25 Bible Verses about Ritual Law
Most Relevant Verses
Therefore the priests shall observe My ordinance, so that they will not bear sin because of it and die if they profane it; I am the Lord who sanctifies them.
and to make a distinction and recognize a difference between the holy (sacred) and the common (profane), and between the [ceremonially] unclean and the clean;
Say to them, ‘Any one of your descendants throughout your generations who approaches the holy things which the Israelites dedicate to the Lord, while he is [ceremonially] unclean, that person shall be cut off from My presence and excluded from the sanctuary; I am the Lord.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them:
‘No one shall defile himself [that is, become ceremonially unclean] for the dead among his people [by touching a corpse or assisting in preparing it for burial], except for his relatives who are nearest to him, his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, and his brother, also his virgin sister, who is near to him because she has had no husband; for her he may become unclean.
You shall not offer anything which has a blemish, because it will not be accepted for you. Whoever offers a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord to fulfill a special vow to the Lord or as a freewill offering from the herd or from the flock, it must be perfect to be accepted; there shall be no blemish in it. Animals that are blind or fractured or mutilated, or have a sore or a running wound or an itch or scabs, you shall not offer to the Lord nor make an offering of them by fire on the altar to the Lord. read more.
For a freewill offering you may offer either a bull or a lamb which has an overgrown or stunted member (deformity), but for [the payment of] a vow it will not be accepted. You shall not offer to the Lord any animal which has its testicles bruised or crushed or torn or cut off, or sacrifice it in your land. Nor shall you offer as the food of your God any such [animals obtained] from a foreigner, because their corruption and blemish makes them unfit; there is a defect in them, they shall not be accepted for you.’”
“Say to all the congregation of the children of Israel, ‘You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.
You are to be holy to Me; for I the Lord am holy, and have set you apart from the peoples (nations) to be Mine.
For I am the Lord your God; so consecrate yourselves and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not make yourselves unclean with any of the swarming things that swarm or crawls on the ground. For I am the Lord who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God; therefore you shall be holy, for I am holy.’”
You shall consecrate him, therefore, for he offers the food of your God; he shall be holy to you; for I the Lord, who sanctifies you, am holy.
“You shall not profane My holy name [using it to honor an idol, or treating it with irreverence or contempt or as a byword]; but I will be sanctified (set apart as holy) among the Israelites. I am the Lord, who sanctifies and declares you holy,
This is the law regarding the animal and the bird and every living thing that moves in the waters and everything that swarms on the earth, to make a distinction between the [ceremonially] unclean and the [ceremonially] clean, and between the animal that may be eaten and the animal that may not be eaten.
Of every clean animal you shall take with you seven pair, the male and his female, and of animals that are not clean, two each the male and his female;
And Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every [ceremonially] clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
The Lord spoke again to Moses and Aaron, saying to them, “Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘Among all the animals which are on the earth, these are the animals which you may eat. You may eat any animal that has a divided hoof [that is, a hoof split into two parts especially at its distal extremity] and chews the cud. read more.
Nevertheless, you are not to eat these, among those which chew the cud or divide the hoof: the camel, because it chews the cud but does not divide the hoof; it is [ceremonially] unclean to you. And the shaphan, because it chews the cud but does not divide the hoof; it is unclean to you. And the hare, because it chews the cud but does not divide the hoof; it is unclean to you. And the swine, because it divides the hoof and makes a split hoof, but does not chew the cud; it is unclean to you. You shall not eat their meat nor touch their carcasses; they are unclean to you. ‘These you may eat, whatever is in the water: whatever has fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, these you may eat; but whatever does not have fins and scales in the seas and in the rivers, of all the teeming life in the waters, and of all the living creatures that are in the waters, they are [to be considered] detestable to you. They shall be hated things to you. You may not eat their meat; you shall detest their carcasses. Everything in the water that does not have fins and scales is detestable to you. ‘These you shall detest among the birds; they are not to be eaten, for they are hated things: the eagle and the vulture and the buzzard, the kite, every kind of falcon, every kind of raven, the ostrich, the nighthawk, the sea gull, every species of hawk, the little owl and the cormorant and the great owl, the white owl, the pelican, the carrion vulture, the stork, all kinds of heron, the hoopoe, and the bat. ‘All winged insects that walk on all fours are detestable to you; yet of all winged insects that walk on all fours you may eat those which have legs above their feet with which to leap on the ground. Of these you may eat: the whole species of migratory locust, of bald locust, of cricket, and of grasshopper. But all other winged insects which are four footed are detestable to you.
