Leviticus

Leviticus: Nothing but the blood

Page 73 of Drama talks about the interaction between the holiness of God and sinfulness of people. The interaction of these two ideas, which have now been thrown side by side because of the covenant and tabernacle, drive not only Leviticus, but the rest of the Bible. Leviticus can be divided many ways but most simply notice that the first 16 chapters regulate holiness within the cult (that is a non pejorative usage which describes something as a religious system) and the final 11 chapters regulate holiness amongst the people (within the camp).

As you read, and I appreciate some of you already have completed the reading, imagine that the ‘wilderness’ is not just a physical location, but also a spiritual one. This is what I mean by that. The Hebrew for wilderness is meed-bar and is basically a participle derived from the verb da-var which means ‘to speak’. The wilderness is a place of speaking. God leads the Israelites out of the world defined by Pharaoh and slavery and begins speaking to them about a new world. God is not just telling them what they have to do, He is inviting them to see the world in a completely new way. His words are a gracious invitation to live in a new world. Take for example the commands concerning slavery and foreigners. How do these compare to the Egyptian’s commands concerning foreigners and slaves?

We often time have trouble with the sacrificial system and have a tendency to look at it as something evil of which we are set free by the work of Christ. Often I have heard people say that the laws themselves are oppressive and burdensome. Read through these questions and try to work through one or two for class, or all of them if you want.

What is holiness? Why is this a problem? How is this dealt with? Walter Brueggemann says that the term both describes the sheer ‘otherness’ of YWHW but also provides a righteous direction that His people are to follow. This varied usage, as Walter Brueggemann points out, is derived from a term which attempts to describe that which most characterizes YHWH. Is it any wonder that it avoids a single definition? So what does it mean to “be a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6)?

What is sin? How is it dealt with? Here are some other texts which make this discussion ‘interesting.’ Psalm 51:16-19; Isaiah 11:1; Hebrews 9:13, 10:14

What do you think about the idea that these laws are oppressive and evil? What does it mean that Christ said not a yod or tittle (the smallest marks in Hebrew writing) would disappear and that He had come not to abolish but to fulfill the law when compared to the fact that certain aspects of the law seem to be abolished in the church’s practices (e.g. eating with gentiles, eating unclean animals, not requiring circumcision, etc.).

What in the Old Testament might support or contradict this idea?

What happens in the New Testament?

Why don’t we as Christians follow all of these laws anymore? This website (http://www.positiveatheism.org/writ/drlaura.htm) is done in a mocking fashion but poses challenges that I think many in the church would have a hard time answering. How would you respond to these questions?

Side note: The schedule lists Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy for December 7th and then a dinner the following meeting. Sometimes less is more. This is not really a survey course but one looking to help us be better readers and livers (?) of the Bible. We want to give time for class interaction so we’re not going to do a whole lot with Numbers in class but the page and a half in Drama has some important stuff. If anyone wants I’d be glad to meet outside of class. We’ll talk about the dinner and what people want to do but that will be a good time to do Deuteronomy which is in many respects takes the teaching of Exodus and Leviticus and frames it in a way that is the standard against which the rest of the Old Testament is measured.