Leviticus: Based on the New Revised Standard Version

Philip Budd's NCB (1996) is a thin commentary that yet manages to be mostly a form-critical and redaction-critical exercise in fragmenting the text. This might be helpful for those who engage in such studies. I don't give this kind of work much time. He is very skeptical on historicity and rarely interested in the theological import of the text. [Full Review]

Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996. Pp. xxiv + 395, Cloth, $26.00, ISBN 080284197X. Frank H. Gorman Bethany College Bethany, WV 26032 Philip J. Budd, lecturer at Westminster College, Oxford, England, has made a strong contribution to the NCB commentary series with his work on Leviticus. He seeks to interpret Leviticus in the context of the ambiguities that surround human existence as concretely generated in Israel's experience of exile in Babylon (p. vii). The work consists of six major sections: General Introduction (pp. 1-39); The Manual of Offerings (1:1-7:38) (pp. 40-128); Priests and the Cult (8:1-10:20) (pp. 129-57); The Manual of Purity (11:1-15:33) (pp. 158-222); The Day of Atonement (16:1-34) (pp. 223-38); The Holiness Code (17:1- 26:46) (pp. 239-377); The Appendix (27:1-34) (pp. 378-90). A bibliography (pp. xi-xxiii), an index of authors (pp. 391-94), and an index of subjects (pp. 394-95) are also included. In terms of introductory matters, Budd locates the origins of the priestly writings in the period between 539-516 BCE when the exiles in Babylon faced the prospect of a return to their own land. The priestly traditionists revised and expanded existing traditions in order to produce a foundational document for the new Temple state. To the initial narrative work designed to establish the sanctuary, the priestly traditionists added legislative and ritual materials designed to locate the origins of the cult at Mt. Sinai (pp. 5-20). Budd offers very insightful discussions of "Holiness" (pp. 24-28), "Sacrifice" (pp. 28-34), and priestly purity/impurity concerns (pp. 34-39). He provides a brief review of the primary theoretical positions that have been taken in regard to these matters. In various ways, each of these reflects the ambiguities of life lived in the contexts of social and political violence, the dislocation of exile, and a concern for the chaotic potentialities of the natural world. The priestly ritual system thus engages a complex range of issues and does this in a variety of ways in an effort to provide order and intelligibility to the ambiguities of life. Ritual is one of the ways in which this engagement takes place. [Full Review]