Leviticus: A Book of Ritual and Ethics (Continental Commentary | CC)
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
Values are what Leviticus is all about. They pervade every chapter and almost every verse. Underlying the rituals, careful readers will find an intricate web of values that purports to model how we should relate to God and to each other. Ritual is the poetry of religion that leads us to a moment of transcendence. When a ritual fails because it either lacks content, or is misleading, it loses its efficacy and purpose. A ritual must signify something beyond itself, whose attainment enhances the meaning and value of life. This is the achievement of Leviticus.
Building upon his life-long work on the book of Leviticus, 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.
Top Highlights
“Thus the first principle: Blood is the ritual cleanser that purges the altar of impurities inflicted on it by the offerer.” (Page 31)
“R. Ishmael: ‘Generalizations were stated in Sinai, details were stated in the Tent of Meeting.’3 Indeed, a case can be mounted that all of the Torah’s codes are compilations of traditions comprising interpretations and applications of Mosaic principles.4 No wonder, then, that the rules stemming from different authors and at different times might vary from one another in form and content.” (Page 2)
“The sanctuary symbolized the presence of God; impurity represented the wrongdoing of persons. If persons unremittingly polluted the sanctuary, they forced God out of his sanctuary and out of their lives.” (Page 9)
“This graded impurity of the sanctuary and its purgation leads to the second principle: A sin committed anywhere will generate impurity that, becoming airborne, penetrates the sanctuary in proportion to its magnitude. Israel’s neighbors also believed that impurity polluted the sanctuary.” (Page 31)
“Instead of understanding the Torah’s ‘YHWH spoke to Moses’ as a claim that the laws that follow came from the mouth of Moses, we can understand the Torah as signaling that the principles underlying the laws are Mosaic principles, emanating from Moses himself.” (Page 3)
[This volume’s] clarity and accessibility make it a most valuable resource for anyone who wishes to engage with Jacob Milgrom’s important scholarly contributions.
—William K. Gilders, Emory University
- Title: Continental Commentary Series: Leviticus: A Book of Ritual and Ethics
- Author: Jacob Milgrom
- Publisher: Fortress Press
- Publication Date: 2004
- Pages: 408
Jacob Milgrom is emeritus professor of Hebrew Bible at the University of California, Berkeley, and a widely published author. His books include Studies in Levitical Terminology, Cult and Conscience: The Asham and the Priestly Doctrine of Repentance, Numbersin the JPS Torah Commentary, and Leviticus in the Anchor Yale Bible.
Reviews
12 ratings
Reuven Milles
8/25/2020
Rick Johnson
5/1/2020
Sean
8/14/2019
This is a condensation of the author's 3-volume Anchor Bible commentary, from a Jewish perspective but well versed in Christian thought and scholarship. It's a good intermediate commentary, not overly technical but also, as might be expected from any commentary on this difficult book, without a great deal of practical application. Still, it's a profitable read, though the author's contorted attempts to justify homosexuality as basically okay for most people in a commentary on LEVITICUS are sadly amusing.A. K. M. Adam
9/18/2017
Ryan Smith
8/30/2017
Lofi Digital Monk
3/29/2016
N/A
1/12/2016
Unix
1/12/2016
RichThay47
10/29/2015
