Introduction
Many Bible reading plans stall in Leviticus. Its long lists of offerings, skin diseases and forbidden foods can seem distant from modern life. Yet Leviticus stands at the center of the five books of Moses and answers one of the central questions of the Bible: how can sinful people live in the presence of a holy God?
The answer is full of grace. God does not abandon his people after the golden calf, and he does not simply ignore their sin. He provides sacrifices that atone, priests who mediate, rules that protect his dwelling and a yearly day of cleansing for the whole nation. Then he calls his people to a holiness that reaches every corner of life, from the dinner table to the courtroom, summed up in the command to love your neighbor as yourself (Leviticus 19:18).
Who wrote Leviticus and when?
What the book claims
Leviticus is almost entirely divine speech. It begins with the Lord calling Moses from the tent of meeting (1:1), and new sections open again and again with the words the Lord spoke to Moses. It ends by calling everything the commandments the Lord gave Moses for Israel on Mount Sinai (27:34). Jewish and Christian tradition therefore attributes the book to Moses, and Jesus treats its laws as given through Moses (Mark 1:44).
Dating and scholarly views
The laws are set in the second year after the exodus, between the setting up of the tabernacle (Exodus 40:17) and the census of Numbers 1:1, a span of about one month. On the traditional view, Moses wrote them down during the wilderness years, about 1446-1406 BC, or in the 13th century BC if the exodus is dated later. Many modern scholars attribute the book to priestly writers over a longer period, with chapters 17-26 forming a distinct Holiness Code. Evangelical scholars note that the book's detailed concern with a portable tent in a wilderness camp fits the setting it describes.
Literary style and structure
Law in a narrative frame
Leviticus is mostly law, but it is set inside the story of Israel at Sinai. Two short narratives break in at key moments: the ordination of the priests and the death of Nadab and Abihu (8-10), and the case of the blasphemer (24:10-23). Both show that God's holiness is a matter of life and death.
Two halves around the Day of Atonement
- Chapters 1-15 focus on the sanctuary: how to bring offerings, who may serve as priest and what makes a person unclean and unfit to approach.
- Chapter 16, the Day of Atonement, deals with the accumulated sin and impurity of the whole year and stands at the hinge of the book.
- Chapters 17-27 widen the focus to the life of the whole people: food and blood, sexuality, neighbor love, priests, feasts, land, blessings and curses.
Repeated refrains
The phrase I am the Lord closes many laws, especially in chapters 18-19, grounding each command in God's character. The words holy, clean, unclean, atonement and offering recur constantly, and many laws end with the promise that the person will be forgiven (4:20, 26, 31, 35).
Leviticus in the story of the Bible
Leviticus answers the problem that closes Exodus: the glory of the Lord fills the tabernacle and even Moses cannot enter (Exodus 40:34-35). After Leviticus, Numbers resumes the journey with a camp organized around the holy tent, and Deuteronomy repeats many of its laws for the generation about to enter Canaan.
The rest of the Old Testament assumes Leviticus. Ruth gleans in the fields of Boaz under the law of Leviticus 19:9-10 and 23:22. The prophets condemn sacrifices offered without justice and mercy (Isaiah 1:11-17; Hosea 6:6), not because Leviticus was wrong but because the people had separated ritual from righteousness, which Leviticus itself never does.
In the New Testament, Mary and Joseph bring the offering of the poor after Jesus' birth, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons (Luke 2:24; Leviticus 12:8). Jesus touches a man with a skin disease and sends him to the priest with the offering Moses commanded (Mark 1:40-44). The letter to the Hebrews is, in many ways, a commentary on Leviticus, explaining Christ's death through the priesthood, the sacrifices and the Day of Atonement.
Leviticus and Jesus Christ
- The perfect sacrifice. The offerings had to be without blemish. Christ offered himself without blemish to God (Hebrews 9:14) as a sacrifice that, unlike the blood of bulls and goats, truly takes away sin (Hebrews 10:4, 10-14).
- The great high priest. Aaron had to offer sacrifices for his own sins first (Leviticus 16:6). Jesus is a holy, innocent and unstained high priest who offered himself once for all (Hebrews 7:26-27).
