Priestly Code: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|Jewish body of laws}}

{{Kehuna and Kohanim}}

{{More citations needed|date=May 2025}}

The '''Priestly Code''' (in Hebrew '''''Torat Kohanim''''', תורת כהנים) is the name given, by academia,<ref>The book of Leviticus: composition and reception - Page 55 Rolf Rendtorff, Robert A. Kugler, Sarah Smith Bartel - 2003 "Research agrees that its relation to the "Priestly Code" is the central, literary historical problem of Leviticus. However, there are major differences when it comes to solving this problem."</ref> to the body of laws expressed in the [[Torah]] which do not form part of the [[Holiness Code]], the [[Covenant Code]], the [[Ritual Decalogue]], or the [[Ethical Decalogue]]. The Priestly Code constitutes the majority of [[Leviticus]], as well as some of the laws expressed in [[Book of Numbers|Numbers]]. The code forms a large portion, approximately one third, of the commandments of the Torah, and thus is a major source of [[Jewish Lawlaw]].

It is termed the Priestly codeCode due to its large concern with ritual and the Jewish priesthood, and also, in critical scholarship, it is defined as the whole of the law code believed to be present in the [[Priestly Source]] except for the Holiness Code. Under the [[documentary hypothesis]], while some scholars believe that the Priestly Code was created to rival the Ethical Decalogue and Covenant Code, others believe was intended as only supplementary to the Holiness Code.

==Constituent parts==

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*List of clean and unclean animals (Leviticus 11)

*Laws of purification and atonement (Leviticus 12, Leviticus 13, and Leviticus 15)

*Laws interruptinginterpreting the Holiness Code:

**The prohibition against consuming the naturally dead (Leviticus 17:15-16)

**The order to make trespass offerings after sexual involvement with an engaged slavewoman (Leviticus 19:21-22)

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*Rule of [[tzitzit|fringes]] (Leviticus 15:37-41)

*Ritual of [[Yom Kippur]] (Leviticus 16:3-34, 25:9b)

*Rituals interruptinginterpreting the Holiness Code:

**The order to keep the [[Shabbat|sabbath]], [[passover]], and [[passover|feast of unleavened bread

]] (Leviticus 23:1-10a)

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The majority of the Priestly Code is presented in the Torah as the Law which is given to Moses directly by God at [[Mount Sinai]]. Unlike the Decalogues, however, [[Yahweh]] speaks the

laws to Moses while descended, in a cloud, upon the [[Tabernacle]] which the Israelites have constructed. The remainder is present as scattered laws either given by Moses directly, or by being given in a similar manner to the majority, via the tabernacle, but after the Israelites have moved elsewhere, taking the tabernacle with them. The implication, therefore, is that the tabernacle is the place where God speakspeaks with the priesthood.

==Composition==

{{main|textualTextual criticism}}

It is evident that rules of priestly procedure must have accompanied the institution of the priesthood, and in the earliest of times, before writing was invented, these rules probably were transmitted orally. When writing was first employed in connection with them, it is likely that only some general directions, or some details deemed most important, were committed to writing. As time passed on the importance given to written law would lead the priesthood to commit more and more of the details to writing. Critical scholars assert that in addition to this, over time, variations of detail would develop, authority for which must be committed to writing, so that actual practise would become justified by law. One would, therefore, suppose beforehand that such a code would exhibit evidence of gradual growth.

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Leviticus 4 is of this vein, extending the laws of the "sin-offering" to specify the penalty for each level of sin. Additionally, the ritual for the offering itself is more elaborate than that described elsewhere, for example at Leviticus 9:8-11, and utilizes a bullock, rather than the goat that is required according to Leviticus 9:15, 16:8, and Numbers 15:24. Critical scholars, therefore, regard this chapter as being a much later addition to the ''sin-offering'' laws.

Different stages of precision are also thought evident in Numbers 8. Numbers 8:15b-26 repeats the rules of Numbers 8:6-15a, but also connects the ownership of the firstborn with [[the Exodus]] from Egypt, as well as adding rules concerning a minimum age and a [[retirement]] age. Standard textual criticism, as well as the repetition, is thought to indicate that the second portion is by a different writer, creating an explanation that wasn'twas not originally present.

Such increasing of precision is not only present in direct modification of the law, and there are examples of instances where narrative frameworks present modifications of the law, but openly admitting that they are extra rules, not present when the laws were originally given out. For example, the law of the ''little passover'' in Numbers 9:9-14 adds rules concerning how people who have become unclean can manage to carry out the passover rules of Exodus 12:1-20. In a similar manner, the [[case law]] example, involving the daughters of Zelophehad, at Numbers 27:1-11, is returned to at Numbers 36, conveniently providing a framework to express a quite different law.

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There are also examples of clauses which appear to water down preceding laws. Leviticus 14:21-32 provides for the substitution of two turtledoves (or pigeons) for a lamb, reducing the cost to the provider of the sacrifice. While this is presented as being a response for poor sinners, critical scholarship interprets the section as indicating that, historically, an earlier sacrificial ''offering'', of a lamb, was increasingly being replaced, over time, by a pair of turtledoves.

Modification of a this kind is also thought to be found twice in succession within Leviticus 5:1-13. A sacrifice involving a lamb or kid (of a goat) is described at Leviticus 5:1-6, whereas Leviticus 5:7-10 states that two turtledoves or two pigeons suffice, whereas Leviticus 5:11-13 further states that mere [[flour]] is sufficient. Biblical critics assert that it is difficult to see why anyone would go to the extent of bringing a lamb, when flour is enough, and similarly, if flour is sufficient, they assert that mentioning more costly losses, such as lambs, would be unexpected from a single writer of the law. Textual criticism identifies quite different writing styles between each of these three sections, the first section not detailing any ritual whatsoever, merely what should be brought, the second giving quite detailed instructions of ritual, and each being progressively more verbose, the first merely writes ''shall make an atonement for him concerning his sin'', whereas the third produces ''shall make an atonement for him as touching his sin that he hath sinned in one of these''. For these reasons, critical scholars usually identify Leviticus 5:7-10 as a later addition to Leviticus 5:1-6, and Leviticus 5:11-13 as an even later addition, reflecting the ritual gradually being watered down over time.

==Provenance==

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[[Category:Priesthood (Judaism)]]

[[Category:Book of Leviticus]]

[[Category:Mitzvoth]]