Dear Conrad - Why do people live by some of the laws in Leviticus and not others? Like where it says don’t get tattoos (I think that’s in 27) but in the verse above it says not to trim the sides of your hair. It just seems kinda hypocritical to me that they will follow a few of the laws and not all of them. - steamyboydj

Dear Steamboydj,

We have to read the passage as it was originally intended. For example - when God told Samson’s mother to not cut Samson’s hair, even though it was in the Bible, doesn’t mean that that verse was intended for everyone. You have to read the passage with the intent and reader in mind. Same with other passages as in Leviticus.

Leviticus was a book written for the Israeli Nation at the time. It was civil law. Civil law is stuff like the speed limit is 55 on I-95. It is not a moral law, but a law for the country.

Listen to this one Civil Law in Deut. 23 that we don't live by today...
DT 23:12 “Designate a place outside the camp where you can go to relieve yourself. [13] As part of your equipment have something to dig with, and when you relieve yourself, dig a hole and cover up your excrement.”

Other stuff like in Exodus is moral law, not civil law - Law written not only for the Israeli nation. So that's why we live by those moral laws and and not Israeli civil law. Moral law was intended for everyone – the civil law was not.

As for the tattoo passage – you’re right. You can’t just pick and choose which one’s you want to be civil and which one’s are moral laws.