Leviticus

LEVITICUS. - Third book of the Pentateuch (v.), called by the Palestinian Jews from its opening word voajiqra'; by the Alexandrian Jews Λευιτικόν, whence the Vulgate Liber Leviticus, from its content (cf.

Eusebius, Hist. eccl., IV, 26, 14: PG 20, 396). Unlike Genesis and Exodus, in fact, Leviticus consists almost entirely of legislative texts concerning worship, codified according to a logical connection.

It consists of 4 main parts and an appendix. 1) Chaps. 1-7: the "law of sacrifices" enumerates the various sacrifices (1:1-6:7) and gives the prescriptions concerning the offering on the part of the people and its performance on the part of the priests (6:8-7:38). 2) The 2nd part is the only historical section (8-10): it narrates the priestly consecration of Aaron and his sons; their entry into office; the sin and punishment of the sons Nadab and Abihu. 3) Chaps. 11-15 deal with legal impurities and the means of recovering lost holiness; chap. 16 contains the legislation of the great day of atonement. 4) The "law of holiness": holiness in social life (17-22); religious institutions, feasts, the sabbatical year, the jubilee (23-25); with the parenetic conclusion on the blessings reserved by Yahweh for the faithful and on the terrible punishments that will strike sinners (chap. 26). Chap. 27 serves as an appendix to the whole book, with prescriptions on vows, their commutation, and tithes.

From the special purpose of Leviticus, tending to provide the ministers of worship (Lev. 17:2; 21:2; 22:2 etc.) with the detailed code of their state and their functions, it is explained how the prescriptions of a moral order that at least, for example, Deuteronomy contains, here appear under a legal aspect. Nevertheless, holiness even of a ritual kind, insistently inculcated upon the priests and the people, proceeds from a highly religious motive, is wholly imbued with supernatural ideas (11:14; 21:23; 22:9, 16); it is inspired by the very holiness of Yahweh, which it takes as its model (19:2; 20:8, 24, 26; 21:8; 22:32). Laws and prescriptions have as their object the safeguarding of a truly religious life (cf. 18:21; 19:4, 26 ff. 31; etc.). The heart, like the worship of Israel, must be for its God alone (19:4, 12, 24). And the moral prescriptions complete and demonstrate such loftiness of sentiment; cf. the prohibition and the severe sanctions for sins against nature (18:6-18, 20, 22 ff.; 19:20; 20:10-22); for injustices against one's neighbor (19:11, 15 f. 35 f.); the duties of children toward their parents (19:3); duties of humanity toward the aged (19:32), toward the sick (19:14); duties of charity toward the Israelite (19:17 f.; cf. Mk. 12:31) and toward the stranger who dwells in Israel (Lev. 19:32 f.). The Wellhausenian conception of a ritual religion, codified in Leviticus, in opposition to the moral religion of the prophets (Deuteronomy), is one of the many artifices of that system.

Catholic criticism (v. PENTATEUCH) maintains the substantial Mosaic authenticity of Leviticus, not excluding that some precepts may have undergone additions or modifications. The antiquity of the law on sacrifices (chaps. 1-17) has received unsuspected confirmation from the texts of Ras Shamra, some centuries earlier than Moses: the sacrifices listed in Leviticus have an exact correspondence, even in name, with those of the ancient Phoenicians (R. Dussaud [v. bibl.], p. 110 f.). Among the manuscripts recently discovered in the Judaean desert (1947) were found, on strips of leather, 4 fragments of Leviticus: 19:31-34; 20:20-23; 21:14-22:3; 22:4-5; written in the ancient script of the Lachish letters (6th century B.C.). If they must go back to the era when such script was in use (A. Neher), that is, at least to the 5th-6th century B.C., one would have another archaeological proof of the antiquity of the law of holiness, already existing at that time in a text exactly equal to the one in question (R. Dussaud). In any case, and pending a definitive conclusion, one cannot date such fragments later than the 4th century (R. de Vaux), when another type of script was already in use. - See plate LXXVIII.

Francesco Spadafora