OVERVIEW: There are three main subjects addressed in this examination of the book of Leviticus (from five of its twenty-seven chapters). Of the eleven verse groupings in Leviticus discussed below, five of them are highly-rated (i.e., that have a rating of 4 or 5).
The first topic is ghosts which relates to the question of whether or not they are, in fact, the spirits of the dead. The second topic is the divine promise of life and whether it refers mainly to an abundant life in this world or in the next one after death. The third subject discussed here is God’s use of the phrase, cut off from the people, and how additional meaning of this act of separation could be legitimately applied to it based on various contexts throughout Scripture surrounding this phrase.
Section A: Considering God’s advice regarding ghosts and their mediums
1) Are fortune-telling and horoscopes banned by the Bible?
“You shall not … practice divination or soothsaying (Lev 19:26, NKJV).” One of the reasons a new Bible translation may contain a different word at some given verse, compared to another translation, is to more accurately reflect the original writer’s intention. Another reason would include the necessity to make the new version sufficiently different than others to warrant a copyright by using synonyms. When uniqueness or technical improvement is overshadowed by a need to update the language to modern English by providing a better example of the original thought in some passage, then it’s possible that a long list of different terms can be discovered.
The twenty examples that follow are words used by various translations of Lev 19:26 regarding just two Hebrew words in it: divination, soothsaying, necromancy, enchantment, interpret omens, augury, witchcraft, magic, evil magic, black magic, conjure spirits, horoscope, lucky days, fortune-telling, signs, evil spells, recite charms, keep dreams, observe times, or consult clouds. What is the common denominator of these illustrations above from various published Bibles? What is the reason for these kinds of actions to be included with the other unrelated prohibitions in the book of Leviticus?
1.1 When the prophet asserted that God had something to say to God’s people, he probably understood these particular behavioral restrictions above related to contact with the unseen, and perhaps with demons in the spirit world. One of the reasons God did this relates to God’s desire that people not turn to other gods or spirits. Of the ten commandments seen in Exodus 20, the very first one commands a person to “not have any other god but me (Exod 20:3, NLT).” Naturally, this rule would require some brief explanation for some people, so we see the following in Leviticus: “Do not turn to idols or make cast images of gods for yourselves (Lev 19:4, CSB).”
Then, in this same chapter (i.e., 19) and the one immediately following (i.e., 20) in Leviticus, the prophet of God writes about another decree that may be indirectly related to this first prohibition in the Ten Commandments. Its subject matter involves spirits of the unseen world which includes demons, deceased people, or both. The passage says the following: “Do not turn to mediums (who pretend to consult the dead) or to spiritists (who have spirits of divination); do not seek them out to be defiled by them. I am the Lord your God (Lev 19:31, AMP).” The phrases in parenthesis here are original with this translation.
Why would it be objectionable to God if a person continued to consult with their wise, old grandfather right after his death since he was so helpful and loving before he passed away? One of the reasons is because God prefers that the living person not become tainted or defiled by contact with a medium, wizard, or psychic. Being defiled by the medium probably includes being defiled by a real spirit that actually is consulting with the medium, but it could be a deceptive spirit that really is a demon. Click here (foot-quote 1) to read what one expert (Gerstenberger) has written about this point.
1.2 The primary definition of necromancy is “a method of divination through alleged communication with the dead (dictionary.com).” The Hebrew term yiddoni is defined in the Gesenius Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon which says the following, “(1) properly knowing, wise, hence a prophet, a wizard, always used in a bad sense of false prophets. Lev 19:31; 20:6; Deut 18:11; 1 Sam 28:3,9 (2) a spirit of divination … with which these soothsayers were believed to be in communication. Lev 20:27 (Gesenius, yiddoni).” Click here (fq 2) to read what one expert (Wenham) has written regarding the definition of the Hebrew term sometimes translated as medium. Neither of these esteemed scholars includes an explicit reference to the “spirit” actually being from a deceased human although that was the belief in Israel back then among some (or many) people.
1.3 Sorcery was considered an illegitimate practice in Israel at the time. However, divination was seen as a legitimate exercise according to Jacob Milgrom, whose commentary on Leviticus has been ranked number four (out of over sixty commentaries on Leviticus by bestcommentaries.com). Click here (fq 3) to read what he has written regarding those who practiced divination, or who predicted the future, and thus were in competition with the prophets of God.
Although the Covenant Code prohibited sorcery (“You will not allow a sorceress to live (Exod 22:18, MLV)), ancient Israel had rejected this divine advice. Click here (fq 4) to read what one expert (Lundbom) has written about this point.
