“You Shall Be Holy”: A Reassessment of Israel’s Call to Holiness

Abstract The command “you shall be holy” (Lev 11:44, 45; 19:2; 20:7, 26; Num 15:40) figures into scholarly views on holiness and source criticism. It has been interpreted as evidence for a dynamic view of holiness and as implying that Israel is not presently holy but needs to become holy. The call for Israel to be holy has also been identified as a distinguishing feature of H, a posited strata within the Priestly source. In this article, I examine phrases in the priestly writings that contain verbal uses of קדש and predicate uses of both the nominal and adjectival forms of קדש to demonstrate that the parallel phrases to Israel’s call to holiness center on treating persons and things that are holy as holy, that is, according to God’s commands regarding their holiness. I also examine motive clauses that assume Israel’s present holiness. Thus, the call for Israel to be holy is not a command to make themselves holy but to act as holy, an exhortation to obedience, assuming their present holiness brought about by God through the exodus. Israel’s call to holiness does not imply a unique view of holiness; instead, Israel’s holiness, while distinct from the cultic holiness of the priests and the sanctuary, shares the same basic definition—a status of association with God with an accompanying standard to be kept.