Leviticus, Livers, and the Wages of Sin - Part 1

Part 1

Let me tell you about the time I took a class on Hebrew poetry and the art of biblical words. While studying the relationship between livers and kidneys, I realised there was something in Romans that had been hiding in plain sight. All of a sudden it occurred to me that livers and kidneys were being used in the same way Paul wrote about the wages of sin.

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers…

As a class exercise, we were given a single line from a Hebrew poem. It felt incomplete, its meaning doubtful, even dubious. Then we were prompted to notice how the second line responded to the first like an echo. What work had these fingers done? What was being observed? And where?

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers

the moon and the stars, which you have set in place (Ps 8:3 ESV)

Scholars call this technique parallelism. It works something like this:

Hebrew poetry uses parallel lines to convey beauty

And mirroring words to impart wisdom

Of all the notes I took on parallelism however, the best explanation came from the Jewish Encyclopedia: parallelism consists of two lines that are “synonymous, in which the same sentiment is repeated in different but equivalent words… Frequently the second line not merely repeats but also reinforces or diversifies the idea.”[1]

What is man that You think of him,

And a son of man that You are concerned about him? (Ps 8:4 NASB) 

As a pair, both lines join forces, working together to convey the full weight of what the poet is marvelling over. The second line reiterates the first, from a fresh perspective, like watching the same football tackle replayed from two camera angles. 

After I walked out of that class, I sat down, opened my Bible, and parallel lines started popping up everywhere: Job, the Psalms, the Prophets, but in my opinion, one of the most beautiful and rewarding parts of the Hebrew Bible is Isaiah’s Servant Songs. And its beauty is exponentially magnified because of Isaiah’s prolific use of parallel poetry. 

Prepare the way for Yahweh in the wilderness;

Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God.

Let every valley be lifted up,

And every mountain and hill be made low;

And let the rough ground become a plain,

And the rugged terrain a broad valley; (Isaiah 40:3-4)[2]

However when I turned to Isaiah 59, I was struck by an abundance of complicated biblical words and ideas, each appearing with a conveniently helpful parallel. I thought, if both lines are using different words to express the same idea, then each line should help to interpret its counterpart.

Therefore justice is far from us, 

and righteousness does not overtake us (v9)

We hope for justice, but there is none,

For salvation, but it is far from us. (v11)

Justice is turned back, 

and righteousness stands far away (v14)

Then His own arm brought salvation to Him, 

And His righteousness upheld Him.

He put on righteousness like a breastplate, 

And a helmet of salvation on His head; (16-17)

Isaiah holds up righteousness in front of a mirror, and justice is reflected back. From one side of a canyon he peers down and sees justice, while from the other side the view is salvation. He shouts out “salvation,” and the echo comes back “righteousness.” This is where parallelism becomes profoundly helpful. To act without justice corresponds to a lack of righteousness. And yet, even though Israel has sinned greatly, astonishingly, Yahweh bringing salvation to this unjust and unrighteous people demonstrates Yahweh’s righteousness.  

As well as mirroring lines with complementary meanings, Hebrew poets also compose mirroring lines with contrasting meanings, and this particular mode of creative expression is what prompted me to revisit the wages of sin. 

The wicked borrow and do not repay, 

but the righteous give generously (Ps 37: 21 NIV)

By the mouth of a fool comes a rod for his back,

but the lips of the wise will preserve them. (Prov 14:3 ESV)

In Genesis 49, Jacob “blesses” his sons in the form of prophetic poetry, hurling some harsh but poetically crafted words at Simeon and Levi

Let my soul not enter into their council;

Let not my glory be united with their assembly;

Because in their anger they killed men,

And in their self-will they hamstrung oxen.

Cursed be their anger, for it is strong;

And their wrath, for it is cruel.