Offering a person a consultation with a spirit being who claims to be a family member or other known person is a practice that carries more disapproval in the OT compared to divination or offering predictions of the future. Click here (fq 5) to read what two experts (Johnston and Gerstenberger) have written about this point.
1.4 The people in countries surrounding Israel were exposed to a severe form of necromancy. However, it was not limited to these neighbors of ancient Israel. This divine ban on mediums in Leviticus is referenced in at least five other books in the OT. Therefore, this repetition by multiple writers in Scripture shows that this reliance on mediums was significant among the Israelites, including even the king of Israel, Saul. Click here (fq 6) to read what five experts (Harris, Johnston, Lundbom, Garland, and Gerstenberger) have written about these points.
It’s evident that God desires to shield God’s followers from evil influences. It seems that people in general are very susceptible to the claim that they can actually hear from their deceased grandfather again, even if they are told by some that the mind of a dead person is non-functional, or asleep in some sense. Click here (fq 7) to read what two experts (Gerstenberger and Kiuchi) have written about this point.
1.5 How can “consultation with the dead” be related to “not have any other god but me”; and why are these two major prohibitions related? Using the Lev 19:31 text (“Do not turn to mediums,” NIV) as context for the verse seen above at Lev 19:4 (“Don’t turn to worthless gods,” GW), two similarities stand out using the words turn to and gods. Click here (fq 8) to read what two experts (Kiuchi and Harris) have written about this point.
The underlying assumptions about the nature of ghosts combined with the rule against contacting a medium is key. It probably is not true that God is concerned with ending conversations between a wise, but deceased grandfather and a follower of Christ. Instead, it seems to be the case that God is concerned with minimizing contact between a deceiving spirit under Satan and the Christian. Click here (fq 9) to read what one expert (Kiuchi) has written about this point.
2) Lessons learned for considering God’s punishment for interacting with a ghost
2.1 What is God’s view of those who claim to be hearing from the spirits of the dead for the purpose of passing along some message to their customer? The crime of being a medium must be serious because God told Moses that the punishment, which should be carried out by the people of God rather than by God, is as follows: “A man or a woman who is a medium or a wizard shall be put to death; they shall be stoned to death, their blood is upon them (Lev 20:27, NRSV).” Capital punishment for those who willingly contact unseen spirits who claim to be a deceased person is justified according to this passage here because it is their own fault for acting as a medium.
What would be God’s penalty for those who are not a medium but just visit a medium for the purpose of hearing from their grandfather again? “I will be your enemy if you go to someone who claims to speak with the dead, and I will destroy you from among my people (Lev 20:6, CEV).” This verse addresses the excuse that an ancient Israelite may have used: that the prohibition applied only to neighboring nations who worshipped several gods. “From among my people” seems to have resolved that excuse. And “I will destroy you” certainly sounds like punishment of a serious nature. God’s view of those who “go to someone who claims to speak with the dead” clearly is that God will not be their friend, but rather, God will be their “enemy.”
Why must a person abstain from this activity, and what really accounts for the harsh consequence of destruction of allowing someone from the spirit world to influence them? It is very likely God knows that the spirit of the dead is not really a deceased person, but rather is being deceptive about their identity. Maybe a person should avoid talking to their deceased grandfather through a medium because they would actually be submitting themselves directly to an evil spirit.
In addition to the twenty similar words found in the first passage above (Lev 19:26), there is another assortment of similar terms for the word medium from the three passages above (Lev 20:6, 20:27, and 19:31). The twenty examples that follow are words used by various translations of these three verses: Sorcerers; psychics; mediums; wizards; those who have familiar spirits; spiritists who have spirits of divination; people who claim they can talk to the dead; necromancers; soothsayers; fortune-tellers; false diviners; astrologers; occult; ghosts; demons; pythonical spirit; witchcraft; clairvoyant; persons who dabble in the occult; or someone who speaks with bad spirits.
2.2 The level of seriousness that God has placed on this prohibition is seen in the expected punishment of someone who breaks this law (i.e., the death penalty). When a simple comparison is done with another more obvious prohibition directly relating to idolatry, then we can get a sense of the reason necromancy is banned by God. Click here (fq 10) to read what two experts (Garland and Keil & Delitzsch) has written about this point.
2.3 Therefore, there exist grounds established by multiple commentaries of Leviticus, written by widely esteemed scholars, that allow the claim to be made that there is a direct correlation between the very first commandment listed in the Ten Commandments and the divine law against trying to contact the unseen, even if you think it must be your deceased grandfather based on hearing his secrets through the medium. It seems likely that the devil can listen in on conversations and learn about closely-held secrets.
