Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Levite reading the law to the Israelites (1873 drawing) The Tribe of Levi served particular religious duties for the Israelites and had political responsibilities as well. In return, the landed tribes were expected to give tithes to the Kohanim, the priests working in the Temple in Jerusalem , particularly the first tithe .
Deuteronomy 21:5 says of the priests that "according to their word shall every controversy and every stroke be". Deuteronomy 17:9 provides for the referral of a particularly difficult legal case to "the Levite priests, or the judge who will be present in those days". In Deuteronomy 31:9 the priests are entrusted with care of the Torah scroll.
Chapter 1 lists the places where the Priests and Levites kept watch in the Temple at night and describes the gates of the Temple Mount and the inner courts of the Temple building, and in particular, the chamber where the priests slept at night and a chamber in which the Hasmoneans preserved altar-stones from an earlier time: [1] [4]
The clear differentiation between the kohens (the priests) and the other Levites, in the regulations given by the Priestly Code for the ma'aser rishon, is a distinction scholars attribute to the pro-Aaronid political bias of the priestly source; according to the Biblical revisionists' worldview, all Levites can be legitimate priests, which is ...
In The Priests and the Levites (1940), [21] he stressed that members of these groups exist in the realm between history (below) and redemption (above), and must act in a unique way to help move others to prayer and action, and help bring an end to suffering. He wrote, "Today, we also are living through a time of flood, Not of water, but of a ...
In Numbers the Priestly source contributes chapters 1–10:28, 15–20, 25–31, and 33–36, including, among other things, two censuses, rulings on the position of Levites and priests (including the provision of special cities for the Levites), and the scope and protection of the Promised Land. [50]
Since Aaron was a descendant of the Tribe of Levi, priests are sometimes included in the term Levites, by direct patrilineal descent. However, not all Levites are priests. During the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness and until the Holy Temple was built in Jerusalem, the priests performed their priestly service in the portable Tabernacle. [28]
It stresses the rules and rituals of worship, and the crucial role of priests, [68] expanding considerably on the role given to Aaron (all Levites are priests, but according to P only the descendants of Aaron were to be allowed to officiate in the inner sanctuary). [69]