create a blood relationship, and that is why sacrifice is made, that is why blood is spilled when a covenant is entered. It was called “Cutting a covenant.”

A contract always has an escape clause, but not so a covenant. A contract always has a way to get out of the agreement - you go to court, you pay so much money, you forefiet your house/business/whaterver - and the terms of the contract are satisfied and you are no longer bound, but not so covenants. Covenants never end. Once you enter a covenant, you are in for life, until one party dies. And Israelites who entered the covenant with God at Mt. Sinai understand that God would never die.

Except that God did die. Jesus was God. Jesus died. And the Old Covenant was therefor ended. Read Hebrews 9.

But the Israelites, led by Moses, entered the covenent with God at Mt. Sinai.

***So Moses went and summoned the elders of the people. When he set before them all that the LORD had ordered him to tell them, all the people answered together, “Everything the LORD has said, we will do.” Then Moses brought back to the LORD the response of the people. *(Exodus 19:7-8)

The people heard God’s terms, and they agreed. They weren’t coerced. They knew what they were getting into, and they agreed, and the demands of the covenant were clear. Breaking the rules meant death. That was the price you paid for entering into a covenant and then intentionally breaking it - death.

There were sins which did not break the covenant and these could be atoned for with flour or rasin cakes or other offerings, but as a member of God’s family by covenant, intentional unfaithfulness was punished by death.

And this is where God was merciful, because in animal sacrifice he gave the people a way out. He knew they were weak, and that they would be unable to remain faithful, so he gave them animal sacrifice. The priests and sinner would lay their hands on the animal, transfer the sins to the animal, and then kill the animal in place of the sinner, thereby atoning for the sin and returning the sinner back into covenant relationship with God.

But the animal sacrifices weren’t effective as evidence by the fact that the people kept sinning and that sacrificed kept having to be offered - until Christ, the perfect sacrifice. Christ was the perfect offering, the, “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”

Read Hebrews 7 through 9.

The point is that the rules and responsibilities under the covenant were clear. If you entered the covenant, you never got out of it, and if you were unfaithful then the punishment was death. But if you were faithful, God would greatly bless you, as in Dueteronomy 30 - blessing and curse, life and death.

-Tim-
 
Binary said:
I see a lot of confusion about individual verses: don’t eat shellfish, don’t wear mixed fabrics, kill people who engage in homosexual acts, etc.

We don’t take Genesis literally, though we believe it contains truth. Should I look at Leviticus in the same way; that it represents the best understanding of God by his faithful at the time it was written? Or must I believe that God literally commanded these absurdities? Is there another option I’ve missed?
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To those Christians that seek to understand homosexuality as a variation of human sexuality not addressed as such in scripture…they see Leviticus in the role the book itself declares…so that Israel not be like the nations (gentiles) in their practices. These prohibitions are rooted in culture and are time bound…not absolute.
 
TimothyH, thank you very much for responding. The explanation of what a covenant is and the availability of animal sacrifice is exactly what I needed to know, and you made it easy to understand.
 
Binary said:
TimothyH, thank you very much for responding. The explanation of what a covenant is and the availability of animal sacrifice is exactly what I needed to know, and you made it easy to understand.
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Thanks for saying so, but don’t take my word for it. I’m just some guy who went to a Bible study. Get into it yourself.

The Bible is the Creator if the Universe kneeling down and speaking with his little children in language which we we can hopefully understand. It’s so awesome.

-Tim-
 
Binary said:
I must misunderstand Natural Law then. From what I have been taught, it is that law which is accessible to all reasonable men through observation and deduction. Natural Law is unchanging because human nature is unchanging. I can see how things like the prohibition of mixed garments and eating shellfish could be valid and binding, just as in parts of the world Catholics are prohibited from eating meat on Fridays under pain of sin. But under pain of death (e.g. Leviticus 20 13)? How can a man forfeit his right to life with a sexual sin?
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As I said, the Mosaic Law is an application of the Natural Law, not the Natural Law itself.

