Go to Related Reading
About this book

Leviticus

About this book
Chapter 19

1 The Lord spoke to Moses: 2 “Speak to the whole congregation of the Israelites and tell them, ‘You must be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.⁠ 3 Each of you must respect his mother and his father,⁠ and you must keep my Sabbaths. I am the Lord your God. 4 Do not turn to idols, and you must not make for yourselves gods⁠ of cast metal. I am the Lord your God. 5 “‘When you sacrifice a peace-offering sacrifice to the Lord, you must sacrifice it so that it is accepted for you. 6 It must be eaten on the day of your sacrifice and on the following day, but what is left over until the third day must be burned up. 7 If, however, it is eaten on the third day, it is spoiled; it will not be accepted, 8 and the one who eats it will bear his punishment for iniquity because he has profaned what is holy to the Lord. That person will be cut off from his people. 9 “‘When you gather in the harvest of your land, you must not completely harvest the corner of your field, and you must not gather up the gleanings of your harvest. 10 You must not pick your vineyard bare, and you must not gather up the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You must leave them for the poor and the resident foreigner.⁠ I am the Lord your God. 11 “‘You must not steal, you must not tell lies, and you must not deal falsely with your fellow citizen. 12 You must not swear falsely in my name, so that you do not profane the name of your God. I am the Lord. 13 You must not oppress your neighbor or commit robbery against your neighbor. You must not withhold the wages of the hired laborer overnight until morning. 14 You must not curse a deaf person or put a stumbling block in front of a blind person. You must fear your God; I am the Lord. 15 “‘You must not deal unjustly in judgment: You must neither show partiality to the poor nor honor the rich. You must judge your fellow citizen fairly.⁠ 16 You must not go about as a slanderer among your people. You must not stand idly by when your neighbor’s life is at stake. I am the Lord. 17 You must not hate your brother in your heart.⁠ You must surely reprove your fellow citizen so that you do not incur sin on account of him.⁠ 18 You must not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you must love your neighbor as yourself.⁠ I am the Lord.⁠ 19 You must keep my statutes. You must not allow two different kinds of your animals to breed together, you must not sow your field with two different kinds of seed,⁠ and you must not wear a garment made of two different kinds of material. 20 “‘When a man goes to bed with a woman for intercourse, although she is a slave woman designated for another man and she has not yet been ransomed, or freedom has not been granted to her, there will be an obligation to pay compensation. They must not be put to death, because she was not free. 21 He must bring his guilt offering to the Lord at the entrance of the Meeting Tent, a guilt-offering ram, 22 and the priest is to make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering before the Lord for his sin that he has committed, and he will be forgiven of his sin that he has committed. 23 “‘When you enter the land and plant any fruit tree, you must consider its fruit to be forbidden. Three years it will be forbidden to you; it must not be eaten.⁠ 24 In the fourth year all its fruit will be holy, praise offerings to the Lord. 25 Then in the fifth year you may eat its fruit to add its produce to your harvest. I am the Lord your God. 26 “‘You must not eat anything with the blood still in it.⁠ You must not practice either divination or soothsaying. 27 You must not round off the corners of the hair on your head⁠ or ruin the corners of your beard. 28 You must not slash your body for a dead person⁠ or incise a tattoo on yourself. I am the Lord.⁠ 29 Do not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, so that the land does not practice prostitution and become full of lewdness. 30 “‘You must keep my Sabbaths and fear my sanctuary. I am the Lord. 31 Do not turn to the spirits of the dead and do not seek familiar spirits to become unclean by them. I am the Lord your God. 32 You must stand up in the presence of the aged, honor the presence of an elder, and fear your God. I am the Lord. 33 When a resident foreigner lives with you in your land, you must not oppress him. 34 The resident foreigner who lives with you must be to you as a native citizen among you; so you must love the foreigner as yourself, because you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.⁠ 35 You must not do injustice in the regulation of measures, whether of length, weight, or volume.⁠ 36 You must have honest balances, honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin.⁠ I am the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt. 37 You must be sure to obey all my statutes and regulations. I am the Lord.’”

