INTRODUCTION. 1. SUBJFCl' oF THE BooJL LEVITICUS forms the centre and nucleus of the five books of Moses. Closely attached to it are the two Books of Exodus and Numbers, and out- side of them, on either side, stand Genesis and Deuteronomy. The subject of the Book of Leviticus is the Sinaitio legislation, from the time that the tabernacle was erected. It does not, however, comprise the whole of that legislation. There is an overflow of it into the Book of Numbers, which thus contains the laws on the Levites and their service (Numb. i. 49-53; iii. 5-15, 40-48; iv. 1-33; viii. 5-26) ; on the order in which the tribes were to encamp (Numb. ii. 1-31); on the removal of the unolean from the camp (Numb. v. 2--4); on the trial of jealousy (Numb. v. 11-31); on the Nazarites (Numb. vi. 1-21); on the form of blessing the people (Numb. vi. 23-27); on the second month's Passover (Numb. ix. 6-12); on the silver trumpets (Numb. x. 1-10); besides a. repetition of the laws on restitution (Numb. v. 6-10); on the lighting of the lamps (Numb. viii. 2--4); on the Passover (Numb. ix. 1-5). With these exceptions, the Book of Leviticus contains the whole of the legislation delivered in the distriot of Mount Sinai, during the month and twenty days which elapsed between the setting up of the tabernacle on the fust day of the second year after quitting Egypt, and the commencement of the march from Sinai on the twentieth day of the second month of the same year. But while this was the whole of the Sinai tic legislation" out of the tabernacle," there were also laws given on Mount Sinai itself during the last nine months of the first year of the march from Egypt, which are recounted in Exod. xi.x.-xl. While, therefore, Leviticus is very olosely connected with the early part of Numbers on one side, it is very olosely connected with the latter part of Exodus on the other. ANALYSIS OF ITS CONTENTS, The book naturally falls into five divisions. The first part is on sacrifice; the second part records the establishment of an hereditary priesthood; the third deals with the question of uncleanness, ceremonial and moral; the fourth enumerates the holy days and seasons. The book ends with a fifth l,EVJTICUS. • ii IN'l'RODUC'l'ION 'l'O
part, consisting of an exhortation to obedience, and there is attached to it an appendix on vows. 'l'he following is a more detailed sketch of tho contents. § 1. Sacrifice. A question is often asked whether the idea underlying Jewish sacrifice is (1) that of a gift to God, the Giver of all good things, by man, the grateful receiYer of his gifts; or (2) that of appeasing and satisfying the justice of an averted Deity; or (3) that of symbolically manifesting full submission to his will; or ( 4) that of exhibiting a sense of union between God and his people. And this question cannot be answered until the different sacrifices have been distinguished from one another. For each of these ideas is represented by one or other of the sacrifices-the first by the meat offering, the second by the sin offering and trespass offering, the third by the burnt offering, the fourth by the peace offering. If the question be, Which of these was the primary idea of Hebrew sacrifice? we may probably say that it was that of li:lymbolical self-surrender or submission in token of perfect loyalty of heart; for tho burnt sacrifice, with which the meat offering is essentially allied appears to have been the most ancient of the sacrifices; and this is the thought embodied in the combined burnt and meat offering. But while this is the special idea of the burnt sacrifice, it. is not the only idea of it. It contains within itself in a minor degree the ideas of atonement (eh. i. 4) and of peace ( eh. i. 9, 13, 17). Thus it is the most complex as well as the oldest form of sacrifice. If we had no historical information to guide us (as we have Gen. iv. 4), we might reasonably argue from this very complexity to the greater antiquity of the burnt and meat offerings. Symbolism first embodies a large idea in an institution, and it then distinguishes the institu• tion into different species or parts in order to represent as a primary notion one or other of the ideas only secondarily expressed or suggested in the original institution. The sin and trespass offerings, therefore, would natur- ally spring, or, we may say, be divided uff, from the burnt and meat offerings, when men wanted to accentuate the idea of the necessity of reconciliation and atonement; and the peace offering, when they wished to express the joy felt by those who were conscious that theh- reconciliation had been effected. The sacrifice of Cain and Abel appears to have been 11, thanksgiving offer- ing of the firstfruits of the produce of the land and of the cattle, presented to the Lord as a token of recognition of him as the Lord and Giver of all. It is called by the name of minchah-a word afterwards confined in its signi- fication to the meat offering-and it partook of the character of the meat offering, the bwnt offering, and the peace offering (Gen. iv. 3, 4). Noah's sacrifices were burnt offerings (Gen. viii, 20); and this was the general character of subsequent offerings, though something of the nature of peace offerings is indicated by Moses when he distinguishes " sacrifices " from "burnt offerings," in addressing Pharaoh before the departure of the Israelites from Egypt (Exod. x. 25). The full idea of sacrifice, contained implicitly in THE IlOOK OF LEVITICUS. iii