The Ways of Holiness
Chapter Five
Leviticus 19: The Ark in the Text Contains the Text in the Ark
Similarities between Leviticus 19 and the Ark of Testimony[1]
According to the structure of the Torah as I have described it, Leviticus 19 is its focal text. Following the parallel between the structure of the Torah and the structure of the camp, it is the equivalent of the ark of testimony. The “testimony” has two aspects. It refers both to the tablets within it, testimony to the events at Mt. Sinai, and to the testimony of God’s continuing revelation to Moses between the cherubs on the ark. There is no mention in the Torah of the ark ever being opened after the tablets of the Decalogue were deposited in it. There was no ceremony or holiday that required opening the ark. It was sealed for all times. Even when Moses, just before his death, wished to teach the Decalogue to the new generation as a sign of the covenant between God and Israel, he did not remove the tablets to show them to the people. They were in fact the most esoteric of all possible texts, read by only one man, Moses.
As the literary parallel to the ark, we are justified in expecting to find a hidden text within Leviticus 19. Finding such a text would in fact contribute significantly to establishing the soundness of the structural theory I have been developing. We could expect such a text to reflect both aspects of the ark of testimony, inner and outer. The content of the literary ark should have some link to the Decalogue as well as to God’s continuing revelation between the cherubs. There are references to all of the ten Words of the Decalogue in Leviticus 19.
Table 11. Parallels Between the Decalogue and Leviticus 19
The Decalogue in Exodus 20 | Parallels in Leviticus 19 |
2 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. | 36 …I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. |
3 You shall have no other gods before me. 4 You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 5 you shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, | 4 Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves molten gods |
7 You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. | 12 And you shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God |
8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy… | 3 …and you shall keep my sabbaths |
12 Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God gives you. | 3 Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father, |
13 You shall not kill. | 16 …and you shall not stand forth against the life of your neighbor |
14 You shall not commit adultery. | 20 If a man lies carnally with a woman who is a slave, betrothed to another man |
15 You shall not steal. | 11 You shall not steal |
16 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. | 11 …nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another. |
17 You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor's. | 17 You shall not hate your brother in your heart |
In the table above I have arranged the Decalogue of Exodus 20 in the left column and parts of Leviticus 19 that can be read as parallels to the Words, in the right column. Some of the Words are repeated almost exactly as they appear in the Decalogue while others have a much weaker link. The connection between the sections has been noted in commentaries of all periods, going back nearly two millennia. What is lacking in these commentaries is a satisfactory explanation for why the Words are referred to in the context of Lev. 19 and why the order seems so random. I have proposed a partial answer, that this chapter represents the ark containing the tablets. This still leaves unanswered the difficulty concerning the apparent disorder of the Words. We could speculate that the tablets containing the Words, which we have found deposited in the ark -our chapter-, are the first set, those that were shattered by Moses. This would explain both the lack of order and the lack of clarity. We are looking at a literary representation of the shattered tablets inside the ark. At the moment, there is no way of verifying this theory. Later, after we analyze the full text of Lev 19, we will see that there are indeed two other tablets “in the ark” which, like the second set, appear to be man-made.
We have summarily satisfied the first requirement of comparing our chapter with the ark and found the Decalogue contained within it. The second requirement, continuing divine revelation, parallel to the revelation from between the cherubs, is met by examining the whole chapter.
Leviticus 19
1 And the Lord said to Moses,2 "Say to all the congregation of the people of Israel, You shall be holy; for I the Lord your God am holy.
3 Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father, and you shall keep my sabbaths: I am the Lord your God.
4 Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves molten gods: I am the Lord your God.
5 "When you offer a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord, you shall offer it so that you may be accepted.
6 It shall be eaten the same day you offer it, or on the morrow; and anything left over until the third day shall be burned with fire.
7 If it is eaten at all on the third day, it is an abomination; it will not be accepted,
8 and every one who eats it shall bear his iniquity, because he has profaned a holy thing of the Lord; and that person shall be cut off from his people.
9 "When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field to its very border, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest.
10 And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God.
11 "You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another.
12 And you shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.
13 "You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired servant shall not remain with you all night until the morning.
14 You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.
15 "You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.
16 You shall not go up and down as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand forth against the life of your neighbor: I am the Lord.
17 "You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason with your neighbor, lest you bear sin because of him.
18 You shall not take vengeance or bear any grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
19 "You shall keep my statutes. You shall not let your cattle breed with a different kind; you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed; nor shall there come upon you a garment of cloth made of two kinds of stuff.
