The Book of Leviticus
Leviticus Chapters 1, 2, 3

INTRODUCTION TO THIS STUDY

The purpose of this work is to guide you in Spirit Filled interpretation of this "Selected Study". As necessary we will provide outlines, historical backgrounds, note the purpose and focus of the text, and also provide the original Hebrew language definitions for the key words in the highlighted text. The English translation used is the King James (Authorized) Version, not because it is the best translation available, but because I just plain prefer it for study!

All Scripture text will be presented in normal cased lettering, and all notes within the text will be in TRUE TYPE FONT, as shown. This (I hope) will allow you to avoid confusion between God's Word and my notes. As I update this website, I will continue to embellish the text so that anyone using NETSCAPE 3.0 or MICROSOFT 3.0 or higher will be able to read the document easier.
 

An excellent site to study Biblical Hebrew is by Lee R. Martin, Biblical Hebrew. The following are excerpts from his Hebrew Dictionary (if you want more, go to his site):

ABSOLUTE: In Hebrew Greek grammar, a word is absolute when it stands independently and has no grammatical relation to other elements in the sentence. The most common instance in Greek is the genitive absolute.

ABSOLUTE STATE: The Hebrew absolute together with a word in the construct state expresses the genitive. Do not confuse with the infinitive absolute. Heb: king (absolute); horse of (construct) the king (absolute), i.e., the king's horse (genitive).

ACCIDENCE: That part of grammar that treats inflection; a subcategory of morphology.

ACCUSATIVE CASE: A substantive used as the direct object of a transitive verb is said to be in the accusative case. In Greek, the accusative is the case of extension. Heb: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen. 1:1). Gk: "He gave the right to become children of God" (John 1:12).

ACCUSATIVE ENDING: In Hebrew see DIRECTIVE h.

ACTIVE VOICE: In the active voice, the subject is the doer of the action that is expressed by the verb.

AKTIONSART: German for "kind of action."

ANARTHROUS: A word that appears without the article is anarthrous.

ARAMAIC: A branch of the northwest Semitic languages that is closely related to Hebrew. In the OT Masoretic text, Ezra 4:8-6:18; 7:12-26; Dan. 2:4b-7:28; and Jer. 10:11 are in Aramaic rather than Hebrew. Aramaic had become the common language of the Jewish people by NT times.

CASE: Case shows the grammatical relation of inflected forms such as nouns and pronouns to other words (nominative, possessive, objective cases).

CAUSATIVE VERB: A transitive verb that can be said to cause the action depicted in a corresponding intransitive verb. Ex: lay ("cause to lie") is the causative of lie; raise, the causative of rise.

DIRECT OBJECT: The word, phrase, or clause that is the primary goal or result of the action of the verb (cf. accusative case); the person or thing is directly affected by the action of the verb. Heb: "God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen. 1:1). Gr: "He grabbed him and began to choke him" (Matt. 18:28).

GENITIVE: The case that expresses possession or specifies a relationship that can be expressed in English by "of." In Hebrew this is called a construct relationship. The Greek genitive is the specifying case answering the question "What kind?" Heb: "the expanse of the sky" (Gen. 1:21). Gk: "a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins" (Mark 1:4).

GUTTURALS: The mute consonants whose sounds are produced when the front of the tongue approaches the palate of the mouth. Four letters in Hebrew, a h j and [ are the guttural letters (r has some guttural characteristics). Hebrew gutturals cannot be doubled, prefer a-class vowels, and composite shevas. In Greek, the guttural letters are g k and c also called velars, laryngeals, or palatals.

HITHPAEL: A verbal form in Hebrew that expresses intensive or emphatic action (classified by some grammars as causative action) and reflexive voice. For this emphasis in Greek, middle voice. Heb: "A group of adventurers gathered around [lit., gathered themselves around] him" (Judg. 11:3).

HOPHAL: A verbal form in Hebrew that expresses causative action and passive voice. Heb: "Let seven of his male descendants be given [hophal] to us" (2 Sam. 21:6).

IMPERATIVE: A verb or verbal mood that expresses command or makes a request.

IMPERFECT: In Hebrew, the form of the verb used to express action that is incomplete or unfinished. Heb: "What if they do not believe me" (Exod. 4:1). The Greek imperfect tense expresses incomplete, linear action in past time. Gk: "People were eating and drinking..." (Luke 17:28). Other regular uses of the tense include iterative, frequentative, inceptive, and conative.

