Priests, Levites, and Levitical Priests in Deuteronomy

Abstract The presentation of the priests, Levites, and levitical priests in Deuteronomy is one of the most intractable problems in a complex and much discussed biblical book. This chapter reviews some of the most important scholarship on the issue and demonstrates why attempts to solve the problem by appeal to texts elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible is problematic and highly speculative. However, attempts to resolve the problems through synchronic readings of Deuteronomy or by assimilating Deuteronomy’s portrayal to the priestly literature overlook important textual details. The most satisfactory solutions recognize the complex development of the book of Deuteronomy and the limits of our knowledge about the early history of the Levites.