Comments Off on Free Leviticus Primer I’ve linked to this once before, but for those who missed, it HERE is a link to a helpful resource on the Book of Leviticus by Lauren Stouffer. When reading through books like Leviticus it can be difficult to keep the festivals and offerings straight. However, this PDF has some helpful charts.
Comments Off on Free Bible Briefs – Exodus and Leviticus Bible Briefs are not available for every book of the Old Testament, but these free short introductions are available for Exodus and Leviticus. The Exodus volume is written by Dr. Murray L. Newman Emeritus professor of Virginia Theological Seminary. And, the Leviticus volume is written by Prof. Kevin A. Wilson of Lithuania Christian College. These are high quality short introductions, so don’t fail to check them out.
Interested in other Old Testament book introductions? Click HERE.
Yesterday there was a post on the Desiring God blog about “boring” passages in the Bible (why they put boring in quotes I don’t know; I would just call them boring), especially the Pentateuch. There is so much wrong with the particular details of this post that it is difficult to really know where to go with this. Do you deal with the fundamentalism or the anachronism or both? I’ll try both. I’ll just say a brief word about the fundamentalism. Moses wrote the Pentateuch? Really? I’ll provide two quotes from the post, though there are a number:
For example, when listing out the instructions for how to build the tabernacle, Moses goes into great detail about all the materials and measurements. Did he intend for the reader of Exodus to actually build a tabernacle? No! That was Bezalel and Oholiab’s job (Exodus 31:1-11).
Rather, it appears that Moses included the full set of blueprints in order to convey to us, as we literally labor to read them, a greater sense of the weight and worth of God.
I thought that even the most conservative scholars that I respect were past this. If you still think this, I recommend you read all of Introduction to Reading the Pentateuchby Jean-Louis Ska. Or, you should at the very, very least read chapter 3 of the book free HERE (or as much as you can free it’s probably my favorite book on the Pentateuch). This is the best advice that I can give since most people who still believe Moses wrote the Pentateuch may take a lot of convincing otherwise.
Okay. Now, for anachronism. How about this quote:
Consider this: Why does the Pentateuch contain so much material that describes the old covenant and its laws? One reason is that Moses wanted to increase our anticipation and appreciation of a new covenant.
Really? Moses wanted to do that. The covenant wasn’t even “old” yet; It was just the covenant. Unless “Moses” was going 007, I really, really doubt this is what was going on. “Okay I’m going to write down these laws, so that these people will think they are for them. But, what I’m really doing is writing them to increase the anticipation and appreciation of some people over 3000 years from now.” Maybe that’s being a little unfair, but that is literally what the post says is one thing that “Moses” wanted to do. Do you truly think that “Moses” had anything to do with a “new” covenant in mind before the covenant was even “old.”
Here’s an interesting note I found on Leviticus 7.15 in The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament:
7:15. difference between thanksgiving offering and other fellowship offerings. Unlike the other fellowship offerings, the thanksgiving offering was often made in places other than the sanctuary. As a result there is a stricter rule about eating it the day of the sacrifice, perhaps to avoid situations where impurity could be contracted. This would not be as big a problem in the sanctuary precincts.
I am not sure if this explanation is even correct, though it appears to make sense at first glance. But, I at least find it interesting that there are different directions for eating the different “well-being” offerings. The thank offering has to be eaten the day of, but the free-will offering and the vow offering can be eaten over the course of a couple of days (see Lev. 7.11-18).
On a different note, I’m not sure whether the fact that I find this interesting reflects the bizarre nature of the things I find interesting, or if it really is as fascinating as I think it is.
