LEVI (Heb. LÉVI). — I. Third of the sons that Jacob had by Leah.
In Gen. 29:34 the name is explained by the mother’s words: “Now this time my husband will cling (or: be attached) to me.” L., together with Simeon, took fierce vengeance on the Shechemites after Dinah was violated (Gen. 34). The father immediately reproved the deed; in the “Blessing” before his death 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 exalting the priestly class (e.g., in the apocryphal Book of Jubilees, Assumption of Moses).
2. Name of three persons mentioned in the New Testament: the publican, son of Alphaeus, in the second and third Gospels (Mk. 2:14; Lk. 5:27), called Matthew in the first (Mt. 9:9) (v.); the son of Simeon and the son of Melchi in the genealogy of Jesus in Lk. 3:29, 34.