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Fragments from lectures given at the recent Biblical Horizons Summer Conference. The notes that follow examine the opening verses of Leviticus 18. <\/p>\n
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1) \u201cI am Yahweh\u201d or some equivalent phrase is used 49 (7 x 7) times in Leviticus. <\/span> The phrase is never used before chapter 11, when the \u201choliness\u201d section begins, and the concerns turn away from the rules of the sacrificial liturgy to the rules of cleanness and the land. <\/span> Of the 49 uses in Leviticus, 24 are in chapters 18-20. <\/span> This is the place where Yahweh most emphatically declares His name, and declares what it means for <\/span> Israel <\/span> to be bearers of that name. <\/span> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 2) The specific phrase \u201cI am Yahweh your God\u201d is used 21x in the book, and 12 of those are in chapters 18-20. Again, Yahweh is speaking to His twelve-fold people. <\/span> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 3) Verse 3 sets the context for these instructions . . . . <\/span> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Israel <\/span> is at Sinai, and that means they are between <\/span> Egypt <\/span> and <\/span> Canaan <\/span> , between the place they dwelt and have left, and on the way to the place Yahweh is bringing them to. <\/span> Neither <\/span> Egypt <\/span> nor <\/span> Canaan <\/span> sets the pattern that <\/span> Israel <\/span> is supposed to follow. <\/span> They have been removed from <\/span> Egypt <\/span> , and in so doing they have left the \u201cdoings\u201d of <\/span> Egypt <\/span> behind; they are on their way to <\/span> Canaan <\/span> , but they aren\u2019t supposed to conform to the \u201cdoings\u201d of <\/span> Canaan <\/span> either. <\/span> The word \u201cdoings\u201d is used to mean \u201cworks\u201d or \u201cproducts,\u201d like the produce of a land; and that\u2019s the way the text phrases the issue \u2013 as if the lands <\/span> Egypt <\/span> and <\/span> Canaan <\/span> produced these things. <\/span> <\/span> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 4) In addition to forbidding the \u201cdoing\u201d of things that <\/span> Egypt <\/span> and <\/span> Canaan <\/span> does, <\/span> Israel <\/span> is prohibited from \u201cwalking in their ordinances\u201d (v 3). <\/span> The word here is not simply about behavior or action, but about what is established as a norm for action and behavior, whether that norm is explicitly a legal norm or simply a customary norm. The reference to the \u201cstatues\u201d of the Canaanites and Egyptians at the end of verse 3 opens up an important dimension of this whole passage. <\/span> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The combination \u201cstatutes and ordinances\u201d is very familiar, but it is comparatively rare in Leviticus. <\/span> Perpetual ordinances are mentioned earlier in Leviticus, but they have to do with specific rules in specific situations (like the ordinance that priests are not to drink wine in the sanctuary). <\/span> The combination occurs twice in vv 4-5, underscored by the declaration of Yahweh\u2019s name, and then is used regularly throughout the remainder of Leviticus ( <\/span> 19:19 <\/span> , 37; 25:18; 26:3, 15, 43, 46). <\/span> These are the things that <\/span> Israel <\/span> must do to live, and particularly to live in the land that Yahweh has given them. <\/span> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Again, this is not just about behavior, but about what is established as expected norm. <\/span> <\/span> Israel <\/span> is to \u201cguard\u201d the judgments and statutes of Yahweh. Israel is not <\/span> only to <\/span> do <\/em> what Yahweh requires, but to protect and defend Yahweh\u2019s words as the norms, as the expected walk and life of Israelites. <\/span> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 5) \u201cGuarding statutes and ordinances\u201d is particularly important in situations, like our own, where biblical sexual norms are ignored or attacked. Our responsibility is not only to pursue sexual purity, but to defend publicly God\u2019s public norms of sexual behavior. <\/span> <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fragments from lectures given at the recent Biblical Horizons Summer Conference. The notes that follow examine the opening verses of Leviticus 18. 1) \u201cI am Yahweh\u201d or some equivalent phrase is used 49 (7 x 7) times in Leviticus. The phrase is never used before chapter 11, when the \u201choliness\u201d section begins, and the concerns […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-ot-leviticus"],"yoast_head":"\n