Lev. 22-27 - on jubilation, priests and prophets

The readings - Days 39-41 - Leviticus 22-27

Yes, I'm behind. No, I'm not catching up today. Yes, I'm over it. 

The final chapters of Leviticus, by and large, fall into the same category of the rest of the book - rules and laws, particularly concerning the spiritual/religious matters for the new and burgeoning nation of Israel. So far, the book has been, not to put too fine a point on it, dry.

There were two things that leapt off the page at me, however, in these final passages. The first is the fact that Moses is even part of this book at all, and the second is the concept of the Jubilee.

Lev 18-21 - Good, bad and ugly

The readings - Day 38 - Leviticus (18) 19-21

So, you rightly ask, what's with the (18) up there?

Well, it turns out that when I was doing yesterday's post I completely forgot about chapter 18. Not one for the easily blushed, that one. It's also quite socially problematic, because here's where we get the first explicit proscription against homosexuality. Well, specifically, homosexual sex. That sounds redundant... Is "homosex" a word? Is it offensive? It's easier to say, but that tends not to matter in cases like this...

Anyway, the problem here (as I see it) is that not only is it explicit, but we as a society generally accept just about every other sex statute (sextute?) listed here - don't sleep with your parents, your cousins, your sisters/brothers, don't marry a woman and her sister/mother, don't have sex with animals, whether you're a man or a woman. These are all things that we as a society - secular or religious - more or less agree on.

Lev. 11-17 - of scapegoats and crappy old laws...

The readings - Days 35-37 - Leviticus 11-17

It figures that the time I would fall three days behind in postings (not the readings, though - I've managed to do those each day...) would be the time when I come across some actually interesting stuff in Leviticus.

By way of quick recap before we dive in, here are some of the topics covered by these seven chapters:

• what to (and not to) eat
• childbirth
• loads on leprosy
• a bit more on health in general
• making up for stuff (atonement)

Lev. 5-10 - all dressed up and nowhere to go but the slaughterhouse

The readings - Days 33-34 - Leviticus 5-7, 8-10

Leviticus is hard enough to read, but five months (and counting) of moderate-to-severe sleep deprivation makes it impossible some nights. Last night was one of those, so here we are with two days in one post again.

Chapter five starts us off with a discussion about guilt offerings, in fairly significant detail. There's a lot of clean/unclean talk, as tends to be expected and presented as typical in the Old Testament discussions of law and order.

What's less typical, and I don't quite know why, is the fact that despite attempts by people who don't know any better (as well as by some people who ought to ) to portray the Old Testament as ruthlessly legalistic in every way, and to counterpoint the "everyone dies no matter what" picture with the "merciful-God-of-the-New-Testament" idea, this whole chunk of text begins with the depiction of a sliding scale of justice that flies in the face of the typically presented Old Testament view.

Lev. 1-4 - Well, that explains that...

The readings - day 32 - Leviticus 1-4

Remember yesterday? When I said something about Exodus really not having much of an ending?

I'm not so sure it actually ended... Based on the "beginning" of Leviticus (how many books really begin with the word "Then" anyway?) I've actually got several questions about how these book divisions really came about. I know that the chapter/verse splits were arbitrary and done much later, and I know that the way the text was actually recorded was very different (ALTHOUGHWITHNOREALEVIDENCETHATANYOFTHETEXTSTHATCAMEDOWNTOUSTODAYWEREACTUALAUTOGRAPHEDMANUSCRIPTSITSHARDTOSAYWHETHERTHEALLCAPSANDNOPUNCTUATIONPHENOMENONWASHOWTHEORIGINALTEXTWASLAIDOUTEITHERITCOULDJUSTASEASILYHAVEBEENALATERINNOVATIONLIKETHECHAPTERANDVERSEDIVISIONSALTHOUGHTHATRAISESAQUESTIONOFWHYANYONEWOULDTAKEAPASSAGEWITHSPACESANDPUNCTUATIONANDTURNITINTOAJUMBLEDMESSOFLETTERSTHATAREREALLYHARDTOREADBUTIDIGRESS)