Leviticus22:1–16

Carcass and torn beast: the priest under the common law (Lev 22:8 → Lev 7:24; Exodus 22:31) verbal / quotation — confirmed

Verse 8 repeats for priests a prohibition already binding on every Israelite: not to eat the nᵉbêlâh (that which dies of itself) or the ṭᵉrêphâh (that which is torn). The link is carried by two rare nouns — ṭᵉrêphâh in only 9 verses, nᵉbêlâh in 41 — recurring at Leviticus 7:24 (the fat of such animals) and Exodus 22:31 ("you shall be holy men to Me; you shall not eat flesh torn by beasts"). Barnes notes the priest's offense is the graver, "inasmuch as they would have to forego their sacred functions." The shared holiness motif — the people called "holy men" in Exodus, the priests fenced here — makes the verbal tie also a structural one.

Leviticus 7:24 · Exodus 22:31

basis: Verifier-confirmed rare shared lexemes H2966 ṭᵉrêphâh (9 vv) and H5038 nᵉbêlâh (41 vv), with H398 ʼâkal; the low frequency of ṭᵉrêphâh makes this a verbal echo, not mere thematic overlap.

The general prohibition the priestly law presupposes (Lev 22:8 → Lev 17:15) verbal / quotation — confirmed

Verse 8's ban on the nᵉbêlâh and the ṭᵉrêphâh does not originate with the priests; it is the bare repetition, in priestly key, of the law already laid on every soul in Israel at Leviticus 17:15 — "every soul that eateth that which died of itself, or that which was torn with beasts ... shall both wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even." Both Barnes ("The general prohibition occurs in ... Leviticus 17:15") and the Cambridge Bible ("Cp. Leviticus 17:15") send the reader here. The same rare pair binds the two, and the priest's transgression is the heavier precisely because the floor beneath him is the law for all Israel; he sins as a layman and forfeits his ministry.

Leviticus 17:15

basis: Verifier-confirmed rare shared lexemes H2966 ṭᵉrêphâh (9 vv) and H5038 nᵉbêlâh (41 vv) with H2930 ṭâmêʼ and H398 ʼâkal; both Barnes and the Cambridge Bible name Lev 17:15 as the general prohibition Lev 22:8 echoes.

The same emission-law for layman and priest (Lev 22:4 → Lev 15:16; 15:18; Numbers 5:13) verbal / quotation — confirmed

Verse 4's clause on the man "from whom seed has gone out" reuses the very rare shᵉkâbâh zeraʻ ("a lying-down of seed," H7902, only 9 verses). Ellicott states the connection plainly: "This is the same case mentioned in Leviticus 15:16. The two passages ought therefore to be uniform in the translation." The chapter does not invent a new priestly purity standard; it folds the priest under the general law of Leviticus 15, with the added stake that his impurity bars him from the altar and his bread.

Leviticus 15:16 · Leviticus 15:18 · Numbers 5:13

basis: Verifier-confirmed rare shared lexeme H7902 shᵉkâbâh (9 vv) with H2233 zeraʻ; Ellicott explicitly identifies Lev 22:4 and Lev 15:16 as 'the same case.'

Sojourner and hired man at the holy table — and at the Passover (Lev 22:10 → Exodus 12:45) verbal / quotation — confirmed

The exclusion of the tôwshâb (sojourner/lodger) and the sâkîyr (hired man) from the priestly food (v.10) reuses the exact pair that governs the Passover lamb in Exodus 12:45 — "a sojourner and a hired servant shall not eat of it." Both nouns are rare (13 and 17 verses) and travel together as a fixed legal formula. The principle is identical across both holy meals: participation requires incorporation into the household, not mere proximity or paid service. Keil connects v.10 directly to Exodus 12:49.

Exodus 12:45 · Leviticus 25:6

basis: Verifier-confirmed rare shared lexemes H8453 tôwshâb (13 vv) and H7916 sâkîyr (17 vv); the same two-word formula governs both the priestly food and the Passover (Exodus 12:45).

Lest they die in their uncleanness: the holiness-or-death pattern (Lev 22:2-3 → Lev 15:31) verbal / quotation — confirmed

The command to "separate" (nâzar, H5144, only 10 verses) and the warning of being "cut off" echo Leviticus 15:31, where the LORD bids Israel "separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness, that they die not in their uncleanness, when they defile My tabernacle." The shared rare verb nâzar and the shared nouns of impurity (ṭumʼâh, ṭâmêʼ) tie the two; both texts frame defilement of the holy as a matter of life and death, guarding the sanctuary where God dwells.

Leviticus 15:31

basis: Verifier-confirmed rare shared lexeme H5144 nâzar (10 vv) plus H2932 ṭumʼâh and H2930 ṭâmêʼ; the rarity of nâzar lifts this above generic thematic overlap.

