The name itself goes back to the Greek form “to Leuitikon biblion” (or “Leuitikon” for short), meaning “the book of the Levites”. The Levites or “tribe of Levi” were one of the Israelite tribes, name after Levi, one of the twelve sons of Jacob (also called “Israel”). This was the “priestly tribe”–from it came the priests and others involved in tabernacle/temple service.

The Greek title was given to the book by early translators. In traditional Hebrew the title for this book is “Vayyiqra”, meaning “and he called”. This title comes from the first verse of the book, as do the the titles of all the books of Moses (e.g., first book is called “Bereshit”= “in the beginning”, second is “Shemot” = “names”).