“You shall not eat anything that is detestable [to the Lord and forbidden by Him]. These are the animals that you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope and the mountain sheep. read more.
Among the animals, you may eat any animal that has the divided hoof [that is, a hoof] split into two parts [especially at its distal extremity] and that chews the cud. However, you are not to eat any of these [animals] among those which chew the cud, or among those that divide the hoof in two: the camel, the hare and the shaphan, for though they chew the cud, they do not split the hoof; they are unclean for you. The swine, because it has a divided hoof but does not chew the cud; it is unclean for you. You shall not eat their meat nor touch their carcasses. “Of all [creatures] that are in the waters, you may eat these: anything that has fins and scales you may eat, but you may not eat anything that does not have fins and scales; it is unclean for you. “You may eat any clean bird. But these are the ones which you shall not eat: the eagle, the vulture, and the black buzzard, and the red kite, the falcon, and the birds of prey of any variety, and every raven of any variety, and the ostrich, the owl, the seagull, the hawk of any variety, the little owl, the great owl, the long-eared owl, the pelican, the carrion vulture, the cormorant, the stork, and the heron of any variety, and the hoopoe, and the bat. And all flying insects are unclean for you; they shall not be eaten. You may eat any clean bird.
“You shall not eat anything that dies on its own. You may give it to the stranger (resident alien, foreigner) who is in your [city] gates, so that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner [since they are not under God’s law], but you are a people holy (set apart) to the Lord your God. You shall not boil a young goat or a lamb in its mother’s milk.
Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, saying,
‘If a woman conceives and gives birth to a male child, she shall be [ceremonially] unclean for seven days, unclean as during her monthly period. On the eighth day the flesh of the male child’s foreskin shall be circumcised. read more.
Then she shall remain [intimately separated] thirty-three days to be purified from the blood; she shall not touch any consecrated thing nor enter the [courtyard of the] sanctuary until the days of her purification are over. But if she gives birth to a female child, then she shall be unclean for two weeks, as during her monthly period, and she shall remain [intimately separated] sixty-six days to be purified from the blood.
And when the time for their purification came [that is, the mother’s purification and the baby’s dedication] according to the Law of Moses, they brought Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord [set apart as the Firstborn] (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male that opens the womb shall be called holy [set apart and dedicated] to the Lord)” and [they came also] to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord [to be appropriate for a family of modest means], “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”
After saying [in the citation] above, “You have neither desired, nor have You taken delight in sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin” (which are offered according to the Law) then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will.” [And so] He does away with the first [covenant as a means of atoning for sin based on animal sacrifices] so that He may inaugurate and establish the second [covenant by means of obedience]. And in accordance with this will [of God] we [who believe in the message of salvation] have been sanctified [that is, set apart as holy for God and His purposes] through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed) once for all.
by abolishing in His [own crucified] flesh the hostility caused by the Law with its commandments contained in ordinances [which He satisfied]; so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thereby establishing peace.
having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of legal demands [which were in force] against us and which were hostile to us. And this certificate He has set aside and completely removed by nailing it to the cross.
Now if perfection [a perfect fellowship between God and the worshiper] had been attained through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people were given the Law) what further need was there for another and different kind of priest to arise, one in the manner of Melchizedek, rather than one appointed to the order of Aaron?
For since the Law has only a shadow [just a pale representation] of the good things to come—not the very image of those things—it can never, by offering the same sacrifices continually year after year, make perfect those who approach [its altars]. For if it were otherwise, would not these sacrifices have stopped being offered? For the worshipers, having once [for all time] been cleansed, would no longer have a consciousness of sin. But [as it is] these [continual] sacrifices bring a fresh reminder of sins [to be atoned for] year after year,
