This dissertation-now-turned-publication is primarily an in-depth study of the family laws and prohibitions in Leviticus 18. Specifically the study explores the origin and composition of the passage, wonders aloud as to why the author of the passage singled out the Egyptians and the Canaanites for condemnation, and offers an understanding of the laws from the perspective of oral traditions in Africa.
In regard to the origin of the text, Kimuhu considers it rash, and certainly unfruitful, to seek the origin of the prohibitions of chapter 18 in the patriarchal narrative or even in the ancestors of Israel in general. Instead he prefers to envision dependency by the composer of chapter 18 on the Hittite Laws (HL). This is not say that the composer may not have relied on other biblical codes such as the Holiness Code (H) itself, the Covenant Code, or the book of Deuteronomy in general. Nevertheless the composer seems to exhibit greater dependency on HL. As a matter of fact all the laws in HL are found in Lev 18 except the law on father’s union with his daughter and the law of the crime committed by a slave girl.
Concerning the condemnation of the Egyptians and the Canaanites, Kimuhu considers such censure problematic considering that there is little evidence in the ANE that indicates that the prohibited sexual relationships and marriages were practiced outside the royal family (there are cases of half-brother and father-daughter marriages in the Pharaonic times) and the family of deities (in the Ugaritic texts we do not have cases of incest outside the Baal-Anat circles). According to Kimuhu, the only viable explanation for the condemnation is either that the Priestly laws in Leviticus reflect the incestuous practices in the Graeco-Roman periods or that a redactor schooled in the theology of Dtr is responsible for the addition of verses 1-5 which house the condemnation. Both explanations indicate that Kimuhu adopts a late (exilic) date for Lev 18.