PURPOSE

Leviticus tells how a sinful people could approach a holy God and how they could
live holy lives. To make atonement for their sins the Lord prescribed a series of sacrifices
culminating in the offering presented by the high priest on the Day of Atonement. The
covenant people were expected to avoid sexual immorality and to obey all of the Lord’s
commandments. If anyone ignored these laws and commandments, the penalties were severe
(cf. 10:2; 20:1–27). In chapter 26 the nation is warned that if they break God’s covenant in
the Promised Land the results will be famine, disease, defeat, and eventually deportation.
When the glory of the Lord 􀉹lled the tabernacle at the end of Exodus (40:34), the
Israelites were very much aware of the presence of God. God had come to live among the
twelve tribes, a people who were to be “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Ex. 19:6). In
a world 􀉹lled with unholiness Israel was taught to distinguish between the holy and the
profane, the clean and the unclean. This affected the practical areas of diet, healthful habits,
and sexual behavior, as well as ceremonial matters and separation from other gods. God set
high standards for the nation, and, as leaders of the people, the priests were subject to even
higher standards (cf. 21:7–8). The priests were responsible for the overall ministry of the
tabernacle, so any disobedience on their part brought swift punishment.
Structure
Part 1 1:1—7:38 Laws on sacrifice
1:1—6:7 Instructions for the laity
6:8—7:38 Instructions for the priests
Part 2 8:1—10:20 Institution of the priesthood
Part 3 11:1—16:34 Uncleanness and its treatment
Part 4 17:1—27:34 Prescriptions for practical holiness
Leviticus 1:1—6:7 deal with sacrifice from the viewpoint of the offerer. This section
specifies what the worshipper must do in each case to ensure his sacrifice is acceptable: what
animals may be offered on what occasion, what the offerer must do and what the priest must
do, and so on. Leviticus 6:8—7:38 deals with the same sacrifices but from the priests’
perspective, in particular which parts of which sacrifice belong to the officiating priest.
1:1–17 The burnt offering
2:1–16 The grain offering
3:1–17 The peace offering
4:1—5:13 The sin offering
5:14—6:7 The guilt offering
6:8—7:38 Instructions for priests about sacrifice.
1:1–17: The burnt offering
This is so called because it is the only sacrifice which is entirely burnt on the altar. All
the other sacrifices are partially burnt on the altar and the rest of the meat shared by priests
and sometimes the worshipper. After an introduction to the group of laws in 1:1–2, the rules
about the burnt offering are given in three paragraphs 3–9, 10–13, 14–17. Groups of three are
quite common in Leviticus.
The division of labour between priest and offerer is important but obscured in some
English translations (e.g.NIV, NRSV). Only the priest may handle the sacred liquid, the
blood, and approach the altar. The central act of the burnt offering was the killing and burning
of the animal on the altar. This represents the giving of the animal to God. But why give it to
God, is it just an act of generosity?
The text suggests it is more than that. It ‘makes atonement for’ the worshipper, ‘that
he may be accepted before the LORD’ (Lev. 1:4,3). By placing his hand on the animal’s head,
the worshipper is saying, ‘This animal is/represents me.’ In other words the offerer is giving
himself to God in the sacrifice. He is acting out the command, ‘You shall love the LORD
your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might’ (Deut. 6:5).
Modern readers, if not disgusted by sacrifice, at least think it is a bizarre form of
worship. How on earth can it be understood?
To understand the place of sacrifice in Bible times, one must recall the nature of that
society. Most people would have scraped a living on small farms. Meat was a rare luxury,
which was eaten only at festivals or when guests came. When three men visited Abraham he
cooked fresh bread for them, killed and roasted a calf for them, and doubtless plied them with
wine, for the Hebrew word for feast literally means ‘drinking feast’ (Gen. 18:1–8).
Meat, grain or bread, and wine were the components of every sacrifice (see Num.
15:1–10). Thus animal sacrifice was like serving an excellent meal to an important guest,
namely God himself. God’s presence was symbolized by the altar and the fire on it. Burning
the animal and bread in the fire and pouring the wine on the side of the altar was an act of
generous hospitality to the heavenly guest. Other cultures (see the Atrahasis story of the flood
in chapter 2, Genesis 1—11) actually believed the gods lived off the food provided by these
sacrifices, but the Old Testament rejects this idea. As Psalm 50:12–13 puts it: ‘If I were
hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine. Do I eat the flesh of bulls
or drink the blood of goats?’
In a poor peasant culture, where animals were your long-term savings, sacrificing
them to God was a mark of great generosity, devotion and penitence. That is why they are
frequently said to be a ‘pleasing aroma to the LORD’, not because God was hungry! (Lev.
1:9, 13, 17 etc).
The implication is that the worshipper ought to give much more than an animal for his
atonement, perhaps even his own life, but God graciously accepts the animal instead. Two
key sacrifices in Genesis illustrate the effect and function of the burnt offering. In Genesis 22
God accepts the ram in place of Isaac. This leads to the promises to Abraham being
reaffirmed with an oath that ‘all the nations of the earth [shall] be blessed’ (Gen. 22:18). Even
more revealing are Noah’s burnt offerings after the flood, which lead God to promise never to
destroy the human race in another flood. Although the reason for the flood, man’s continual
propensity to sin (Gen. 6:5) is still present (Gen. 8:21), the threat of total destruction is lifted
‘when the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma’. In the wilderness Israel had already shown its
propensity to sin (Exod. 16—17; 32), so that even if a particular sin requiring atonement
cannot be discovered in every context where a burnt offering is prescribed, it could be seen as
dealing with general human sinfulness as well as being an expression of devotion to God.
2:1–16: The cereal offering
 This may sometimes have been allowed as a poor person’s alternative to a burnt
offering, but usually it was offered in addition to the animal sacrifices. Like the burnt
offering, it makes ‘a pleasing aroma to the LORD’, but unlike the burnt offering only part of
it was burnt on the altar: the rest of it went to the priest. Indeed it formed part of their core
income. The cereal offering could be presented in the form of raw flour, cooked cakes or
roast grain.
3:1–17: The peace offering
This is another animal sacrifice often offered in connection with vows or whenever
people wished to celebrate an occasion with a meat meal. If someone was very ill, or
desperately wanted their prayers answered, it was customary to make a vow. ‘O LORD of
hosts, if you … will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the LORD all the days
of his life’ (1 Sam. 1:11). So Hannah prayed in the temple of Shiloh. On this occasion the
family offered sacrifice; but an especially generous sacrifice was presented when her prayer
was answered (1 Sam. 1:24). This would have been a peace offering.
This was the only sacrifice in which the worshipper ate some of the meat. Some of the
animal was burnt, some was given to the priests, but the rest went to the worshipper and his
family and friends (Lev. 3:3–4; 7:31–35). Though this sacrifice is also said to make ‘a
pleasing aroma to the LORD’, its dominant purpose is celebration rather than expiation. It
tended to be offered on joyful occasions.
4:1—5:13: The sin offering
This is the sacrifice discussed in most detail in Leviticus. Its use is prescribed for a
variety of situations. This section is mainly concerned with making atonement for
unintentional mistakes and for sins of omission, i.e. forgetting to do something.
But elsewhere it is prescribed that the sin offering should be offered after childbirth,
skin disease or in the ordination of the priests. The procedure of the sin offering differs
radically from that of the burnt and peace offerings which have been discussed up to now.
In all the other animal sacrifices the blood, the liquid of life, is symbolically returned
to God, the source of life, by being slopped over the sides of the altar, but in the sin offering it
is used quite differently: depending on the status of the sinner, some of it is smeared on the
main altar of sacrifice, or on the incense altar in the holy place, and once a year on the Day of
Atonement on the ark itself in the holy of holies. What was this smearing and sprinkling of
the blood supposed to achieve?
First, it cleansed the altar or ark of the pollution caused by sin. Sin is viewed in
Leviticus as leaving invisible but real dirt in the tabernacle, so that God would be unwilling
to dwell there. This is a most serious worry, for the whole point of the tabernacle is that it
should be God’s earthly palace where he may live among his people. But the blood acts as a
spiritual cleanser making it possible for continued fellowship between God and Israel.
But it does more than this: it secures the forgiveness of the sinner. Most paragraphs
conclude with the comment, ‘and he shall be forgiven’ (4:26, 31, 35; 5:10, 13; cf. 4:20). It is
not clear quite how the application of the blood to the altars achieves the forgiveness of sins.
One possibility is that the altar itself is a mediator between God and man, just as priests are.
 Priests represent man to God and God to man. If the altar does the same, cleansing it
from the effects of sin by smearing it with blood would at the same time effect cleansing of
the person whom the altar represents.
5:14—6:7: The guilt offering
This is described more briefly than the other sacrifices, perhaps because it was offered
more rarely or because it had no place in the ordination of the priests and has simply been
included for completeness. Unlike the other sacrifices only one type of animal was permitted
for the guilt offering, namely a ram, which seems to be viewed as reparation to God for some
unintentional act of sacrilege, failing to fulfil a vow, or a false oath. Examples of situations
requiring this sacrifice are people who have recovered from skin disease (Lev. 14:12) or a
Nazirite whose vow of holiness has been broken by someone dying very near to him (Num.
6:9).
6:8—7:38: Instructions for the priests
At first sight these laws seem to be going over much the same ground as chapters 1—
5, though the order of presentation is different. In the opening chapters the order is
determined thematically: the sacrifices producing a ‘pleasing aroma’ (chs 1—3) precede the
sacrifices for the forgiveness of sins (4:1—6:7). But in this section frequency seems to be the
determining factor: the commonest sacrifices, e.g. the burnt and cereal offerings, precede the
rarer sin and guilt offerings, while the optional peace offering brings up the rear.
But the focus of interest differs in this section from chapters 1—5 too. Whereas the
opening chapters chiefly address the concerns of a lay-person offering a sacrifice, e.g. the
choice of animal, the details of procedure, chapters 6—7 predominantly deal with the
concerns of the priests. Most sections begin with a command to Aaron and his sons (6:9, 14,
20, 25) and their content is largely concerned with which parts of the sacrifices must go to the
priests. Only in 7:23, 29 dealing with peace offerings are the regulations primarily addressed
to the laity, as their share of these sacrifices is clarified.