Leviticus 18 — Hebrew and Greek compared
← Leviticus 17 compared · Reading text of Leviticus 18 · Leviticus: all chapters · Leviticus 19 compared →
Same 18 Similar 2 Different 4 Divergent 3 Disparate 3
Disparate in this chapter: 18:21, 18:25, 18:28
Each verse is rendered independently from the Hebrew (Rabbinic reading tradition) and from the Greek (Saints reading tradition). The badge classifies the relationship between the two readings; the note beneath records the source document’s comparison and attributed interpretation. Each column retains its own verse references where numbering differs.
The laws by which to live · 18:1–5
18:1 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
18:1 YHWH spoke to Moses, saying:
Greek · Saints priority
18:1 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
The speech formula corresponds.
18:2 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
18:2 Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them: I am YHWH your God.
Greek · Saints priority
18:2 Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them: I am the Lord your God.
The divine identification corresponds.
18:3 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
18:3 You shall not act according to the practices of the land of Egypt, where you lived. You shall not act according to the practices of the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes.
Greek · Saints priority
18:3 You shall not act according to the practices of the land of Egypt, where you lived. You shall not act according to the practices of the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes.
The contrast of Israel’s conduct with Egypt and Canaan corresponds.
18:4 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
18:4 You shall carry out My judgments and keep My statutes, walking in them. I am YHWH your God.
Greek · Saints priority
18:4 You shall carry out My judgments and keep My ordinances, walking in them. I am the Lord your God.
The obligations correspond.
18:5 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
18:5 You shall keep My statutes and My judgments; the person who does them shall live by them. I am YHWH.
Greek · Saints priority
18:5 You shall keep all My ordinances and all My judgments and do them; the person who does them shall live by them. I am the Lord your God.
Greek adds all twice, an explicit doing clause, and your God.
Saints reception — quotation. Paul cites Moses’ statement about the person who does the righteousness of the law living by it. His argument in Romans is reception of the verse and does not supply additional wording for either column. Romans 10:5
Forbidden relationships · 18:6–18
18:6 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
18:6 None of you shall approach any close relative of his flesh to uncover nakedness. I am YHWH.
Greek · Saints priority
18:6 No person shall approach any relative of his flesh to uncover nakedness. I am the Lord.
Uncovering nakedness is the shared sexual euphemism; the Greek word also carries a shame or indecency nuance.
18:7 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
18:7 You shall not uncover your father’s nakedness or your mother’s nakedness. She is your mother; you shall not uncover her nakedness.
Greek · Saints priority
18:7 You shall not uncover your father’s nakedness or your mother’s nakedness. She is your mother; you shall not uncover her nakedness.
The prohibition corresponds; the relation of the father phrase to the mother phrase calls for contextual interpretation.
18:8 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
18:8 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife; it is your father’s nakedness.
Greek · Saints priority
18:8 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife; it is your father’s nakedness.
The kinship identification corresponds.
18:9 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
18:9 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your sister, your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether born at home or born outside.
Greek · Saints priority
18:9 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your sister, your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether born at home or born outside.
The stated family alternatives correspond.
18:10 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
18:10 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter, for theirs is your nakedness.
Greek · Saints priority
18:10 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter, for theirs is your nakedness.
The descendant prohibition corresponds.
18:11 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
18:11 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife’s daughter, begotten by your father; she is your sister.
Greek · Saints priority
18:11 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife’s daughter. She is your sister by the same father; you shall not uncover her nakedness.
Greek repeats the prohibition at the end; shared paternity is expressed adjectivally.
18:12 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
18:12 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s sister; she is your father’s close relative.
Greek · Saints priority
18:12 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s sister; she is your father’s close relative.
The paternal-aunt prohibition corresponds.
18:13 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
18:13 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister; she is your mother’s close relative.
Greek · Saints priority
18:13 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister; she is your mother’s close relative.
The maternal-aunt prohibition corresponds.
18:14 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
18:14 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s brother; you shall not approach his wife. She is your aunt.
Greek · Saints priority
18:14 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s brother, and you shall not go in to his wife. She is your relative.
Aunt / relative; approach / go in to.
18:15 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
18:15 You shall not uncover your daughter-in-law’s nakedness. She is your son’s wife; you shall not uncover her nakedness.
Greek · Saints priority
18:15 You shall not uncover your daughter-in-law’s nakedness. She is your son’s wife; you shall not uncover her nakedness.
The prohibition corresponds.
18:16 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
18:16 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife; it is your brother’s nakedness.
Greek · Saints priority
18:16 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife; it is your brother’s nakedness.
The prohibition corresponds; its relationship to levirate marriage is an interpretive question, not a Hebrew–Greek difference here.
