Leviticus on the Butcher’s Block

Foreword

(wrote the foreword)

Max Botner

“With both the hands-on insights and the practical humor of a professional butcher, Bray brings sacrifice to life, dissecting relevant paragraphs of the biblical narrative while scrutinizing nuances of its original Hebrew text. The result is an ingenious investigation of rituals and practices that once formed the core of Jewish temple worship for a millennium and later became an important source of metaphors for the Christian church.”

Christian A. Eberhart

“For centuries, theologians and pastors have gone on and on about the meaning of Old Testament sacrifices. Yet they were mostly ignorant of the practical realities of these rituals—realities in which the butchers of the world are immersed day after day. The rituals of sacrifice cannot be understood apart from the practicalities of slaughtering animals and handling meat and blood, since the meaning of any ritual is in the experience of it. Phil Bray has done us a great service by bridging this gap, giving us insight into how someone familiar with slaughter, meat, and blood (as were the priests and worshipers of the Bible) would have experienced and understood these rituals.”

Jeremy Davis

“This is a book to savor. Indeed, it may make you hungry for a rib-eye! But Bray’s achievement is to make Leviticus, possibly the most baffling book in the Old Testament, appetizing. Leviticus on the Butcher’s Block is that rare beast: well-researched, insightful, and a delight to read.”

Michael P Jensen

“Too many Christians in industrialized societies read about sacrifice from a sanitized distance. Phil Bray combines his professional experience as a butcher with a deep love of scripture to draw a portrait of biblical sacrifice that practically leaps off the page. The result is accessible and vivid but also grounded in responsible scholarship. Readers who feel lost in the early chapters of Leviticus will find in this book a beautiful guide to the way God’s love was expressed through these specific cultural practices.”

Abby Kaplan

“Using his experience as a butcher, Phil Bray has provided a much needed and approachable bridge between the ancient world of the Torah and that of the modern Christian. This book explains the biblical and cultural significance behind many key elements found in Leviticus’s ritual texts and provides needed correctives to common assumptions along the way. If you are seeking a resource to quickly help you understand the often-confusing world of Leviticus, you will find this book a great help to your biblical studies and an enjoyable read.”

Caleb S. Lewis

“I felt deeply engaged and a bit hungry as soon as I started reading Phil’s work. Phil helped me read Leviticus by infusing the biblical text with the smells of herbs and barbeque, the sounds of sharpening knives and cutting meat, and the physical work of being a butcher. He’s made a lasting impression on the way I read Leviticus! More importantly, Phil focuses on how God was not bloodthirsty, but was cleansing and restoring his people, and inviting them to look ahead to Christ’s work of cleansing and restoring humanity on the deepest level.”

Mako A. Nagasawa

“Leviticus on the Butcher’s Block offers an entryway into the Levitical sacrifices from the perspective of a real butcher. This guide for laypeople offers insights into the real world of Leviticus and what it meant to offer animal sacrifices in an ancient agrarian world. With stories from life behind the knife, Bray brings the reality of sacrifice into the modern world. With accessible language, stories, and theological insights, Leviticus on the Butcher’s Block makes a compelling case for why this ancient biblical book is so important for Christians today.”

Mark Scarlata

“This book is sure to nourish our minds with the juicy layers of the book of Leviticus. Not only will it help us form biblical imaginations, but we might just fall in love with parts of Scripture that we tend to cut out and leave high and dry in our Bible study. Understanding the language, imagery, and purpose of the core of the Torah will help us better see the Messiah and live into our purposes in the church today. Welcome to the table of biblical studies; once you develop a taste for Leviticus, you will never read Scripture the same way again.”

Carey Griffel

“For many Christian people living in the West ‘sacrifice’ is an abstract concept that exists only in the world of ideas. In this unique book, Bray marshals his experience as a butcher to open new perspectives on the reality. The copious mentions of blood, fat, and meat throughout Leviticus are not merely gratuitous or barbaric. Instead, they construct and convey rich theological truths about YHWH, his people, and the world. Be prepared to hear Leviticus like you never have before!”

G. Geoffrey Harper

“Leviticus is often seen as the gristle of the Old Testament, but in Leviticus on the Butcher’s Block Bray transforms this tough text into a theological feast. With the precision of a master butcher and the pastoral heart of a shepherd, Bray cuts through the complexities of sacrifice to reveal its rich, gospel-centered flavor, pointing us to the Lamb who takes away sin. Accessible, witty, and profoundly Christ-centered, this book invites readers to savor God’s holiness, grace, and the ultimate sacrifice fulfilled in Jesus. Leviticus has never tasted so rich—or satisfying.”

Matt Redmond