Honor in the Cult: Leviticus 10 in Socio-Rhetorical Perspective

Walter Houston’s article on the death of Nadab and Abihu is one of the few attempts to bring a social science model of honor and shame to bear on the Pentateuch. This article will argue that he did not go far enough in tracing how honor and shame bring coherence, not just to the Nadab and Abihu incident but also to all of Lev. 10. In particular, honor also explains the speeches of Yhwh and Aaron, the transition from the prohibition of mourning to Aaron’s grant of interpretive authority, and the overall narrative tension and resolution of the chapter’s narrative. This article will briefly review and critique Houston’s article and then argue that Lev. 10 contains a rhetoric of honor that coordinates relationships between Yhwh, priests, and people in a way that brings greater coherence to the chapter as a whole.