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LXX Leviticus

Septuagint

About this book
Chapter 24

1 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 Charge the children of Israel, and let them take for me pure olive oil beaten for the light, to burn a lamp continually, 3 outside the veil in the tabernacle of witness;⁠ and Aaron and his sons shall burn it from evening until morning before the Lord continually, a perpetual statute throughout your generations. 4 You shall burn the lamps on the pure lamp-stand before the Lord till morning. 5 And you shall take fine flour, and make of it twelve loaves; each loaf shall be of two tenth parts. 6 And you shall put them in two rows, each row containing six loaves, on the pure table before the Lord. 7 And you shall put on each row pure frankincense and salt; and these things shall be for loaves for a memorial, set forth before the Lord. 8 On the sabbath-day they shall be set forth before the Lord continually before the children of Israel, for an everlasting covenant. 9 And they shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat them in the holy place: for this is their most holy portion of the offerings made to the Lord, a perpetual statute. 10 And there went forth a son of an Israelite woman, and he was son of an Egyptian man among the sons of Israel; and they fought in the camp, the son of the Israelite woman, and a man who was an Israelite. 11 And the son of the Israelite woman named THE NAME and cursed; and they brought him to Moses: and his mother's name was Shelomith, daughter of Dibri of the tribe of Dan. 12 And they put him in custody, to judge him by the command of the Lord. 13 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 14 Bring forth him that cursed outside the camp, and all who heard shall lay their hands upon his head, and all the congregation shall stone him. 15 And speak to the sons of Israel, and you shall say to them, Whoever shall curse God shall bear his sin. 16 And he that names the name of the Lord,⁠ let him die the death:⁠ let all the congregation of Israel stone him with stones; whether he is a stranger or a native, let him die for naming the name of the Lord. 17 And whoever shall strike a man and he dies, let him die the death. 18 And whoever shall strike a beast, and it shall die, let him render life for life. 19 And whoever shall inflict a blemish on his neighbor, as he has done to him, so shall it be done to himself in return; 20 bruise for bruise, eye for eye, tooth for tooth:⁠ as any one may inflict a blemish on a man, so shall it be rendered to him. 21 Whoever shall strike a man, and he shall die, let him die the death. 22 There shall be one judgment for the stranger and the native, for I am the Lord your God. 23 And Moses spoke to the children of Israel, and they brought him that had cursed out of the camp, and stoned him with stones: and the children of Israel did as the Lord commanded Moses.

Texts in conversation

Compare LXX Leviticus 24:20 and Matthew 5:38

Septuagint · New Testament

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Summary

In Matthew 5, Jesus quotes “eye for an eye,” from Leviticus 24 meant to limit excessive revenge. Jesus intensifies its meaning, using a Jewish tradition of building a “fence around the Torah” to prevent even the smallest step toward violating it.

Passages

LXX Leviticus 24:20

Septuagint
19 And whoever shall inflict a blemish on his neighbor, as he has done to him, so shall it be done to himself in return; 20 bruise for bruise, eye for eye, tooth for tooth: as any one may inflict a blemish on a man, so shall it be rendered to him. 21 Whoever shall strike a man, and he shall die, let him die the death.
300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Leviticus

Matthew 5:38

New Testament
37 Let your word be ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no.’ More than this is from the evil one. 38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39 But I say to you, do not resist the evildoer. But whoever strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other to him as well. 40 And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your coat also.
70–90 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Matthew

References

"... Matthew 5 ... Jesus sets forth as his demonstration of how not to abolish the Torah and the prophets but to fulfill them in a set of teachings that, all together, point to a more profound demand - on the Torah's part - than people have realized. Not only must I not kill, I must not even approach that threshold of anger that in the end leads to murder. Not only must I not commit adultery, I must not even approach the road that leads to adultery. Not only must I not swear falsely by God's name, I should not swear at all. These formulations represent an elaboration of three of the Ten Commandments (later on we shall meet two more of them). In the language of a text of Judaism attributed to authorities long before Jesus' own time, "Make a fence around the Torah." That is to say, conduct yourself in such a way that you will avoid even the things that cause you to sin, not only sin itself ..."
Jacob Neusner, A Rabbi Talks with Jesus (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2000), 40.

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 24:20 and Matthew 5:38

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