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LXX Leviticus

Septuagint

About this book
Chapter 19

1 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 Speak to the congregation of the children of Israel, and you shall say to them, You shall be holy; for I the Lord your God am holy. 3 Let every one of you reverence his father and his mother; and you shall keep my sabbaths: I am the Lord your God. 4 You shall not follow idols, and you shall not make to yourselves molten gods: I am the Lord your God. 5 And if you will sacrifice a peace-offering to the Lord, you shall offer it acceptable from yourselves. 6 On whatever day you shall sacrifice it, it shall be eaten; and on the following day, and if any of it should be left till the third day, it shall be thoroughly burnt with fire. 7 And if it should be at all eaten on the third day, it is unfit for sacrifice: it shall not be accepted. 8 And he that eats it shall bear his iniquity, because he has profaned the holy things of the Lord; and the souls that eat it shall be destroyed from among their people. 9 And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not complete the reaping of your field with exactness, and you shall not gather that which falls from your reaping. 10 And you shall not go over the gathering of your vineyard, neither shall you gather the remaining grapes of your vineyard: you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I am the Lord your God. 11 You shall not steal, you shall not lie, neither shall one bear false witness as an informer against his neighbor. 12 And you shall not swear unjustly by my name, and you shall not profane the holy name of your God: I am the Lord your God. 13 You shall not injure your neighbor, neither shall you rob him, neither shall the wages of your hireling remain with you until the morning. 14 You shall not revile the deaf, neither shall you put a stumbling block in the way of the blind; and you shall fear the Lord your God: I am the Lord your God. 15 You shall not act unjustly in judgment: you shall not accept the person of the poor, nor show favoritism to the powerful;⁠ with justice you will judge your neighbor. 16 You shall not walk deceitfully among your people; you shall not rise up against the blood of your neighbor: I am the Lord your God. 17 You shall not hate your brother in your heart: you shall surely rebuke your neighbor, so you shall not bear sin on his account. 18 And your hand shall not avenge you; and you shall not be angry with the children of your people; and you shall love your neighbor as yourself;⁠ I am the Lord. 19 You shall observe my law: you shall not let your cattle breed with one of a different kind, and you shall not sow your vineyard with diverse seed; and you shall not put upon yourself a mingled garment woven of two materials. 20 And if any one lies carnally with a woman, and she should be a home-servant kept for a man, and she has not been ransomed, and her freedom has not been given to her, they shall be visited with punishment; but they shall not die, because she was not set at liberty. 21 And he shall bring for his trespass to the Lord to the door of the tabernacle of witness, a ram for a trespass-offering. 22 And the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the trespass-offering, before the Lord, for the sin which he sinned; and the sin which he sinned shall be forgiven him. 23 And whenever you shall enter into the land which the Lord your God gives you, and shall plant any fruit tree, then you will purge away its uncleanness; its fruit shall be three years uncleansed to you, it shall not be eaten. 24 And in the fourth year all its fruit shall be holy, a subject of praise to the Lord. 25 And in the fifth year you shall eat the fruit, its produce is an increase to you. I am the Lord your God. 26 Do not eat on the mountains, nor shall you employ auguries, nor divine by inspection of birds. 27 You shall not make a round cutting of the hair of your head, nor disfigure your beard. 28 And you shall not make cuttings in your body for a dead body, and you shall not inscribe on yourselves any marks. I am the Lord your God. 29 You shall not profane your daughter to prostitute her; so the land shall not engage in prostitution, and the land be filled with iniquity. 30 You shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuaries: I am the Lord. 31 You shall not attend to those who have in them divining spirits, nor attach yourselves to enchanters, to pollute yourselves with them: I am the Lord your God. 32 You shall rise up before the gray-haired person, and honor the face of the old man, and shall fear your God: I am the Lord your God. 33 And if there should come to you a stranger in your land, you shall not afflict him. 34 The stranger that comes to you shall be among you as the native, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. 35 You shall not act unrighteously in judgment, in measures and weights and scales. 36 There shall be among you just balances and just weights and just liquid measure. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. 37 And you shall keep all my law and all my ordinances, and you shall do them: I am the Lord your God.

Texts in conversation

Compare LXX Leviticus 19:18 and James 2:8

Septuagint · New Testament

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Summary

James quotes Leviticus 19 and follows a Jewish tradition that uses one command as the center of interpreting the Torah. By placing “love your neighbor” at the center, James makes it the main rule for how all other commands should be understood.

Passages

LXX Leviticus 19:18

Septuagint
16 You shall not walk deceitfully among your people; you shall not rise up against the blood of your neighbor: I am the Lord your God. 17 You shall not hate your brother in your heart: you shall surely rebuke your neighbor, so you shall not bear sin on his account. 18 And your hand shall not avenge you; and you shall not be angry with the children of your people; and you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord. 19 You shall observe my law: you shall not let your cattle breed with one of a different kind, and you shall not sow your vineyard with diverse seed; and you shall not put upon yourself a mingled garment woven of two materials.
300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Leviticus

James 2:8

New Testament
6 But you have dishonored the poor! Are not the rich oppressing you and dragging you into the courts? 7 Do they not blaspheme the good name of the one you belong to? 8 But if you fulfill the royal law as expressed in this scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. 9 But if you show prejudice, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as violators. 10 For the one who obeys the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.
80–90 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in James

References

"... The teacher (or person) who avoids stumbling in speaking is 'perfect.' By now the careful reader of James is familiar with this term. James has spoken of believers being 'mature and complete' in 1:4, of God's gifts as 'perfect' in 1:17, and more importantly of the 'law of liberty' being the 'perfect law' in 1:25. The law of liberty in 1:25 is a synonym for the 'royal law,' the second half of the Jesus Creed (e.g., Leviticus 19:18) in 2:8. Thus, when James speaks of a 'perfect' teacher in 3:2, his concern is more focused than on just Torah observance. This person is a fully developed follower of Jesus' own teachings of the Torah as the Torah of loving God and loving others. The perfect teacher is one whose love shapes how he or she teaches and speaks of others ..."
Scot McKnight, The Letter of James (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 2011), 275.

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

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LXX Leviticus 19:18 and James 2:8

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