Leviticus 1-10

James Watts uses rhetorical analysis for this detailed exposition of

Leviticus 1-10. In dialogue with a wide variety of contemporary

scholarship on Leviticus, this commentary also engages the history of

the book’s interpretation and the history of Jewish and Christian ritual

practices. Leviticus’s rhetoric aimed to persuade ancient Israelites to

make offerings to God. It legitimized the monopoly of Aaronide priests

over Israel’s offerings and over determining correct ritual practice.

The priests in turn established the Torah containing Leviticus as the

authoritative text of Israel’s religion. Rhetorical analysis of

Leviticus thus leads to new insights into the role of priests in raising

the Pentateuch to the status of scripture and in shaping the biblical

canon. It also calls attention to the role of ritual rhetoric in the

polities of later Jewish and Christian groups, despite the fact that

neither religion makes animal offerings as Leviticus 1-10 mandates.