INFINITIVE: A verbal noun that has characteristics of both verbs and nouns. In English usually introduced by to. Hebrew has both infinitive absolute and infinitive construct forms. Heb: "I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land" (Gen. 15:7). The Greek infinitive is used as a substantive, in subordinate clauses, with prepositions, and in epexegesis. Gk: "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain" (Phil. 1:21).

INFINITIVE ABSOLUTE: A form of the Hebrew infinitive that may function in a number of ways: to express certainty or intensification ("you will surely die," Gen. 2:17); to express repeated or continued action ("Be ever hearing," Isa. 6:9); as a finite verb ("They...broke the jars," Judg. 7:19); to express an emphatic imperative ("Remember the Sabbath day," Exod. 20:8).

MASORETIC TEXT: The vocalized text of the Hebrew Bible, prepared by a group of Jewish scholars around A.D. 700 to preserve the oral pronunciation of the Hebrew words.

MOOD: Mood indicates the manner in which the action is conceived (or its relation to reality). Moods are indicative, imperative, subjunctive, and optative. Mood may be expressed by finite verbs in Greek and by various means (form, words, or context) in Hebrew. Mode.

NIPHAL: A verbal form (stem) in Hebrew that expresses simple action and passive or reflexive voice. Heb: "She was given in marriage to Adriel of Meholah" (1 Sam. 18:19).

OPTATIVE MOOD: The mood of possibility and more doubtful assertion that expresses wish or desire. See also jussive and cohortative. Heb: "If only we had died in Egypt!" (Num. 14:2). Gk: "Maythe Lord direct your hearts into God's love and Christ's perseverance" (2 Thess. 3:5).

PARTICIPLE: A verbal form that has characteristics of both noun and verb. In Hebrew it represents characteristic, continual, uninterrupted action. Heb: "The Spirit of God was hovering over the waters" (Gen. 1:2). The Greek participle is widely used as a substantive, adjective, and adverb in phrases and clauses. Gk:"...in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him" (1 Peter 1:21).

PARTICLE: A unit of speech that is ranked as an uninflected word but expresses some kind of syntactical relationship or some general aspect of meaning. Some grammarians classify all conjunctions, prepositions, and negatives as particles.

PASSIVE VOICE: A voice form of the verb that represents the subject as receiver of the action. Heb: "This land was given to us as our possession" (Ezek. 11:15). Gk: "You were marked in him with a seal" (Eph. 1:13).

PERFECT/PERFECT TENSE: In Hebrew, this form of the verb is used to express completed action, whether in reality or in the thought of the speaker or writer. Heb: rm'v; is a perfect form of the verb and would be translated "he guarded." The Greek perfect tense, by contrast, represents a state of completion with abiding results and is often translated as a present perfect. Gk: The perfect leluke would be rendered "he has released."

PIEL: A verbal form in Hebrew that expresses intensive or emphatic action and active voice. Heb: "They destroyed the high places and the altars" (2 Chron. 31:1).

PREPOSITION: A word that shows relationships between its object and some other word in the sentence. Some common English prepositions are in, to, from, with, above, for, by.

PRETERITE: A Latin name for the past tense; it is the equivalent of the perfect in Hebrew and the aorist indicative in Greek.

PUAL: A verbal form in Hebrew that expresses intensive or emphatic action and passive voice. Heb: "There was Baal's altar, demolished" (Judg. 6:28).

QAL: A verbal form in Hebrew that expresses simple action and active voice; it is sometimes spelled Kal. Ex:"Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew" (Gen.25:34).

REFLEXIVE VOICE: Denotes an action that is directed back upon the agent or subject; expressed in Hebrew by the niphal and the hithpael, in Greek by the middle voice.Heb: "I have...kept myself from sin" (Ps. 18:23). Gk: "Then he went away and hanged himself" (Matt. 27:5).

ROOT: That part of a word left when all affixes are removed; the morpheme that carries the minimal unit of meaning in a word and can be common to several different words. The three consonants in Hebrew that ordinarily compose the basic uninflected spelling of a word are called the root letters. Occasionally a Hebrew word may have two or four root letters. Gk: the root dik- is common to dikaio", "righteous," dikh, "justice," and dikaiow, "to acquit." Also called "Lexeme."

STATIVE VERB, STATIC VERB: A stative verb is one that indicates a state of being or relationship rather than action. In Hebrew, its vowel pattern is different from that of verbs of action or motion. Greek statives include eijmi, ginomai, and uJparcw. Heb: "the hands...will be strengthened (2 Sam. 16:21). Gk: "Who, being in very nature God" (Phil. 2:6).

