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The New International Commentary on the Old Testament
The Book of Leviticus
Leviticus used to be the first book that Jewish children studied in the synagogue. In the modern church it tends to be the last part of the Bible that anyone looks at seriously. Because Leviticus is largely concerned with subjects that seem incomprehensible and irrelevant today — rituals for sacrifice and regulations concerning uncleanness — it appears to have nothing to say to twenty-first-century Christians. In this excellent commentary on Leviticus, Gordon Wenham takes with equal seriousness both the plain original meaning of the text and its abiding theological value. To aid in reconstructing the original meaning of the text, Wenham draws from studies of Old Testament ritual and sacrifice that compare and contrast biblical customs with the practices of other Near Eastern cultures. He also closely examines the work of social anthropologists and expertly utilizes the methods of literary criticism to bring out the biblical author’s special interests. In pursuit of his second aim, to illumine the enduring theological value of Leviticus, Wenham discusses at the end of each section how the Old Testament passages relate to the New Testament and to contemporary Christianity. In doing so, he not only shows how pervasive Levitical ideas are in the New Testament but also highlights in very practical ways the enduring claim of God’s call to holiness on the lives of Christians today.
375 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1979
71 people are currently reading
295 people want to read
About the author
Gordon J. Wenham
47 books26 followersGordon J. Wenham was a Reformed British Old Testament scholar and writer. He has authored several books about the Bible. Tremper Longman has called him "one of the finest evangelical commentators today."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
November 16, 2020
This commentary gave me fresh eyes. Leviticus is not an archaic list of dead letter laws. Ancient Israel's daily life was entirely oriented around worship and this was their instruction manual. Leviticus as much a book of worship as the book of Psalms.
Wenham's writing is clear and simple, and what's in the commentary is good (mostly). I found its downfall in what isn't included.
For example, after laying out a brilliant explanation for the seemingly arbitrary division of clean and unclean animals in Ch. 11, he all but takes a pass on the rules for childbirth in Ch. 12 when there is so much that could have been explored—like the significance of the sign of the covenant with Abraham, or the echo of Creation/Sabbath in its administration on the eight day, or the meaning of the mother being unclean for 40 days (Moses's 40 days on Sinai for 40 days? Israel's 40 years of wandering? Jesus's 40 days in the wilderness?).
Overall, Wenham is a good tour guide. He hits most of the highlights and doesn't stop to explore everything that catches the eye. He leaves that to us, which some may prefer anyway.
Wenham's writing is clear and simple, and what's in the commentary is good (mostly). I found its downfall in what isn't included.
For example, after laying out a brilliant explanation for the seemingly arbitrary division of clean and unclean animals in Ch. 11, he all but takes a pass on the rules for childbirth in Ch. 12 when there is so much that could have been explored—like the significance of the sign of the covenant with Abraham, or the echo of Creation/Sabbath in its administration on the eight day, or the meaning of the mother being unclean for 40 days (Moses's 40 days on Sinai for 40 days? Israel's 40 years of wandering? Jesus's 40 days in the wilderness?).
Overall, Wenham is a good tour guide. He hits most of the highlights and doesn't stop to explore everything that catches the eye. He leaves that to us, which some may prefer anyway.
March 28, 2024
Good stuff. I would suggest Wenham alongside Michael Morales' biblical theology on Leviticus—"Who Shall Ascend the Mountain of the Lord?" Where Wenham lacks, Morales is strong. While Wenham unfortunately left out the use of charts, he still helped me nail down the sacrificial system which I was most eager for in reading this.
February 17, 2021
Simply superb. Wenham is a crisp, well-organized writer who breaths life into a text of Scripture that is often considered pedantic and tedious in its details. Moreover, he helpfully shows how each portion of Lev is connected to the NT. Essential reading for anyone interested in the book of Leviticus.
May 6, 2019
Le commentaire du Lévitique par Gordon J Wenham est vraiment une très bonne lecture! Pour la première fois, j'ai eu l'impression de vraiment comprendre le texte, et surtout ces règles étranges autour de la pureté rituelle, et comment elle fonctionne. Gordon Wenham est un exégète très appliqué en même temps qu'un expositeur très accessible: il a un don de clarté et de pédagogie très appréciable. Je recommande.
October 14, 2012
I recommend this book, for a number of reasons.
1. It isn't dense. (Which surprised me since Leviticus itself is, well, pretty dense.) There is a very informative introduction that focuses on the book's structure, sources, authorship and date, the Hebrew text of the book and more. Since I feel that Leviticus is often written off as irrelevant, I appreciated the section on "Leviticus and the Christian," because I think the book is in the Bible for a reason. The body of the commentary, past the introduction, isn't dense either, although there is a lot of information to take in. I took it slowly, for that reason.
