Kiuchi on Leviticus

Some initial observations on Nobuyoshi Kiuchi’s recent commentary on Leviticus in the Apollos series from IVP.

1) Kiuchi intriguingly translates hata and hatta’t , traditionally rendered in terms of “sin” or “purification” in terms of “hiding”: ” hata and hatta’t mean ‘to hide oneself’ and the condition of ‘hiding oneself,’ respectively,” and therefore “we can assume that the function of the sin offering is to uncover the offerer’s heart.” He connects this back to Genesis 3, and finds “hiding” as the basic reality of original sin. In Genesis 3, hiding is the condition that follows the violation of one of God’s commandments.

More fully,

“Although the term hata does not appear in Gen. 3, the proposed sense can refer to the existential state of the first man and woman before and after their violation of God’s commandment rather than the violation of the commandment as such. The manifestations of self-hiding are Adam’s and Eve’s covering (lit. covering their loins), hiding behind trees, fearing the Lord’s voice, not admitting to their own guilt, and imputing their responsibilities to one another.”

He’s written a monograph on this (unread by me); if this exegetical/philological point can be sustained, it significantly nuances not only our understanding of Leviticus but of the biblical doctrine of sin and the purpose of Christ’s sacrifice. To say, as Paul does, that Christ became a hamartia (2 Corinthians 5:21; Romans 6:10; Hebrews 7:27) is, Kiuchi says, to say that he died “for this human self-hiding.” Faith in this context is the annihilation of egocentricity, and a difficult self-exposure: “the idea of purity or purification lies not in the observance of the commandments as much as possible, but in the uncovering of oneself and exposing one’s shameful inner self before the Lord.” Sanctification means that “a person becomes increasingly able to uncover his innermost self to the Lord, or other people, if necessary.”

2) Kiuchi also describes uncleanness in these terms: “the term tame/tum’a (unclean/uncleanness), synonymous with hata and hatta’t , refers symbolically to the state of hiding oneself when that is not occasioned by a violation of certain commandments.” He finds the common effort to explain the cleanliness laws in terms of moral concerns unsatisfying: “uncleanness refers to the human existential condition before God” and therefore “it is uncleanness that includes the moral, not the other way round.”

3) Kiuchi interprets the uncleanness laws of Leviticus 11-15 in terms of the curses of Genesis 3. In this, he is preceded by James Jordan, though Kiuchi reached his conclusions without any knowledge of Jordan’s work. He claims, for instance, that unclean animals are those that resemble serpents and who wallow in and swallow the cursed dust. He suggests that animals with paws are serpent-like in that “the skin touches the ground,” while animals with hoofs have feet that “do no touch the ground with their skin.”

4) He makes the interesting point that precisely because the Levitical rituals are symbolic they need to be done with a right heart: “unless the offerer’s heart embodies the symbolic meaning of the offering, the latter becomes a profanation of holiness.”