Texts in conversation

Compare Leviticus 19:18 and Letter of Aristeas 229 and 1 Corinthians 13:2

Hebrew Bible · Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions · New Testament

Share:

Summary

1 Corinthians 13 and the Letter of Aristeas both say that love is greater than faith, using similar language to elevate love as the highest value. This builds on the command in Leviticus 19 to love one’s neighbor, expanding it into a core principle.

Passages

Leviticus 19:18

Hebrew Bible
17 You must not hate your brother in your heart. You must surely reprove your fellow citizen so that you do not incur sin on account of him. 18 You must not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you must love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. 19 You must keep my statutes. You must not allow two different kinds of your animals to breed together, you must not sow your field with two different kinds of seed, and you must not wear a garment made of two different kinds of material.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Leviticus

Letter of Aristeas 229

Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions · Letter of Aristeas to Philocrates
Having expressed his agreement with the answer, the king asked the sixth to reply to the question, To whom ought we to exhibit gratitude? And he replied, 'To our parents continually, for God has given us a most important commandment with regard to the honor due to parents. In the next place He takes account of the attitude of friend toward friend for He speaks of "a friend who is as your own soul". You do well in trying to bring all men into friendship with yourself.' The king spoke kindly to him and then asked the next, What is it that resembles beauty in value? And he said, 'Piety, for it is the pre-eminent form of beauty, and its power lies in love, which is the gift of God. This you have already acquired and with it all the blessings of life.' The king in the most gracious way applauded the answer and asked another How, if he were to fail, he could regain his reputation again in the same degree? And he said, 'It is not possible for you to fail, for you have sown in all men the seeds of gratitude which produce a harvest of goodwill,
200–150 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Letter of Aristeas

1 Corinthians 13:2

New Testament
1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but I do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away everything I own, and if I give over my body in order to boast, but do not have love, I receive no benefit. 4 Love is patient, love is kind, it is not envious. Love does not brag, it is not puffed up.
55–57 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Corinthians

References

"... Despite the fact that the book of Leviticus is not frequently quoted among those from the Pentateuch by Mark, Matthew and the Lukan writings, at least one clear allusion and five explicit quotations from Leviticus are to be found in the Synoptic Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles ... in the early second century CE, Rabbi Akiba “spoke of the same passage (Leviticus 19:18) as ‘the greatest general principle in the Torah’” (see Genesis Rabbah 24:7 and Sifra on Leviticus 19:18). Other pre-Christian Jewish sources which also include the summary of the law, are to be found in “Tobit 4:15 (compare Sirach 31:15), Letter of Aristeas 207-208 (with the positive also indicated), and the Jerusalem Targum of Leviticus 19:18.” Despite being rare, the positive form can also be found in pre-Christian Jewish literature (Letter of Aristeas 20; 2 Enoch 61:2; Pirkei Avot 2.10, 12) ... Some interesting intertextual connections regarding Leviticus 19:18 can also be found in both the Testament of Dan, as well as in the Testament of Issachar. But it is especially Leviticus 19:18 which displays a broad early Christian trajectory, covering the Pauline and Gospel traditions, the Western text, Acts 15:20 and 15:28, as well as the Didache (Didache 1:2), the early Church Fathers (Barnabas 19.5; Justin Martyr, Dialogue 93.2) and the Coptic Gospel of Thomas 6. It is no surprise that the New Testament writers frequently quote the so-called “golden rule”, or “rule of reciprocity” from Leviticus 19:18. They probably traced the origins of the “golden rule” back to a Logion in the Jesus-tradition which contained Jesus’ own summary of the law ..."
Gert J. Steyn, “The Text Form of the Leviticus Quotations in the Synoptic Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles,” in The Text of Leviticus: Proceedings of the Third International Colloquium of the Dominique Barthélemy Institute, ed. Innocent Himbaza (Leuven: Peeters, 2020), 205–242.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Your feedback

Leviticus 19:18 and Letter of Aristeas 229 and 1 Corinthians 13:2

Leave a comment

Your questions and comments are welcome!

Comments

Glossary

Search the Library