LEVI (nb, LXX <Acv(e)l(v)).—Son of Jacob and
100 LEVI
Leah. The meaning and derivation of the name are ancertain. (1) In Gn 295 (J) Levi is interpreted as joined, i.e. husband to wife; the root /avah is used with this meaning in the reflexive conjugation (Niphal), Is 56% 6, Ps 83%: in Arab. it=‘ turn, bend.’ In Nu 18**(P) there is a word-play ; the tribe of Levi is pet to, attendant on, Aaron. After the establishment of the Levites as subordinate temple ministers, this meaning was read into their name ; it does not, of course, represent an etymology in the strict sense. (2) Layarde, Orientalia ii. 20, Mittheilungen i. 5411., explains Levites as those who attached themselves to, accompanied, the Israel- ites at the Exodus from Egypt; like Moses, they were Egyptians. The name might also mean those who were attached to the ark. Thus Levi is not a name like the names of the other patri- archs, but an adjective ; and it need not have borne the same meaning in the time of Ezra as in the time of Solomon or Moses. (3) Baudissin, Gesch. AT Priesterthums 72 n.}, finds in the name an original abstract meaning, /év=‘ following, escort,’ from which the adj. /évi was formed, in the sense of one who escorted the ark. The name was thus first given to the tribe of priestly servants, and from them to the ancestor of the tribe. Against these views see Kautzsch, SK, 1890, 771f., who points out that the manner in which Levi is con- nected with Simeon by a merely genealogical and political relationship, such as exists in the case of the other sons of sco makes it impossible to see in Leyi the special character which the above views presuppore. The name of the tribe was not jerived from the name of any official function ; the escort of the ark was not the prerogative of the Levites only, for in the older narratives it is the priests who have thischarge. Similarly, Stade, ZATW i. 1881, 112-116, insists, with reason, that no different origin can be allowed to Levi than is iven to the other patriarchs. Against deriving évi from lavah, he urges the form of the noun with é, and the fact that in early times Levi was a purely secular tribe, Gn 497, (4) Hommel, Avuf- sditze u. Abhandlungen 30f., Siid-Arab. Chrestom. 127, AHT 278f., connects levi with lavi’u (fem. td ra on the Minzean inscriptions from el-Ola, N. of Medina; and Mordtmann, Beitréige z. mindischen Epigraphik, 1897, 43, aud Sayce, Early Hist. of the Hebs. 1897, 80, agree with him. The usage of the word in these inscriptions (‘a priest of Wadd,’ ‘his priestess’) is, however, very different from the usage of Levi in the OT. Suchan ex- pression as ‘a Levite of J”’ is never found; and the primary meaning of Levite is not ‘ priest,’ but ‘a member of the tribe of Levi.’ (5) Wellhausen, Prolegomena® 146, proposes an etymology which has been widely accepted, and may be considered the most plausible yet put forward : Levi is simply a gentilic form of his mother’s name, Leah=‘ wild cow’ (Arab. la’ay, laat). So Stade, ZATW i. 112-116, GVTi. 146, 152f.; Gray, Hebr. Pr. Names 96, ete. Ndéldeke on the whole accepts this, though not without hesitation, ZDMG xl. 1886, 167.* Robertson Smith, who maintains that ‘the most ancient division of the Israelites is between Rachel and Leah,’ both animal names, detects in this family history the presence of the matriarchal system of reckoning descent, and the custom of calling tribes after the names of animals (totemism); Kinship and Marriage 30, 195, 219 f., 257. (6) Two other etymologies may be mentioned. Wellhausen, Skizzen τι. Vorarberten iii. 114n. [the note is omitted in the second edition (1897), p. 119], alludes to the ancient Arabic custom of consuming the flesh
* Of the sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons of Levi, almost half have names with this gentilic ending, e.g. Merari, Mahli, Mushi (from Mosheh, Moses), Libni, Shimei, Bukki, Uzzi, Kishi, ste. (Nu 317-21 2658, 1 Ch 61-48),
LEVI
of a sacrifice at a family meal. A portion of the flesh was set aside for a guest whom it was desired to treat with special honour (ef. 1S 9%), and called | the lavijja (Agh. vii. 76. 6). The lavijja would be the priests’ portion; hence possibly the origin of the name Levi. In this connexion we can hardly fail to remember the Minwan /avi’w=‘priest.’ G. H. Skipwith, in the JQR xi. 1899, 264, inyeni- ously connects devi with leviathan, the root lavah describing the coils of the serpent. This suggests that Levi derived his name from a serpent-god, and may explain why the Levite Moses selected the brazen serpent, Nehushtan, as an emblem of the God of Israel!
Early history of Levi.—An incident in the early history of Levi is preserved in Gn 34. The young Canaanite chief, Shechem, had conceived a passion for Dinah, the sister of Simeon and Levi, and had ‘humbled’ her, to the indignation of the sons of Jacob (vy. 5-7), The two brothers undertook to avenge the outrage themselves ; they assassin- ated Shechem, and carried off Dinah out of his house (vv. 28), That the action of Simeon and Levi was treacherous and savage is implied in J, the earlier of the two documents which are com- bined in Gn 34. Shechem had accepted the terms imposed ape him by the father and brethren of the damsel (νν.}}- 13.) What the terms were is not stated ; possibly the circumcision of the bride- groom before marriage (Wellhausen, Proleg.® 355 n., Composition 319: cf. Ex 4*-*°, and Robertson Smith, RS 310), or the grant of a piece of territory to Jacob near Shechem (Cornill, ZATW, 1891, 12, οἵ. Gn 37:35), Whatever the agreement was, Simeon and Levi violated it, and acted independ- ently of their brethren, who took no part in the Beet of violence, and of their father, who bitterly resented it. We may notice that Jacob’s reproof is prompted by instinets of self-preservation, and not by moral displeasure. The two brothers, how- ever, take up a moral ground in their retort, evi- dently with the sympathy of the narrator (34° %!),*