I would claim the reason God told the prophet to write down this prohibition, and to include the death penalty for it, is because Satan’s demons are very willing and capable of getting people to believe that ghosts are dead people instead. Therefore, a convincing ghost story from someone trustworthy may be fascinating perhaps, but Leviticus may even be warning us against believing that the soul/mind of a dead person is capable of talking to the living. So, to determine whether or not the Leviticus warning actually insinuates this, it’s necessary to ask the question, What does Scripture, in its entirety, say about this question?
Section B: Did God promise eternal life or just an abundant life here in this world?
One more passage from Leviticus needs to be briefly analyzed because it and others similar to it can shed some light on the question, What all does the OT tell us about the specific meaning of the promise of God regarding the reward or fate of those who obey God’s commandments? While some Bible verses present difficulties in interpreting the English, other passages present difficulties in interpreting the Hebrew. That is, some Bibles say it one way, but some other Bibles say it in another, completely different way for a given verse.
1) Which is it: Live according to God’s laws, or alternatively, receive life as a result of obeying them?
1.1 It seems necessary that Moses would have had to respond to those who asked him why they should obey Yahweh. What exactly does the person get for being good and obeying the commandments of God? Let’s compare two groups of Bible translations of a single passage in Leviticus. The first group says that a person shall live one’s life according to the commandments, while the second group says that a person shall actually live because they have followed the commandments.
(a) The first group typically says, “live in them” or “live by them;” seen as follows in three different Bible translations: “Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them (Lev 18:5, KJV).” “You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them (Lev 18:5, NKJV).” “Keep my rules and laws. The one who obeys them will benefit from living by them (Lev 18:5, NIRV).” One commentator, Walter Kaiser, has defended this translation/interpretation of the passage. Click here (fq 11) to read what he has written about this.
(b) However, other commentators and other Bible translations disagree with this viewpoint. This second group takes on a cause-and-effect tone. For example, “Obey them and you will live (Lev 18:5, CEV).” The following sampling of Bible versions quote the second part of this same passage (Lev 18:5b). Notice how the first set (the “abundant life here and now” group) differs from each of the verses below that portray a different sense of life. The typical way this is done is to use the word because or if.
“A person who obeys them will live because of them (EXB).”
“By which a man may live if he does them (NASB).”
“By doing so one shall live (NRSV).”
“If a person keeps them, he shall live (AMP).”
“For those who follow them, shall have life (WYC).”
“A person will live if he does them (CSB).”
The best way to determine the meaning of the word life or live in this passage above is to “allow the Bible to interpret the Bible.” It is helpful and appropriate to consider the testimony of Jesus Christ at this time.
1.2 Jesus has been quoted in each of the first four books of the NT as follows:
Matthew: “If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments (Matt 19:17, NRSV)”
Mark: “Give to the poor … he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time … and in the world to come eternal life (Mark 10:21, 29-30, KJV).”
Luke: “Do this and you will live (Luke 10:28, NIV).”
John: “Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death (John 8:51, NKJV).”
The NASB, for example, specifically references Lev 18:5 in a note at both Matt 19:17 and at Luke 10:28.
1.3 It also is useful to allow the context to include Paul as well as the prophets throughout the OT. Paul also had Lev 18:5 in mind when he referred to Moses by name and this “obey and live” motif in Rom 10:5 (which has a note in the NASB at Rom 10:5 that references Lev 18:5). Additionally, Paul used Lev 18:5 a second time with another “obey and live” assertion (according to the note at Gal 3:12).
There are also multiple references in the OT where Nehemiah writes “You warned them to obey your teachings, but in pride they rejected your laws, although keeping your Law is the way to life. (Neh 9:29, GNT).” Ezekiel repeatedly quoted Lev 18:5 using the following sentence three times exactly (at Ezek 20:11, 20:13, and 20:21): “If a man observes them, he will live (NASB).” He will live how? A living person on Earth is obviously the subject of Ezekiel’s claim, and having a reward of life would become relevant only when that person is no longer living, or possibly, no longer in existence as a normally functioning person.
The confusion of the specific meaning of “will live” in the OT exists because all three prophets omitted anything that would readily describe the sense of life intended; that is, they wrote it as “will have life. Period.” Having life itself seems to be pointing mainly to the period of time when someone may not have much of a life (i.e., after dying, but before the resurrection of the dead). The use of “will live,” instead of saying, ‘will live an abundant life in this world,’ may be suggesting perhaps that the primary meaning of “shall have life” is that those who obey God will once again have life itself returned to them in the next age. This odd assertion, however, must be tested against the rest of Scripture. It would be wise, though, to not rule out this possibility until afterwards.