- The Day of Atonement fulfilled. The high priest entered the Most Holy Place once a year with the blood of animals; Christ entered heaven itself, once for all, with his own blood (Hebrews 9:7, 11-12, 24-26). At his death the temple curtain was torn in two (Mark 15:38).
- The mercy seat. Paul says God put Christ forward as a propitiation by his blood (Romans 3:25), using the Greek word that Hebrews 9:5 uses for the mercy seat.
- Outside the camp. The bodies of the animals of the sin offering were burned outside the camp, and Jesus suffered outside the city gate to sanctify the people through his own blood (Hebrews 13:11-12).
- The clean one who cleanses. Under the law, touching the unclean made a person unclean. When Jesus touches a man with a skin disease or is touched by a woman with a flow of blood, the opposite happens: they are made clean (Mark 1:41-42; 5:25-34).
Interpretive challenges
Is being unclean the same as sinning?
No. Many sources of uncleanness are natural and even good, such as childbirth (12) and normal bodily functions (15). Uncleanness meant being temporarily unfit to approach God's sanctuary, not being guilty of wrongdoing. Some unclean states did require an offering, because impurity had to be removed from the camp where the holy God lived, but Leviticus distinguishes impurity from moral sin.
What or who was Azazel?
The live goat is sent away for Azazel (16:8, 10, 26), a word found nowhere else in the Bible. Some understand it as the name of a demonic being of the wilderness, so that sin is sent back to the realm of evil; others take it as the name of a rugged place, or as a word meaning the goat that goes away, which is the source of the English word scapegoat. On every view the meaning of the rite is clear: Israel's sins are carried away and removed.
How should Christians read the laws of Leviticus?
Many Christians distinguish moral, civil and ceremonial laws: the moral laws remain, the civil laws applied to Israel as a nation, and the ceremonial laws are fulfilled in Christ. Others prefer to read the whole law as fulfilled in Christ and applied through his teaching. Both approaches agree that the sacrifices are completed in Jesus (Hebrews 10:14), that the food laws no longer bind believers (Mark 7:19) and that the call to holiness and love of neighbor remains (1 Peter 1:15-16; James 2:8).
Little-known facts
- The Hebrew title, Vayikra, means and he called, the first word of the book (1:1).
- Despite its name, which comes through the Greek and Latin translations and refers to the Levitical priesthood, the Levites themselves appear only in 25:32-33. The book is mainly about the priests, Aaron and his sons.
- The English word scapegoat was coined by William Tyndale in his 1530 translation of Leviticus 16.
- Leviticus 25:10, about proclaiming liberty throughout the land, is inscribed on the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia.
- An ancient rabbinic tradition recorded in the midrash Leviticus Rabbah says Jewish children began their study of the Torah with Leviticus, because the pure should study what is pure.
- Leviticus 19:18 is quoted or echoed at least seven times in the New Testament, more than any other verse of Leviticus (for example Matthew 22:39; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14; James 2:8).
How to study Leviticus
Reading plan
At one chapter a day, Leviticus takes about four weeks. Many groups do well with seven sessions following the outline. Keep the letter to the Hebrews open alongside, especially chapters 7-10, and read Leviticus 16 and Hebrews 9 in the same session.
Helpful tools
- A diagram of the tabernacle, showing the courtyard, the altar, the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place.
- A chart of the five offerings: what was offered, what was burned, what was eaten and what each one expressed.
- A calendar of the feasts in chapter 23, noting the New Testament events connected to Passover, Firstfruits and Weeks.
Teaching it in a Sunday school class or small group
For each section ask: What does this law teach about God? What does it reveal about sin or impurity? How does Christ fulfill it? What does holiness look like in our daily lives? With children, focus on God's holiness and on the fact that he himself provides the way to come near, using the tabernacle and the Day of Atonement. With youth groups and adults, Leviticus 19 is an excellent place to show that holiness includes generosity to the poor, honesty at work and love for the outsider. Avoid both extremes: treating Leviticus as irrelevant, or turning it into a list of rules to earn God's favor.