T H E B O O K O F L E V I T I C U S
The Book of Leviticus centers on the guidelines on the different sacrificial offerings of the Chosen People to God given by Moses to the people and to the priests themselves. The main content and harmony of the Book are obviously shown in its first five chapters – the different forms of sacrifice made by the people and the priests to Yahweh.
1) Holocaust or burnt offering (1: 1-17)
2) Oblation or cereal offering (2: 1-16)
3) The Communion Sacrifice or Peace Offering (3: 1-17)
4) The Sacrifice for Sin or Sin Offering (4: 1-35)
5) Other cases for guilt offering – sacrifice of reparation (5: 1-26)
The centrality of the Book of Leviticus is focus on these: the sacrifice and the priest offering the sacrifice. In fact the following elements present in the Book are written in view of the book’s central idea. The foremost of these is the different feasts (Lev. 23) celebrated by Israel. This is inscribed not for its own purpose, but with the intent of giving relevance to the five for sacrifices offered to Yahweh. These five kinds of sacrifices are essentials to the celebrated annual feasts:
1)
Passover and the Unleavened Bread
ü
Burnt offering (oblation)
ü Sacred assembly
2) Pentecost
ü
Cereal offering
ü
Burnt offering
ü
Sin offering
ü
Peace offering
3) Kippur
(New Year) – 1st day of Tishri
ü
Burnt offering
ü Sabbath rest
4) Day
of Atonement
ü
Sacred assembly and fast
ü
Burnt offering
ü
Special ceremony for Day of Atonement
ü Sabbath rest
5) Tabernacles
ü
Burnt offering for 7 days
ü
Sacred assembly
ü Sabbath rest
There are also additional liturgical rituals that the people and the priests were faithfully practicing. These, as in the previous analysis, are to enshrine the relevance of these main sacrificial offerings they made to God. They are:
1)
Ordination and Investiture of Priests
(8 – 10: 1-20)
ü Sin offering
ü Burnt offering
ü Sacrifice of investiture
ü Peace offering
2)
Day of Atonement
(16: 1-34)
3) Purification of lepers (14: 1-57)
ü Sacrifice of reparation
(14:12)
ü Sacrifice for sin (14:19)
ü Rite of atonement
ü Holocaust or burnt offering
(14:19)
ü Oblation (14: 20)
In reference to the main Levitical theme of the Book, Leviticus has incorporated different laws and regulations as guidelines for the people and also for the priests who fulfill their priestly duties in the Tent of Meeting. However, these instructions are not tackling moral issues. Rather, they are cultic in character; meaning, they are connected to acts of sacrificial offerings. They are as if saying that if one has transgressed these laws or has made himself/herself impure, he/she should offer sin or guilt offering before proceeding to make a peace offering or holocaust or oblation. And that these offerings God will make everyone holy.
Foremost of these precepts is the dietary laws of Israel concerning the clean and the unclean animals ( ch. 11). Another element of the laws concerns about the instructions on human diseases and its proper ritual for its purification (ch. 13-14). Sexual impurities are being also in this Book. In addition to that, instructions are also given on the specific gestures an instances on when an individual become unclean.
The last and the great concerns of the Book of Leviticus is the Law of Holiness. Here, rules for conjugal relationships, proper worship to Yahweh, the celebration of the annual feasts and the Holy Years and its consequent blessings and curses were being outlined. These are great means to show faithfulness to Yahweh.
However, these laws would only be relevant in connection with the sacrificial offerings they will make to God. Indeed, The sacrificial offerings and the Levitical priesthood are central to daily life of Israel. They are the fulcrum to which everything is hinged on.
B)
Schematic Outline:
A) The
Ritual of Sacrifices (chapters 1-7)
a.1) Instructions to the people about the
5 major Sacrificial offerings (ch.1- 5)
a.2) duties of the priests towards the Sacri-
ficial offerings (ch. 6 and 7)
(ch. 8 – 10)
b.2) Ordination rite and the assuming of
functions (ch. 8 – 9)
b.3) other priestly regulations (ch. 10)
c.1) animals and acts which make an Israelite
unclean and its purification (ch.11- 16)
c.2) Law of Holiness (ch.17 – 22)
(ch. 23-28)
d.1) annual feasts (ch. 23-24)
d.2) the Holy Years and their social
implications (25-28)
C) Personal Reflection:
Personally, I am so struck by the recurring lines in the Book with regards to the alternatives animals to be sacrificed to God. The book would usually mentioned first the cow, then the sheep or a goat, and lastly the pair of turtle dove or young pigeon. I remember Mary when she came to the temple to purify herself eight days after she gave birth to Jesus. She offered not a bull, nor a lamb, but a pair of turtledoves ( cf. Lk. 2:24). Mary was very poor.
Yahweh has a great concern for the poor of Israel. What matters is not the sacrifice itself. It is the act of offering to God. This alternative offering of the poor is mentioned six times (1:14; 5: 7; 5: 11; 12: 8; 14: 21; 19: 10; 23: 22). For me, this is the under-lying message in Leviticus which caught my attention.
I, too, am a poor boy. My parents are poor. I am deprived of many material things when I was still teenager because of poverty. I envied my middle classmates in their latest clothing, gadgets, and many modern styles of living. At that time, I wished I were like them. But I could not.
But when I taught Values Education in St. Louis School – Don Bosco, I realized that what the young people are dreaming of right now is different from what I expected. It is not all those things that I hoped to acquire before. I see in these middle class and rich students of mine the need for love of their parents, which is almost non-existent. Many of my students were products of broken families, illegitimate relationship and busy parents.
God gives us all the means for us to enjoy our life more. I expect less and superficial happiness; He gave me more reasons to be genuinely happy. There is still greater need which all of us yearn to satisfy. And that is love in the family. My parents did almost everything just to send me to school, provide my needs, to put me in a loving and safe home. Though we are poor in material things, we are rich in spirit. I realize that my experience before was the source of so much blessings. I felt intensely the presence of God in my life.
1) What are the different ritualistic steps common in the five sacrificial offerings?
2) Compare and contrast the contents of Leviticus 1-5 and Leviticus 6-7.
3) How is the ordination rites of the priests be done?
4) How is the investiture of the priests be done?
5) How would a leper undergo the ritual of purification?
6) Why must the priests be the one to examine the cleaness (not cleanliness) or the uncleaness of the person?
7) What are the common patterns in the ritual of examining persons with human diseases?
8) How will a man and a woman become sexually impure?
9) Summarize into one sentence the Law of Holiness.
10) Discuss the provisions of the Holy Years.