theophiliacs

Part of an ongoing series on Leviticus and Law in Post-Culture War America.

"Hoarfrost" Camille Pissarro, 1873

“The question of human limits, of the proper definition and place of human beings within the order of Creation, finally rests upon our attitude toward our biological existence, the life of the body in this world. What value and respect do we give to our bodies? What uses do we have for them? What relation do we see, if any, between body and mind, or body and soul? What connections or responsibilities do we maintain between our bodies and the earth?”

- Wendell Berry, “The Body and the Earth“

More than any other book, Leviticus is often treated as one picks a strawberry bush: carefully fingering through the leaves, the reader searches out the fruit that seem to him or her ripe and pleasant while avoiding those spoiled or malformed. Each reader—like each picker—finishes the day with a different basket, a collection made more or less by personal preference rather than by any particular system. Such haphazard treatment has resulted in Leviticus—especially in twentieth century North America—being one of the most quoted yet least read biblical texts in public moral discourse.

My posts will survey creational themes in one of the most contentious sections of Leviticus, the Holiness Code (chps 17-26). These posts are not meant as an overly simplistic scheme, but an exploration into the ethics of the community that held these notoriously troublesome texts together. Of course, a degree of tension should be expected between our worldview and scriptures’—such vulnerability is what makes new insight possible. Thus it is my hope that a thematic approach will shake loose fresh takes on what this ancient literature meant—and for the person of faith—what it means.

The theme of Creation is one that permeates the Pentateuch, and the law texts in particular. It is not enough to simply record the story of creation—the authors evoke it in the phrasing of their poetry, in the clever crafting of parallel texts to tell different stories with the same words and in the underlying worldviews that feed the behaviors of ancestors and enemies. The themes are especially prevalent in the tabernacle passages (Ex. 25-31) depicted in seven divine speeches designed to evoke the seven days of creation, both ending with the Sabbath. The verbal blueprints of the tabernacle:

“[…] underscore the depiction of the sanctuary as a world, that is, an ordered supportive, and obedient environment, and the depiction of the world as a sanctuary, that is, a place in which the reign of God is visible and unchallenged, and his holiness is palpable, unthreatened, and pervasive.”

- Jon Levenson, “Creation and the Persistence of Evil“

It is important for me to at least highlight this creational theme before moving into sex, dirt, food, blood and all the other titillating topics that characterize this section of Leviticus. Without bearing in mind this ancient but cohesive worldview, the plethora of prohibitions in the Law will inevitably feel heartless and arbitrary.

We can take comfort too, knowing that our ancestors in faith—ancient and distant though they are—believed that:

…vulnerable reflection and humble maintenance of these texts somehow made the holy presence of God possible amongst his people—and by extension, within creation itself.