Guide to Leviticus

From RationalWiki

Leviticus is (along with Deuteronomy) one of the two "law books" of the Old Testament and apparently the most popular book of the entire Bible. They talk a lot about what Jews can and cannot do.

Chapters 1-16 detail the priestly rituals, such as sin offering and other fun things. Chapters 17-26 include the instructions on how to go about your daily lives. Of particular note are "Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination" (Lev 18:22) and "For every [child] that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death. he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him." (Lev 20:9). There are quite a few other laws in Leviticus which get you the death penalty.

Jews think that Leviticus is the unadulterated word of God, as dictated to Moses on Mount Sinai. Unfortunately, the atheistic liberal modern world doesn't allow them to follow all of these laws. Christians think that it's the word of God, but point to 1 Cor 10:23-26 as exemption from following these laws. Interestingly, many fundamentalists still cite Lev 18:22 (kill the gays) as legitimate, even though they reject the book on principle. Other Christians accept all the laws with the exception of the ritualistic ones. That's the definition of irony.

[edit] Goats

The procedure in Leviticus for cleansing the people of their sin was to take two goats, and draw lots. One of the goats was killed, and its blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat of the ark of the covenant. The high priest then laid his hands on the head of the other goat, confessed the sins of the people of Israel (thus transferring them to the goat) and the "scapegoat" was released into the wilderness.

Guide to the Bible