Lesson 6 of 6
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Bible in the World – Leviticus 

Capital Punishment

Leviticus lists several sins that are punishable by death. These include murder (24:17), bestiality (20:15-16), child sacrifice (20:2), adultery (20:10), and blasphemy (24:16), among others. Whether these punishments were regularly carried out in ancient Israel is impossible to say. There are some instances of capital punishment recorded in the Bible (Leviticus 24:23, for example), but other instances where a capital crime is not punished by death (for instance, in the case of Gomer, Hosea’s adulterous wife).

In any case, it is important to note that by rabbinic times (first century CE), capital punishment was rarely practiced in Jewish circles. The Talmud states that capital punishment in Israel ceased 40 years before the Second Temple was destroyed in 70 CE (Avodah Zarah 8b). The Mishnah, likewise, records a debate between the rabbis about a Sanhedrin (that is, a local religious tribunal of 23 judges, not to be confused with the Great Sanhedrin in Jerusalem) that is tasked with adjudicating capital cases. The rabbis agree that a Sanhedrin that carries out an execution once in seven years is a destructive council. Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya takes a more radical position by arguing that a Sanhedrin that carries out an execution once in 70 years should be considered destructive. And Rabbi Tarfon and Rabbi Akiva argue that if they were members of a Sanhedrin, no one would ever be executed. Another rabbi, Rabban Shimon b. Gamliel, disagrees, arguing that such an approach would mean that murderers go unpunished, thereby increasing their number in the society since there would be no deterrent to murder (Mishnah Makkot 1:10).

The Mishnah also outlines stringent standards for the application of the death penalty. A Sanhedrin of 23 members must decide capital cases. If all the members agree too quickly – on the same day that the evidence is presented – that the accused should be executed, the accused cannot be convicted because the judges decided too quickly and did not consider the possibility of acquittal (Sanhedrin 17a:20). Another rabbi argues that capital punishment can only be used if the offender was warned by two witnesses before he committed the crime, and the two witnesses then had to see the crime being committed (Makkot 6b:2).

All of these rabbinic discussions reveal a deep discomfort with capital punishment. In other words, though the punishments outlined in Leviticus are harsh, it is difficult to know how much they were actually carried out in practice in ancient Israel. And certainly by the time of the rabbis, capital punishment was a rare occurrence.

Gleaning

There are laws in the Pentateuch about gleaning, two in Leviticus (19:9-10; 23:22) and one in Deuteronomy (24:20-22). These laws command the Israelites not to strip their fields and vineyards bare, but instead to leave the edges of the fields and the fruit that falls to the ground for the poor, the foreigner, the widow, and the orphan to glean. In related passages, during the Sabbath year for the land – that is, every seventh year when fields were to lie fallow – these same vulnerable populations could harvest what grew on its own in the field (Exodus 23:10-11). In this way, the most vulnerable people in the society had the means to provide for themselves.

These laws and others from the Pentateuch undergird the story of Ruth. When she and Naomi return to Bethlehem from Moab, they are both widows and Ruth is a foreigner. So Ruth goes to glean in the fields (Ruth 2). Boaz, an Israelite who obeys the law, not only allows Ruth to glean but even encourages his servants to leave extra grain on the ground for her to gather.

The practice of gleaning continues today. In fact, there has been significant growth in the number of gleaning organizations in the United States in the 21st century. The National Gleaning Project, a resource for these organizations, writes on its website: 

Gleaning is an ancient practice described in the Bible that allows the collection of unharvested crops for distribution to needy populations. The practice continues today, and given the increasing attention focused on food waste, the movement is growing. (NationalGleaningProject.org)

Modern gleaning organizations focus not only on harvesting unpicked produce from fields, gardens, and orchards, but also on collecting unused food from restaurants, grocery stores, and other retail outlets. In many of these organizations, volunteers work alongside those who receive the food.

