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Leviticus 11 Bible study: For I am holy
Leviticus 11 sorts the animals by signs (a parted hoof and the cud, fins and scales), lists the birds, allows the locust, and says what a carcass makes unclean by touch. It gives one reason, the LORD himself: "be holy; for I am holy" (11:44). Peter quotes that call to people redeemed "with precious blood… the blood of Christ" (1 Peter 1:19).
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“For I am the LORD who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.”
Try it · Did you catch it?
“Leviticus 11 says the camel, the hyrax, the hare and the pig are each "unclean to you".”
Is that in Leviticus 11, or not? Make your call.
What's really going on
Clean animals, named at last
God had already spoken to Noah of "every clean animal" (Genesis 7:2), and after the flood he "took of every clean animal, and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings" (Genesis 8:20). Then God told Noah and his sons, "Every moving thing that lives will be food for you" (Genesis 9:3). Genesis never says which animals were clean. Leviticus 11 is where they are named. The LORD speaks "to Moses and to Aaron" (Leviticus 11:1): "These are the living things which you may eat among all the animals that are on the earth" (Leviticus 11:2).
Where it leads to Jesus
You shall be holy, for I am holy
Leviticus 11:45leads to1 Peter 1:15-19
Leviticus ties the call to who the LORD is and what he did: "For I am the LORD who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy" (11:45). Peter writes to his readers, "just as he who called you is holy, you yourselves also be holy in all of your behavior, because it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy'" (1 Peter 1:15-16). The call comes in nearly the same words in Leviticus 11:44-45, 19:2 and 20:26, and Peter doesn't say which he quotes. In the WEB none matches his words exactly; the nearest is "You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy" (Leviticus 11:45), with one more word, and the others read "be holy; for I am holy" (Leviticus 11:44), "You shall be holy; for I, the LORD your God, am holy" (Leviticus 19:2) and "You shall be holy to me, for I, the LORD, am holy" (Leviticus 20:26). Two verses on, he tells them to live "in reverent fear" (1 Peter 1:17), "knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things like silver or gold… but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish or spot, the blood of Christ" (1 Peter 1:18-19). Peter says nothing about food; he asks for holiness "in all of your behavior" (1 Peter 1:15).
Honest questions
Questions people ask about Leviticus 11
That was a taste
The rest of Leviticus 11 is waiting in Favor
- Signs for some, a list for others
- Whoever touches
- The one reason it gives
- Names no one can be sure of
- Words from Genesis 1
- 15 questions as you read
- 10 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
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The Hebrew word behind it
טָמֵאtamesay ta-MEI
Brown-Driver-Briggs gives the verb as "be or become unclean", and the adjective spelled the same way as "unclean". Strong's lists the adjective separately (H2931, "from 2930") as "foul in a religious sense". Between them they come 34 times in this chapter: the adjective in "unclean to you" (11:4), the verb in "By these you will become unclean" (11:24). Leviticus uses the verb 85 times, more than any other book, and the adjective 47 times, also more than any other book. Genesis uses the verb only three times, all in Genesis 34. In Ezekiel the Lord GOD says of the priests, "They shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the common, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean" (Ezekiel 44:23).
For your group
Leviticus 11 Bible study questions
- 1These laws reached every meal Israel ate (11:2). What ordinary part of your week could remind you that you belong to God?
- 2Jesus said, "All these evil things come from within and defile the man" (Mark 7:23). Which do you find easier to guard: what goes into you, or what comes out of you?
- 3Peter says to be holy "in all of your behavior" (1 Peter 1:15). Where in your life does that feel hardest right now?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads Leviticus 11 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home