Bible Dyke Deep Dive: Leviticus

Reclaiming the Garden

In this episode, we get down and dirty and nerdy with the ancient lawbook of Leviticus. We break down the arbitrary categories we were given to interpret the laws of the Hebrew Bible (the moral law vs. the ceremonial law; even if this concept was applied, the rule prohibiting mixed fabrics is in a section of mostly “moral laws”), and we discuss Leviticus’ authorship (not Moses lol, he didn’t have the time). We also consider the question that Christians have been debating from the very beginning (and in fact we see this debate played out in several books of the New Testament): As Christians, which parts of the law do we follow, and which ones are specific to the culture of the time? Paul had to deal with a lot of people getting mad at the radical message of grace that he and apostles like Peter preached: do not call unclean what God has made clean.

We also break down two of the most often cited “clobber passages'' used to condemn LGBTQ+ people, Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13. These verses are likely about temple prostitution between men or between an adult man and a boy. And to anyone who would tell us that accepting LGBTQ+ people will lead to our society accepting other forms of sex prohibited in Leviticus (bestiality, incest), we say: you’re thinking about bestiality an awful lot, aren’t you? Also, sex or romantic relationships between two consenting adults is a completely different thing.

Plus, there is so much more to Leviticus than those two clobber verses! Within parts of it, there are beautiful models for how to love our neighbors (especially refugees and those in need) and the earth, and it is a shame that this wisdom is so often missed when we focus on just a few verses (or get weirded out by all the details about animal sacrifice at the beginning of the book).

Resources:

Wikipedia page for Leviticus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Leviticus

Maybe the whole book of Leviticus was just laws for priests? https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/2017-05-13/ty-article/revisiting-leviticus-can-we-eat-bacon-now/0000017f-f592-d044-adff-f7fb9e950000

What do the words abomination and unclean mean? | Rabbi Daniel Lapin

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