For both ancient and modern populations, gleaning is not so much about charity as about justice. The biblical laws of gleaning ensure that everyone, even those who do not own land, have access to the means to provide food for themselves and their families.

The Greatest Commandment

In the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, Jesus is asked by the religious authorities which commandment is the greatest, Jesus responds by quoting Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18: “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40; cf. Mark 12:28-34). 

In Luke, Jesus is asked by a lawyer, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus responds, “What is written in the law?” The man recites these same two commandments from Deuteronomy and Leviticus, and Jesus responds, “You have given the right answer; do this and you will live” (Luke 10:25-28). 

Jesus was a devout Jew, one who studied the Torah and knew the law. The first commandment he recited is even today recited by observant Jews every morning and evening as part of the Shema, a prayer named after its first word, shema, or “hear”: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5). (The Shema prayer goes on to include verses 6-9 and other passages from Deuteronomy and Numbers.)

Likewise, Rabbi Akiva (50-135 CE) called Leviticus 19:18 – the commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself” – the “great principle of the Law” (Sifra, Kedoshim 4). These two commandments, then, in large part summarize the whole Torah – love God and love your neighbor.

Given its prominence in the Gospels, Leviticus 19:18 is arguably the most well-known commandment in the book of Leviticus, though it is likely many Christians do not know the origin of the verse.

Hebrews

Leviticus is quoted in several New Testament books, but it has the most direct influence on the Book of Hebrews. Written anonymously, the Book of Hebrews is filled with quotations from and allusions to Old Testament texts, including many passages from Leviticus. 

Several times, the author of Hebrews calls Jesus the “high priest” (2:17; 3:1; 4:14-15; 5:5, 10; 6:20; 7:26-28; 8:1-3; 9:11, 25). Aaron is ordained the first high priest of Israel in Leviticus 8-9. Jesus the high priest, however, unlike Aaron and his sons, is without sin (Hebrews 4:15). This high priest is of “the order of Melchizedek,” not of “the order of Aaron” (Hebrews 7:11). He is a minister in “the sanctuary and the true tent that the Lord, and not any mortal, has set up” (Hebrews 8:2), an allusion to the tabernacle, the sanctuary that is a central part of Leviticus.

Hebrews 9 speaks of the Day of Atonement and its rituals, which are first described in Leviticus 16. The Day of Atonement was the one day of the year that the high priest could enter the Holy of Holies, and he was the only person ever allowed to enter that inner sanctum. He would offer there incense and the blood of a bull and a goat to atone for his own sins and for the sins of the people. The author of Hebrews compares this annual ritual to what Christ has accomplished: “But when Christ came as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation), he entered once for all into the Holy Place, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption” (Hebrews 9:11-12).

In other words, according to Hebrews, Christ is not only the high priest but also the final sacrifice. And unlike the high priest who “enters the Holy Place year after year with blood that is not his own,” Christ “has appeared once for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself” (9:25-26). According to Hebrews, Christ as high priest and sacrifice abolishes the sacrificial system set up in Leviticus, “For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (10:4). Rather, “it is by God’s will that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (10:10).

The book of Hebrews teaches that through Jesus Christ, believers have access to God. The author uses many quotations of and allusions to Old Testament texts to make his argument, but it is the book of Leviticus, in particular – with its descriptions of sacrifices and priestly duties – that provides the blueprint for the author’s description of Christ’s atoning sacrifice on the cross.

Holiness – A Biblical Call

Holiness is a central concern of Leviticus – the holiness of the sanctuary, of the people, and most importantly, the holiness of God. “You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy” (Leviticus 19:2). Leviticus is not alone in the Old Testament in its concern with holiness. One thinks, for instance, of Exodus 19:6, where God calls Israel to be a “priestly kingdom and a holy nation.” Deuteronomy refers to the Israelites over and over as “a people holy to the LORD your God.” The psalmist names God as “the holy one of Israel,” as does the prophet Isaiah, who also hears the seraphim sing praise to God in these words: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory” (Isaiah 6:3).

