Leviticus
The Book of Leviticus (/lɪˈvɪtɪkəs/, from Ancient Greek: Λευιτικόν, Leuïtikón; Hebrew: וַיִּקְרָא, Vayyīqrāʾ, "And He called") is the third book of the Torah (the Pentateuch) and of the Old Testament, also known as the Third Book of Moses.[1]
Many hypotheses presented by scholars as to its origins agree that it developed over a long period of time, reaching its present form during the Persian Period, from 538 to 332 BC, although there is much skepticism.
Most of its chapters (1–7, 11–27) consist of Yahweh's speeches to Moses, which Yahweh 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).
The Book of Exodus narrates how Moses led the Israelites in building the Tabernacle (Exodus 35–40) with God's instructions (Exodus 25–31).
In Leviticus, God tells the Israelites and their priests, Aaron and his sons, how to make offerings in the Tabernacle and how to conduct themselves while camped around the holy tent sanctuary.
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.
Nevertheless, they reflect the world view of the creation story in Genesis 1 that God wishes to live with humans.
The book teaches that faithful performance of the sanctuary rituals can make that possible, 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.[2]
In the Jewish Bible
Chapters 4.1-5.13 of the Book of Leviticus presents the first of three speeches[10] of God to Moses that outlines laws concerning the "ḥata't" or purification offering.[11]
Besides other types of offerings,[12] it appears in the 24th (weekly) parsha Vayikra, a section of the Torah in the Masoretic Text of the Tanakh (Jewish Bible)
A sin offering also occurs in 2 Chronicles 29:21 where seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs and seven he-goats were sacrificed on the command of King Hezekiah for the kingdom, for the sanctuary, and for Judah.
The end of the 37th weekly Torah portion Shlach Lecha (Num. 15.22-31) again, deals with sacrifices for inadvertent violations: they are applicable for all laws, apply to both Israelites and alien residents, but exclude expiation of defiant, willful violations of ritual law (cf. Kareth).[13]