Levi (Tribe)

Levi is one of the tribes of Israel.

History

Settlement in Galilee

Many of Benjamin and Levi settled in Galilee after the return from Babylon, which is evident from the Scriptures. But Galilee did not originally belong to Benjamin. When the land was divided originally, towns in the territory of Naphtali were said to be in “Galilee”, i.e. Josh. 20:7.

Purification of the sons of Levi

Remember the words of Yahweh in Malachi chapter 3, “and he shall purify the sons of Levi”: John the Baptist was also a Levite, so he could fulfill the priestly role of cleansing which Moses the Levite had done first, long before him. It is apparent, that Yahshua coming to be the final ritual sacrifice for the children of Israel, the prophecy and baptism of John – for the sons of Levi – was also symbolic of the Old Testament law. That is why John was sent to baptize the sons of Levi – so that Christ could be properly sacrificed. Now Israel has been cleansed of all their sins by Christ Himself, as foretold by the prophets, and they have no need of any further cleansing.

Possible Magi Connection

Strabo quotes Polybius where he says that “the priests of the Egyptians, the Chaldaeans, and the Magi, because they excelled their fellows in knowledge of some kind or other, attained to leadership and honour among the peoples of our times” (Geog. 1.2.15). Quoting Poseidonius, he says that “the Council of the Parthians … consists of two groups, one that of kinsmen, and the other that of wise men and Magi, from both of which groups the kings were appointed” (11.9.3). The Magi kept a guard at the tomb of Cyrus, directed the sacrifices of the Persians and distributed the meat from the altar, without setting aside a portion for the Persian deities because the gods do not need meat, where Strabo also said that “the Persians do not erect statues or altars, but offer sacrifice on a high place”, a practice we see the Israelites chastised for in Scripture.

Strabo also mentions his own eye-witness account of a “sect of the Magi, who are called Pyraethi (fire-kindlers)” who dwell in Cappadocia. They are said to keep an eternal fire, and to sacrifice animals by cudgeling them, and to carry about in procession a wooden statue of a strange god named “Omanus”. Among the Magi of Persia Strabo said that when they die they are not buried, but rather their bodies are left “to be eaten by birds”, and mentions that they were known to “consort even with their mothers”.

Strabo's view of the Magi, even considering the more fantastic stories he offered, is still quite practical compared to that of Diodorus Siculus, who only makes notable mention of them – at least in relation to our purposes here – on one occasion where he states, speaking of the early people of the island of Rhodes who were called the Telchines, that “men say that the Telchines were also wizards and could summon clouds and rain and hail at their will and likewise could even bring snow; these things, the accounts tell us, they could do even as could the Magi of Persia; and they could also change their natural shapes and were jealous of teaching their arts to others”

The much earlier Herodotus, speaking of the Medes, names the Magi as one of the “tribes of which they consist”, listing six (1:101). In his account of the birth of Cyrus, which is considered fantastic by most commentators, the historian describes one of the Magi as being an interpreter of dreams for Astyages the king of the Medes (1:107, 120), a gift we also see attributed – albeit imperfectly – to the Chaldaean priests in the Book of Daniel. This is describing events which took place circa 580 BC, a century-and-a-half before Herodotus wrote. This is right around the same time as the Hebrew prophets Ezekiel, Jeremiah and Daniel. Herodotus also said of the Magi that “The Magi are a very peculiar race, differently entire from the Egyptian priests, and indeed from all other men whatsoever. The Egyptian priests make it a point of religion not to kill any live animals except those which they offer in sacrifice. The Magi, on the contrary, kill animals of all kinds with their own hands, excepting dogs and men. They even seem to take a delight in the employment, and kill, as readily as they do other animals, ants and snakes, and such like flying or creeping things. However, since this has always been their custom, let them keep to it.“ Now this seems trite, but what Herodotus does not say about the Magi is important. Herodotus recorded a lot of fantastic stories, for which he is often criticized, but he himself admitted this, considering it his duty to “report all that is said” whether he believed it or not (7:152). Yet about the Magi he reports no fantastic stories such as shape-shifting or flying carpets or other wild tales.

Ezra 8:17 states:

“And I sent them with commandment unto Iddo the chief at the place Casiphia, and I told them what they should say unto Iddo, and to his brethren the Nethinims, at the place Casiphia, that they should bring unto us ministers for the house of our God.”

From Classical Records of the Origins of the Scythians, Parthians,& Related Tribes:

“East of Iberia and reaching to the Caspian Sea was Albania, of which the eastern part, Caspiana, sat at the mouth of that same Araxes river where the Scythians are placed at the earliest times. Herodotus mentions the Caspians at 7.67, and in company with the Bactrians in Xerxes’ Persian army at 7.86. In Strabo we have seen the relationship of the Bactrians and Scythians mentioned above (11.8.2). Caspiana must be, as Dr. George Moore agrees in his The Lost Tribes And The Saxons Of The East And The Saxons Of the West, that same district mentioned at Ezra 8:17, Casiphia, to which Ezra sent for Levites to come to Jerusalem after the rebuilding of the Temple. Moore wrote as much in the 1870’s, when his book was first published.”

Caspiana, or Casiphia, was in an area that Herodotus would very well have associated with the Medes. It is very possible that he and later writers, all the way down to the time of Christ, may have confused the Levites in the area as being another “sect of the Magi”, as Strabo puts it. It is very possible that the “Magi” of the time of Christ may well have been descended from the Levites of the deportations of Israel and Judah. Of course, this is conjecture and there is not enough evidence to make any solid claim, however the possibility certainly explains the interest and knowledge that the Magi had concerning the Christ.

Roles

In the ancient kingdom of Israel, it was the role of the Levite to collect the tithe.