Levi

:"This article discusses the Biblical patriarch. See Levi Strauss for the inventor of jeans, Levites for the Biblical tribe, or Matthew the Evangelist for the disciple sometimes known as "Levi". For other names and surnames, see Levi (disambiguation)."

Levi/Levy, Standard "Levy" "לוי" Tiberian "] . Some Biblical scholars suspect that the Elohist account both matrilinial and patrilinial descent from Levites in order to magnify the religious credentials of Moses ["Peake's commentary on the Bible"] .

Assuming that the masoretic text/Septuagint is accurate in respect to Jochebed, the family tree of Levi's immediate descendants would be as follows:

Priestly

In accordance with his role as founder of the Levites, Levi is occasionally referred to in the Bible as being particularly pious. The Blessing of Moses, which textual scholars attribute to period just before the deuteronomist [Richard Elliott Friedman, "Who wrote the Bible"] , speaks about Levi via an allegorical comparison to Moses himself [Deuteronomy 33:8-10] , which hagaddah take to support the characterisation of Levi (and his progeny) as being by far the greatest of his brothers in respect to piety ["Jewish Encyclopedia"] . The apocryphal "Prayer of Asenath", which textual scholars believe dates from some time after the first century AD (scholarship in regards to the dating is currently quite contentious, with dates ranging from near the first century, to the fourth or fifth centuries) ["Jewish Encyclopedia", "Asenath"] , describes Levi as a prophet and saint, able to forecast the future, understand "heavenly writings" (astrology ?), and someone who admonishes the people to be forgiving, as well as in awe of God ["Jewish Encyclopedia", "Levi"] . The Book of Malachi argues that the Levites were chosen by Yahweh to be the priests, because Levi was always accurate, having never lied, specified only the true religious regulations, was reverent, revered Yahweh, was in awe of the Tetragrammaton, upheld peace, was a model of good morality, and turned many people from sin [] ; the narrative also mentions that the brothers had earlier misled the denizens of Shechem, by consenting to Dinah's rapist marrying her, and when Jacob hears about the destruction of Shechem by Simeon and Levi, he castigates them for it [] . In the Blessing of Jacob, Jacob is described as imposing a curse on the Levites, by which they would be scattered, in punishment for Levi's actions in Shechem [] ; textual scholars date the "Blessing of Jacob" to a period between just one and two centuries prior to the Babylonian captivity ["Jewish Encyclopedia"] [Richard Elliott Friedman, "Who wrote the Bible?"] , and some Biblical scholars regard this "curse", and Dinah herself as an aetiological postdiction to explain the fates of the tribe of Simeon and the Levites, the simpler explanation of the Levites' scattered nature being that the priesthood was originally open to any tribe, but gradually became seen as a distinct tribe itself (the Levites) ["Jewish Encyclopedia"] ["Peake's commentary on the bible"] .

See also

* Levite
* Testament of Levi
* Levi (disambiguation)
* Miscegenation

Citations

External links

* [http://www.cohen-levi.org/ “The Tribe: The Cohen-Levi Family Heritiage”] (cohen-levi.org)