Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18
1 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2 Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.
9 When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. 10 You shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the alien: I am the Lord your God. 11 You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; and you shall not lie to one another. 12 And you shall not swear falsely by my name, profaning the name of your God: I am the Lord. 13 You shall not defraud your neighbor; you shall not steal; and you shall not keep for yourself the wages of a laborer until morning. 14 You shall not revile the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind; you shall fear your God: I am the Lord. 15 You shall not render an unjust judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great: with justice you shall judge your neighbor. 16You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not profit by the blood of your neighbor: I am the Lord. 17 You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself. 18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
Leviticus 17-26, what scholars call the Holiness Code (H in the documentary hypothesis) formed sometime during the 600s BC. This book is not one that most Christians find enjoyable to read. The late British preacher Leslie Weatherhead wrote a book called The Busy Man’s Old Testament in which he provided an outline for what he considered to be the most useful parts of the Old Testament for modern readers. He urged people to read those parts, but the vast material in between he generally covered with a few summary sentences. When it came to Leviticus, he advised, “This book concerns itself with the minutiae of the sacrifices on the altar and the sins which demanded such sacrifices. For devotional purposes, the book may be omitted altogether.” I am not going to take that approach here.
The Holiness Code likely originated among the priests in the Temple in Jerusalem. Another group of priests would insert it into the Priestly source during the exile. It seems to build upon the Covenant Code of Exodus 20:22-23:33. It also seems to have affinities with the Deuteronomic Code of Deuteronomy 12-28. A generally accepted date is sometime in the seventh century BCE and presumably originated among the priests in the Temple in Jerusalem. In the documentary hypothesis, the Holiness Code is part of the Priestly source. However, the hypothesis also suggests that it was an originally separate legal code (referred to as "H") which the priestly source embedded into its writing. The priestly source subjected the Holiness Code to editing. 24:1-14, 23 is from the priestly source. Chapter 27 is a post-exilic addition related to that temple.
This code is the way in which God binds people by rules of conduct that epitomizes the regulations needed to safeguard the fellowship that those who are related to God have both with God and with each other. 19:2 makes it clear that the Lord elects Israel to participate in the divine holiness.[1] 19:5 and 22:19 are examples of the different terms for the divine good pleasure that may originate in the reception of sacrifices by God, but could then apply to the divine will in general.[2] The prohibition against consulting the dead and soothsayers had the point of forbidding the people from seeking any light from them concerning the things of God. Their source was to be the revelation from the God of Israel.[3]
For Barth, the concrete content of the Holiness Code illustrates the complete, all-embracing divine action for humanity. It reminds humanity that all along the line God’s own holy will is dealing with humanity, and that humanity is saved by it, not because humanity sanctifies itself, but because in obedience to these commands humanity submits to the holiness of God. For him, since the good will of God has its origin in the free will of God, its content is not one we should assimilate into a general system of the ethical and teleological type. This or that command has its ground in the affirmation: For I am the Lord. The keeping of the Holiness Code cannot even remotely signify anything that one might construe as a meritorious righteousness of works. The keeping of it can mean only that Israel accepts this contingent reality of its God. The divinity of the love of God is in few other passages of the Bible so distinctly manifest as in Leviticus, a book often misunderstood and regarded obscure, a useless and book, imprisoned within the limitations of its period. He refers to J. Wichelhaus[4] in saying that humanity cannot and will not understand that it is because God is good, holy, and loving, that God is also angry, chides, hurts, and casts into the flames. The holiness of God is terrible to humanity. He criticizes A. Ritschl, who tried to reduce everything that the Old Testament says about the wrath of God to the idea of occasional outbursts of the passion and destructiveness of God against the enemies of Israel and those who broke the covenant in Israel itself. For Barth, if God does not meet us in jealous zeal and wrath, then God does not meet us at all, and in spite of all our asseverations about divine love, humanity is in actual fact left to itself. To accept the grace of God means to respect the holiness of God, and therefore to accept, heed, and keep the laws of God, to fear divine treats, to experience divine wrath and to suffer divine punishment. If not, acceptance of grace is indistinguishable from heathen quietism. Respect for the holiness of God, if it is not a vain heathen religion of fear, can only mean directly to accept the grace of God in thankfulness, to receive replenishment that leads to contentment in the grateful acceptance of such grace.[5]
The code concerns the holiness of God and the holiness of Israel. It contains one of the central theological concepts of the Hebrew Bible. Priestly writings in the Old Testament contain the greatest concentration of references to holiness in the Bible, and the concept of holiness became a central concern to those priestly-influenced circles, especially after the destruction of the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel and the exile of the Israelites in Babylon. Holiness became the means by which a postexilic identity for Israel as a viable religio-political community that priestly leaders constructed, gradually supplanting Israel’s pre-exilic royal dynasty.
