The Law (Torah)
The book of Leviticus
God’s instructions for sacrifice, priesthood, purity, and holy living, given at Sinai.
Leviticus begins, “Yahweh called to Moses, and spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting” (Leviticus 1:1), and it ends with the words that these were the commands the LORD gave Moses on Mount Sinai (27:34). It was given in the month or so after the tabernacle was set up.
Kinds of writing
- Law 90%
- Narrative 10%
Key verses
Be holy, for I am holy. For I am Yahweh your God. Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be holy; for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any kind of creeping thing that moves on the earth.
Leviticus 11:44 (World English Bible)
The Day of Atonement. for on this day shall atonement be made for you, to cleanse you. You shall be clean from all your sins before Yahweh.
Leviticus 16:30 (World English Bible)
The life is in the blood. For the life of the flesh is in the blood. I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement by reason of the life.
Leviticus 17:11 (World English Bible)
Love your neighbor as yourself. “‘You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people; but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am Yahweh.”
Leviticus 19:18 (World English Bible)
I will walk among you and be your God. I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you will be my people.
Leviticus 26:12 (World English Bible)
People
MosesAaronNadabAbihuEleazarIthamar
Places
Mount SinaiWilderness of Sinai
On the timeline
The Ten Commandments at Mount SinaiThe tabernacle is set upNadab and Abihu offer strange fire
The New Testament quotes or alludes to Leviticus 14 times (counted in the site’s Old in the New).
Dating notes
Given in the first month of the second year after the Exodus (Ussher: 1490 BC). The conventional conservative date for the Exodus is 1446 BC, which would put the writing 45 years later than shown here; this timeline follows Ussher’s 1491 BC. Many modern scholars hold that the Pentateuch was put together from several sources over centuries after Moses; the traditional view, which this timeline follows, is that Moses wrote it, with small later touches such as the account of his death.