Endnote 3 – Bible Books

Some even more picayune quibbles: The term kipper’et (Leviticus 16:33) never means “atone for” (p. 77). Nelson would not have written that sin offerings and guilt offerings “were merged together” (p. 79) had he translated the two sacrifices properly as “purification offerings” and “reparation offerings.” He also writes: “The Hebrew Bible’s failure to distinguish between ritual defilement and voluntary transgressions of a moral nature remains foreign to our ethical outlook” (p. 79), forgetting that all voluntary transgressions are considered capital crimes and unexpiable by sacrifice. “Coming too near” (p. 89) is no sin; Hebrew qarab’el means “encroach” (see my Numbers, pp. 342–343). The cultic difference between menstruation and nocturnal emission is that the former entails greater contagion (touching persons and things) and purification (seven days versus one day); this is the cultic reason for the absence of women priests. It is erroneous to claim that “priestly theology itself lacked any real eschatology” (p. 108) in view of Leviticus 26:40–45. Finally, I caught the following typos mainly in source citations: Zechariah 2:12 > 2:6 (p. 28); 1 Kings 14:26–27 > 2 Kings 12:13?; Numbers 17 > Numbers 16 (pp. 53, 69); Samuel’s altar > Saul’s altar (p. 67); Leviticus 5 > Numbers 5 (p. 71) hatta’ > hatta’t (p. 73).