Ezekiel's restored priesthood keeps the same rule (Lev 22:8 → Ezekiel 44:31) verbal / quotation — confirmed

Ezekiel's vision of the eschatological temple legislates the identical carcass-and-torn-beast prohibition for its priests: "The priests shall not eat of anything that dies of itself, or is torn" (Ezekiel 44:31), using the same rare pair nᵉbêlâh and ṭᵉrêphâh. Barnes cross-references both Ezekiel 4:14 and 44:31 at this verse. The thread shows the Levitical priestly standard carried forward into Israel's hope for a purified worship — continuity of holiness across the canon's prophetic horizon.

Ezekiel 44:31 · Ezekiel 4:14

basis: Verifier-confirmed rare shared lexemes H2966 ṭᵉrêphâh (9 vv) and H5038 nᵉbêlâh (41 vv); Ezekiel 44:31 reproduces Lev 22:8's prohibition near-verbatim, and Barnes cites the link directly.

Washing the flesh as sign, not cause (Lev 22:6 → Hebrews 10:22) structural / thematic — confirmed

Verse 6 requires the defiled priest to wash his flesh in water before he may eat the holy things, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the rite as figure rather than mechanism: the priest washed "not to cleanse himself, for the water was ineffectual for that purpose, but to signify that he was clean ... it served only as an outward and visible sign that such a restoration was to be made." The New Testament takes up exactly this sign-grammar of washing for access to the holy: believers "draw near" only "having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water" (Hebrews 10:22), the water signing a cleansing the blood actually effects (Ephesians 5:26). This is a cross-Testament link between Hebrew and Greek texts, so it cannot rest on a shared Strong's number and is tiered structural, not verbal: the connection is the shared pattern — bodily washing as the visible token of a cleansing one must already possess to approach God — which JFB themselves draw out from the Levitical text.

Hebrews 10:22 · Ephesians 5:26

basis: Cross-Testament (Hebrew↔Greek): no shared Strong's lexeme is possible, so this is tiered structural, not verbal. The shared pattern is washing-the-body as outward sign of a cleansing for sanctuary access; JFB explicitly read Lev 22:6's washing as sign, and Hebrews 10:22 frames drawing near by bodies 'washed with pure water.'

The High Priest who cannot be defiled widely-held

The whole chapter assumes a priesthood that can be disqualified — by leprosy, by a corpse, by the passing of an evening — and so must perpetually guard itself against defilement before it can serve or eat. Matthew Henry reads the contrast christologically across the chapter: "our great High Priest cannot be hindered by any thing from the discharge of his office." Where Aaron's sons are barred by a touch and restored only by water and sundown, Hebrews presents a High Priest "holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners" (Hebrews 7:26) — the permanent reality the Levitical fences could only signify. The same nâsâʼ ("to bear") that threatens the careless priest with bearing his own sin (vv.9, 16) is fulfilled in the One who bore the sins of many (Isaiah 53:12). This reading is widely held across the Reformation and Puritan commentators represented in this unit.

Hebrews 7:26 · Hebrews 13:10 · Isaiah 53:12

Bought with a price, born again: who eats the holy bread novel

Verse 11 admits to the holy table exactly two classes the laity lacks — the servant bought with money and the one born in the house — while the lifelong hired neighbor (v.10) is shut out. John Gill draws the typology explicitly: the holy things belong "to such as are bought and redeemed with the blood of Christ, the high priest, and are born again of his Spirit and grace." The New Testament names belonging by these same two doors — purchase ("you were bought with a price," 1 Corinthians 6:20; "redeemed... with the precious blood of Christ," 1 Peter 1:18-19) and new birth (John 1:13; 3:5). The figure is bounded: the Lord's table, like the priest's, is for the household, entered not by service rendered but by redemption received. Gill's particular application is a Reformed reading rather than an ancient consensus, so we mark it as a more specific development.

1 Corinthians 6:20 · 1 Peter 1:18 · John 3:5

David at Nob, the shewbread, and the Lord of the Sabbath widely-held

The trespass-law of vv.14–16 — the layman who eats the holy thing must restore it with a fifth, and the priest must not let him bear that guilt — is the very statute David technically violated when he and his men ate the consecrated Bread of the Presence at Nob. The Pulpit Commentary makes the link unprompted: "David was guilty of this trespass in an aggravated form... But his act is excused by our Lord, on the plea of necessity (Matthew 12:3, 4)." When Jesus cites that incident to defend His disciples, He claims authority over the holy things themselves — "something greater than the temple is here... the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath" (Matthew 12:6, 8). The One who fenced the holy bread in Leviticus stands, incarnate, as its Lord. This is a cross-Testament typological reading; because it rests on Christ's own use of the shewbread narrative, it is at least widely held among the commentators here.

Matthew 12:4 · 1 Samuel 21:6 · Matthew 12:8