1.4 The extensive repetition in both the OT and NT (i.e., ten different verses) of this particular idea is probably helpful regarding which of these two translation/interpretation options is closer to the intended meaning of God when speaking to Moses on the mountaintop. It is very likely or even certain that God’s meaning then would remain the same when the Son of God later spoke about the same issue of obeying the commandments.
Consider how Jesus responded to the lawyer’s question, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? (Luke 10:25, NKJV).” It should be noted that there is no translation controversy with this passage regarding whether the Greek meant eternal life or something else such as an abundant life on Earth during this age. Every translation of Luke 10:25 displayed at BibleGateway.com describes it as “eternal life” or its equivalent. There are forty-nine Bible versions at this website that say, “eternal life” at this verse and five other versions that say, “everlasting life,” “live forever” or “get life forever.” For example, “Teacher, what must I do to get life forever? (Luke 10:25, NCV).”
1.5 Returning to Kaiser’s claim that “keeping the law will not lead to eternal life … but it will lead to an abundant life,” a difficulty becomes apparent with his interpretation of Lev 18:5 when put into the context of Luke 10:25-28. It is appropriate, as Lev 18:5 is examined, to peer ahead into the NT to see the conversation between Jesus and the lawyer—considering the divine source in both the OT and NT. That is because Lev 18:1 says, “The Lord spoke to Moses” and Ezek 20:2 says, “The word of the Lord came to me saying.” Scripture claims to be quoting God and an overriding presumption in this study is that it is entirely appropriate whenever a prophet of God claims to be quoting God in Scripture, it should be accepted and believed that this is, in fact, the word of God.
First, the assertion by Kaiser: “The subsequent history of interpretation finds both Christian and Jewish commentators attempting to have this phrase reinterpreted to say, ‘(A person) shall perform, so that (as a result) he or she may acquire life by keeping them.’ But this result, as one can see, is contrived both in its understanding of ‘life’ and in its unusual construal of the syntax (Kaiser, 1125).” However, this opinion is debatable.
1.6 Let’s look at the responses of Jesus regarding the question about eternal life, which show his understanding of Lev 18:5 as seen in Luke 10. Luke describes two responses that Jesus gave the lawyer who knew the Law well. First in v. 26, Jesus asked him how he interpreted the Law in the Torah. Then in Luke 10:28, after he answered this question by Jesus, we read: “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” It is not the case that Jesus told the lawyer that his view of the Law does not lead to eternal life, but just an abundant life in the here and now.
If any OT prophet, whether it was Ezekiel, Nehemiah, or Moses, actually meant an abundant life in this world was the reward for obeying God, rather than eternal life beyond this world, then it seems Jesus would have said something different. The weight of this argument is helped greatly by the lawyer’s use of “eternal life” in his own question rather than saying just “life” in v. 25.
The last part of the second response Jesus gave clearly means that if the man would love God and neighbor completely (v. 27), then the lawyer “will live” eternally. Jesus clarified the meaning for those who may have been confused then about whether Lev 18:5 referred to eternal life (because eternal is omitted there as well as in Nehemiah and Ezekiel) or abundant life, or both.
1.7 Two views on the state of current scholarship
(a) Click here (fq 12) to read what one expert (Kiuchi) has written about this point. Kiuchi pushes against the view (seen in the foot-quote) of excluding eternal life as the reward by making the following two main points. The first is that life in Lev 18:5 primarily means, in Kiuchi’s view, a more spiritual life is obtained as a result of trying to obey God’s commandments. It can be noted that this characteristic of a person could apply both to this world and in the afterlife. Click here (fq 13) to read his second point.
(b) The next commentator describes the situation among modern scholars somewhat differently than Kiuchi (i.e., “Modern commentators generally reject … eternal life [as the meaning of life in Lev 18:5]). R. Laird Harris writes that “most” commentators of Leviticus interpret Lev 18:5 as including eternal life as one of the benefits for obeying the rules. And it’s not the only benefit, of course, since a person could be blessed in this world too. Click here (fq 14) to read Harris’s explanation of how Paul endeavored to correct the misunderstanding of Lev 18:5.
1.8 There are esteemed commentators of Leviticus from the nineteenth century (i.e., 1866) who saw the meaning of “will live” as indicating eternal life. Carl Keil and Franz Delitzsch wrote in their commentary on Lev 18:5 (at p. 595) that this means “gain true life” and specifically referred to Gen 3:22 to clarify true life. To use the prominent English version at that time, KJV, Gen 3:22 (which refers to the tree of life) ends the passage with “live forever.”
1.9 Finally, Gordon Wenham’s explanation of Lev 18:5 is especially pertinent since his commentary on Leviticus is ranked number one (out of over sixty commentaries on Leviticus) by bestcommentaries.com. He takes the view that life means both an abundant and “fulfilled life in the present” and “if anyone can keep the law, he will enjoy eternal life (Wenham, 253).” Although Wenham identifies both options as his meaning of Lev 18:5, he seems to place an emphasis on the afterlife stage with its deathlessness as being the dominant original meaning of the text as Moses heard it. Click here (fq 15) to read what he has written about this point.
Section C: More people cut off for their sins
1) The “cut off from their people” assertion—as a punishment—is a standard phrase that has been repeatedly attributed to God directly. For each of the five groupings of verses below, the text reads, “The Lord spoke to Moses saying” previous to them. Once in Genesis, three times in Exodus, and now seven times in Leviticus (total of eleven), the same Hebrew words—translated as cut off—appear in each of these passages in the sense of reprimand. However, it is used in different contexts throughout the OT nearly three hundred times, being translated as cut, cut down, destroy, cut off, etc.
For example, when Jeremiah quoted the Lord God as saying, “the calf they cut [Heb., karath] in two (Jer 34:18, NIV)” when referring to those who had disobeyed a commandment of God (regarding the freeing of their Hebrew slave after seven years of service), a clear distinction is evident. Unlike the ten times in Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus, the grammatical emphasis had been lessened in Jeremiah by using the word karath (meaning cut) just once in its sentence instead of twice together. However, in all eleven of these passages referring to a disobedient person, rather than to an animal, the Hebrew reads karath karath (meaning cut off),which is not an unusual technique in that language for expressing an emphasis.
This Hebrew word, when referring to a person, can mean either the death of the person or the literal separation from a city (e.g., Zech 14:2). However, according to the Gesenius Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon, it is not unusual in the OT where karath karath (back-to-back in a sentence) means a person is killed or destroyed. Click here (fq 16) to read what Gesenius believes this phrase in Hebrew means.
Gesenius then referred to two verses in Exodus that contain the phrase, “be put to death,” for their serious sin against God (Exod 31:14 and 35:2) in which one of these verses uses the cut off expression. The question can then be raised, Can cut off (with the double karath) refer to a divine action that is emphatically removing the person from something (such as Sheol). In other words, could it also be taken to mean, in a given passage, a sense that is somewhat different from mere death in this world?
This question above comes to mind based on an assertion made by Jacob Milgrom in his JPS Torah Commentary on Numbers as highlighted within Duane Christensen’s Word Biblical Commentary on Deuteronomy in which he discusses this cut off phrase in the context of Sheol and the expression, gathered to your people at death and especially, to sleep with your fathers at death.
The idiom “to sleep with your fathers” could mean to die or it could be referring to a reunification in Sheol with the ancestors of the deceased person. Click here (fq 17) to read what Milgrom has written about this point.
In a psalm attributed to King David which discusses the different fates of evildoers and the righteous, this double karath was used each time cut off appears (which is five times in Psalm 37). The various descriptions in this single psalm of the result of someone’s wickedness, after God condemns them through judgment (see v. 33), consist of the following (from NASB): vanish like smoke, altogether destroyed, perish, wither like grass, and be no more (all from Psalm 37).
On the other hand, those who follow God are said to expect a different result with one of the benefits being an inheritance of the land (which is specifically repeated in vv. 9, 11, 18, 22, 29, and 34 in Psalm 37 using these same terms). This emphasis on the righteous person obtaining this land is striking since the cultural context is not Moses, but is David (who lived centuries after Moses and his people’s trek towards the promised land from Egypt). Furthermore, “their inheritance will be forever (v. 18),” “so you will abide forever (v. 27),” “His godly ones; they are preserved forever (v. 28),” and “the righteous will inherit the land and dwell in it forever (v. 29)” all seem to refer to the next stage of life.
So, what happens to the soul/mind when someone dies, whether they are judged to be worthy of life or not? And, what did the Lord God really mean would happen when God said that the evil person shall be “cut off from their people”? Is it likely this cut-off expression refers to Sheol (meaning the grave or alternatively, gravedom) as Milgrom and Christensen have suggested, and parallels the concept held by many OT prophets including Moses and Jacob? Does Sheol actually exist as the place where the record of the contents of a person’s mind is subject to being wholly erased following divine judgment?
