Introduction.
1. SUBJECT OF THE BOOK
LEVITICUS forms the center and nucleus of the five books of Moses. Closely attached to it are the two Books of Exodus and Numbers, and outside of them, on either side, stand Genesis and Deuteronomy. The subject of the Book of Leviticus is the Sinaitic legislation, from the time that the tabernacle was erected. It does not, however, comprise the whole of that legislation. There is an overflow of it into the Book of Numbers, which thus contains the laws on the Levites and their service (Numbers 1:49-4; Numbers 3:5-4, Numbers 3:40-4; Numbers 4:1; Numbers 8:5-4); on the order in which the tribes were to encamp (Numbers 2:1); on the removal of the unclean from the camp (Numbers 5:2); on the trial of jealousy (Numbers 5:11-4); on the Nazarites (Numbers 6:1); on the form of blessing the people (Numbers 6:23-4); on the second month's Passover (Numbers 9:6-4); on the silver trumpets (Numbers 10:1); besides a repetition of the laws on restitution (Numbers 5:6-4); on the lighting of the lamps (Numbers 8:2); on the Passover (Numbers 9:1). With these exceptions, the Book of Leviticus contains the whole of the legislation delivered in the district of Mount Sinai, during the month and twenty days which elapsed between the setting up of the tabernacle on the first day of the second year after quitting Egypt, and the commencement of the march from Sinai on the twentieth day of the second month of the same year. But while this was the whole of the Sinaitic legislation "out of the tabernacle," there were also laws given on Mount Sinai itself during the last nine months of the first year of the march from Egypt, which are recounted in Exodus 19-40. While, therefore, Leviticus is very closely connected with the early part of Numbers on one side, it is very closely connected with the latter part of Exodus on the other.
ANALYSIS OF ITS CONTENTS.
The Book naturally falls into five divisions. The first part is on sacrifice; the second part records the establishment of an hereditary priesthood; the third deals with the question of uncleanness, ceremonial and moral; the fourth enumerates the holy days and seasons. The book ends with a fifth part, consisting of an exhortation to obedience, and there is attached to it an appendix on vows. The following is a more detailed sketch of the contents.
§ 1. Sacrifice.
A question is often asked whether the idea underlying Jewish sacrifice is
(1) that of a gift to God, the Giver of all good things, by man, the grateful receiver of his gifts; or
(2) that of appeasing and satisfying the justice of an averted Deity; or
(3) that of symbolically manifesting full submission to his will; or
(4) that of exhibiting a sense of union between God and his people. And this question cannot be answered until the different sacrifices have been distinguished from one another. For each of these ideas is represented by one or other of the sacrifices — the first by the meat offering, the second by the sin offering and trespass offering, the third by the burnt offering, the fourth by the peace offering. If the question be, Which of these was the primary idea of Hebrew sacrifice? we may probably say that it was that of symbolical self-surrender or submission in token of perfect loyalty of heart; for the burnt sacrifice, with which the meat offering is essentially allied appears to have been the most ancient of the sacrifices; and this is the thought embodied in the combined burnt and meat offering. But while this is the special idea of the burnt sacrifice, it is not the only idea of it. It contains within itself in a minor degree the ideas of atonement (Leviticus 1:4) and of peace (Leviticus 1:9, Leviticus 1:13, Leviticus 1:17). Thus it is the most complex as well as the oldest form of sacrifice. If we had no historical information to guide us (as we have Genesis 4:4), we might reasonably argue from this very complexity to the greater antiquity of the burnt and meat offerings. Symbolism first embodies a large idea in an institution, and it then distinguishes the institution into different species or parts in order to represent as a primary notion one or other of the ideas only secondarily expressed or suggested in the original institution. The sin and trespass offerings, therefore, would naturally spring, or, we may say, be divided off, from the burnt and meat offerings, when men wanted to accentuate the idea of the necessity of reconciliation and atonement; and the peace offering, when they wished to express the joy felt by those who were conscious that their reconciliation had been effected.