I will divide them amongst Jacob,

And scatter them in Israel. (Gen 49:6-7)

There are so many mirrors: soul and glory, anger and self-will, strong anger and cruel wrath, Jacob and Israel… But there is one little word that offers a whole wombat warren worth exploring. In Hebrew it is only three letters - it’s the word translated here as glory - but while glory may appear harmless on the surface, the wombat warren goes deep…

The three letter Hebrew word is KVD, and depending on where you place the vowel points, it can be pronounced either kaved or kavod. Around the 9th century AD, a group of Jewish scholars known as the Masoretes codified the Hebrew Bible, meticulously adding vowel points to help with pronunciation, as the original Hebrew contains no vowels.[3] The Masoretes placed the vowel points so KVD reads as kavod, or glory. However, the Septuagint, the Greek Translation of the Old Testament which was translated in the 3rd century BC, read those same Hebrew consonants and interpreted KVD as kaved; liver.[4]

Most English translations stick with the Masoretes and glory, yet the NET Bible notes that the Hebrew word is more likely “liver.” With my newly learned Hebrew poetry skills I wondered if there was a connection between the two mirroring lines? Since KVD was placed as a parallel to soul, the next step was to consider if liver and soul shared a common meaning. Well, I discovered there is, in fact, a fascinating connection. 

The Hebrew soul - nephesh - is the life of a living being, implying the very essence of a person. It is associated with desire, appetite, and passion - we could say the nephesh represents every fibre of your being.[5]

And the liver? In Hebrew thought, the inner organs were associated with emotions, however as the heaviest organ, the liver kaved became associated with the heaviest and most weighty emotions. (As a butcher I can confirm that the liver is indeed the heaviest of the internal organs.) The relationship between liver and glory appears even closer when realising that although we translate kavod as glory, it carries with it the meaning heavy, weighty, or significant.[6]

Now, knowing livers are heavy, I was able to consider kidneys. The kidneys were regarded as expressing the deepest inner affections and character. And kidneys too, find their way into Hebrew parallel poetry, often held up as a mirror to heart. 

I, Yahweh, search the heart,

I test the kidneys (Jer 17:10)[7]

And so, with this new knowledge, I flipped through my Bible looking for where livers and kidneys might show up together. Surely livers and kidneys combined would signify deep and heavy emotion? Affections and character? Well, guess where livers and kidneys turned up next to each other? On God’s altar. And here, excitingly, we get to leap into Leviticus. 

And from it he shall bring near his offering as an offering by fire to Yahweh the fat that covers the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails, and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them, which is on the loins, and the lobe of the liver, which he shall remove with the kidneys. ‘And the priest shall offer them up in smoke on the altar as food, an offering by fire for a soothing aroma; all fat is Yahweh’s. (Lev 3:14-16)

First: fat. 

Fatty portions were considered the best bits on a Hebrew dinner table. Abel is the first to bring the “fat portions” (Gen 4:4) or the choicest morsels with his offering, essentially giving God his best. Further to this, “fat” becomes a term that describes the best and most sumptuous portions of all produce; thus we read “the fat of the land” (Gen 45:18), and “the fat of wheat,” which basically means the finest produce or the best wheat (Ps 81:16; 147:14). Leviticus stresses that these fatty portions are reserved for Yahweh alone. No one is allowed to eat the fat, because all fat belongs to Yahweh (cr Lev 7:22-25). 

Second: food. 

The liver and the kidneys are offered up in smoke on the altar “as food.” This is important: sacrifice is “food.” Not that Yahweh needed to be fed, Psalm 50 pulls no punches when reproving God’s people for their lacklustre attitude towards His sacrifices. “Every beast of the forest is Mine” says Yahweh. “And everything that moves in the field is Mine. If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is Mine.” Instead, Yahweh says He would rather His people offer “a sacrifice of thanksgiving.”

But you don’t have to read between the lines to discover sacrifice is food; the Bible doesn’t beat about the bush. 

…the priest will burn all of it on the altar as a burnt offering, a food offering, a pleasing aroma to the LORD. (Lev 1:9 CSB & ESV. Also Lev 24:5,7; Lev 21:21)

You shall be careful to present to Me My offering, My food for My offerings by fire, of a soothing aroma to Me (Num 28:2)

You are presenting defiled food upon My altar (Malachi 1:7)

And in the New Testament, the writer of Hebrews says; both gifts and sacrifices are offered, which relate only to food and drink… (9:9-10)

Third: liver and kidneys.