20 "If a man lies carnally with a woman who is a slave, betrothed to another man and not yet ransomed or given her freedom, an inquiry shall be held. They shall not be put to death, because she was not free;
21 but he shall bring a guilt offering for himself to the Lord, to the door of the tent of meeting, a ram for a guilt offering.
22 And the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering before the Lord for his sin which he has committed; and the sin which he has committed shall be forgiven him.
23 "When you come into the land and plant all kinds of trees for food, then you shall count their fruit as forbidden; three years it shall be forbidden to you, it must not be eaten.
24 And in the fourth year all their fruit shall be holy, an offering of praise to the Lord.
25 But in the fifth year you may eat of their fruit, that they may yield more richly for you: I am the Lord your God.
26 "You shall not eat any flesh with the blood in it. You shall not practice augury or witchcraft.
27 You shall not round off the hair on your temples or mar the edges of your beard.
28 You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh on account of the dead or tattoo any marks upon you: I am the Lord.
29 "Do not profane your daughter by making her a harlot, lest the land fall into harlotry and the land become full of wickedness.
30 You shall keep my sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.
31 "Do not turn to mediums or wizards; do not seek them out, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God.
32 "You shall rise up before the hoary head, and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.
33 "When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong.
34 The stranger who sojourns with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
35 "You shall do no wrong in judgment, in measures of length or weight or quantity.
36 You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.
37 And you shall observe all my statutes and all my ordinances, and do them: I am the Lord.
I have emphasized the most striking linguistic element of the text, sixteen repetitions of the phrase “I am the Lord.” Actually, only fifteen appear emphasized because the first appearance of the Hebrew phrase, ani yhvh, in verse 2, has been translated “I the Lord.” (I will speak about this anomaly later.) Nowhere else in the Torah does God speak so frequently in the first person, and in such a formulized revelation. The frequency of the phrase satisfies our expectations regarding God’s continual revelation to Moses from between the cherubs of the ark. If this chapter does represent the ark, then that could explain the unusual repeated revelation in the form “I am the Lord.” We will see that this phrase is in fact a twofold revelation. Not only does it announce God’s particular concern with the content of this chapter, but it also provides the key for revealing the text hidden “within the ark.” In order to see the second tablets, we must clarify the literary function of God’s repeated self-revelation, “I am the Lord.” It is a formula that divides the chapter into 15 pericopes. This provides a natural transition to the first part of the analysis proper, determining the parts of the text.
15 Pericopes[2]
2. 3 Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father, and you shall keep my sabbaths: I am the Lord your God.
3. 4 Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves molten gods: I am the Lord your God.
4. 5 "When you offer a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord, you shall offer it so that you may be accepted.
6 It shall be eaten the same day you offer it, or on the morrow; and anything left over until the third day shall be burned with fire.
7 If it is eaten at all on the third day, it is an abomination; it will not be accepted,
8 and every one who eats it shall bear his iniquity, because he has profaned a holy thing of the Lord; and that person shall be cut off from his people.
9 "When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field to its very border, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest.
10 And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God.
5. 11 "You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another.
12 And you shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.
6. 13 "You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired servant shall not remain with you all night until the morning.
14 You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.
7. 15 "You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.
16 You shall not go up and down as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand forth against the life of your neighbor: I am the Lord.
8. 17 "You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason with your neighbor, lest you bear sin because of him.
18 You shall not take vengeance or bear any grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
9. 19 "You shall keep my statutes. You shall not let your cattle breed with a different kind; you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed; nor shall there come upon you a garment of cloth made of two kinds of stuff.
20 "If a man lies carnally with a woman who is a slave, betrothed to another man and not yet ransomed or given her freedom, an inquiry shall be held. They shall not be put to death, because she was not free;
21 but he shall bring a guilt offering for himself to the Lord, to the door of the tent of meeting, a ram for a guilt offering.
22 And the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering before the Lord for his sin which he has committed; and the sin which he has committed shall be forgiven him.
23 "When you come into the land and plant all kinds of trees for food, then you shall count their fruit as forbidden; three years it shall be forbidden to you, it must not be eaten.
24 And in the fourth year all their fruit shall be holy, an offering of praise to the Lord.
25 But in the fifth year you may eat of their fruit, that they may yield more richly for you: I am the Lord your God.
10. 26 "You shall not eat any flesh with the blood in it. You shall not practice augury or witchcraft.
27 You shall not round off the hair on your temples or mar the edges of your beard.
28 You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh on account of the dead or tattoo any marks upon you: I am the Lord.
11. 29 "Do not profane your daughter by making her a harlot, lest the land fall into harlotry and the land become full of wickedness.
30 You shall keep my sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.
12. 31 "Do not turn to mediums or wizards; do not seek them out, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God.