The sacrifice of Cain and Abel appears to have been a thanksgiving offering of the firstfruits of the produce of the land and of the cattle, presented to the Lord as a token of recognition of him as the Lord and Giver of all. It is called by the name of minchah — a word afterwards confined in its signification to the meat offering — and it partook of the character of the meat offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offering (Genesis 4:3, Genesis 4:4). Noah's sacrifices were burnt offerings (Genesis 8:20); and this was the general character of subsequent offerings, though something of the nature of peace offerings is indicated by Moses when he distinguishes "sacrifices" from "burnt offerings," in addressing Pharaoh before the departure of the Israelites from Egypt (Exodus 10:25). The full idea of sacrifice, contained implicitly in the previous sacrifices, was first developed and exhibited in an explicit form by the Levitical regulations and institutions, which distinguish burnt offerings, meat offerings, peace offerings, sin offerings, and trespass offerings; and the special significations of these several sacrifices have to be combined once more, in order to arrive at the original, but at first less clearly defined, notion of the institution, and to constitute an adequate type of that which was the one Antitype of them all.
The typical character of sacrifices must not be confounded with their symbolical character. While they symbolize the need of reconciliation (sin and trespass offerings), of loyal submission (burnt and meat offerings), and of peace (peace offering), they are the type of the one Sacrifice of Christ, in which perfect submission was yielded (burnt offering) and exhibited (meat offering) by man to God; by which reconciliation between God and man were wrought by means of atonement (sin offering) and satisfaction (trespass offering); and through which the peace effected between God and man was set forth (peace offering). (See Notes and Homiletics on chapters 1-7.)
The Section, or Part, on sacrifice, consists of chapters 1-7.
Leviticus 1 contains the law of the burnt offering.
Leviticus 2 contains the law of the meat offering.
Leviticus 3 contains the law of the peace offering.
Leviticus 4:1 contains the law of the sin offering.
Leviticus 5:14-35; Leviticus 6:1 contains the law of the trespass offering.
The following chapter and a half contain more definite instructions as to the ritual of the sacrifices, addressed particularly to the priests, namely —
Leviticus 6:8-3. The ritual of the burnt offering.
Leviticus 6:14-3. The ritual of the meat offering, and in particular of the priests' meat offering at their consecration.
Leviticus 6:24-3. The ritual of the sin offering.
Leviticus 7:1. The ritual of the trespass offering.
Leviticus 7:11-3, Leviticus 7:28-3. The ritual of the peace offering.
Leviticus 7:22-3 contain a prohibition of eating the fat and the blood.
Leviticus 7:35-3 form the conclusion of Part I.
§ 2. Priesthood.
The primary idea of a priest is that of a man who performs some function in behalf of men towards God which would not be equally acceptable by God if performed by themselves, and through whom God bestows graces upon men. The first priests were the heads of a family, as Noah; then the heads of a tribe, as Abraham; then the heads of a combination of tribes or of a nation, such as Jethro (Exodus 2:16), Melehizedek (Genesis 14:18), Balak (Numbers 22:40). In many countries this combination of the highest secular and ecclesiastical office continued to be maintained — for example, in Egypt; but among the Israelites a sharp line of separation between them was drawn by the appointment of Aaron and his sons to the priesthood.
Priesthood and sacrifice are not originally correlative. A man who acts in behalf of others towards God, whether by making known to him their wants or interceding for them, is thereby a priest; and again, a man who acts in behalf of God towards man, by declaring to them his will and conveying to them his blessing, is thereby a priest. Sacrifice being one means, and at a particular time the chief means, of "calling upon" or approaching God and of receiving graces at his hands, it naturally fell to the priest to perform it as one of his functions, and by degrees it came to be regarded as his special function, and yet never in so exclusive a manner as to shut out the functions of benediction and intercession. The man through whose action, sacramental or otherwise, God's graces are derived to man, and man's needs are presented to God, is, by that action, a priest of God. To suppose that sacrifice, and in particular the sacrifice of animals, is necessary for either one or the other of the priestly functions, is to narrow the idea of priesthood in an unjustifiable manner.
When so complex a system as that of the Levitical sacrifices had been instituted, the appointment of an hereditary priesthood became necessary. And this appointment took away from the heads of families and the tribe leaders the old priestly rights which up to that time they had maintained, and which we see to have been exercised by Moses. We cannot doubt that this abolition of their ancient privileges must have been resented by many of the elder generation, and we find that it was necessary to enforce the new discipline by a strict injunction, forbidding sacrifices to be offered elsewhere than in the court of the tabernacle, and by other hands than those of the hereditary priesthood (see Notes and Homiletics on chapters 8-10, and 18). The Section, or Part, on the priesthood consists of chapters 8-10.
Leviticus 8 contains the ceremonies of the consecration of Aaron and his sons.
Leviticus 9 recounts their first priestly offerings and benediction.
Leviticus 10 contains the account of the death of Nadab and Abihu, and the law against drinking wine while ministering to the Lord.
These three chapters constitute Part II.
§ 3. Uncleanness and its Removal.
Offenses are of two kinds, ceremonial and moral; the former must be purged by purifying rites, the latter by punishment. A ceremonial offense is committed by incurring legal uncleanness, and this is done
(1) by eating unclean food or touching unclean bodies (Leviticus 11),
(2) by childbirth (Leviticus 12),
(3) by leprosy (Leviticus 13:14),
(4) by issues (Leviticus 15); whoever offended in any of these ways had to purge his offense — in light cases by washing, in grave cases by sacrifice.
Moral offenses are committed by transgressing God's moral law, whether written on the human heart or in his Law. The list of these offenses commences with an enumeration of unlawful marriages and lusts (chapter 18), to which are added other sins and crimes (chapter 19). They must not be allowed to go unpunished; else they bring the wrath of God upon the nation. The penalties differ according to the heinousness of the offense, but if they are not exacted, the guilt passes to the community. Yet a certain concession to human frailty is allowed. Moral offenses differ in their character, according as they are committed with a determinate resolution to offend, or have arisen from inadvertence or moral weakness. It is for the former class that punishment, either at the hands of man or of God, is a necessity. The latter are regarded more leniently, and may be atoned for by a trespass offering, after the wrong inflicted by them on others has been compensated.
But after every purification for ceremonial and inadvertent moral faults has been made, and all penalties for presumptuous sins and crimes have been duly exacted, there will remain a residue of unatoned-for evil, and for the removal of this the ceremonial of the great Day of Atonement is instituted (see Notes and Homiletics on chapters 11-22).
The Section, or Part, on uncleanness and its "putting away," contained in chapters 11-22, consists of four divisions: chapters 11-15; chapters 16, 17; chapters 18-20; and chapters 21, 22. The first division has to do with ceremonial uncleanness, arising from four specified causes, and its purification; the second with general uncleanness and its purification on the Day of Atonement; the third with moral uncleanness and its punishment; the fourth with the ceremonial and moral uncleanness of priests, and their physical disqualifications.
First division: Chapter 11. Uncleanness derived from eating or touching unclean flesh, whether of beasts, fishes, birds, insects, or vermin. Chapter 12. Uncleanness derived from the concomitants of childbirth, and its purification. Chapters 13, 14. Uncleanness accruing from leprosy to men, clothes, and houses, and its purification. Chapter 15. Uncleanness derived from various issues of the body, and its purification.
Second division: Chapter 16. General uncleanness of the congregation and of the tabernacle, and its purification by the ceremonies of the Day of Atonement. Chapter 17. Corollary to all the preceding part of the book. That sacrifices (chapters 1-8), which are the means of purification (chapters 11-16), are, since the institution of the hereditary priesthood (chapters 8-10), to be only offered at the door of the tabernacle.
Third division: Chapter 18. Moral uncleanness connected with marriage forbidden. Chapter 19. Other moral uncleanness forbidden. Chapter 20. Penalties for moral uncleanness, and exhortation to holiness. Fourth division: Chapters 21, 22:1-16. Ceremonial and moral cleanness required in an extra degree in priests, and freedom from physical blemish. Chapter 22:17-33. Freedom from blemish and from imperfection required in sacrifices.
These chapters constitute Part III.
§ 4. Holy Days and Seasons.
The weekly holy day was the sabbath. The injunction to observe it was coeval with the origin of mankind. It kept in mind the rest of God afar his creative work, and foreshadowed the rest of Christ after his redeeming work. It anticipated the rest of his people in Canaan, and the further rest of the Christian dispensation, and the still further rest of paradise.
The monthly holy days were the new moons on the first day of each month; among which the new moon of the seventh month held a sevenfold sanctity, and was also observed as the New Year's Day of the civil year, being sometimes inexactly called the Feast of Trumpets.
The yearly holy days began in the first month with the festival of the Passover, to which was closely attached that of Unleavened Bread. These two festivals, united into one, represented historically the fact of Israel's deliverance from the bondage of Egypt, and typically they represented the future deliverance of the spiritual Israel from the bondage of sin, both at the first and at the second coming of Christ. The lamb, the exhibition of whose blood delivered from destruction, was a type of Christ. The festival served also as the spring harvest feast of the year.
The Feast of Pentecost, or the Feast of Weeks, observed seven weeks after the Passover, was the second or summer harvest festival. It might possibly have commemorated the gift of the Law at Sinai: it certainly was the day on which was instituted the new Law in Jerusalem (Acts 2.).
The fast of the Day of Atonement, observed on the tenth day of the seventh month, symbolically represented the removal of the sins of the world by Christ, at once the Sacrifice for sin offered on the cross (the sacrificed goat), and the Deliverer from the consciousness of the power of sin (the scapegoat). It also typified the entry of Christ into heaven in the character of our Great High Priest, with the virtue of his blood of Atonement, there to abide as the prevailing Mediator and Intercessor for his people.
The Feast of Tabernacles, celebrated for a week beginning on the fifteenth clay of the seventh month, was the last and most joyous harvest-home festival of the year. Historically, it looked back to the day of joy when, safe in their booths at Succoth, the children of Israel felt the happiness of the freedom from Egyptian bondage which they had at last attained (Exodus 12:37); and it looked forward to the period of peaceful enjoyment which was to come with the institution of Christ's kingdom on earth, and beyond that time, to the glories of the Church triumphant in heaven.
The sabbatical year, which required that every seventh year should be a year free from agricultural toil, enforced on a large scale the teaching cf the sabbath, and it taught the lesson afterwards illustrated in the contrast of the lives of Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38), and the duty of trusting to the providence of God.
The jubilee, which restored all things that had been changed or depraved their original state every fifty years, while it served as a means of preserving the commonwealth from confusion and revolution, foreshadowed the Christian dispensation, and after that the final restitution of all things (see Notes and Homiletics on Lev. 23-25).
The Section, or Part, on holy days and seasons comprises Lev. 23-25.
Chapter 23. The sacred days on which holy convocations are to be held. Chapter 24. Parenthctical. On the oil for the lamps, and the shewbread, and on blasphemy. Chapter 25. The sabbatical year and the jubilee.
§ 5. Final Exhortation.
Many of the laws in the Book of Leviticus are without the sanction of any penalty. They are commanded, and therefore they ought to be obeyed. In place of a regular code of penalties for individual transgressions, and in addition to the penalties already declared, Moses pronounces blessing and cursing on the nation at large, according as it obeys or disobeys the Law. The rewards and punishments of a future life have no place here, as nations have no future existence. Twice in the Book of Deuteronomy Moses introduces similar exhortations (Deuteronomy 11:28). As a matter of history, we find that as long as the nation was, as such, loyal to Jehovah, it prospered, and that when it fell away from him the evils here denounced overtook it.
The exhortation is contained in chapter 26.
§ 6. Appendix — Vows.
The subject of vows is not introduced into the body of the book, because it was not the purpose of the legislation to institute them or to encourage them. At the conclusion a short treatise is added, giving no special approbation of them, but regulating them, if made, and appointing a scale of redemption or commutation.
This appendix occupies the last chapter — chapter 27 — being attached to the rest by a final declaration that it belongs to the Sinaitic legislation.
2. AUTHORSHIP AND DATE.
The question of authorship does not properly arise on this book. Whatever may be said of Genesis and Deuteronomy, the second, third, and fourth of the books of Moses stand or fall together, nor is there anything in the Book of Leviticus to separate it in respect to authenticity from Exodus which precedes, and Numbers which follows it. There is only one passage in it which can be regarded as seeming to indicate an author of later date than Moses. This is the following passage: "That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you" (Leviticus 18:28). It has been argued with some plausibility that, as Canaan had not spued out its inhabitants till after the death of Moses, these words must have been written by some one who lived later than Moses. But an examination of the context takes away all the force of this argument. The eighteenth chapter is directed against incestuous marriages and lusts; and, after the lawgiver has ended his prohibitions, he proceeds: "Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you: and the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you: (for all these abominations have the men of the land done which were before you, and the land is defiled ;) that the land spue not yea out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you." In this passage, the words translated "vomiteth" and "spued" are in the same tense. It is that tense which is ordinarily called a perfect. But this so-called perfect does not necessarily indicate a past time. Indeed, the Hebrew tenses do not, as such, express time, but only (when in the active voice) action. We must look to the context in order to discover the time in which the act takes place, took place, or will take place. In the passage before us the words, "I east out," in verse 24 are expressed by a participle, "used of that which is certainly and speedily coming to pass" (Keil), meaning, "I am casting out;" and by a law of the Hebrew language, as this participle and the rest of the context indicate present time, the two verbs under consideration must indicate present time also. Even if we were compelled to translate the two words as perfects, there would be nothing impossible or unnatural in God's saying to Moses, and to the children of Israel through him, that the land "has vomited," or "has spued out," the nations of Canaan, the act being regarded as in the Divine mind done, because determined on and in the course of immediate accomplishment. Or, still again, the land might be said to "have spued out" the nations of Canaan in relation to the time when it should spue out the degenerate Israelites.
