Levticus (The Old Testament Library)

Like the other volumes in The Old Testament Library, this one makes available to English-speaking students a work hitherto accessible only in a foreign language - in this case one of the recent and valued commentaries in the series Das Alte Testament Deutsch. It is doubly welcome, for, as Professor Noth says, "The book of Leviticus is one of the little-red books of the Old Testament," and, consequently, one that is seldom commented upon.Following the format of the other commentaries in The Old Testament Library, this volume opens with an introduction surveying the name and structure of Leviticus, its literary and textual history, and its contents. Professor Noth then comments on the entire book of Leviticus, paragraph by paragraph, dividing his commentary into six parts: Instructions for Sacrifice, The Beginning of Cultic Worship at Sinai, "Cleanness" Regulations, The Great Cleansing Ritual, The Law of Holiness, and An Appendix on Dedicatory Gifts. This translation provides, with small modifications, the text of the Revised Standard Version.In hisd role as literary analyst, Professor Noth shows how Leviticus is "a book that has come into existence in successive stages." The narrative portions (Chs. 8 to 10) are considered to be part of the "priestly document" (P). The nonnarrative parts are thought to belong to the period of the end of the Jewish state and the beginning of the exile and subsequently fitted into the narrative framework of P.