Leviticus 5:17

"And if any one sin, and do any of the things which Jehovah hath commanded not to be done; though he knew it not, yet he is guilty, and shall bear his iniquity. And he shall bring a ram without blemish out of the flock, according to thy estimation, for a trespass-offering unto the priest; and the priest shall make atonement for him for the things wherein he erred unwittingly and knew it not, and he shall be forgiven. It is a trespass-offering: he is certainly guilty before Jehovah."

"This paragraph is vague and perplexing."[16] It seems that in this law a trespass-offering is required for exactly the same kind of sin that in Leviticus 4 was understood to be expiated by a sin-offering, at much less cost to the offender. The Jewish Rabbi Nachmanides gave what Bamberger called a "forced explanation" as follows:

"Why should the doubtful trespass-offering be brought when possibly no offense had been committed? while for the undoubted transgression as in Leviticus 4, a ewe, two fowls, or even a measure of flour was all that the law required. It was because a man might not take seriously the mere possibility of sinning unless the Torah had thus shown the gravity of the matter."[17]

In the absence of any better explanation, we shall accept this. There may be facts about this which were known to the ancient Hebrews which remain hidden from us, a view, which upon consideration must surely be correct. Allis wrote that what seems to be the difference here is that this type of transgression required restitution, thus distinguishing it from the sins recounted by the same words in Leviticus 4:2,13,22,27.[18] Allis' view is logical and explains fully why the heavier penalty was required here. Inherent in this also is the truth that any sin against one's fellow man is also a sin against God. Lofthouse identified this passage as an instance of "social morality" uncommon to that portion of the Pentateuch usually identified with "P."[19] Thus, we have another instance in which the artificial conception of various sources for the Pentateuch breaks down completely.