18:17 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
18:17 You shall not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter. You shall not take her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter to uncover her nakedness; they are close relatives. It is a wicked scheme.
Greek · Saints priority
18:17 You shall not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter. You shall not take her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter to uncover their nakedness; they are your relatives. It is an act of impiety.
Greek explicitly says your relatives where Hebrew says close relatives. Greek has their nakedness where Hebrew has her nakedness; wicked scheme becomes impiety.
18:18 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
18:18 You shall not take a woman in addition to her sister as a rival, to uncover her nakedness alongside her while she is alive.
Greek · Saints priority
18:18 You shall not take a woman in addition to her sister as a rival, to uncover her nakedness alongside her while she is alive.
The living sister and rivalry condition corresponds.
Other prohibited acts · 18:19–23
18:19 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
18:19 You shall not approach a woman in her menstrual uncleanness to uncover her nakedness.
Greek · Saints priority
18:19 You shall not approach a woman in separation for her uncleanness to uncover her nakedness.
Both refer to the separation condition; the Hebrew is rendered contextually as menstrual.
18:20 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
18:20 You shall not lie with your neighbor’s wife to emit semen and become defiled through her.
Greek · Saints priority
18:20 You shall not lie with your neighbor’s wife to emit semen and become defiled through her.
The adultery prohibition corresponds.
18:21 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
18:21 You shall not give any of your offspring to be passed over to Molech, and you shall not profane the name of your God. I am YHWH.
Greek · Saints priority
18:21 You shall not give any of your offspring to serve a ruler, and you shall not profane the holy name. I am the Lord.
Molech and passing over / a ruler and serving changes the stated recipient and act. Greek also has holy name rather than name of your God. Fire is not explicitly named in either selected verse and is not inserted into the translation.
18:22 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
18:22 You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a woman; it is an abomination.
Greek · Saints priority
18:22 You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a woman; it is an abomination.
The selected texts correspond in this prohibition. Neither uses an age-specific word meaning boy; broader historical or doctrinal applications belong in interpretation.
18:23 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
18:23 You shall not lie with any animal and become defiled through it. A woman shall not stand before an animal to mate with it; it is a perversion.
Greek · Saints priority
18:23 You shall not lie with any four-footed animal for insemination and become defiled through it. A woman shall not stand before any four-footed animal to be mounted; it is detestable.
Greek specifies four-footed animals and insemination; the concluding characterization differs.
The land and the consequences of defilement · 18:24–30
18:24 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
18:24 Do not defile yourselves by any of these things, for by all these things the nations I am driving out before you became defiled.
Greek · Saints priority
18:24 Do not defile yourselves by any of these things, for by all these things the nations I am driving out before you became defiled.
The warning and rationale correspond.
18:25 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
18:25 The land became defiled, and I visited its iniquity upon it, and the land vomited out its inhabitants.
Greek · Saints priority
18:25 The land became defiled, and I repaid them for wrongdoing because of it, and the land became indignant with those settled upon it.
Hebrew describes judgment upon the land and its vomiting out inhabitants; Greek describes repayment to them and the land’s indignation. The expressed agents and result differ materially.
18:26 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
18:26 But you shall keep My statutes and My judgments and do none of these abominations, neither the native nor the resident foreigner living among you.
Greek · Saints priority
18:26 You shall keep all My ordinances and all My commands and do none of these abominations, neither the local inhabitant nor the newcomer who has joined you.
Greek includes all twice; resident terminology differs.
18:27 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
18:27 For the people of the land who were before you did all these abominations, and the land became defiled.
Greek · Saints priority
18:27 For the people of the land who were before you did all these abominations, and the land became defiled.
The preceding inhabitants’ conduct and the land’s defilement correspond.
18:28 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
18:28 so that the land does not vomit you out when you defile it, as it vomited out the nation before you.
Greek · Saints priority
18:28 so that the land does not become indignant with you when you defile it, as it became indignant with the nations before you.
Vomiting out / indignation again changes the stated consequence; Hebrew’s nation is singular, Greek’s nations plural.
18:29 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
18:29 For whoever does any of these abominations, the persons who do them shall be cut off from among their people.
Greek · Saints priority
18:29 For whoever does any of these abominations, the persons who do them shall be destroyed from among their people.
Cut off / destroyed; the sanction remains grave in both.
18:30 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
18:30 Keep My charge, so that you do none of the abominable practices done before you, and do not defile yourselves by them. I am YHWH your God.
Greek · Saints priority
18:30 Keep My ordinances, so that you do none of the abominable practices that occurred before you, and do not become defiled by them, for I am the Lord your God.
The closing charge corresponds.
← Leviticus 17 compared · Reading text of Leviticus 18 · Leviticus: all chapters · Leviticus 19 compared →
Saints Translation · Companion comparison edition · working draft awaiting specialist review.