Leviticus - Discussion Questions

1. After reading sections of Leviticus, how would you interpret the concept of "holiness"[kdsh]?

Note the command to be holy as God is holy: "Be Holy because I , YHWH your god am holy." (19:2; 20:7, 26; 21:6, 8)

2. Read Chapter 11 on the food laws? Of the three explanations that Bandstra discusses:

a. Hygiene or medical

b. cultic or association with non-Israelite religions

c. structuralist as with Mary Douglas (normal/abnormal in terms of priestly view of creation)

and a view he doesn’t mention d. symbolic or allegorical [the pig represents sloth]

which do you think best interprets the food laws with their notions of clean and unclean? Why? Or, would you combine some of the theories?

[Note the Hebrew terms: Holy (kodesh), clean or normal (tahor), and unclean or abnormal (tame’]

3. Read Leviticus 16 which discusses the Day of Atonement. How does the Day of Atonement fit into the overall scheme of holiness developed by the Book of Leviticus?  What aspects of this chapter did you find interesting or puzzling?   For information on the modern Day of Attonement: 

4. Read Lev. 19. What themes do you find in this first chapter of the Holiness Code?  What laws struck you as interesting?  Why?   Why are laws moderns might consider "ritual' laws and "ethical" laws found here side by side?

5.  Read Lev 25.  How do the regulations concerning the Sabbath Year and Jubilee reflect a particular understanding of the land?

Numbers - Discussion Questions

1.  What occurrences on the journey from Sinai echo occurrences before Sinai?  What changes?

2.  Read about the episode of Balaam in Numbers 22-24.  What elements of the story strike you as significant?  Why?

3.  Read about Baal-Peor and Phineas in Numbers 25.  What elements of the story strike you as significant?  Why?