New Testament writers too pick up on this theme of holiness. Jesus is probably alluding to Leviticus when he says, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Paul, in the Epistle to the Romans, writes not about bringing animal sacrifices to the Temple, but about offering one’s own body as a “living sacrifice”: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, on the basis of God’s mercy, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable act of worship” (Romans 12:1).

The book of 1 Peter quotes Leviticus in its exhortation to holy living: “Instead, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; for it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’” (1 Peter 1:15-16). The book goes on to allude to the calling of the Israelites at Mt. Sinai: “ But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9).

Holiness, then, is the concern not only of Leviticus or of the priestly writers. It is a continuing call to Jewish and Christian believers alike, a call to reflect in our own lives the holiness of the God who calls us into existence and into community.

Gilbert Meilaender, a Lutheran theologian and ethicist, writes about this biblical call to holiness, quoting Leviticus. Meilaender speaks of the call as both command and promise: “The more God’s grace empowers [our] lives, the more [we] know [our] need of his pardon. And the word of pardon carries with it God’s commitment to make us people who will want to live in his presence—to make us what he says we are. Hence, God’s promise is embedded in his command: ‘You shall be holy.’” [Gilbert Meilaender, “Hearts Set to Obey,” in I Am the Lord your God (Eerdmans, 2005), 253–275].

“You shall be holy.” It is both command and promise. Christians traditionally speak of the promise as “sanctification” – the work of the Holy Spirit to conform us to the image of Christ. The call in Leviticus to holiness, then, continues to echo down through the centuries, in Old Testament and New Testament alike.

Jubilee

The vision of the Jubilee year described in Leviticus 25 inspired later biblical writers, as well as believers through the centuries. In Isaiah 61, for instance, the prophet speaks about a coming time of grace:

The spirit of the Lord God is upon me
    because the Lord has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,
    to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives
    and release to the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
    and the day of vengeance of our God,
    to comfort all who mourn,
to provide for those who mourn in Zion—
    to give them a garland instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
    the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. (Isaiah 61:1-3a)

The ”year of the LORD’s favor” is the year of Jubilee. The prophet quotes Leviticus 25:10 when he speaks of his task “to proclaim liberty” to the captives. The Jubilee year means liberty for slaves, homecoming for those who have had to sell their land, and forgiveness of debt (Leviticus 25:28, 40-42, 54-55).

Jesus, in his sermon at Nazareth, reads this passage from Isaiah 61 and then says, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). Somehow, in Jesus’ own life and ministry, “the year of the LORD’s favor,” the year of Jubilee, had arrived.

In modern times, too, the vision of Jubilee has inspired movements for liberty and justice. In the 1990s, Pope John Paul II proclaimed the year 2000 as a Year of Jubilee, and “Jubilee 2000” became the name of a movement of churches, political activists, NGO’s, and others who called for the cancellation of the crippling debt of many countries in the Global South. Thanks to that vision of Jubilee, more than $100 billion of debt owed by 35 of the world’s poorest nations was forgiven by creditor nations and financial institutions such as the World Bank.

Bono, the lead singer of the band U2, was involved in Jubilee 2000. He spoke of the vision of Jubilee as inspiration also for his work against HIV/AIDS and poverty in Africa in his speech at the 2003 National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. (see it here). “Jesus proclaims the year of the Lord’s favor, the year of Jubilee….What he was really talking about was an era of grace, and we’re still in it,” Bono said to a room full of politicians and religious leaders, urging them to embrace that vision of justice and mercy. As it happens, President George W. Bush, just a few days earlier, had called in his State of the Union address for providing $15 billion to combat HIV and AIDS in Africa, the beginning of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a hugely successful program that has saved, by some estimates, the lives of 25 million people.

The vision of Jubilee, first articulated in Leviticus 25, continues to speak to people today. Restoration of that which is lost, liberation of land and people, forgiveness of debts, homecoming, and Sabbath rest–such is the vision of Jubilee.