Leviticus 16:1-34

Leviticus 16. The Day of Atonement (see p. 104). The introduction (Leviticus 16:1) shows, by its reference to Leviticus 10:1, that Leviticus 16 originally followed Leviticus 10:7; i.e. after the law for the High Priest's consecration came the law of his entrance into the holy place. It is possible that the kernel of Leviticus 16 is this law of the High Priest's entrance (Leviticus 16:1; Leviticus 16:6; Leviticus 16:12; Leviticus 16:23), and that the separate rite of atonement for the sins of the people with the curious rite of the second goat was added later, or that two originally independent rites coalesced. This is the more probable because the rite is nowhere else mentioned in the OT. Ezek. prescribes two days of atonement (in 1st and 7th months; cf. Ezekiel 45:18; Ezekiel 45:20, where omit day of). In Nehemiah 8:9 ff, the law is read publicly, on the 1st day of the 7th month; on the 2nd, the feast of booths is decided on, and carried out (probably as Leviticus 23:34 ff.) in the week from the 15th to the 23rd. The following day, 24th, is kept as a fast. There is here no place for the Day of Leviticus 16. It is mentioned, indeed, in Leviticus 23:27 ff; Leviticus 25:9 ff., but with no hint of the special ritual of Leviticus 16. Hence, probably, Leviticus 16 embodies the latest ceremony of the whole of P, though the actual rites which it prescribes, side by side with burnt and sin offerings, breathe a very different spirit, and one which carries us back to a distant antiquity. In earlier times, when heathenism was still a danger, these rites were discountenanced by the priestly legislators; now, the menace of heathenism broken, they are taken over, as survivals and still popular, on account of their suggestive symbolism. Logically, there is no place for this peculiar rite in the system of P, which elsewhere regards sacrifice as sufficient by itself. (On Azazel, see p. 104.)

In Leviticus 23:24, the 1st day of the 7th month is a solemn rest; in Leviticus 25:9, the 10th day of the 7th month of the 50th year begins the year of Jubile. The old Heb. year began in the autumn (Exodus 23:16; Exodus 34:22), when the harvests were complete (p. 118). But in the Exile the Hebrews learnt the Babylonian reckoning, which began in spring; hence the ecclesiastical New Year's festivals would be considered as taking place in the 7th month. Leviticus 25:9 shows that the 10th day of the month was actually regarded as New Year's Day. It is characteristic of later Judaism to hold what was once a joyous festival in this fashion; a clean start was to be made by a solemn rite for rehallowing the whole people.