STEM: The noun or verb base formed by the addition of derivational affixes to the root. Thus, in Greek, doro- is the stem of the noun doron, "gift"; do- is the root, ro is the affix (in this case, a suffix). Also called base in recent grammars. In Hebrew, the term is used to designate verb forms that express certain kinds of action and voice; the major Hebrew verbal stems are qal, niphal, piel, pual, hithpael, hiphil, and hophal.

STRONG VERB: In Hebrew, the regular verb whose stem consonants do not change, i.e., remain unmodified in conjugation, in contrast to the weak verb. In Greek, a tense stem formed from the verb stem or root itself by vowel gradation.

VOICE: Voice is a modification of a verb that tells whether the subject of the verb acts or is acted upon. There are three voices in English, Hebrew, and Greek: active, passive, and reflexive.

WEAK VERB: In Hebrew, the verbs with gutturals or weak letters ( n in first root position, y and w in first or second root position, identical second and third root letters) as radicals, which produce modifications in the conjugation, in contrast to the strong verb. In Greek, a tense stem formed by adding a suffix to the verb stem or root.

If you discover obvious errors (as I am human, and do make mistakes), please let me know. Do not contact me to argue about the doctrinal differences that you may have with my teaching. I do not argue Theology with anyone, so all Legalists, cultists, and others with extremist views, please save your (and my) time. If you want to discuss your doctrinal differences, or share a viewpoint, please contact me at Didaskalos Ministries. I am not so arrogant as to think I know it all, or even 1% of what the scripture teaches.
 
 

of the congregation, saying,
 

2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man (notice that the offerer, not the Priest, made the sacrifice before God)

of you bring an offering (qarab, to draw near with {an offering}. In order to be saved we must draw near to God)

unto the LORD, ye shall bring your offering of the cattle, [even] of the herd, (the ox was the basic unit of agricultural prosperity in these times, the "coin of the realm")

and of the flock.
 

3 If his offering [be] a burnt (`olah, that which has been burnt, refers to smoke. The smoke from the offering drifted upward, symbolizing communion with God)

sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish: (represents the perfect righteous sinlessness of the Christ)

he shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD.
 

4 And he shall put his hand upon the head (this act symbolized passing the sins of the offerer onto the offering. Again, a type of Christ, who would take our sins on Himself)

of the burnt offering; and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him.
 

5 And he shall kill the bullock (the muzzle of the animal was lifted and the throat was cut, severing the carotid artery so that blood gushed out. The death was violent, just as our Lord's death was violent on the Cross for us)

before the LORD: and the priests, Aaron's sons, shall bring the blood, and sprinkle the blood (symbolized the accomplishment of salvation. The sprinkling of the blood showed that the offering was accepted of God)

round about upon the altar (the altar was a high platform with a horn on each corner to which the animal was tied. The altar was in front of the tabernacle, in plain view of all)

that [is by] the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
 

6 And he shall flay (pashat, to spread out, strip, skin. This was done in order to show that there was no blemish in the animal. Similarly, Christ was scourged before He was crucified for us)

the burnt offering, and cut it into his pieces.
 

7 And the sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire ('esh, fire, represents the judgment of God being placed on the sacrificed rather than on the people)

upon the altar, and lay the wood (`ets, the wood was burned in the judgment of God. See analogy in 1 Cor 3.12, where wood represents human good as opposed to Divine good)

in order upon the fire:
 

8 And the priests, Aaron's sons, shall lay the parts, the head, (ro'sh, the head - Christ was morally pure in thought as well as deed. The head was burned to symbolize that Christ died pure in thought as well as deed)

and the fat, (peder, suet, fat. The fat was that which was seen, hence it represented the outward righteousness of Christ)

in order upon the wood that [is] on the fire which [is] upon the altar:
 

9 But his inwards and his legs (represented the soul of Christ, which was without sin)

shall he wash in water: and the priest shall burn all on the altar, [to be] a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the LORD. (God was satisfied by the propitiation of Christ. See Rom 3.22-24)
 

10 And if his offering (qorban, sacrificial present, that which is brought near. Symbolizes that we must draw near to God for salvation)

[be] of the flocks, (tso'n, the sheep or goats were offered by the middle class worker, whereas the more expensive cattle were offered by the well to do. You brought to God that which you had)