For example, adultery being morally wrong is a part of the Natural Law. Adultery being a capital crime is a part of the specific revealed application of that Natural Law for Israelites of this period. (As for how it could be a capital crime, remember how adultery is a violation of such a sacred and socially essential bond).

The worship of God is, I think we could say, part of the Natural Law (to refuse to worship God in any way would be a natural sin of omission). Most of the laws about sacrifices and holidays and so forth are practical applications of this law to the situation of the Israelites prior to Christ.

Idolatry violates the Natural Law. Many of the cultural laws of Moses seem to be designed to culturally isolate Israel from the surrounding nations, to insulate them against paganism. It may be that the law against mixed fibers was one of these culturally isolating laws, though there’s also an obvious symbolism of purity in it as well (but that’s getting into the typological significance of the Law). Yet again, its an application of Natural Law to a unique people’s situation.
 
Levitical Law, like other Old Testament Law, is very important. We need the Old Testament to lead us into the New Testament. After God led His chosen people from slavery in Egypt to freedom, He gave them these laws to follow.

Levitical dietary laws are no longer binding since Jesus fulfilled these laws. The dietary laws (not to eat pork, shell fish etc…) and the cleanliness/uncleanliness laws are no longer valid. If you want to follow the dietary law, that is a personal / private devotion, however it is not required by the Church. Ceremonial laws such as sacrifices are also no longer binding. The ceremonial laws (observing the Sabbath, certain ways of worship like animal sacrifice, circumcision, etc…) have been fulfilled by Jesus. So the ceremonial and dietary laws we no longer need to follow since they have been “fulfilled” by Jesus. They were part of the Old Covenant and applied to the Jews of that time.

Moral Law from Leviticus is still binding. The 10 Commandments, for example are part of the moral law. The moral laws will apply as long as morals last.

Now, we are in the New Covenant and we are to follow the moral laws of the Old Testament, the entire New Testament, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
 
Binary said:
I see a lot of confusion about individual verses: don’t eat shellfish, don’t wear mixed fabrics, kill people who engage in homosexual acts, etc.

We don’t take Genesis literally, though we believe it contains truth. Should I look at Leviticus in the same way; that it represents the best understanding of God by his faithful at the time it was written? Or must I believe that God literally commanded these absurdities? Is there another option I’ve missed?
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Well, I don’t see that the ritual laws (shellfish and mixed fabrics) are absurd at all, any more than Catholic ritual is absurd. Biblical faith is not just a set of rational doctrine and moral principles. It is about holiness–and holiness is expressed in concrete, material, ritual ways.

The death penalty for homosexual acts is a more difficult question. Again, I wouldn’t call it an “absurdity.” But it is extremely harsh, even cruel. One could perhaps argue that in cultural context these acts were likely to have been abusive, but that’s probably a cop-out. When it comes to commands of violence in the Bible, I think we do have to appeal to “this is how they understood God’s demand for holiness.” And so the same could apply to the ritual commands as well–it’s just that in those cases there’s nothing unworthy of God’s character.

Edwin
 
Aelred_Minor said:
The laws you mention were parts of the Mosaic Law, a revealed application of Natural Law to a unique people during a certain period of history. The individual precepts of the Mosaic Law no longer have legally binding force in this the age of the Church, but the Natural Law which undergirded it remains perennially valid, and this together with the historical and typological value of the books make them still good reading for Christians.
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Hi all,

I have been trying really hard to defend my belief that gay marriage is wrong. And find people that approve of gay marriage always bring up Leviticus, and say if we are going to follow the rule of no homosexuality, then we must also follow the no shellfish rule, and the mixed cloth rule etc

So I have quickly skimmed these forums looking for answers.

Does this post mean that homosexuality is against Natural Law, which was a component of Mosaic Law … and now that Mosaic Law has been cancelled due to Christ’s death, Natural Law still exists … therefore that’s why homosexuality is still a sin but eating shellfish isn’t?

Please correct me. I am desperate to learn, and be able to defend this part of my faith to the best of my ability

Thanks 🙂
 
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