Time Out: Where are We?

The next section we'll be exploring is chapters 11-17, dealing with ritual pollution and purification.  First however, let's pause to take a look around in order to get a better sense of direction as we move forward.

We know that Leviticus consists almost entirely of divine laws pertaining to the sacrificial system, dietary regulations, purity and pollution, and holiness in various applications.  These laws are interrupted only twice by brief narratives, found in chapter 10 regarding Nadab and Avihu, and 24.10-22 which, as we will see, is also about an inappropriate encounter with the divine.  The placement of these two narratives points to one way of conceptualizing the organization of the book: that of a literary projection of the Tabernacle (cf. Douglas, Leviticus as Literature).

Here's why: the Tabernacle consisted of three successive compartments - the Outer Court, the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies.  Moving from largest and most accessible to smallest and most enclosed, there were two screens or curtains that separated the Outer Court from the Holy Place, and then the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies, keeping the rooms separated in access and function.  Remember how Leviticus likes threes?  There are three compartments in the Tabernacle and three sections of the book, and Douglas suggests that the "structure of the written text is an analogy of the structure of the desert Tabernacle."  Three rooms in the Tabernacle, three sections in the book; two screens separating rooms, two narratives separating sections.  As readers or listeners moved through the text they experienced a projection from language to space - of no small significance in a period in Israel's history when they were in exile from their land, their laws, and their Tabernacle.  The book itself worked as a reminder and rehearsal of the Tabernacle and its purpose in Israelite life.  This type of literary spatial projection was a common memory technique in the ancient world, but in the book of Leviticus it takes on the additional role of being itself a microcosm (yes, that word again) - through this spatial arrangement it holds together the meanings of many levels of existence: the tabernacle is like Sinai, is like creation, is like the body of the Israelite and the sacrificial animal, is how Israel defines itself as being the people of YHWH unlike their neighbors.  But we'll get to that later.

We've discussed chapters 1-7: sacrificial offerings, 8-10: installation of priests and the first narrative, and we're headed into chapters 11-17.  Envisioned as a "ring," we enter the outer court through chapter 1, move along the wall through chapters 2-7, encounter the screen to the holy place that is chapters 8-10 but keep walking by, and move down the opposite wall through chapters 12-16 back to 17 that forms the latch to the entrance at chapter 1.

	11	10    9     8	7
12 13 14 15 16		Screen		6 5 4 3 2
	17	Entrance	1

The Outer Court

Now that you've gotten the grand tour, you can see that we might conceive of chapters 11-16 as expanding and completing chapters 1-7.  First we read about the bodies of sacrificial animals and how to eat or not eat them (1-7), and now we'll read about the bodies of the Israelites (12-15), how to purify them (16), and what ought to go into and out of them (11, then 12-15).  Chapter 17 echoes chapter 1 to reinforce the lesson that all animal sacrifice must be brought to the tabernacle and sacralized - listen to this:  

17.3-4 Any-man, any-man of the House of Israel who slays an ox or a sheep or a goat in the camp or who slays (it) outside the camp, and to the entrance of the Tent of Appointment does not bring it, to bring-it-near as a near-offering to YHWH before the Dwelling of YHWH: bloodguilt is to be reckoned to that man.

1.2-3 Speak to the Children of Israel and say to them: Anyone – when (one) among you brings-near a near-offering for YHWH, from domestic animals: from the heard or from the flock you may bring-near your near-offering.  If an offering-up is his near-offering, from the herd, (then) male, wholly-sound, let him bring-it-near, to the entrance of the Tent of Appointment let him bring-it-near, as acceptance for him, before the presence of YHWH.

And last but not least, the narrative block of chs. 8-10 makes perfect sense right where it is, acting as a warning before you decide to toe that line from the outer court closer into the presence of YHWH.  Just as the walls of the tent separated holy space from everything else, the text of Leviticus delineates the boundaries and separations that order the processes of life.  

How cool is that?!?

Can you see how we might get confused if we tried to read Leviticus in a straight, progressive line from point A to point B?  Instead, we need to read 1-7 with 11-17, 8-10 as summarizing and pointing the way forward, 1 and 17 as the double-doors that form the entrance.  We need to read across and in parallel.  We need to read as slow and careful observers of our surroundings, in a space that is both memory and projection, a precisely appointed holy space in which nothing is random or out of place.

Next time we'll continue our exploration down the opposite wall, discussing concepts of morality and ritual, boundary keeping, and permitted and forbidden foods.