2. The author's focus in the commentary is on understanding the meanings of the Hebrew words in Leviticus and thus understanding what was being prescribed/commanded/performed. While each section ends with a brief discussion of "x (e.g. Leviticus 26) and the NT"--which often deals with instances where the NT quotes Leviticus--the author steers away from the issue of whether or not these laws should still be followed by Christians today. His issue isn't proving one side or another, but interpreting the text in its context. (This issue is something I've been interested in recently and I've read a lot of arguments on both sides. It was refreshing to read something more balanced.)
3. The organization of the book allows for easy retrieval of specific information. Leviticus is first divided into larger chunks (e.g. the first 7 chapters cover "Laws on Sacrifice"), and then each chapter within each chunk is treated separately. First the chapter is quoted in its entirety, then there is a verse-by-verse discussion of it, with clear headers that tell the verses being discussed and their topic (verses are usually grouped into 3s or 4s). If I wanted information about exactly how the peace offering was supposed to be offered, it would be easy to go back and find.
4. Related to the above point about how easy it is to find information, there are 4 indexes in the back: (1) Index of Chief Subjects, (2) Index of Authors, (3) Index of Scripture References and (4) Index of Nonbiblical Texts.
5. Based on indexes 2 and 4 above, this commentary seems to be well-researched. The author notes many different interpretations for the same things, and states clearly which he finds more reasonable. (But does not necessarily discount other arguments.) The studies that he cites are all footnoted, so it would be easy to look up exactly what the author is drawing on.
In short, I really like this commentary. I may look into other commentaries in this series. I read this one cover-to-cover over a couple of months. (I had to re-check it out of the library a few times.) It took so long partially because I didn't want to overload on info, but also because I was only doing a chapter or so a day in the morning, and also reading a second commentary at the same time.
1. It isn't dense. (Which surprised me since Leviticus itself is, well, pretty dense.) There is a very informative introduction that focuses on the book's structure, sources, authorship and date, the Hebrew text of the book and more. Since I feel that Leviticus is often written off as irrelevant, I appreciated the section on "Leviticus and the Christian," because I think the book is in the Bible for a reason. The body of the commentary, past the introduction, isn't dense either, although there is a lot of information to take in. I took it slowly, for that reason.
2. The author's focus in the commentary is on understanding the meanings of the Hebrew words in Leviticus and thus understanding what was being prescribed/commanded/performed. While each section ends with a brief discussion of "x (e.g. Leviticus 26) and the NT"--which often deals with instances where the NT quotes Leviticus--the author steers away from the issue of whether or not these laws should still be followed by Christians today. His issue isn't proving one side or another, but interpreting the text in its context. (This issue is something I've been interested in recently and I've read a lot of arguments on both sides. It was refreshing to read something more balanced.)
3. The organization of the book allows for easy retrieval of specific information. Leviticus is first divided into larger chunks (e.g. the first 7 chapters cover "Laws on Sacrifice"), and then each chapter within each chunk is treated separately. First the chapter is quoted in its entirety, then there is a verse-by-verse discussion of it, with clear headers that tell the verses being discussed and their topic (verses are usually grouped into 3s or 4s). If I wanted information about exactly how the peace offering was supposed to be offered, it would be easy to go back and find.
4. Related to the above point about how easy it is to find information, there are 4 indexes in the back: (1) Index of Chief Subjects, (2) Index of Authors, (3) Index of Scripture References and (4) Index of Nonbiblical Texts.
5. Based on indexes 2 and 4 above, this commentary seems to be well-researched. The author notes many different interpretations for the same things, and states clearly which he finds more reasonable. (But does not necessarily discount other arguments.) The studies that he cites are all footnoted, so it would be easy to look up exactly what the author is drawing on.
In short, I really like this commentary. I may look into other commentaries in this series. I read this one cover-to-cover over a couple of months. (I had to re-check it out of the library a few times.) It took so long partially because I didn't want to overload on info, but also because I was only doing a chapter or so a day in the morning, and also reading a second commentary at the same time.
May 9, 2019
Just excellent, the best commentary on Leviticus. Even if it's in a quite academic biblical commentary series (New International Commentary on the Old Testament), don't get fooled. It is wonderfully christocentric, biblical and theological (follow and deal with the relation of each passage to redemptive history), and full of applications. This one is really accessible and readable by everyone.
September 11, 2017
This was consistently recommended to me as the gold standard commentary on Leviticus, and I can see why. It is insightful, authoritative, thorough and scholarly, and more readable than I expected in the NICOT series. As I preached through Leviticus, I was often grateful for Wenham's clarity regarding various uncertain issues. His "Leviticus and the NT" sections after each passage were brilliant. Highly recommended, along with Sklar in the Tyndale series.