Recall that Moses believed in Sheol and that he had the opportunity at Mount Sinai, for instance, to ask God face-to-face about Sheol. “Moses said … ‘if … the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up [the disobedient Israelites] … they descend alive into Sheol’ … and they perished (Num 16:28, 30, 33, NASB). The question here is not whether cut off occasionally can mean death, but rather, can it sometimes mean, ‘separated out from the Sheol-community of gathered minds’ after one’s death?
It is possible that a linked, double-meaning can occur for this cut off from their people phrase. That is, for a given passage, both meanings could have been meant by God: God desires that Israel puts the evildoer to death and consequently, God would then later enact a second cutting-off from Sheol which affects the person’s life after death.
I suppose the prospective answer can best be validated only after the entire Bible is considered since the nature of death and resurrection is a mystery. That is because the meaning of a divine action (like cut off) regarding the execution of the judgment of a person’s life is only gradually described by God in Scripture, through a succession of many prophets and apostles, as a process of understanding God’s plan of love and justice for all of God’s creation.
2) Seven uses (in five verse groupings) of “cut off” as punishment in Leviticus
2.1 “If anyone who is unclean eats any meat of the fellowship offering belonging to the Lord, they must be cut off from their people. Anyone who [disobeys God’s commandments] … must be cut off from their people (Lev 7:20-21, NIV).’” This passage emphasizes the cutting off of a person from the group by repeating cut off twice in back-to-back verses.
2.2 “If anyone of the house of Israel slaughters an ox or a lamb or a goat in the camp, or slaughters it outside the camp, 4 and does not bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting, to present it as an offering to the Lord before the tabernacle of the Lord, he shall be held guilty of bloodshed; he has shed blood, and he shall be cut off from the people (Lev 17:3-4, NRSV).”
2.3 “Any one of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn among them, who offers a burnt offering or sacrifice and does not bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting to offer it to the Lord, that man shall be cut off from his people. … and will cut him off from among his people (Lev 17:8-10, ESV).” This passage also emphasizes the cutting off of a person from the group by repeating cut off twice in back-to-back verses.
2.4 “If [people disobey God’s specific commandment] … they shall publicly be cut off from the people of Israel (Lev 20:17, TLB).”
2.5 “Every one [who disobeys God’s specific commandment] . . . shall be utterly destroyed (Lev 17:14, ABP ).”
Ω Ω Ω
This concludes my study here on Leviticus. Each of the top four Bible translations (NASB, NRSV, NIV, and NJKV) were used four times. Each of the next four versions in this primary group (KJV, GNT, CSB, and MLV) were used once with the exception of one of them (CSB) that was used twice. There were an additional ten Bible versions used in this Leviticus study (all of them once except for CEV which was used twice): ESV, NLT, AMP, GW, CEV, NIRV, EXB, WYC, NCV, TLB, and ABP.
Quoted Passages in Leviticus (12 total / 4 highly rated verses):
Each verse (or verse grouping) below has been rated by me for its potential relevancy and importance to eventually answering the main question: what happens when people die? The range of 1 to 6 applies to the entire group of passages (which includes the OT and NT) with just one verse being given a rating of 6 due to the explicit nature of it (on the matter of immortality in 2 Timothy). The verses with a rating of 1 have been separated out from the list below and do not appear in the text above.
Each book of the Bible will have two numbers associated with it that refer to this group of passages: the first one is a total number of potentially relevant verses, and the second one is the number of passages that have been rated four or higher.
