Leviticus As Literature

by Douglas, Mary

• ISBN13: 9780198150923
• ISBN10: 019815092X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-02-03
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Leviticus as Literature is the first full-scale attempt to present theBook of Leviticus as more than a collection of religious legalities, and toreview the whole book from an anthropological perspective, showing howcontemporary Jews existed as real people. This new reading challengesestablished prejudices against the priestly work and uncovers an archaicrhetorical style based on analogy and practical examples. First, Leviticus is aliterary masterpiece elaborately constructed upon matching paradigms. Its ownstructure is shown to be a projection of the desert tabernacle. Second, itsphilosophy of God's creation is much closer to the prophets and psalms than hasbeen supposed. Old puzzles about the forbidden animals and the defilement of sexand food dissolve in the context of God's justice and his compassion for allliving beings. Confronting several traditions of Bible criticism, Mary Douglasargues that Leviticus is not the narrow theology of a crabbed, inward-turning,priestly culture but a major philosophical achievement.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	xvi
List of Tables	xvii
List of Abbreviations	xviii
The Ancient Religion	1	(12)
Chronology and the Writing	6	(2)
Reconstructing the Primordial Religion	8	(5)
Two Styles of Thought	13	(28)
Analogical versus Rational-Instrumental Thinking	15	(5)
From Analogic to Dialogic	20	(6)
Social Basis of the Greek Breakthrough	26	(3)
Greek and Chinese Science	29	(4)
Imperatives in Leviticus	33	(8)
Two Styles of Writing	41	(25)
The Language of Feeling	41	(12)
Containing and Covering	53	(6)
Mount Sinai	59	(7)
Mountain, Tabernacle, Body in Leviticus 1-7	66	(21)
Logic of the Body	67	(4)
Forbidden Items	71	(5)
Entrails and Legs	76	(3)
The Inmost Being	79	(2)
The Doctrine of Remainders	81	(6)
The Totally Reformed Religion	87	(22)
Deuteronomy and Leviticus	88	(2)
The Central Sanctuary	90	(8)
No Cult of the Dead	98	(6)
Deuteronomy's Legislation	104	(5)
Oracles Support Divine Justice	109	(25)
Divination and Sacrifice	110	(2)
Knowing When to Make a Private Sacrifice	112	(4)
Plausibility of Oracles	116	(3)
Priestly Divination	119	(5)
Inadvertent Sin	124	(4)
Sacrilege	128	(3)
Juridical Uses of the Oath	131	(3)
Land Animals, Pure and Impure	134	(18)
Land Animals Under the Covenant	134	(3)
The Two Texts	137	(5)
Interpretations of Uncleanness/Impurity	142	(7)
Sacred Contagion	149	(3)
Other Living Beings	152	(24)
God's Care for his Creation	157	(2)
Translating Swarming as Teeming	159	(4)
Leaven and Honey as Teeming Life	163	(3)
Translating Abomination	166	(3)
Creatures that Swarm in the Air	169	(2)
Competition in the Holiness Stakes	171	(4)
Conclusion	175	(1)
Atonement for Sick Bodies	176	(19)
Loss of Vital Fluids	178	(4)
Leprosy	182	(3)
Reproductive Disorders	185	(10)
The Two Screens	195	(23)
Leviticus a Projection of the Tabernacle	195	(5)
Fire for Fire, Burning for Burning	200	(5)
The Curser Cursed	205	(7)
Scandal of Talion	212	(3)
The Language of Oracles	215	(3)
Inside the House/Book of God	218	(23)
Macro markers	219	(3)
The Outer Court	222	(5)
The Sanctuary	227	(4)
Atonement	231	(3)
Pedimental Composition	234	(7)
Inside the Holy of Holies	241	(12)
The Great Proclamation of Liberty	241	(3)
Reading Leviticus through Genesis: Covering	244	(3)
Reading Scapegoat and Scapebird through Genesis	247	(6)
References	253	(12)
Index of Bible References	265	(6)
General Index	271