Leviticus

Lore & Background

The English name Leviticus comes from Latin Leviticus, in turn from Ancient Greek: Λευιτικόν (Leuitikon), which is the name of the book in the Septuagint. It refers to the priestly tribe of the Israelites, the Levites: the book contains the laws and rituals they perform. The Greek expression is in turn a variant of the rabbinic Hebrew torat kohanim, 'law of priests', as many of its laws relate to priests. Consistent with the naming convention for the Pentateuch, in Hebrew the book is called Wayikra (Hebrew: וַיִּקְרָא), from the opening of the book, wa-yikra 'And He [God] called.'

Reader's Guide

Most of its chapters (1–7, 11–27) consist of God's speeches to Moses, which he tells Moses to repeat to the Israelites. This takes place within the story of the Israelites' Exodus after they escaped Egypt and reached Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:1). Leviticus takes place during the month or month-and-a-half between the completion of the Tabernacle (Exodus 40:17) and the Israelites' departure from Sinai (Numbers 1:1, 10:11). The instructions of Leviticus emphasize ritual, legal, and moral practices rather than beliefs.

The book teaches that faithful performance of the sanctuary rituals can make it possible for God to live with humans, so long as the people avoid sin and impurity whenever possible. The rituals, especially the sin and guilt offerings, provide the means to gain forgiveness for sins (Leviticus 4–5) and purification from impurities (Leviticus 11–16) so that God can continue to live in the Tabernacle in the midst of the people.