Holiness, in the religion of ancient Israel, was, primarily, the distinguishing characteristic of the God of Israel:
“For I am the Lord who brought you up from the land of Egypt, to be your God; you shall be holy, for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:45). “
“For I am the Lord your God; sanctify yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming creature that moves on the earth.” (Leviticus 11:44)
“You shall be holy to me; for I the Lordam holy, and I have separated you from the other peoples to be mine.” (Leviticus 20:26)
“you shall treat them as holy, since they offer the food of your God; they shall be holy to you, for I the Lord, I who sanctify you, am holy.” (Leviticus 21:8)
“Extol the Lord our God, and worship at his holy mountain; for the Lord our God is holy.” (Psalm 99:9)
15 Instead, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; 16 for it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” (I Peter 1:16)
The Divine was holy as far as the Divine was, in Rudolph Otto’s famous formulation, a mysterium tremendum. Holiness in ancient Israel always included the notion of power, often displayed in awe-inspiring and frightening natural phenomena: “When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid and trembled and stood at a distance” (Exodus 20:18, God’s giving of the Ten Commandments to Moses at Mount Sinai).
Holiness also always implied and demanded separation; that which was holy was always, in some manner, set apart from the ordinary and profane: “Out of all the gifts to you, you shall set apart every offering due to the Lord; the best of all of them is the part to be consecrated [literally, “made holy”]” (Numbers 18:29).
Because of the innate holiness of God, anything associated with God or touched by God’s presence became similarly holy. The various attributes of the deity were holy, such as the divine name, an idea found especially in priestly and cultic writings (e.g., Leviticus 20:3; 22:2; 22:32; 1 Chronicles 16:10, 35; 29:16; Psalm 30:4; 33:21; 97:12; Ezekiel 20:39; Amos 2:7; etc.). The arm of God was also holy (Psalm 98:1; Isaiah 52:10), as were divine words (Jeremiah 23:9) and the divine habitation (Deuteronomy 26:15; Psalm 46:4; 68:5; Jeremiah 25:30).
One of the most important objects made holy by the divine presence was the temple in Jerusalem, the earthly dwelling place of the God of Israel. We find this idea especially in the Psalms (Psalm 5:7; 11:4; 65:4; 79:1; 138:2; see also Jonah 2:4, 7; Micah 1:2; at least some of the psalmic references may be to the heavenly, rather than the earthly temple of the Divine, e.g., Psalm 11:4).
However, no object in ancient Israel was more important in its divinely bestowed holiness than Israel itself. “The Lord will establish you as his holy people, as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways” (Deuteronomy 28:9; see also Leviticus 11:44; 20:7; Isaiah 63:8; Exodus 19:6; 3 Maccabees 2:6). Concepts such as justice and righteousness figure prominently in the identity of Israel. Yet, the concept of Israel’s identity as a holy people, separated by that holiness from all other nations (Leviticus 20:26), and the continual failure of Israel to maintain its holy identity was the dynamic underlying the creation, preservation and reapplication of Israel’s sacred Scripture. The Lord elects Israel so that it will participate in divine holiness. Incorporation into the sphere of divine holiness also means separation.[6] They are holy when they keep the statutes.[7] It represents “a democratizing element” in the theology of the priestly circles within Israel. Rather than limiting holiness to a special class within Israel, such as priests, the command receives broader application.[8] We find the command repeated in I Peter 1:16. The holiness of God demands and enforces the holiness of the people of God. It means divine confrontation with humanity that leads to a human correspondence to the divine.[9]
Leviticus 19:1-37 are miscellaneous moral and religious regulations.
In Leviticus 19: 1-2, we continue with the Holiness Code begun in Chapter 17. We find the formulaic statement (see also 12:1; 14:1; 16:2; 17:1; 18:1; 20:1) that 1The Lord spoke to Moses. It reminds us that the context of this passage is the instruction at Mount Sinai and that Moses plays a prominent role in the canonical text as the one who receives and communicates the Torah. He is not only transmitter of the revelation, but more importantly is intercessor between the people and the deity, the prophetic role par excellence (see, for example, his attempt to atone for the people after the incident with the golden calf, Exodus 32:30-32; see also Abraham’s designation as prophet-intercessor for King Abimelech in Genesis 20:7). In Israelite memory, Moses was without peer as the recipient and interpreter of divinely given revelation, although there are traces of an ancient rivalry for this role with his brother Aaron (see, for example, Leviticus 11:1; 13:1; 15:1). Moses will speak to 2congregation of the people of Israel, a phrase that occurs only here, but the term “congregation” usually refers to sacred assembly limited to adult males.[10] The message he is to deliver, which will become the theme of the chapter, is You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.
What does holiness look like? We will find out in the Holiness Code generally and in Leviticus 19 in particular.
