LEVI (Heb. Lēvī). - I. Third of the sons whom Jacob had by Leah.

In Gen. 29:34 the name is explained by the mother's phrase: "Now this time my husband will be joined (or attached) to me." L., with Simeon, carried out a fierce vengeance on the Shechemites, after Dinah had been violated (Gen. 34). The father immediately reproved the deed; in the "Song" before dying he recalled it with execration, cursing the "fury" of the two brothers and protesting that he had no complicity in the misdeed (ibid. 50:5-7). L. died at the age of 137, leaving the sons Gershon, Kohath (father of Amram, who had the two sons Aaron and Moses) and Merari (Ex. 6:16-20). In Judaism the figure of L. was idealized in exaltation of the priestly class (for example, in the apocrypha Liber Iubilaeorum, Assumptio Moysis).

2. Name of three figures mentioned in the New Testament: the publican, son of Alphaeus, in the second and third Gospels (Mk. 2:14; Lk. 5:27), in the first (Mt. 9:9) called Matthew (v.); the son of Simeon and the son of Melchi, in the genealogy of Jesus in Lk. 3:29, 34.

Giovanni Rinaldi

@incollection{ec7_levi_ebr_levi, author = {Rinaldi, Giovanni}, title = {Levi (Ebr. Lévi)}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VII}, pages = {1230--1231}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/levi-ebr-levi} }

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