Rating of 5:
None
Rating of 4:
Leviticus 18:5
Leviticus 19:26
Leviticus 20:6
Leviticus 20:27
Rating of 3:
Leviticus 7:20-21
Leviticus 17:3-4
Leviticus 17:8-10
Leviticus 17:14
Leviticus 19:31
Leviticus 20:17
Rating of 2:
Leviticus 18:1
Leviticus 19:4
Quoted Passages Not in Leviticus:
Genesis 3:22
Exodus 20:3
Exodus 22:18
Exodus 31:14
Exodus 35:2
Numbers 16:28, 30, 33
Deuteronomy 18:11
1 Samuel 28:3, 9
Nehemiah 9:29
Psalms 37:1-40
Jeremiah 34:18
Ezekiel 20:2
Ezekiel 20:11
Ezekiel 20:13
Ezekiel 20:21
Zechariah 14:2
Matthew 19:17
Mark 10:21, 29-30
Luke 10:25
Luke 10:28
John 8:51
Footnoted Quotes from Expert Commentators of Scripture:
SEE WHAT SOME EXPERTS HAVE WRITTEN (foot-quote number 1): “The absolute formulation ‘you shall not …’ always presupposes that the content and context of the prohibition in the original situation are self-evident. …The Israelites had to have been familiar with mantic practices in one form or another (Gerstenberger, 275).” There probably is a good reason that Yahweh God has prohibited contact with mediums, but it may not be readily apparent in Scripture what that reason is. “The high-sounding condemnation of ‘prostituting’ oneself to mediums and soothsayers, and the solemn execution of judgment by Yahweh personally, do not quite fit what in our opinion is the relatively harmless act of seeking clarification from a soothsayer concerning one’s future (Gerstenberger, 293).” Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 2: Wenham asserts that the Hebrew word that has been translated as medium in Lev 19:31, yiddoni, “literally … means ‘knower’ and refers either to the knowledgeable practitioners of black magic or the knowing spirits they call up … Mediums (yiddoni) are usually associated with necromancy (Wenham, 273).” Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 3: Necromancy was as pervasive in Israel as in the ancient Near East. Because it was associated with ancestor worship, it was condemned … Another motivation may underlie the official opposition to consulting ghosts and wizard spirits: it was presumed that they could read into the future. Thus their activity was a form of divination. As I argued, divination as opposed to sorcery was a legitimate practice, since it did not attempt to change the divine decisions (sorcery), but only to read them in advance of their announcement—in other words, to predict the future. Thus these magicians were in competition with the prophets, who claimed the role of authorized conveyors of YHWH’s will (Milgrom, 243). Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 4: “Sorcery was legalized in the north by Jezebel (2 Kings 9:22) and in the south by Manasseh (2 Chronicles 33:6). Both Micah (Micah 5:12) and Jeremiah (Jer 27:9) speak out against the practice (Lundbom, 551).” Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 5: (1) “Divination usually has a different emphasis. It is often linked to false prophecy and condemned for being misleading, whereas necromancy is a distinct activity which is condemned more strongly for being subversive to Yahwism (Johnston, 153).” (2) Apparently, God knew that an explicit condemnation of contact with supposed spirits needed to be relayed to God’s people by a true prophet. “The society must protect itself against unauthorized and unacceptable practitioners of ‘black magic.’ (Gerstenberger, 301).” Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 6: (1) “‘Mediums’ and ‘spiritists’ were common and very degrading in the surrounding religions (Harris, 608).” (2) “Many scholars suggest that necromancy was more widespread in Israel than the Old Testament record implies, until the great reforms first of Hezekiah in the eighth century and then particularly of Josiah in the seventh (Johnston, 153).” One example of this view that Johnston provides is found in W. Dietrich, David, Saul, und die Propheten (1987): “soothsayers were a pillar of the [Israeli] community until the late eighth century (Johnston, 153).” He also shows that ancient Israel, prior to these reforms, had apparently not eclipsed Babylonian culture in the reliance on mediums. “Necromancy, or the consultation of the dead, was widespread among ancient Near Eastern peoples, with the possible exceptions of the Egyptians and the Hittites (for whom clear evidence is lacking) (Johnston, 150).” (3) However, there is evidence that astrology was practiced in both Egypt and Mesopotamia (including Babylonia) according to Jack Lundbom. “We know that astrology was well developed in Egypt and Babylonia (Lundbom, 550).” I. L. Finkel asserted that Mesopotamia was the leading hotbed of necromancy with his direct evidence being six ancient documents including Gilgamesh XII and other Babylonian and Assyrian texts (Johnston, 150). (4) “These prohibitions require one to turn away from all forms of consultation with the dead. Isa 19:3 and Deut 18:11 explicitly associate these terms [e.g., yiddoni, medium] with consultation with the dead spirits. … Manasseh is condemned for his consultation with these figures (2 Kings 21:6 and 2 Chronicles 33:6) and Saul engaged one after banning them (1 Sam 28:3). Josiah, on the other hand, attempted to rid the land of them (2 Kings 23:24). Though they do not appear after that note, the number of times the Bible mentions them attests to their early and significant presence (Garland, 755).” (5) Several decades before King Josiah’s removal of mediums and spiritists from Jerusalem, “necromancers and wizards were said by Isaiah to be active in Egypt, where he predicted Yahweh’s judgment upon them (Isa 19:3) (Lundbom, 552).” (6) Eventually, following a long period of time, that is, “during Israel’s late period, all soothsaying was condemned, since it contradicted the now valid, strict belief in the one, exclusive, and jealous God (Gerstenberger, 276).” Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 7: (1) “Like every kind of magic, soothsaying gives a person power over others. Anyone capable of predicting the future accurately is capable of manipulation as well. Hence soothsayers and mediums are allies not to be underestimated. (Gerstenberger, 301).” (2) “What is the point of turning to mediums, given the assumption in Leviticus that the human soul is dead before God? (Kiuchi, 360).” Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 8: (1) “‘Turning’ to mediums or necromancers is prohibited in a manner similar to v. 4 (note ‘Do not turn [tipnu]’ in both passages). It is presumed that deities who communicate through mediums or necromancers are not the Lord. In this sense those deities are examples of the ‘gods’ (elilim) mentioned in v. 4 (Kiuchi, 360).” This biblical commentator links the First Commandment in Exodus (regarding not having other gods) with the commandment to not turn to mediums by using Lev. 19:4. (2) “‘Mediums and spiritists’ are the same evil pair mentioned in 19:31; 20:27; and elsewhere. Verse 27 implies that the persons are inhabited by these evil spirits: yihyeh bahem ob (lit., ‘in whom shall be a medium’). Isa 8:19 and the report of the witch of Endor (1 Sam 28:3-11) show that these people claimed contact with the dead. Of course, this was common in the heathen religions (Harris, 611).” Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 9: “What is prohibited is involvement with souls of the dead (Kiuchi, 360).” Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 10: (1) “In addition, v. 27 adds the punishment of death by stoning for anyone who practices it. This prescribes the same punishment as those who worship Molech through child sacrifice. Thus the attempt to consult the dead equals the worst practices of idolatry in Gods eyes. Both require complete eradication from the community (Garland, 765).” Who was Molech? “Molech is a deity of the underworld and of death (Garland, 761).” (2) Other commentators of Lev 20:6 (“I will be your enemy if you go to a medium”) have interpreted this as being directly related to being guilty of idolatry. “He would also do the same to every soul that turned to familiar spirits and, ‘to go a-whoring after them,’ i.e., to make himself guilty of idolatry by so doing, such practices being always closely connected with idolatry (Keil and Delitzsch, 604).” Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 11: Kaiser asserts that “keeping the law will not lead to eternal life, as some have mistakenly thought this verse teaches, but it will lead to an abundant life. The phrase ‘will live by them’ means that life will be lived in accordance with God’s laws and commandments (Kaiser, 1125).” Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 12: “Since every human must die, the following ‘and he shall live by them’ has caused some conjecture with regard to what kind of life is in view. Early and medieval Judaism viewed this as a reference to ‘eternal life.’ Modern commentators generally reject this view. Christian exegetes (cf. Hartley 1992: 293) commonly consider it excessive (Kiuchi, 332).” Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 13: “In Leviticus human death is always presented as caused by the violation of the Lord’s commandments: it is never presented as a natural thing unrelated to the breaking of laws. In view of this observation, it is possible to read this verse as saying that by ‘and live’ the Lord intends to say that a man lives forever, on the assumption that the present life is part of eternal life (Kiuchi, 332).” Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 14: “It said, ‘Do this and live.’ Paul quoted Lev 18:5 as the Judaizers used it, but he answered the misinterpretation with abundant quotations of the OT giving the true interpretation of the law. He would agree with Kaiser and most others that Lev 18:5 promises a good life here and eternal life hereafter in the whole OT context of faith in God and trust in his promises … Lev 18:5 does not teach salvation by works. It teaches that the OT believers who trusted God and obeyed him from the heart received life abundant both here and hereafter (Harris, 598).” Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 15: “It is Jesus and Paul who insist that the full meaning of life [in Lev 18:5] is eternal life. If anyone can keep the law, he will enjoy eternal life. In John’s Gospel man must keep the new law— the word of Christ (Wenham, 253).” Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 16: This unique expression means “the punishment of death in general, without any definition of the manner (never the punishment of exile, as is supposed [by some commentators]) (Gesenius, karath).” Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 17: As Milgrom demonstrates, the “idiom is found only in the Pentateuch—in connection with the deaths of Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and Aaron. … Its meaning becomes clear in the stories of the patriarchs: It is the act that takes place after dying but before burial. Thus it can neither mean to die nor to be buried in the family tomb. Rather, it means ‘be reunited with one’s ancestors’ and refers to the afterlife in Sheol. Hence, the opposite term [in Hebrew], ‘be cut off from one’s ancestors,’ means to be denied any afterlife” (Numbers [1990] 169-70) (Christensen, 772). Click here to go back.