There is something special about the offering that makes it a “soothing aroma” in God’s nostrils; and this in part is because an animal offering is to be unblemished. When describing an unblemished animal, we are not given any moral requirements. The Israelites are not required to check the animal’s personality or check for character flaws. Rather we are presented with a picture of a fully functioning animal, not lacking anything.

Whatever has a defect, you shall not offer… Those that are blind, fractured, maimed, or have a wart, a festering rash, or scabs, you shall not offer to the Lord, nor make of them an offering by fire on the altar to the Lord… Also anything with its testicles squashed, crushed, torn off, or cut off… (Lev 22:20-24 NASB)

Complete and fully functioning is what makes an animal truly unblemished. One reason is this: unlike a devious human heart, an animal with no physical defect is much easier to discern. In other words, an unblemished animal was supposed to be a tangible image of the offerer’s hidden heart. Philo of Alexandria was a Jewish philosopher and writer born around 10 BC, who wrote copious volumes on the Hebrew scriptures, the Jewish sacrificial system, and the philosophy behind Biblical sacrifice. He says

“…the real object taken care of is not the condition of the animal sacrificed in order that they may have no blemish, but that of the sacrificers that they may not be defiled by any unlawful passion”

And so it really shouldn’t have been such a surprise when my friend pointed out that when an ancient Israelite looked inside an animal offering they perceived glory, intense emotion and a passionate soul. My friend Spencer Owen has noticed that in Leviticus the phrase pleasing aroma occurs most often with reference to the choice portions; the interior organs and the fat that surrounds them. He points out that they were not only the most desirable as far as food preferences go, they were also the source of the interior life. Thus when placing unblemished liver and kidneys on the altar, this is symbolically offering up the interior being, life, soul, and passions of the animal as what pleases God. Correspondingly, an unblemished innermost being, a flawless character, pure passions, is analogous to what pleases God in humans.[8]

The connection to the wages of sin will be revealedn Part 2...

Footnotes:

[1] Jewish Encyclopedia. PARALLELISM IN HEBREW POETRY: By: Executive Committee of the Editorial Board., I. M. Casanowicz

[2] All Bible quotes are from the LSB Legacy Standard Bible, unless noted otherwise

[3]The Masoretic text refers to the authoritative version of the Hebrew Bible used universally by Jews today. This version was codified around the ninth century AD by a group of Jewish scholars known as the Masoretes. They meticulously added vowel points to help with pronunciation, as original Hebrew has no vowels. (2002-2023 My Jewish Learning myjewishlearning.com)

[4] - The Septuagint, is an ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, presumably made for the Jewish community in Egypt when Greek was the common language throughout the region. Analysis of the language has established that the Torah, or Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament), was translated near the middle of the 3rd century BCE and that the rest of the Old Testament was translated in the 2nd century BCE. (Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Septuagint." Encyclopedia Britannica, October 20, 2023. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Septuagint.)

- The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges. Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com. Used by Permission. Bible Hub

[5] - Old Testament Hebrew lexicon is Brown, Driver, Briggs, Gesenius Lexicon; this is keyed to the "Theological Word Book of the Old Testament." biblestudytools.com/

- Hebrew Word Lessons. Nefesh: Everything you wanted to know about “the SOUL”. Feb 4, 2018

[6] “The word kavod (honor) comes from the Hebrew root kaf.vet.daled

(K.V.D.), meaning “heavy,” “weighty,” or “significant.” When we give

someone kavod, we are saying, “You are significant and deserving of

recognition and good treatment.” If kavod implies weight or gravitas…

David Jaffe, Changing the World from the Inside Out

[7] Jer 17:10 LSB contains a footnote acknowledging the word is literally kidneys, but it gets translated as inmost being. 

[8] Thanks to Spencer Owen

And Jonathan Brown’s articles: Torah Apologetics by Jonathan Brown

Hebrew Anatomy Part 2: The Kidneys - 4/19/2016 

Hebrew Anatomy Part 3: The Liver - 4/28/2016