Leviticus as a Literary Tabernacle

The present essay is based on my longer article, “The Two Screens: On Mary Douglas’s Proposal for a Literary Structure to the Book of Leviticus,” Jewish Studies Quarterly 15 (2008), 175-189, available online at my Publications page as Article no. 125.

[2] Lev 4:1, 5:14, 5:20, 6:1, 6:12, 6:17, 7:22, 7:28, 8:1, 12:1, 14:1, 17:1, 18:1, 19:1, 20:1, 21:16, 22:1, 22:17, 22:26, 23:1, 23:9, 23:23, 23:26, 23:33, 24:1, 24:13, 27:1. (There are an additional 11 instances in Exodus—all as complete verses, save Exod 6:29—and an additional 32 instances in Numbers.) In four verses, Leviticus uses the expanded, “And YHWH spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying” (וַיְדַבֵּר יְ-הוָה אֶל־מֹשֶׁה וְאֶל־אַהֲרֹן לֵאמֹר): Lev 13:1; 14:33; 15:1, with a variant in Lev 11:1. (There are six additional instances of this introductory verse in Numbers: 2:1, 4:1, 4:17, 14:26, 16:20, 19:1.) See the convenient chart in Wilfried Warning, Literary Artistry in Leviticus (Biblical Interpretation Series; Leiden: Brill, 1999), 40-41.

 I replicate the passage here, with precise spelling, based on the best manuscript evidence, as presented at Maʾagarim.

This position, however, stands in contrast to the view expressed by R. Ishmael, to wit, that the general aspects of the commandments were delivered at Sinai and the specifics (פרטות) were related in the Tent of Meeting (b. Zevaḥim 115b). Note, however, that R. Ishmael’s approach is immediately followed by that of R. ʿAqiva, which is more consonant with that of the Sifra. For general discussion, see Gershon Galil, [“Leviticus 25:1,”] in Way-yiqraʾ: ʿOlam ha-Tanakh (ed., Moshe Weinfeld; Tel-Aviv: Davidson-Ittay, 1993), 180-181.

See discussion in, Martin I. Lockshin, Rashbam’s Commentary on Leviticus and Numbers (Brown Judaic Studies; Providence: Brown University Press, 2001), 131, n. 1.

For more on this principle of exegesis, see Isaac Gottlieb, “Highlighting Juxtaposition in the Torah,” TheTorah.com (2015).

A digest of the views expressed by ibn Ezra, Abravanel, and Ramban, all of whom delved further into this issue than Rashi and Rashbam, may be found in Jacob Milgrom’s magisterial Leviticus commentary. Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 23-27 (Anchor Bible; New York: Doubleday, 2001), 2151-52.

Mary Douglas, “The Abominations of Leviticus” in Purity and Danger (Routledge Classics 93; London: Routledge, 1966), 51-71.

Mary Douglas, Leviticus as Literature (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999). I consider this book “must reading” for all students of the Bible. All internal citations below refer toLeviticus as Literature. Douglas’ task was to analyze the final form of the book, and thus questions of source criticism or composition history, including the important division of P (1-16) and H (17-27) sections, did not enter into the equation.

Nahum M. Sarna, Exploring Exodus (New York: Schocken, 1986), 203; and Nahum M. Sarna, The JPS Torah Commentary: Exodus (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1991), 105.

Ramban, commentary to Exod 25:1 and the introduction to Numbers.

See also Mary Douglas, “Poetic Structure in Leviticus,” in Pomegranates and Golden Bells: Studies in Biblical, Jewish, and Near Eastern Ritual, Law, and Literature in Honor of Jacob Milgrom (eds., David P. Wright, David Noel Freedman, and Avi Hurvitz; Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1995), 239-256.

Other literary structures for the book have been proposed. See for instance, Moshe Kline, “Structure Is Theology: The Composition of Leviticus,” in Current Issues in Priestly and Related Literature: The Legacy of Jacob Milgrom and Beyond (eds., Roy E. Gane and Ada Taggar-Cohen; Atlanta: SBL Press, 2015), 225-264, available online at http://chaver.com/ > Featured Articles. I find Kline’s approach far too complicated to countenance, however.

Douglas’ chart reads Lev 24:10-22, though the proper reference should be Lev 24:10-23.

By way of example, see Richard Elliott Friedman, Commentary on the Torah (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 2001), 399: 

It is curious that this single story occurs here in a section fifteen chapters long that otherwise simply states the law without any accompanying narratives.

Friedman goes on to offer some potentially cogent solutions to the problem, though for the nonce we remain with Mary Douglas’s proposal.  Friedman’s reference to “a section fifteen chapters long” denotes Leviticus 11-25.  

Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 1-16 (New York: Doubleday, 1991), 588. Milgrom offers a number of suggestions, but not Douglas’ (which had not yet been published). 

See Milgrom, Leviticus 1-16, 590.

Milgrom, Leviticus 1-16, 599.

The phrase also appears as an ending in Lev 7:38, but not as part of an enveloping structure, since that pericope does not open with any mention of Mount Sinai, but rather simply a standard “And YHWH spoke to Moses saying” (Lev 6:1). 

Given the brevity of the narrative in Lev 24:10-23, there is no room for even a single reference to the screen or separation between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies – in contrast to the extended narrative of Leviticus 8-10, which, as noted above, contains a series of references to the first screen. 

Other explanations for the presence of בְּהַר סִינַי, “on Mount Sinai” in Lev 25:1 are valid as well. In my larger article, I also discuss the views of John Hartley, Yohanan Muffs, and Matityahu Tsevat, which I accept alongside the explanation offered here. The latter two scholars in particular focus on aspects of the sabbatical and jubilee laws, which form the core of ch. 25.