Putting aside this passage, so easily explained, there is nothing in the whole book which is incompatible with the authorship and the date of Moses. This being so, the fact that it has come down to us as the work of Moses, and that it by implication professes itself to be the work of Moses, and that its character and language are, so far as we can judge, such as would be in accordance with a work of Moses, leave the hypothesis of the authorship of Moses as certain, on the score of internal evidence, as any such hypothesis can Be. Nor is there wanting any external evidence which could be expected to exist. The Book of Joshua recognizes the existence of "the Book of the Law of Moses". In the Book of Judges there is an apparent reference to Leviticus 26:16, Leviticus 26:17, in chapter 2:15 ("Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for evil, as the Lord had said, and as the Lord had sworn unto them"); and in chapter 3:4 we find mention of "the commandments of the Lord, which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses." In the Book of Judges, "the sacred character of the Levites, their dispersion among the several tribes, the settlement of the high priesthood in the family of Aaron, the existence of the ark of the covenant, the power of inquiring of God and obtaining answers, the irrevocability of a vow, the distinguishing mark of circumcision, the distinction between clean and unclean meats, the law of the Nazarites, the use of burnt offerings and peace offerings, the employment of trumpets as a means of obtaining Divine aid in war, the impiety of setting up a king," are enumerated by Canon Rawlinson as "severally acknowledged, and constituting together very good evidence that the Mosaic ceremonial law was already in force". In the Book of Samuel, "we meet at once with Eli, the high priest of the house of Aaron,... the lamp burns in the tabernacle,... the ark of the covenant is in the sanctuary, and is esteemed the sacred symbol of the presence of God (1 Samuel 4:3, 1 Samuel 4:4, 1 Samuel 4:18, 1 Samuel 4:21, 1 Samuel 4:22; 1 Samuel 5:3, 1 Samuel 5:4, 1 Samuel 5:6, 1 Samuel 5:7; 1 Samuel 6:19)... there is the altar and the incense and the ephod worn by the high priest (1 Samuel 2:28). The various kinds of Mosaic sacrifices are referred to: the burnt offering (olah, 1 Samuel 10:8; 1 Samuel 13:9; 1 Samuel 15:22), the peace offerings (shelamim, 1 Samuel 10:8; 1 Samuel 11:15; 1 Samuel 13:9), the bloody sacrifice (zebach, 1 Samuel 2:19), and the unbloody offering (minchah, 1 Samuel 2:19; 1 Samuel 3:14; 1 Samuel 26:19). The animals offered in sacrifice — the bullock (1 Samuel 24:25), the lamb (1 Samuel 16:2), and the ram (1 Samuel 15:22) — are those prescribed in the Levitical code. The especial customs of the sacrifices alluded to in 1 Samuel 2:13 were those prescribed in Leviticus 6:6, Leviticus 6:7; Numbers 18:8-19:25, Numbers 18:32; Deuteronomy 18:1, sqq." (Bishop Harold Browne, 'Introduction to the Pentateuch,' in 'The Speaker's Commentary'). In the Books of Kings and Chronicles there are frequent allusions or references to the "Law of Moses" and its enactments (see 1 Kings 2:3; 1 Kings 8:9, 1 Kings 8:53; 2 Kings 7:3; 2 Kings 11:12; 2 Kings 22:8; 2 Kings 23:3, 2 Kings 23:25; 1 Chronicles 16:40; 1 Chronicles 22:12,1 Chronicles 22:13; 2 Chronicles 25:4; 2 Chronicles 33:8; 2 Chronicles 34:14). So too in Ezra and Nehemiah (see Ezra 3:2; Ezra 6:18; Ezra 7:6; Nehemiah 1:7; Nehemiah 7:1; Nehemiah 9:14); and in Daniel (see Daniel 9:11). Amos (Amos 2:7) apparently quotes Leviticus 20:3; Hosea (Hosea 4:10) seems to quote Leviticus 26:26. Joel, the earliest of the prophets of the southern kingdom, implies throughout his prophecy the existence of the Levitical system, and he and Ezekiel appear to have undoubtedly had before them the twenty-sixth chapter of Leviticus (Joel 1:13, Joel 1:14, Joel 1:16; Joel 2:1, Joel 2:14; Ezekiel 34:25). The New Testament assumes throughout the Mosaic original of the whole Pentateuch.
