Levi/
Levy (, ;
Standard Levy Tiberian ; literally
joining) was, according to the
Book of Genesis, the third son of
Jacob and
Leah, and the founder of the
Israelite Tribe of
Levi (the
Levites). Certain religious and political functions were reserved for the Levites, and in the
documentary hypothesis, the early sources of the
Torah—the
Jahwist and
Elohist—appear to treat the term
Levi as just being a word meaning
priest; some scholars therefore suspect that "levi" was originally a general term for a priest, and had no connection to ancestry, and that it was only later, for example in the
priestly source and
Blessing of Moses, that the existence of a tribe named
Levi became assumed, in order to explain the origin of the priestly caste.