[namely], of the sheep, (keseb, young sheep. Christ was only 33 when He died - very young. Also, it was no sacrifice to bring an old, broken down animal to God)

or of the goats, (`ez, a young goat, the more valuable of the goats)

for a burnt sacrifice; he shall bring it a male without blemish. (tamiym, without spot, undefiled. See 1 Peter 1.18-19, Christ was unspotted by the world)
 

11 And he shall kill (shachat, to cut the throat, violently slaughter)

it on the side of the altar northward (this was the judgment side of the altar)

before the LORD: (emphasizes that the offering was for Gods sake, not for show for others)

and the priests, Aaron's sons, shall sprinkle his blood round about upon the altar. (same procedure as used with the more expensive bullock. Though the sacrifice differed, the method did not)
 

12 And he shall cut it into his pieces, with his head and his fat: and the priest shall lay them in order on the wood that [is] on the fire which [is] upon the altar:
 

13 But he shall wash the inwards and the legs with water: and the priest shall bring [it] all, and burn [it] upon the altar: it [is] a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the LORD.
 

14 And if the burnt sacrifice for his offering to the LORD [be] of fowls, (the least expensive offering, this was for the poor people. The sacrifice was for all, regardless as to monetary stature in the land)

then he shall bring his offering of turtledoves, (towr, ring-doves)

or of young pigeons.
 

15 And the priest (this was the only offering where the priest did the killing, perhaps because of the small size of the animal)

shall bring it unto the altar, and wring off his head, and burn [it] on the altar; and the blood thereof shall be wrung out at the side of the altar:
 

16 And he shall pluck away his crop with his feathers, and cast it beside the altar on the east part, (this was the garbage collection side of the altar, hence it represented Golgotha, the dump where Christ was killed)

by the place of the ashes:
 

17 And he shall cleave it with the wings thereof, [but] shall not divide [it] asunder: (again a difference. Some speculate that the dove represented the deity of Christ, which could not be divided)

and the priest shall burn it upon the altar, upon the wood that [is] upon the fire: it [is] a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the LORD.
 
 

1 And when any (nephesh, any soul)

will offer a meat offering (this was a non-blood offering, literally a "food" or "meal" offering. It represented the ministry of the Holy Spirit in Christ's life)

unto the LORD, his offering shall be [of] fine flour; (represented the perfect humanity of Christ)

and he shall pour oil (the anointing of the Holy Spirit, also symbolic of the Kingly line of Christ. Kings were anointed with oil by the prophets)

upon it, and put frankincense (again, a Kingly gift. See Matthew 2.11)

thereon:

2 And he shall bring (Hophal Perfect bow', to cause to bring)

it to Aaron's sons the priests: and he shall take there out his handful (symbolic of the appropriation of personal salvation)

of the flour thereof, and of the oil thereof, with all the frankincense (lebownah, frankincense, the most expensive and rarest perfume in the ancient world)

thereof; and the priest shall burn the memorial of it upon the altar, [to be] an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the LORD: (represents propitiation of Christ)
 

3 And the remnant of the meat offering (mimchah, food offering, gift offering)

[shall be] Aaron's and his sons': [it is] a thing most holy of the offerings of the LORD made by fire.
 

4 And if thou bring an oblation of a meat offering baken in the oven, (several notes here {1} note that the offering, not the offerer, went into the oven. We cannot get on the Cross with Christ. It is His work that brings us salvation. {2} the oven, tannuwr, was an enclosed container, somewhat similar to our crock pot of today but larger, {3} the action speaks of the hidden side of the Cross of Christ. Food placed in the container could not be seen. As Christ suffered, darkness fell on the face of the earth)

[it shall be] unleavened cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, or unleavened (matstsah, without yeast. Leaven represents the Old Sin Nature, which was not present in Christ)

wafers anointed with oil.
 

5 And if thy oblation [be] a meat offering [baken] in a pan, (machabath, a flat pan. Speaks of the seen side of the Cross, for food placed in this pan could be seen)

it shall be [of] fine flour unleavened, mingled with oil.
 

6 Thou shalt part it in pieces, (literally, break into crumbs)

and pour oil thereon: it [is] a meat offering. (see 1 Peter 1.8; 2 Cor 9.15; 12.4, 47)
 

7 And if thy oblation [be] a meat offering [baken] in the frying pan, (marchesheth, stew pan or pot)

it shall be made [of] fine flour with oil.
 

