An Atheist Explores the Bible. Part 23: Lots of typical ritual requirements (Leviticus 21-25)
Leviticus 21-25
Lots of typical ritual requirements.
Welcome to another instalment of An Atheist Explores
Sacred Texts (Bible version).
In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through
the King James Bible, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as
literature and mythology.
For more detail, see the introductory post http://bit.ly/2F8f9JT
For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP
And now:
Leviticus 21
“And he that is the high priest among his brethren, upon whose
head the anointing oil was poured, and that is consecrated to put on the
garments, shall not uncover his head, nor rend his clothes;”
This chapter discusses the behaviour and taboos
associated with being a member of the priesthood, which are mainly similar
proscriptions that have been applied before, but obviously meant more
seriously. – certain types of permitted hairstyle, for example. But also the
priest’s family are expected to act with probity, sometimes reinforced with
great severity; if his daughter “act the whore” then she must be burnt to
death. Charming. Also, no one with a blemish, hunchback, blind, lame or even
has a “flat nose”, they cannot approach the sanctuary (although they can eat
sanctified bread). Not sure if someone who “has his stones broken” means what I
think it means. Ouch if it does.
Some quite severe stuff, but also pretty typical that a
priest needs a greater level of ritual purity than other people in order for
the “magic” to work.
Leviticus 22
“Blind, or broken, or maimed, or having a wen, or scurvy,
or scabbed, ye shall not offer these unto the LORD, nor make an offering by
fire of them upon the altar unto the LORD.”
Ugh. Yet more proscriptions. Starts with a continuation
that a priest who has performed an unclean action (as already described at length
as nauseum) may not officiate at services until he is considered clean again.
Then some more lengthy diatribe about ensuring that sacrificial animals are
without blemish. Haven’t we had all this already?
Leviticus 23
“Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the
feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts.”
This chapter covers a list of holy days, which I won’t go
into in detail largely because most of
them are pretty similar rites of sacrifice. Passover is mentioned, 14th
day of 1st month, also named is the feast of the tabernacles, 15th
day of 7th month. A couple of things caught my eye though, both
connected to The Golden Bough again. The harvest ritual of leaving the last
sheathes of wheat, in this case they are left for “the poor and the stranger”.
Now, as discussed before, the last sheathe is widely considered to house the
god of the grain, and in many cases whoever reaps it gets bad luck. A lot of
cultures have a tradition of giving the unlucky sheathe to a stranger, who acts
much like a scapegoat and carries the bad luck away from the locals. Shades of
that surface here.
Another aspect of this kind of harvest god mythology is
the tradition of bringing bits of tree indoors, often to shelter fertility
gods/spirits over the winter (ever had a Christmas tree? You’re continuing a
very ancient tradition). With that in
mind, consider V40 “And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly
trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of
the brook; and ye shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days.” Where did
that come from? There’s been chapter after chapter on animal sacrifice (which
makes sense in a herding culture). Apart from a few specific herbs, no mention
of any kind of vegetative votive has been given before. Intriguing.
Leviticus 24
“Command the children of Israel, that they bring unto
thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamps to burn
continually.”
A perpetual flame – that’s another ancient tradition
that’s also adopted by the Israelites. Light, heat, the flickering flame almost
like a living thing, a distant echo of the life-giving sun; absolutely rife
with primal symbolism. The rest of the chapter concerns various penalties for
blasphemy and harming others, basically stoning for the first and a re-iteration
of the “eye for an eye” philosophy given earlier. The blasphemy rule is
illustrated with an example, and almost sounds like the start of a joke: “And
the son of an Israelitish woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went
out among the children of Israel: and this son of the Israelitish woman and a man of Israel strove together in
the camp;”.
Leviticus 25
“And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim
liberty throughout all the land unto
all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return
every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.”
The gist of this chapter is that every seventh year (not
just day), is a whole year of rest where nothing is to be sown or reaped.
Luckily, however, God promises to make the harvest of every sixth year
sufficient to last three years, which is a massive act of faith to accept. Once
seven Sabbath years have gone by (i.e. 49 years) the 50th year is
another rest year, a jubilee.
The rest of the chapter involves a lot of property law
that I kind of glossed over, but mainly an expansion on the returning of possessions
mentioned in the quoted verse.
Also of note, perhaps more so, are the passages that
basically say that it’s okay to enslave outsiders and their children. Hrm.
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