Commentari biblici

A Calendar, enumerating Sacred Days and Seasons

This ch. and the next shew more of the influence of P than any earlier part of the ‘Law of Holiness.’ In fact, P is the source of more than half the verses in 23. In analysing the contents, we find a collection of independent laws introduced severally by special formulae (Leviticus 23:2; Leviticus 23:4; Leviticus 23:9; Leviticus 23:23; Leviticus 23:33). We also find two threads running through the ch., which are not difficult to separate. The one, drawn from H as its source (Leviticus 23:9-20; Leviticus 23:22; Leviticus 23:39 b, 40–43), contemplates sacred seasons in their relation to land and to agriculture. In the view of H, the three set feasts mentioned as ‘the morrow after the sabbath’ (of Maẓẓoth, i.e. of unleavened bread), the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Booths, have for their purpose the celebration of three stages in nature’s yield of the produce of the earth, viz. the first sheaf cut, the end of the barley and wheat harvest, and the completion of the vintage gathering. In presenting this point of view H agrees with JE (Exodus 23:15-16; Exodus 34:18; Exodus 34:22) and Deut. (Deuteronomy 16:1; Deuteronomy 16:9; Deuteronomy 16:13). On the other hand, the element drawn from P (Leviticus 23:1-8; Leviticus 23:21; Leviticus 23:23-39 a, Leviticus 23:39 c, Leviticus 23:44) is in full harmony with the title (Leviticus 23:2; Leviticus 23:4), and regards these seasons as ‘holy convocations,’ and times for religious observances, in accordance with its fundamental aim, viz. to set forth Mosaic legislation. It apparently therefore fixes them without reference to their character as nature’s festivals. Moreover, P forbids work (Leviticus 23:3; Leviticus 23:7-8; Leviticus 23:21; Leviticus 23:25; Leviticus 23:28; Leviticus 23:35), and prescribes in several instances an offering made by fire (Leviticus 23:8; Leviticus 23:18; Leviticus 23:27; Leviticus 23:30 f., Leviticus 23:36 f.). The compilation was thus made by an editor (Rp[71]) who had both H and P before him, and fitted together excerpts from each, with a certain amount of harmonizing, as elsewhere.

[71] A Reviser, who, probably after that collection had been combined with the Priestly Code, introduced further elements from that Code.

2, 3. If we pass from ‘say unto them’ (Leviticus 23:2) to ‘These are,’ etc. (Leviticus 23:4), we perceive that the intermediate words have the air of an insertion by a reviser, writing in the spirit of P, and desiring to attain completeness by including the weekly sabbath with its ‘holy convocation.’ This inference is supported by the form of the subscription, where (Leviticus 23:38) the words, ‘Beside the sabbaths of the Lord,’ etc., have somewhat the air of an addition to the summarized description of the feasts (Leviticus 23:38) which have been enumerated.

an holy convocation] i.e. an assembly called together at the sanctuary for religious purposes. They were summoned (cp. Leviticus 23:24) according to Numbers 10:2 (where ‘calling’ is in the original identical with the word here rendered ‘convocation’) by blowing of trumpets, cp. the Mohammedan custom, by which the muezzin summons the faithful to prayer from the top of a mosque. The expression found here occurs outside this ch. only in Exodus 12:16, and in the directions for the observance of festival days in Numbers 28:18; Numbers 28:25 f., Numbers 29:1; Numbers 29:7; Numbers 29:12 (all P).

Feasts of the Passover and Unleavened Bread (5–8)

The law in detail is set forth Exodus 12, and is accordingly here assumed as known, and only the chief regulations are mentioned.

5. the first month] corresponding to the latter part of March with the former part of April. Here, as elsewhere, P denotes the months by numbers only, whereas JE and Deut. give them the names by which they were known in Canaan or Phoenicia, in this case Abib (Exodus 13:4; Exodus 23:15; Exodus 34:18; Deuteronomy 16:1), while in Nehemiah 2:1; Esther 3:7 it is called by its Babylonian name Nisan. See further in Driver (C.B.), Exodus 12:2.

on the fourteenth day of the month at even] The Jewish day commencing at sunset, the Passover lamb was to be killed before sunset on the day which both by their reckoning and ours was the 14th, and eaten on what we should call the night between the fourteenth and fifteenth days.

passover] The etymological meaning of the Heb. word peṣaḥ is obscure. See Driver, Exod. p. 408 for the various conjectures. The LXX. (πάσχα, Pascha, whence the adjective paschal) and so the N.T. (e.g. Matthew 26:17) transliterate it. Our word is taken from the explanation in Exodus 12:13 which refers it to the sparing of the Israelitish houses on the occasion of the slaying of the Egyptians’ firstborn.

6. unleavened bread] For details, see Exodus 12:15 ff.

7. servile work] The expression (see R.V. mg. and introd. note to ch.) is used in reference to the three great festivals and that of the New Year, and implies a less strict abstinence from labour than was demanded by the corresponding rule for the sabbath (Leviticus 23:3) and the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 23:28). In the former case it was probably only work of an agricultural kind that was forbidden.

8. an offering made by fire] The details of this offering are given in Numbers 28:2 ff.

9–14. An offering of firstfruits (H)

11. The ritual here set forth has no parallel elsewhere in the Pentateuch. Deuteronomy 26:2 prescribes that ‘the first of all the fruit of the ground’ shall be offered, but gives no direction as to any particular day. In Deuteronomy 16:9-10 the nature of the offering is left undetermined, and the date is seven weeks ‘from the time thou beginnest to put the sickle to the standing corn.’

shall wave] See Appendix IV, pp. 183 ff.

the morrow after the sabbath] For this vague expression see introd. note to ch. Driver (LO T.9 p. 55 note) says that it is understood traditionally of the 1st day of Maẓẓoth (unleavened bread); but this is an unusual sense of ‘sabbath.’ He considers it probable that in its original connexion the ‘sabbath’ meant here was the ordinary weekly sabbath which fell during the seven days of Maẓẓoth.