Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Leviticus · About this commentary
The Ordination Begins
Leviticus 8:1-21
1 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, · WEB
The priests are installed in public, washed before they are dressed, and the first animal killed is a sin offering for them.
After seven chapters of instruction, something finally happens — and the first requirement is an audience. Assemble all the congregation at the door of the Tent of Meeting Leviticus 8:3.
The whole nation watches its priests being made. Nothing about the installation is private, and the men who will handle the holiest things in Israel are inspected by everyone before they touch anything.
Moses states what is happening in one sentence and takes no credit for it: this is the thing which Yahweh has commanded to be done Leviticus 8:5.
The first act is washing. Moses brought Aaron and his sons, and washed them with water Leviticus 8:6 — before the garments, before the oil, before any blood. Men are cleaned before they are clothed, and the order is never reversed anywhere in this book.
Then the dressing, described garment by garment: tunic, sash, robe, ephod, its woven band, the breastplate with the Urim and Thummim, the turban, and the golden plate, the holy crown Leviticus 8:7–9.
The detail is not decorative. A man is being put into an office, and the office is visible — anyone in the camp could tell at a glance who was serving. And the Urim and Thummim placed in the breastplate are the means by which the priest would later be asked for decisions, so the equipment of inquiry is built into the vestment.
The anointing oil goes first to the building and its furniture, then to the altar seven times, then to the man Leviticus 8:10–12. The place is sanctified before the person who will work in it.
And then the offerings, in an order that says something about the priesthood.
The first animal is the bull of the sin offering, and Aaron and his sons lay their hands on its head Leviticus 8:14. Before they can act for anyone else, atonement is made for them. The men about to become the nation's mediators begin by needing one, and the New Testament turns on that observation — a high priest who must offer for his own sins as well as the people's Hebrews 5:3.
Only after the sin offering does the burnt offering follow Leviticus 8:18, and only then the ram of consecration.
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