Taking the authorship of Moses as proved, we have further to inquire as to the date of his composition of the book. On this point we cannot speak with certainty, but we may regard it as in the highest degree probable that the laws were written down as they were delivered to and by Moses during the fifty days previous to the departure of the children of Israel from Sinai, and that they were subsequently put together during one of the encampments in the wilderness.
3. LITERATURE.
The literature on Leviticus is very extensive, and belongs for the most part to two classes — commentaries on the Pentateuch with their introductions, and special dissertations on one or other of the subjects with which the Book of Leviticus deals. We make a selection of works under both headings.
To the first class belong Origen, 'Selecta in Levit.,' 'Hom. in Levit.'; St. Augustine, 'Quaestiones in Heptateuchum,' Liber Tertius; Theodoret, 'Quaestiones in Levit.'; Cyril of Alexandria, 'Glaphyra in Libros Mosis;' Bede, 'In Pentateuchum Commentarii — Leviticus'; Calvin, 'Commentarii in Quatuor Mosis Libros'; 'Poll Synopsis Criticorum'; 'Critici Sacri'; Clericus (Le Clerc), 'Mosis Prophetae, Lib. IV.'; Carpzov, 'Introductio ad Libros Veteris Testamenti: De Levitico'; Matthew Henry, 'Commentary'; Rosenmuller, 'Scholia'; Havernick, 'Handbuch der Historisch-Kritischen Einleitung in das Alte Testament: Leviticus,' §§ 117-130, and (a part of the above) his 'Introduction to the Pentateuch'; Hengstenberg, 'On the Pentateuch'; Keil and Delitzsch, 'On the Pentateuch'; Stuart, 'Introduction to the Old Testament;' Bush, 'Commentaries on the Five Books of Moses;' Baylee, 'Course of Biblical Instruction'; Wordsworth, 'Commentary'; Harold Browne, 'Introduction to the Pentateuch'; Clark, 'Introduction to and Notes on Leviticus' (ibid.); Bonar, 'Commentary on Leviticus'; Lange, 'Commentary' (volume 2, edit. Schaff, published by T. and T. Clark, Edinburgh); Blunt, 'Annotated Bible'.
Under the second heading come Mede, 'The Christian Sacrifice, Book 2'; Outram, 'De Sacrificiis'; Lightfoot, 'The Temple Service as in the Days of Our Saviour'; Spencer, 'De Legibus Hebraeorum'; J. Mayer, 'De Temporibus Sanctis et Festis Diebus Hebraeorum '; Deyling, 'Observationes Sacra '; Bahr, 'Die Symbolik des Mosaischen Cultus'; Davison, 'Inquiry into Primitive Sacrifice'; Tholuck, 'Das Alte Testament im Neuen Testament; Johnstone, 'Israel after the Flesh'; Maurice, 'The Doctrine of Sacrifice deduced from Scripture'; Fairbairn, 'The Typology of Scripture '; Freeman, 'Principles of Divine Service'; Hengstenberg, 'Die Opfer der Heiligen Schrift'; Kurtz, 'Der Alttestamentliche Opfercultus'; Barry, Articles on 'Sacrifice'; Rawlinson, Essay on 'The Pentateuch'; Kuepfer, 'Das Priestenthum des Alten Bundes,' 1865; Ebers, 'Egypten und die Bucher Moses'; Jukes, 'Law of Offerings;' Marriott, 'On Terms of Gift and Offering'; Edersheim, 'The Temple Service;' Willis, 'The Worship of the Old Covenant'.
Philo Judaeus, and the Mishna, should also be consulted.