January 29, 2022
Excellent look at Leviticus. I particularly enjoyed the connections made to NT passages in each chapter. It provided relevance & a new glimpse at God’s character for me. I recommend this to anyone who wants to dive deeper in one of the more difficult books of the OT.
May 15, 2021
Delightful.
February 10, 2023
Book 21 The book of Leviticus book 3 of the bible. Not gonna lie, this is not my favorite book of the bible. It was so difficult to get through. But, we learn so much about God and see so much foreshadowing of Jesus. That is really cool.
March 3, 2015
I read Wenham's WBC commentary on Genesis (2 vols.) (Genesis 1-15) many years ago and thought it was a really impressive work of biblical scholarship. His NICOT volume on Leviticus is equally outstanding. This book had long been recommended to me as not only the best commentary on Leviticus, but one of the all-time best commentaries on any biblical book ever written. I wholeheartedly concur. Wenham's scholarship is top notch, but it is his writing that makes this commentary one of the best. So clear, so eloquent, and so concise! Wenham is a good model of excellent scholarly writing. He is especially great at negotiating all the scholarly technicalities that plague so many commentaries and then translating them to the general reader in a lucid way that ultimately contributes to the all important goal of understanding what the biblical text means. The introduction alone, especially the section on "The Theology of Leviticus," is well worth reading. The summary section on the difficult concept of clean/unclean and holy/common is the best I have ever read on this exegetical problem. Within his verse by verse commentary, Wenham finishes each section with analyses on "Leviticus and the NT" and "Leviticus and the Christian" that are sometimes downright inspirational. So well done that I am moved to now read his Tyndale commentary on Numbers (Numbers: An Introduction and Commentary). How geeky is that!
September 3, 2013
The best commentary I've ever read. I had a A lot of questions on Old Testament law and why the Jews has to follow them, and how it applies to New Testament Christians. This book answered a lot of my ?s. I was motivated to better understand the Pentateuch from apologetics. After I've heard many liberals saying that biblical reasoning on homosexuality is a double standard because many of the commandments in Leviticus are not followed today. I wanted to understand the context of the laws and how they relate to the modern Christian and how to answer this attack from liberal commentators.
April 16, 2014
Fantastic commentary on Leviticus. It covers all the major interpretive issues and Gordon Wenham communicates very well the purpose of the book of Leviticus and how it applies to us today. He takes what is typically an ignored and misunderstood book of the Bible and makes it come alive to where you really start to love it.
March 7, 2014
Wenham is one of the more reasonable authors I have read this year. He doesn't surprise me much, but he doesn't shock me either and he put me in contact with a ton of good questions. He also knows what to take from Mary Douglas.
December 1, 2022
(4.5 stars)
Every time in the past that I've read through the book of Leviticus (and that has been a lot of times), I've arrived at the end and said to myself, "I get what the book is about, but I don't really get it." Fortunately, Gordon Wenham comes to the rescue in his excellent commentary on Leviticus. I read somewhere that someone called it "the best commentary on any biblical book ever written." Hyperbole, I suppose, but it is a very, very good commentary. Mr. Wenham can flat out write, and we see this very well in this commentary. (He has a two volume commentary on Genesis that I'm going to tackle as soon as I get through Alec Motyer's commentary on Isaiah, but I digress).
Mr. Wenham's format is to discuss each chapter, then step back and say, "what does the New Testament say about the issues in this chapter?" which is crucial if you ask me. What we soon discover, courtesy of Mr. Wenham, is that the New Testament is saturated with references to Leviticus. Indeed, if you haven't grown up around the church, then you really cannot understand the NT at all without having a grasp of Leviticus. [Example: What does John the Baptist mean exactly when he says of Jesus "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." - You aren't going to understand that if you don't understand Leviticus.]
One of the most intriguing parts of the book to me was when Mr. Wenham was discussing the dietary laws God ordained for Israel and why he allowed certain animals to be eaten and did not allow others. Mr. Wenham's proposed explanation isn't his own theory, but it's a rather interesting one that makes more sense than any other theory I've heard.
Good commentary
Every time in the past that I've read through the book of Leviticus (and that has been a lot of times), I've arrived at the end and said to myself, "I get what the book is about, but I don't really get it." Fortunately, Gordon Wenham comes to the rescue in his excellent commentary on Leviticus. I read somewhere that someone called it "the best commentary on any biblical book ever written." Hyperbole, I suppose, but it is a very, very good commentary. Mr. Wenham can flat out write, and we see this very well in this commentary. (He has a two volume commentary on Genesis that I'm going to tackle as soon as I get through Alec Motyer's commentary on Isaiah, but I digress).
