Texts in Conversation
Leviticus 17 bans killing animals away from the tabernacle, and the Septuagint keeps a longer form that adds detail. The Samaritan Pentateuch and Dead Sea Scrolls share this version, suggesting the Masoretic text later edited the passage.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Leviticus 17:4
Hebrew Bible
2 “Speak to Aaron, his sons, and all the Israelites, and tell them, ‘This is the word that the Lord has commanded, 3 “Blood guilt will be accounted to any man from the house of Israel who slaughters an ox or a lamb or a goat inside the camp or outside the camp, 4 but has not brought it to the entrance of the Meeting Tent to present it as an offering to the Lord before the tabernacle of the Lord. He has shed blood, so that man will be cut off from the midst of his people. 5 This is so that the Israelites will bring their sacrifices that they are sacrificing in the open field to the Lord at the entrance of the Meeting Tent—to the priest—and sacrifice them there as peace-offering sacrifices to the Lord.
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX Leviticus 17:4
Septuagint
2 Speak to Aaron and to his sons, and to all the children of Israel, and you shall say to them, This is the word which the Lord has commanded, saying, 3 Every man of the children of Israel, or of the strangers dwelling among you, who shall kill a calf, or a sheep, or a goat in the camp, or who shall kill it out of the camp, 4 and shall not bring it to the door of the tabernacle of witness, so as to sacrifice it for a whole burnt offering or peace-offering to the Lord to be acceptable for a sweet smelling aroma: and whoever shall kill it outside, and shall not bring it to the door of the tabernacle of witness, so as to offer it as a gift to the Lord before the tabernacle of the Lord; blood shall be imputed to that man, he has shed blood; that soul shall be cut off from his people. 5 That the children of Israel may offer their sacrifices, all that they shall kill in the fields, and bring them to the Lord to the doors of the tabernacle of witness to the priest, and they shall sacrifice them as a peace-offering to the Lord.
Date: 300–201 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... A further difficulty posed by Leviticus 17:3-7 is the textual variation in the key verses 3-4 preserved in the ancient witnesses; and it is this textual variation that makes these verses a particularly fascinating case study of how evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls can reframe classical issues in Pentateuchal research. In the LXX, Samaritan Pentateuch, and one manuscript from Qumran, 4QLev (4Q26), verse 4 contains a lengthy plus over against the shorter text preserved in Masoretic text and another manuscript from Qumran, namely 11QpaleoLev (11Q1). The plus offers an expanded description of the offering that is to be presented by the person who wishes to slaughter his or her livestock for food. The length of the plus is particularly striking given the high degree of uniformity that usually characterizes the text of Leviticus ..."
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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