Leviticus: An Overview
Examining Leviticus as the third book of the Pentateuch, exploring its authorship, setting, and message about holiness and covenant relationship.
Setting, Occasion, Author, and Dating
Leviticus is the third book of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament). It is inextricably linked to the book before (Exodus) and the book after (Numbers), as it belongs to a section of passages regarding the Mosaic law found from Exodus 25 through Numbers 10:10.[1] These passages outline the sacrificial and ritual system that the people were to follow, carried out by the Levitical priesthood. In fact, the name of the book comes from the Latinized Greek phrase for “that which concerns the priests” (Greek: Leuitkon, rendered in Latin, Liber Leviticus). The canonicity of Leviticus has never been questioned by Jews or Christians. [2]
Though he is never named explicitly as such in Leviticus itself, Moses is the author of the text. References to the direct revelation of the content of the book from God through Moses occur more than in any other book of the Pentateuch, with the phrase “the Lord said to Moses” occurring thirty-seven times. As with the rest of the Pentateuch, there is potential evidence that minor changes and additions were made later, for clarity, by an inspired editor.[3] Leviticus was written during the Exodus journey, which took place over the forty years between 1446 BC and 1406 BC.[4] Its literary setting is identical to its historical setting. Israel was given this message from God through Moses while encamped at Mt. Sinai.[5]
God has successfully rescued Israel from slavery in Egypt. He has declared His covenant with Israel through Moses, and He has determined to live among them in the tabernacle. All these events are documented in Exodus. What will life look like for the Israelites now that a Holy God is physically and visibly dwelling in their midst? How will they behave? How will they maintain their covenant relationship with Him? These are the issues that Leviticus seeks to address. The laws, rituals, and sacrifices outlined in the book are the answer.
Message and Structure
In the book of Leviticus, God gives the people and the priests His laws through Moses, concerning ritual purity, sacrifice, and holiness, so that a Holy God can live among an unclean people, and they can experience the blessing of His presence and promises.
Leviticus adds detail to the covenant made between God and Israel through Moses, the mediator, by explaining how they would function as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Exod 19:5-6). The statutes detailed in Leviticus are in a form that would have been familiar in the Ancient Near East: a suzerain-vassal covenant.[6] The regular appearances at the tabernacle by a representative to present sacrifices to the ruler (Yahweh) served to reaffirm the loyalty of the nation to the ruler. This was a standard structure and practice in such arrangements. Notably different in the case of the covenant between Israel and Yahweh was that the covenant was not made by Israel to a human ruler, but to the Most High God as ruler. Israel’s king was to be God Himself. This comes in to play later in the histories, when the people demand a human king to rule over them.
Leviticus details God’s provision of substitutionary atonement through five key sacrifices found in chapters one through seven. First, the burnt offering sacrifice secures personal forgiveness of sin. Next, the grain offering is given to praise and thank God for his provision. The peace and fellowship offerings are a means of communion, enabling an Israelite to connect with God and God’s people. Finally, the guilt offering for atoning for the desecration of holy objects.[7]
In chapters eleven through twenty-five, Moses delivers laws and regulations regarding purity and holiness. Chapters eleven through sixteen comprise a “manual of purification,”[8] demonstrating how an Israelite could ritually cleanse themselves when they became unclean or impure. Chapters seventeen through twenty-seven detail the Mosaic laws for holiness. These laws comprehensively affect the life of the Israelite. Every aspect of their existence was to be wrapped up in purity and holiness, as a way of showing God’s character and holiness to the Israelite community and the watching world. All this obedience was to be motivated by faith in the promise of blessing for obedience and the curse for disobedience outlined in chapter twenty-six.[9] Yahweh uses these promises to motivate obedience among His people.[10]
Relevance and Applicability to Christians Today
Christians who undertake the discipline of reading through the whole Bible for the first time often stall out in the seemingly irrelevant, detailed minutiae of Jewish tabernacle worship found in Leviticus. Its relevance is difficult to discern. Do Christians need to know the lists of birds Israel was and was not allowed to eat? Why is a bat on that list? The Christian faith does not involve the making of sacrifices; the final sacrifice was offered by Jesus once-for-all (Heb 10:10)! Is the book important for us to read and understand, and if so, why?
Without Leviticus, much of the detail in the historical and prophetic books would be difficult to understand. The historical books contain much narrative of the curses of Leviticus 26 falling on Israel for failing to obey the commands and statutes laid out in the book. The prophets warn Israel back to covenant faithfulness in keeping these commands from the heart.
Further, God’s character, namely His holiness, is shown through these commands and His concern for the purity and holiness of His people as described in the book. The book of Hebrews leans heavily on the sacrificial system described in Leviticus for its logic in Christ’s new priesthood and sacrifice (Heb 10). The meaning and significance of Jesus’s death in our place, as a substitute for our sin, would seem random, arbitrary, and without basis if we did not understand the purpose and effect of the sacrificial system and God’s promises of holiness and purity as a result of the sacrifices.
Leviticus is a record of how God defines sin and holiness. How He demands purity, and how He provides purity for an unclean people through a substitute sacrifice. By faith in God’s promise of forgiveness, evidenced by conformity to His revealed laws and statutes, God’s people will be holy and set apart from the nations, and He will be able to dwell in their midst.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
DeRouchie, Jason. “Lecture on Leviticus.” Video lecture, M-BS2110 Old Testament Survey 1. Midwestern Seminary, July 25, 2023.
Merrill, Eugene H., Mark F. Rooker, and Michael A. Grisanti. The World and the Word: An Introduction to the Old Testament. Nashville: B&H Academic, 2011.
Notes
1. 1. Eugene H. Merrill, Mark F. Rooker, and Michael A. Grisanti, *The World and the Word: An Introduction to the Old Testament* (Nashville: B&H Academic, 2011), 220.
7. 7. Jason DeRouchie, *“Lecture on Exodus” *video lecture, M-BS2110 Old Testament Survey 1, Midwestern Seminary, July 25, 2023, 00:02:00.