8 And thou shalt bring the meat offering that is made of these things unto the LORD: and when it is presented unto the priest, he shall bring it unto the altar. (mizbeach, altar. Represents the Cross)
 

9 And the priest shall take from the meat offering a memorial ('azkarah, remembrance offering)

thereof, and shall burn [it] upon the altar: [it is] an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the LORD.
 

10 And that which is left of the meat offering [shall be] Aaron's and his sons': [it is] a thing most holy of the offerings of the LORD made by fire.
 

11 No meat offering, which ye shall bring unto the LORD, shall be made with leaven: for ye shall burn no leaven, (se'or, yeast cake. Yeast or leaven is symbolic of sin. See Mk 8.15 - the leaven of Herod was worldliness; Mat 16.6, leaven of Saducees is humanism; Mk 8.15, leaven of Pharisees was religion and ritual; Gal 5.9 - leaven of Galatians was legalism; 1 Cor 5.6 - leaven of Corinthians was sinful sexuality. The offering symbolized Christ, who is without sin - thus no leaven)

nor any honey, (debash, that which is sweet, honey. Symbolized humanism, which is unacceptable to God. See Heb 6.1; Tit 3.5; Isa 64.6)

in any offering of the LORD made by fire.

12 As for the oblation (qorban, sacrificial present)

of the firstfruits, (re'shiyth, first offered. Refers to Feast of the Firstfruits. See 1 Cor 15.20-23)

ye shall offer them unto the LORD: but they shall not be burnt (type of the resurrected Christ, who could not be crucified again)

on the altar for a sweet savor.
 

13 And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant (in the ancient world agreements were ratified by both members eating salt at the time of the agreement. This was like signing or certifying the contract/ covenant. If enemies ate salt at the same table they were under a truce until the following day)

of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering: with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt. (salt preserved, and thus symbolized eternal life)
 

14 And if thou offer a meat offering of thy firstfruits unto the LORD, thou shalt offer for the meat offering of thy firstfruits green ears of corn (symbolized the resurrection of Christ)

dried by the fire, (symbolizes the Cross)

[even] corn beaten out of full ears.
 

15 And thou shalt put oil (Just as Kings were anointed by the prophet, Christ was anointed to suffer for us)

upon it, and lay frankincense thereon: it [is] a meat offering.
 

16 And the priest shall burn the memorial of it, [part] of the beaten corn thereof, and [part] of the oil thereof, with all the frankincense thereof: [it is] an offering made by fire unto the LORD.
 
 

1  And if his oblation (qorban, sacrificial present)

be a sacrifice of peace (shelem, plural word meaning "peaces". Christ's offering brought peace on several levels, thus the use of the plural here)

offering, if he offer it of the herd; whether it be a male or female, (here the offering could be male {initiator in God's design of creation} or female {responder in God's design of creation}. Jesus actively chose to go to the Cross for us {Heb 10.5-14}, and once on the Cross had to passively receive that which was laid on Him)

he shall offer (qarab, Hophal stem = cause it to be brought near so as to be offered)

it without blemish (tamiym, entire, whole, without defects. Christ was sinless)

before the LORD.
 

2  And he shall lay his hand (symbolic of transferring our sins to Christ)

upon the head of his offering, and kill it at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation: and Aaron's sons the priests shall sprinkle the blood upon the altar round about.
 

3  And he shall offer of the sacrifice of the peace offering an offering made by fire (symbolic of judgment of God)

unto the LORD; the fat (in the ancient world this was considered the best part of the animal. Christ gave the best of Himself for us)

that covereth the inwards, and all the fat that is upon the inwards,
 

4  And the two kidneys, (kidneys often symbolized emotion)

and the fat that is on them, which is by the flanks, (muscles of the loins, represented the confidence Christ had when He went to the Cross for us)

and the caul above the liver, (literally, the membrane over the liver. Refers to the revealed glory of God in Christ. See Jo 1.18)

with the kidneys, it shall he take away.
 

5  And Aaron's sons shall burn it on the altar upon the burnt sacrifice, which is upon the wood that is on the fire: it is an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the LORD.
 

6  And if his offering for a sacrifice of peace offering unto the LORD be of the flock; (as before, the rich offered the calve, the middle class the sheep or goat, the poor the fowl)

male or female, he shall offer it without blemish.
 

17  It shall be a perpetual statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings, that ye eat neither fat nor blood. (the fat and the blood were sacrificed to God, and were therefore for Him only - not to be eaten by man)