Leviticus Topics

• covenant code
• holiness code
• books of the torah
• priestly school
• priestly code
• book names
• subject themes
• source text
• levites
• latin name
• priesthood
• 19th century
• moses
• distinction
• scholarship
• editors
• collections
• reason

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This was in line with the Septuagint use of subject themes as book names. The Latin name became Liber Leviticus , from which the English name is derived. These names are somewhat misleading, as the book makes a very strong distinction between the priesthood, descended from Aaron, and mere Levites.

Since the 19th century, scholars have regarded Leviticus as being almost entirely a product of the priestly source, (more recent scholarship prefers to refer to a "priestly school" of editors rather than a single priestly source), originating amongst the Aaronid priesthood c 550-400 BC.

Wellhausen regarded the Priestly source as a later, rival, version of the stories contained within JE (a hypothetical intermediate source text of the Torah), the Holiness Code thus being the law code that the priestly source presented as being dictated to Moses at Sinai, in the place of the Covenant Code. Different writers inserted laws, some from earlier independent collections. These additional laws, in the views of those who follow Wellhausen's theories, are those which subsequently formed the Priestly Code, and thus the other portion of Leviticus.

A possible reason may be that, of all the books of the Torah, Leviticus is the closest to being purely devoted to mitzvot and its study thus is able to go hand-in-hand with their performance.

Source: Wikipedia > Book Of Leviticus