Pentateuch: Leviticus

This work treats the books of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy as stories and asks the question, "How does the storyteller tell the story?" In these books we hear the voices of the narrator, the Lord, Moses, Aaron, the Israelites, Balaam and Barak, and others. We also witness the actions of the characters in the story. In examining the voice of the narrator, we look especially at how the narrator manipulates knowledge (what knowledge he shares with us and what knowledge he chooses to withhold from us) and ask whether the narrator gives us any hint as to how we should evaluate the various characters and their actions. In treating the characters in the story (including the Lord), this study asks what we can learn about these characters from their words and actions. For example, what does Yhwh's way of talking tell us about him? What does he talk about most? What's "on his mind"? Each of these three books has its own characteristics as part of a larger story.

Wenham's study on the Book of Leviticus is a contribution to The New International Commentary on the Old Testament. Like its companion series on the New Testament, this commentary devotes considerable care to ahieving a balance between technical information and homiletic-devotional interpretation.

James Watts uses rhetorical analysis for this detailed exposition of Leviticus 1-10. In dialogue with a wide variety of contemporary scholarship on Leviticus, this commentary also engages the history of the book's interpretation and the history of Jewish and Christian ritual practices. Leviticus's rhetoric aimed to persuade ancient Israelites to make offerings to God. It legitimized the monopoly of Aaronide priests over Israel's offerings and over determining correct ritual practice. The priests in turn established the Torah containing Leviticus as the authoritative text of Israel's religion. Rhetorical analysis of Leviticus thus leads to new insights into the role of priests in raising the Pentateuch to the status of scripture and in shaping the biblical canon. It also calls attention to the role of ritual rhetoric in the polities of later Jewish and Christian groups, despite the fact that neither religion makes animal offerings as Leviticus 1-10 mandates.

This volume, like each in the Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible, is designed to serve the church--through aid in preaching, teaching, study groups, and so forth--and demonstrate the continuing intellectual and practical viability of theological interpretation of the Bible. Leviticus is the fifth volume in the series.

Leviticus offers many challenges for interpretation, including the laws contained within the book, as well as questions of the book's origins and compilation. This new commentary by Old Testament scholar Erhard Gerstenberger provides a sure guide through the text of Leviticus and these questions. Gerstenberger understands that Leviticus is the product of an Israel reconstituted as a community of faith during the Persian period. The commentary provides suggestions regarding daily life questions on how one worships the one universal God within the local communities of congregation and family. In this interpretation, the book of Leviticus offers clear words of instruction to those throughout the world who would live faithfully for Israel's God.

Traverses the shoals of legal thought and liturgical practice in ancient Israel. The author explains the role of the Tabernacle of the Wilderness as the all-important center of Israelite worship, the locus of the priestly orders, and practices of purity to which the congregation repaired for penitence and reconciliation, restoration and renewal.

"Translated by J.S.Anderson from...Das dritte Buch Mose, Leviticus (Das Alte Testament Deutsch 6)"

The impact of Mary Douglas's anthropological work on biblical studies has nowhere been more strongly felt than in the area of biblical legal systems. A group of experts in bible, Jewish law, comparative law, classical literature and social anthropology met in 1995 in the company of Mary Douglas to explore the book of Leviticus.

To many students no book of the Bible may seem duller than Leviticus. In fact, Leviticus is extremely important for a proper understanding of ancient Israelite religion and worship. Many of its supposed arcane practices actually provide valuable insights into Israelite society and thinking, once they are properly understood in the light of modern studies in social anthropology. In this guide , Leviticus is examined in the context of priestly and related material in the Hebrew Bible, with comparisons from other ancient Near Eastern literature and from modern anthropological studies.

Translation of: Manuel du traducteur pour le livre du Lévitique.

Contents: Introduction : the nature of biblical law -- Looking at Leviticus : Leviticus 10-14 -- Genital impurity in the lineages of David and Jonathan : Leviticus 15 -- The Day of Atonement : Leviticus 16 -- The slaughter of animals : Leviticus 17:2-9 -- The blood taboo : Leviticus 17:10-16 -- Mourning and marriage rules for priests : Leviticus 21 -- Life and lies of David : Leviticus 22 and 23 -- Blasphemies : Leviticus 24 -- The Year of Jubilee : Leviticus 25 -- Three laws on the release of slaves : Exodus 21:2-11, Deuteronomy 15:12-18, and Leviticus 25:39-46.

Argues that literary features and ritual dynamics within the book of "Leviticus" enlighten each other. This book examines both the legal sections in Lev 1-7 and 11-15 and the narratives in Lev 8-10 and 16.

Translation of: Homiliae in Leviticum, Latin version of Origen's original Greek text.

Building upon his life-long work on the Book of Leviticus, Jacob Milgrom makes this book accessible to all readers. He demonstrates the logic of Israel's sacrificial system, the ethical dimensions of ancient worship, and the priestly forms of ritual.

This account of Leviticus presents the biblical work as a literary masterpiece. Seen in an anthropological perspective, Leviticus has a mystical structure which plots the book into three parts corresponding to the three parts of the desert tabernacle, which in turn corresponds to Mount Sinai.
Contents: The ancient religion -- Two styles of thought -- Two styles of writing -- Mountain, tabernacle, body in Leviticus 1-7 -- The totally reformed religion -- Oracles support divine justice -- Land animals, pure and impure -- Other living beings -- Atonement for sick bodies -- The two screens -- Inside the house/book of God -- Inside the Holy of Holies.