The Torah describes the Levites as a landless Israelite tribe who inherited their position by responding to the call of their most illustrious member, Moses, to take vengeance against sinning Israelites, but this account masks a more complicated historical process.I first learned the theory from my teacher Frank Moore Cross that the Israelite priesthood goes back to competing groups who traced their genealogies back, respectively, to Moses and Aaron. It is admittedly speculative, but it seems to have some explanatory value for untangling the very complicated traditions in the Hebrew Bible about the priesthood.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
E-mail: paleojudaica-at-talktalk-dot-net ("-at-" = "@", "-dot-" = ".")
Saturday, January 28, 2017
On the Levitical priesthood
Dr. MARK LEUCHTER: Who were the Levites? (TheTorah.com).