Guest Post on the Body in Leviticus

I have guest posted over on The Big Bible Project, on the subject of lessons that we can learn from the significance given to the body in the book of Leviticus:

The book of Leviticus has been the death of countless millions of well-meaning Bible reading resolutions. If the second half of the book of Exodus drags, with its detailed descriptions of the furniture of the tabernacle, the book of Leviticus is the sequel that bombs, a volume devoted to arcane minutiae about the sacrifice of animals, cleansing after sexual discharges and ancient skin diseases, agricultural feasts, and ceremonies for installing priests into office. Much of the book is given over to details about sacrifices that seem totally irrelevant to us:What animal should be offered? What sex must it be? What age? Who should offer it? When? In what manner? How should it be cut up and divided? How should the pieces be arranged? What shall be done with the blood? How should it be cooked? Who shall eat it? Where shall they eat it? Within what period of time should it be eaten?

When you actually start to get to grips with the symbolism of Leviticus all of these details slowly begin to make more sense, and Leviticus can even become a profoundly fascinating book. However, before we do so, there are still some very broad and incredibly important lessons to draw from it. Perhaps one of the greatest of all of these is that God is a god for whom the body is important.

Read the whole thing here!

About Alastair Roberts

Alastair Roberts (PhD, Durham University) writes in the areas of biblical theology and ethics, but frequently trespasses beyond these bounds. He participates in the weekly Mere Fidelity podcast, blogs at Alastair’s Adversaria, and tweets at @zugzwanged.
This entry was posted in Bible, Christian Experience, Guest Post, Leviticus, On the web, OT, OT Theology, Sacramental Theology, The Blogosphere, The Sacraments, Theological, Theology. Bookmark the permalink.

4 Responses to Guest Post on the Body in Leviticus

  1. Bethany says:

    I love Leviticus. I love it because it helps me understand Judaism, and Jesus’ history, and “I did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.”

    • It is a wonderful book! I used to find it quite a chore to read, but nowadays the more that I return to it, the more that I feel the desire to tarry with it and am sorry to move on when I am finished.

      I also believe that the ‘tougher’ passages of Scripture are often the ones that most richly reward the reader. I am trying to explore some of these in my 40 Days of Exoduses series and also like to explore the meaning of the OT rituals in posts like this recent treatment of Numbers 5.

  2. Pingback: Plans for Future 40 Days of Exoduses Posts | Alastair's Adversaria

  3. Pingback: Ten Years of Blogging: 2012-2013 | Alastair's Adversaria

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