Mr. Wenham's format is to discuss each chapter, then step back and say, "what does the New Testament say about the issues in this chapter?" which is crucial if you ask me. What we soon discover, courtesy of Mr. Wenham, is that the New Testament is saturated with references to Leviticus. Indeed, if you haven't grown up around the church, then you really cannot understand the NT at all without having a grasp of Leviticus. [Example: What does John the Baptist mean exactly when he says of Jesus "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." - You aren't going to understand that if you don't understand Leviticus.]
One of the most intriguing parts of the book to me was when Mr. Wenham was discussing the dietary laws God ordained for Israel and why he allowed certain animals to be eaten and did not allow others. Mr. Wenham's proposed explanation isn't his own theory, but it's a rather interesting one that makes more sense than any other theory I've heard.
Good commentary
January 29, 2026
The book of Leviticus is a beast. It is where most Bible in a year programs fall apart. However, in this volume Wenham seeks to put it in the narrative of the Exodus. There is some work at the beginning talking about the different interpretations but once you get past the introduction, it is a line by line understanding of the plane reading of the text. It’s signifies those who got is called, and the narrative framework in which it operates in. It talks about the nature of the law and how it incorporates into God’s character and what is expected of the people that belong to him. It’s Leviticus so obviously the Levitical priesthood is set apart, but all in all it is a definition of what is necessary for holiness and how we are to be holy unto God.
June 13, 2023
This should be your first stop in studying the under-rated and fascinating book of Leviticus. Wenham is a top notch OT scholar (see his two volumes on Genesis in WBC). This single volume does not have the depth and rigor of Hartley or (especially) Milgrom, but it helpfully introduces Leviticus and the major questions surrounding the Law of Moses. It is easy to read, which is important given--what could be the boring--subject matter. The material is well organized and navigable. Most commentaries are not read cover to cover, but this one could be!
February 18, 2019
Succinct, yet filled with incredible insight. His description of OT traditions comes to life for the reader and one is able to understand the rationale for the laws and practices of the ancient Israelite more clearly. The greatest contribution is the association of the OT to NT teachings that are applicable to today’s Christian. Wenham navigates this complex, arcane book easily and this commentary is a must for any serious student of Scripture
August 11, 2025
This commentary was published in 1979 but is not out-of-date. The author took into account the best research available then---e.g., the work of Jacob Milgrom.
The commentary is clear, concise, and addresses the questions that are most often raised. In lists of the top commentaries on Leviticus, it still appears at or near the top. Wenham died in 2025, but a new generation of commentators on Leviticus---e.g., his student Jay Sklar---has followed in his footsteps.
The commentary is clear, concise, and addresses the questions that are most often raised. In lists of the top commentaries on Leviticus, it still appears at or near the top. Wenham died in 2025, but a new generation of commentators on Leviticus---e.g., his student Jay Sklar---has followed in his footsteps.
July 18, 2019
Clear, concise, sophisticated but easy enough to read for anyone. Finished every chapter of Leviticus with paragraphs of links to the Christian and the NT. Preachers who link every verse to Jesus do the OT a disservice, however Wenham was able to do this in a tasteful and thought-provoking way.
August 17, 2019
Fantastic commentary on Leviticus, really helped me prepare studies on each chapter. Presents different views and opinions fairly, looks into historical context, and ties Leviticus into the broader theology of the Bible. Essential resource for Leviticus.
August 6, 2020
Solid overview of Leviticus. Each section was detailed and provided rich context, yet did a great job of never getting too buried in the weeds. My favorite commentary on Leviticus that I've consulted.
4.5/5
4.5/5
October 10, 2025
Decent expository commentary that proved a little useful to my sermon preparations through Leviticus. Helpful in offering a handful of insights, but nothing too revelatory and mostly a little stodgy.
December 10, 2017
I truly appreciated this read, especially during this crazy period of time. Wenham handles the text respecfully with his approachable teaching. Be holy for I the Lord your God am holy...
May 4, 2018
Clear, thorough, and immensely readable. Would recommend to anyone for a clearer view of Leviticus and how it ties in with the Gospel of Jesus.
September 18, 2019
The book is so great.
November 3, 2020
Very helpful in preparation for my Sunday School class.
May 12, 2021
Must-have for any serious Leviticus student. Unlike much of the NICOT series, this is not overly exhaustive. Wenham is very readable.
February 15, 2022
Well-written and straightforward but seemed a bit bare-bones.
Read
May 13, 2023A good technical commentary on Leviticus. I used it as needed
Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews