Why Leviticus?

newadam said:

More, I was looking to find someone who would start from a skeptic's point of view and explain how he/she adjusted his/her mental construct of the book in the direction of an appreciation for Leviticus.

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Not sure if you can find such a person. If a skeptic starts looking for something in the Bible, he will find it, and Leviticus is one of the first place an amateur skeptic will look to justify himself.

Yes. Leviticus is a head-scratcher. Its culture is just about as foreign to ours as one will find in the entire Bible.

But a lot of this is perception. I mean, which is easier, to accept the teaching "the life is in the blood" or to accept "and if anyone's name was not found written in the Book of Life, they were thrown into the lake of fire". I would argue that the New Testament teachings about hell are light-years beyond anything in Leviticus in terms of inducement to head-scratching or of the level of difficulty in terms of "getting-one's-head-aroundness".

Read Leviticus 19. There is some really good stuff there.

newadam said:

Hello Summa and Steve. Thanks for writing. It's late here, so I'll be brief.

First, Steve, what did you mean about Leviticus 19 having "good stuff" in it? You mean in the sense of seeming culturally limited or in a deeper spiritual way?

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There are ethics in Levitcus as well as ritual:

Lev. 19: 9 “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. 10 And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God.
11 “You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; you shall not lie to one another. 12 You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.
13 “You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired servant shall not remain with you all night until the morning. 14 You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.
15 “You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. 16 You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life [1] of your neighbor: I am the Lord.
17 “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. 18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord. 29 “Do not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, lest the land fall into prostitution and the land become full of depravity. 30 You shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.
31 “Do not turn to mediums or necromancers; do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them: I am the Lord your God.
32 “You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.
33 “When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. 34 You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
35 “You shall do no wrong in judgment, in measures of length or weight or quantity. 36 You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin: [3] I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. 37 And you shall observe all my statutes and all my rules, and do them: I am the Lord.”