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The bible was written in a time of a primarily oral culture. Repetition is often used for emphasis or to drive home a point (as Seeker of Truth mentioned), and to make things easier to remember. So important things were repeated a whole bunch of times in slightly different words to make it easier to remember. Even if you didn't remember it the first several ...

While not a "secular source", there is a reference in 1 Kings 18 to false prophets cutting themselves in the "showdown" between the prophets of Baal and Elijah. v28: So they cried with a loud voice and cut themselves according to their custom with swords and lances until the blood gushed out on them. Also, in Leviticus 21, in the descriptions of the ...

John Gill uses these sources: Jarchi says, it was the custom of the Amorites, when anyone died, to cut their flesh, as it was of the Scythians, as Herodotus relates, even those of the royal family; for a king they cut off a part of the ear, shaved the hair round about, cut the arms about, wounded the forehead and nose, and transfixed the left ...

Following Bob Jones’ tip to search Herodotus on the previous question about 'flesh cutting' I found a very interesting article that seems to explain the circular hair cutting. It seems the "secular source" for much of these pagan rites come from Herodotus. According to an article by Avram Yoehoshua, Herodotus said: The Arabians acknowledge no other ...

One half: Half the people Jos 8:33 See also Dt 27:12-13; 1Ki 16:21; Ne 4:16; Ne 12:31-32,38; Ne 13:24 The half-tribes of Manasseh Dt 3:13 See also Nu 32:33; Nu 34:13-14; Dt 29:8; Jos 13:29-31; Jos 22:10; 1Ch 5:23 Halves in offering sacrifices Ge 15:10 See also Ex 24:6; Ex 30:13; Lev 6:20 Significant examples of halves 2Sa 10:4 pp 1Ch 19:4 David’s men and ...

Probably not. The key is the parallel structure built into the verse: You shall rise before the aged and show deference to the old... —Leviticus 19:32a (NJPS) So the second statement is a parallel to the first. Therefore, whatever it means to "rise", it must be a sign of deference to the old. The Hebrew word translated rise here is quwm ...

The Wikipedia article on the sabbatical year, called the shmitta year is a good start. Here are some additional comments. For non-farmers, the sabbatical year affects observant Jews mainly with respect to which agricultural produce they do or do not buy or eat. For Jews living outside the land of Israel the primary observance is not acquiring or eating ...

The Hebrew word here is כרת‎ (karet). The precise meaning is uncertain, but it seems to be a punishment at the hands of heaven, not one that a human court hands down. Depending on whom you ask, this might be an early death (at the age of 50, according to one talmudic opinion), extinction of the soul (spiritual, not physical, punishment), or a punishment in ...

Sergey, you ask a very valid question, especially given what is stated in Matthew 6:7 about not using meaningless repetition ( “And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words." Mt. 6:7, NASB). Given this teaching, we can know that the repetition in Leviticus and ...

Leprosy is representative of sin, which in the Hebrew Bible made one "dirty" (unclean). For example, the "tautological" repetition of leprosy and its signs in the house formally occupied by Canaanites (in the latter half of Chapter 14), while speaking to mold or persistent mildew, may also speak to the possession of the house by unclean spirits. (Nota Bene: ...

There are some flawed assumptions in the question. As Kazark said in his answer, an animal sacrifice, by itself, does not atone for a sin where you wronged another person. Per Lev. 6 (among other places), you must also make restitution. You probably also need to regret what you did (certainly true by the time of Maimonides in the 13th century; I think ...

The question is a good one, but some of the underlying suppositions need to be challenged in order to answer it. The Sacrifice of an Animal Cannot Atone For One Man In Leviticus 6, the animal's life is not enough to atone for the man's life. In some of the in-between verses which the question does not directly reference (4 and 5), the man must make ...

The repetition of the tribal gifts at the dedication of the Tabernacle has an important purpose. As pointed out by Rav Shlomo Breur, as quoted by Rav Yisachar Frand, the Torah could have told us that "Nachshon brought these things as a gift and all the other tribes gave the same thing." But it didn't because when describing gifts it is not what was given, ...

The answer is that the entire Bible consists of literary architecture. The Book of Numbers, for instance, contains seven symmetrical "cycles," and each of these contains seven "cycles," each of which contains seven stanzas, each of which contains seven lines. Viewed in a linear fashion, it looks like DNA. Viewed side by side, it looks like the weaving of an ...

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch explains the sin-offering of the new mother, and similarly that of the nazirite, as a sort of prophylactic offering: At the moment the woman (or the formar nazirite) re-enters ordinary human interactions, she brings this offering to symbolize her commitment to refrain from sin.