In verses 9-10, we have the command to practice eleemosynary or charitable farming. 9 When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. 10 You shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the alien: I am the Lord your God. In verses 11-12, we find prohibitions against theft, business transactions, lying and perjury. 11 You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; and you shall not lie to one another. 12 And you shall not swear falsely by my name, profaning the name of your God: I am the Lord. Verses 13-18 contains a list of things that one is not to do to one’s neighbor. In particular, we find prohibitions against defrauding one’s neighbor (which meant a fellow Israelite, not anyone who just happened to live nearby), a repeated prohibition against theft and prohibitions against reviling the deaf and putting stumbling blocks in front of the blind. 13 You shall not defraud your neighbor; you shall not steal; and you shall not keep for yourself the wages of a laborer until morning. 14 You shall not revile the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind; you shall fear your God: I am the Lord. In verses 15-18, we find a continuation of a theme that began in verse 13 of a list of things that one is not to do to the neighbor. 15You shall not render an unjust judgment, which may suggest that adult males took their turn as part of the group of elders of the community. It certainly applied to priests, prophets, and judges (e.g., Deuteronomy 19:11-12, 17; and especially chapters 21-22). We do not know if all male Israelites were expected, at some point in their lives, to assume responsibility for the administration of justice as part of the body of elders (analogous to serving on a jury today) or specifically as a judge; the former seems much more likely than the latter. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great: with justice you shall judge your neighbor. Their just judgment included neither disadvantage due to poverty nor special privilege to the rich. See also at Exodus 23:3. While the Bible clearly has “a preferential option for the poor” (see, e.g., Deuteronomy 24:12, 15; I Samuel 2:8; Job 29:12), that concern, in practical terms, may not result in concrete actions that harm those who are not poor. Those who were most vulnerable in ancient Israelite society — the widow, the orphan, the poor and the resident alien — received particular protection by all members of society from the natural group abundance that provided more than a subsistence existence for its members. 16 You shall not go around as a slanderer (the root meaning of rachil is “to go about, from one to another” but Hebrew has a particular verb form, the Hithpael, not used here, usually conveys such iterative action) among your people, and you shall not profit by the blood of your neighbor, meaning to take advantage of a fellow Israelite’s physical calamity, whether from accident, violence, illness or decrepitude. I am the Lord. 17 You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin, one of the few times an inward disposition receives a prohibition. It would be unwise to interpret the mention of kin to imply that hatred of non-kin was acceptable. You shall reprove your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself. Yet, we also have some responsibility for our neighbor that may take the form of reproof, rebuke, confrontation, correction, and reasoning frankly with them. Such counsel was also part of the wisdom tradition. The idea draws a line between hate and offering correction. Given the context, one shows love to the neighbor by correcting and confronting the neighbor. Your silence may mean you become complicit in the sin. In Psalm 141:5, the writer invites the righteous person to strike him, for that would be kindness. He will not refuse the rebuke. Proverbs 9:8b says that wise people love those who offer them correction. Proverbs 19:25 says that if you correct people of understanding they will gain in knowledge. Proverbs 27:6 says the wounds from a friend are faithful. Luke 17:3, one is to rebuke the fellow disciple who sins. In Matthew 18:15, if a fellow disciple sins against you, you are to confront the person directly. In both cases, the goal is repentance and forgiveness. In Galatians 6:1, Paul urges a spirit of gentleness as the church restores one who has sinned. Yet, they should have care not to succumb to temptation. James 5:19 urges bringing back one who has wandered from truth. All of this is a reminder that those who live in covenant with the Lord are also in covenant with each other. To put it another way, if you see yourself doing something badly and nobody bothers to tell you anymore, that is a very bad place to be. Your critics are the ones telling you they still love you and care about you.[11] 18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor, your fellow Israelite, as yourself. Thus, given the context, we could say that offering such correction is an expression of love for the neighbor. Yet, we also need to take care lest all we are doing is expressing hatred on the one hand or vengeance on the other. Verse 34 seems to expand the notion of neighbor to the stranger. Jesus would generalize the command with the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10) and with making it the second of two great commandments, neither of which are part of the Ten Commandments. Jesus has brought together the two passages of scripture, Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and Leviticus 19:18, in a way no other Jewish teacher had done.[12] Paul refers to this passage in Romans 13:9 and Galatians 5:14 as a summation of the Torah. The Letter of James may even be a sermon based on Leviticus 19:12-18. The basis for the commandment is simple and profound: I am the Lord. The Israelites have pledged loyalty to Yahweh. Their identity and the identity of Yahweh have bound together in a covenant relation. The holiness of this God demands and enforces the holiness of the people of God. It requires that the divine confrontation of the world and all humanity should find a human correspondence and copy in the mode of existence of this people. God is holy, and acts among them as such, and therefore make them holy, as your life and norm. The start for any such discussion is 20:8, the Lord is the one who sanctifies you.[13]
[1] Pannenberg, (Systematic Theology, Volume I, 398)
[2] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology, Volume I, p. 381.
[3] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume I, p. 199.
[4] Die Lehre der hl. Schrift, 1892, 343
[5] (Church Dogmatics III.2 [30.1], 364-368)
[6] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 1, 398.
[7] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 3, 491.
[8] (J. G. Gammie, Holiness in Israel [Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1989], 32).
[9] Barth (Church Dogmatics II.2 [66.1], 501)
[10] Often, the designation is as “all the congregation of the Israelites” (Exodus 35:4, 20; Numbers 15:25, 26; 13:26; 14:7) or “all the congregation of Israel” (Joshua 22:20; 1 Kings 8:5), or simply as “all the congregation” (Leviticus 10:6; Numbers 13:26; 14:1). The construction here is peculiar (and missing from some manuscripts).
[11] Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture.
[12] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 3, 78.
[13] (Church Dogmatics II.2 [66.1], 501)
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