13. 32 "You shall rise up before the hoary head, and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.
14. 33 "When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong.
34 The stranger who sojourns with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
15. 35 "You shall do no wrong in judgment, in measures of length or weight or quantity.
36 You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.
37 And you shall observe all my statutes and all my ordinances, and do them: I am the Lord.
I have divided the text according to the phrase that closes each pericope, “I am the Lord” and numbered them from 1-15. All of the pericopes except the first are complex, including within them more than one law. In some of them there is no clear connection between the individual laws. Nevertheless, the clarity of the formal divisions, created by God’s personal intervention, as it were, demands that we continue to look for order in the apparent chaos. In roughly half the 15 pericopes, the phrase “I am the Lord” ends with the additional words “your God.” This addition allows us to further subdivide the text structurally. The first four pericopes end with the extended form ‘”I am the Lord your God.” The next four pericopes end with the shorter form. Let us compare the two blocks of four pericopes each. I will arrange them in two parallel columns labeled L, for left, and R for right. In L I will place pericopes 1-4 and in R 5-8. In order to maintain a consistent form for labeling the parts of various structures we will be examining, I will begin marking each separate block of text within a column with letters, starting with A. Thus the first four pericopes are marked L, A-D and the next four R, A-D
Two Columns of Four Pericopes Each
Table 12. The First Eight Pericopes Divided by Closing Formula
L A 1 And the Lord said to Moses | R A 11 You shall not steal nor deal falsely |
I have arranged the first eight pericopes in parallel columns, the first four in the left column, L, and the next four in the right column, R, according to the order of their appearance in the text. All four in column L end “I am the Lord your God” while the four in R end with the shorter formula “I am the Lord.” It is immediately apparent that we are heading in the right direction. Each column has a common subject, in addition to its common formula, that connects its four pericopes and distinguishes it from the parallel column. This is the first real evidence that the closing formula is a literary device used to organize the laws in groups. The initial division of the text into pericopes did not yield any clear sign of its function. Now however, we can begin to see that the literary device is indeed connected to the content of the pericopes.
The main distinction between the columns is that L is concerned with God as opposed to the social concern of R. (When speaking of the content of the pericopes from here on, I will not consider the closure formula, the literary device, as part of the content, except in LA. Therefore if the only reference to God in a given pericope is in the closure phrase, “I am the Lord,” I will say that the pericope has no direct reference to God). Each of the four parts of L has a religious component. Similarly, each part of R contains laws regulating relations between people. However, there are additional components, which must also be taken into account. The gleanings in LD are for the sake of the poor, who are also mentioned in RC. Similarly, “You shall fear your God” in RB seems out of place. Nevertheless, these exceptions do not make the two columns more similar, but rather further define the difference between them.
The Exception Sharpens the Rule
The two significant exceptions to the rule of “religious” in L are leaving the gleanings and reverence of parents. Both of these are limited private acts. In regard to the gleanings, the text says that they must be left for the poor, not that they be given to the poor. So, in fact, there are no actions in L that extend past the circle of the family, and no direct contact with an “other” besides parents. This observation sharpens the distinction between the columns. The subject of L at first appears to be “religious acts,” or something of the sort. After taking into account the apparent exceptions, we can modify the subject of the column to “private acts” as opposed to the civil concerns of R. This is reinforced by the exceptions in R. There are two references to God in column R: A, “you shall not swear by my name falsely”; B, “you shall fear your God”. Neither of these mentions rituals or worship. They both relate to God as the ultimate guarantor of social order. So despite the apparent exceptions, we can say that the columns do indeed differ from each other in content and demonstrate two opposite fields of experience, private and public. This is the beginning of an entirely new reading of the text.
The Columns Reveal A Non-Linear Text
We are looking at a non-linear text. That means we cannot fully understand what is written in it by means of a traditional verse-by-verse reading. Some shades of meaning will be lost. We must read the blocks of text, such as the pericopes and the columns above, as units of meaning. This is what makes it possible to see a “text within the text.” The normal or “outer” text presents each law as an independent unit. At most, we may take into account the context of what comes immediately before and after a specific law for determining a frame of reference. However, once we have established formal subdivisions within the text, here within a single divine speech, we have new contexts within which to examine the elements. For example, each pericope of columns L and R has a shade of meaning that is derived from being in one of the columns rather than the other. Conversely, it serves a function in painting the picture of the column. This level of meaning is virtually invisible in a linear reading. The analysis that we are just beginning is directed at deriving as much meaning as possible from the nonlinear text. I will give an example now of “information” in the text which is meaningless in the linear context, while being fraught with significance in the nonlinear context.
