Leviticus 18 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible - Bible Study & Commentary

Introduction

Leviticus 18. Degrees of Affinity.— The chapter is closely connected in subject-matter with Leviticus 20:11-Proverbs :, though the details are different, and the two sections must be independent. Leviticus 20 omits mention of mother (as distinct from father’ s wife), and the cases of Leviticus 18:10-1 Kings :; Leviticus 18:18. In four cases, Leviticus 20 adds a penalty ( Leviticus 20:11-2 Kings :; Leviticus 20:14; Leviticus 20:17; cf. Leviticus 20:15-Nehemiah :), and in two others a consequence, childlessness ( Leviticus 18:20 f.). These prohibitions, from their similarity to widespread taboos, are obviously pre-Mosaic ( cf. Westermarck, History of Human Marriage) . The origin of prohibited degrees is doubtful; the recognition is universal; the actual prohibitions differ widely. They are generally the most complicated among the least advanced peoples ( cf. Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia), and regarded as visited with the severest Divine penalties. H, however, completely neglects two points common outside Israel; ( a) the distinction between exogamous groups, resting on the dread of kindred blood, and ( b) the special importance of the mother; in primitive society the father hardly counts ( cf. Genesis 44:27, Judges 8:19); hence the so-called “ matriarchate,” where genealogy is traced through the mother, not the father. For the general recognition of these “ taboos” in earlier times, see Genesis 19:30 ff; Genesis 20:12, 2 Samuel 13:13.

Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Arthur Peake

Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

Arthur Samuel Peake (1865-1929) was an English biblical scholar, born at Leek, Staffordshire, and educated at St John's College, Oxford. He was the first holder of the Rylands Chair of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis in the University of Manchester, from its establishment as an independent institution in 1904. He was thus the first non-Anglican to become a professor of divinity in an English university.In 1890-92 he was a lecturer at Mansfield College, Oxford, and from 1890 to 1897 held a fellowship at Merton College.In 1892, however, he was invited to become tutor at the Primitive Methodist Theological Institute in Manchester, which was renamed Hartley College in 1906. He was largely responsible for broadening the curriculum which intending Primitive Methodist ministers were required to follow, and for raising the standards of the training.In 1895-1912 he served as lecturer in the Lancashire Independent College, from 1904 to 1912 also in the United Methodist College at Manchester. In 1904 he was appointed Professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis in the (Victoria) University of Manchester. (This chair was in the Faculty of Theology established in that year; it was renamed "Rylands Professor, etc." in 1909.)Peake was also active as a layman in wider Methodist circles, and did a great deal to further the reunion of Methodism which took effect in 1932, three years after his death. In the wider ecumenical sphere Peake worked for the National Council of Evangelical Free Churches, serving as president in 1928, and was a member of the World Conference on Faith and Order held in Lausanne in 1927. He published and lectured extensively, but is best remembered for his one-volume commentary on the Bible (1919), which, in its revised form, is still in use.The University of Aberdeen made him an honorary D. D. in 1907. He was a governor of the John Rylands Library.... Show more

First published in 1919, Peake's commentary of the bible was a one-volume commentary that gave special attention to Biblical archaeology and the then-recent discoveries of biblical manuscripts. Biblical quotations in this edition were from the Revised Version of the Bible.... Show more

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