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Rabbinic tradition in Leviticus Rabbah explains the death of Nadab and Abihu not as punishment but as a sign of their closeness to God. Other Jewish writers, such as Philo, see their offering based on devotion, with their deaths showing divine approval.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Leviticus 10:2
Hebrew Bible
1 Then Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, each took his fire pan and put fire in it, set incense on it, and presented strange fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them to do. 2 So fire went out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them so that they died before the Lord. 3 Moses then said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord spoke: ‘Among the ones close to me I will show myself holy, and in the presence of all the people I will be honored.’” So Aaron kept silent. 4 Moses then called to Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel, Aaron’s uncle, and said to them, “Come near, carry your brothers from the front of the sanctuary to a place outside the camp.”
Leviticus Rabbah 12:2
Aggadah
Rabbinic
Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥman said: This statement was said to Moses at Sinai, but its [meaning] was not known to him until he encountered the incident. Moses said to Aaron: ‘My brother, it was stated to me at Sinai that I [God] am destined to sanctify this House, and it is with a great man that I will sanctify it. I believed that perhaps it was through [the death of] either you or me that this House would be sanctified. Now, [it is clear that] your two sons are greater than me and you.’ When Aaron heard that his sons were God-fearing, he was silent, and he was rewarded for his silence. From where is it derived that he was silent? “Aaron was silent” (Leviticus 10:3). From where is it derived that he was rewarded for his silence? It is because he was privileged and the divine speech was directed to him alone, as it is stated: “The Lord spoke to Aaron.”
Date: 500 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... According to one version Moses says that Nadab and Abihu have greater merit than either he or Aaron, since they were chosen to consecrate the Tabernacle by their death. According to the other version Moses declares that Nadab and Abihu died for the sanctification of God's name, thus giving Aaron to understand his sons' proximity to God. Sifra also attributes two noble motives to Nadab and Abihu: 1) They concluded that fire was necessary because the divine presence, had been withheld from Israel. God said to them: 'I shall honor you more than you have honored Me; you brought Me impure fire, but I will burn you with pure fire' 2) Upon beholding the fire of divine approval immediately preceding their action (Leviticus 9:23—24), they joyfully arose 'to add love to love,' Other traditions attested in PRK and Leviticus Rabbah insist that Nadab and Abihu were guilty of only one (unspecified) sin, to which Scripture consistently alludes; consequently no one may presume any other transgression on their part. Despite gazing too boldly at the divine presence, they nonetheless derived spiritual nourishment from it. Their death was as grievous to God as it was to their father Aaron. Finally, they are considered to have suffered the death of the righteous ..."
Kirschner, Robert
The Rabbinic and Philonic Exegeses of the Nadab and Abihu Incident (Lev. 10:1-6)
(pp. 375-393) The Jewish Quarterly Review. Vol. 73, No. 4, 1983
* 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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