Additional Meaning in the Non-Linear Reading
We have already noted that the main thrust of R is civil law. A number of different relational expressions, such as “your neighbor,” “your brother” and “your people” are used to indicate that we are dealing with civil law. The Hebrew is even richer than the English in this respect because it includes two different terms that are both translated “neighbor,” amit and reyah. In RA amit has been translated “another.” It is the only expression of this class in RA. In RB there are two such expressions “your neighbor”(reyah) and “a hired servant.” The third element includes three: “your neighbor”(amit), “your people,” “your neighbor”(reyah). The forth element contains four: “your brother,” “your neighbor”(amit), “your people,” and “your neighbor”(reyah). If we were reading the text linearly, this information would be essentially meaningless. However, once we have determined that the four pericopes taken together form a unit of text, the very same information takes on great significance. We can now relate the number of relational expressions in a pericope to its place in the list. We can then see that the elements are in effect numbered internally from one to four by the number of times the key expressions, which determine the character of the column, appear.
A Literary Watershed
This observation of “internal numbering” is a literary watershed in reading the non-linear text. It verifies our previous remarks regarding the general distinction between the columns while leading us to a new area of investigation, the sequence of the elements within the columns. The internal numbering of the elements of R hints that there is yet more information to be gleaned by examining the order of the elements. We will see that the elements are ordered in such a manner as to create a conceptual flow within the columns. I refer to this stage of the analysis as the watershed because it takes us from observing thematically blocked groups of laws to a document of such literary complexity that it will force us to seek an entirely new definition for the type of text we are reading.
More Meaning in the Columns
As indicated by the internal numbering, the four components of each column are ordered amongst themselves. The orderings point to two different processes. Column L begins by comparing “all the congregation of the people of Israel” to God, indicating that they are similar enough for the people to share God’s quality of holiness. The congregation is like God. The column ends in D with sacrifices that point to the gulf between God and man, and specifically man’s potential for defiling God’s holiness, “(he) shall bear his iniquity because he has profaned a holy thing of the Lord.” The column opens with a call to holiness and ends with profaning the holy. There is an implied movement of drawing away from God within the column.
In R we see an opposite movement, a drawing closer to other people. It begins with a set of antisocial behaviors: “You shall not steal nor deal falsely nor lie to one another.” By the end we find ourselves commanded “love your neighbor as yourself.” The “other” has become identified with us. This is similar to the position at the beginning of L where God identifies with the congregation. The two columns thus have opposite processes within them: distancing from the Lord in L and drawing closer to one’s fellow in R. The opposite directions are emphasized by a link between the end of L, 1LD “he has profaned a holy thing of the Lord” and the beginning of R, 1RA “profane the name of your God.” The beginning of L, 1LA and the end of R, 1RD are also similar because the subject of each pericope is identified with an other, God with man in 1LA and man with his neighbor in 1RD. Each column is in effect the inverse of the facing column. This is not of course a full analysis, but rather an outline for such an analysis. It is however sufficient to demonstrate the potential of this line of investigation.
The Second Tablets Revealed
If discovering “internal numbering” within the text was a watershed, observing parallel but opposing progressions is a quantum leap. It reveals a degree of literary organization and sophistication totally unexpected in an apparent collection of laws. We have already gathered enough evidence to demonstrate that Lev 19 contains much more information than is available to the reader who reads it as a linear text. All of our observations concerning the relationship of the first four pericopes to the next four are dependent upon a careful reading of the non-linear aspects of the text. First we divided it into pericopes defined by “I am the Lord.” We then classified the pericopes by variations in the closing phrase. The inner text began to appear when the pericopes were organized in a table. Consider the table carefully. What is a two columned table if not a pair of Biblical “tablets”?! We have in fact begun deciphering the tablets hidden in the ark. We have created these tablets in our reading, as surely as Moses was commanded to create the second tablets with his own hands. The fragments we found of the first tablets were just a hint that there are other tablets to be found here. As I write these words, having gone several steps ahead in deciphering the tablets, I am still filled with the excitement and wonder of when I first realized what I had found. As unlikely as it may seem, we are confronted with a here-to-for unknown text at the very heart of the Torah, the second tablets.
[1] The ark is referred to in the Torah both as “the ark of the covenant,” referring to it as the receptacle for the tablets of the covenant, and as “the ark of testimony.” The latter appears in Exodus 25:22. This is where the Lord describes to Moses how to build the tabernacle and its vessels. After describing the ark, including its cover and the cherubs on the cover, the Lord tells Moses that He will speak to him in the future from between the cherubs on the “ark of testimony.” It is clear then that the two names refer to two different functions.
[2] Pericope
[pe-RICK-o-pee]
Any selection extracted from a larger text for special consideration.