You asked: In Paper 1:3, 56:1, as well as in Part IV, the quote: “Be you perfect, even as I am” is rephrased, but where is this ‘mandate’ placed in the bible? I can see this in reference to Lev. 20:26, Mat. 5:48, but don’t know to whom it was revealed?

I am not much of a Bible scholar – in fact, I am really no more than a dabbler in the Bible. Before The Urantia Book, I never even read it at all. So, I am afraid that I may not be much help in answering your question about this mandate to “Be ye perfect…” in the Bible.

I do see, though, that the reference in Matthew 5:48 refers to what the Bible calls the Beatitudes (or the Sermon on the Mount), but what we Urantia Book readers know as the Ordination Sermon that Jesus spoke to his newly ordained apostles. So in this instance, the mandate was given to the Apostles. Jesus said “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” in that particular passage, which lines up with The Urantia Book, too:

140:5.15 And then Jesus went on to instruct his followers in the realization of the chief purpose of all human struggling— perfection— even divine attainment. Always he admonished them: “Be you perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

In the other reference, Lev 20:26, the Bible edition that I have says: “You are to be holy to me because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.” Actually, the word “holy” is shown in all the editions I have seen – not the word “perfect.” I know less about the Old Testament than I do about the New Testament; I have no idea who this writer of Leviticus is speaking to here. I suspect you could google it, though, and find out if it means a lot to you to know.

Incidentally, I found another reference of “Be you perfect” in Genesis 17:1…not all versions say it, but several do. In other versions, it says “be blameless.”

And if you are interested, here’s a nice online Bible resource that I use, which you might find useful also: Bible Hub

It is interesting though, that this mandate to be as much like God as we can be has been with us for a long time. In one of the Urantia Book book references you gave, the revelator states:

1:0.3 From the Universal Father who inhabits eternity there has gone forth the supreme mandate, “Be you perfect, even as I am perfect.” In love and mercy the messengers of Paradise have carried this divine exhortation down through the ages and out through the universes, even to such lowly animal-origin creatures as the human races of Urantia.

1:0.6 This sublime search for the God of universes is the supreme adventure of the inhabitants of all the worlds of time and space.

Actually, there are one dozen passages in The Urantia Book that contain this direct quote to “Be you perfect.” And it looks as though this injuction follows us as inspiration all the way up to Paradise, as in the other passage you cited in your note:

56:0.1 GOD IS UNITY. Deity is universally co-ordinated. The universe of universes is one vast integrated mechanism which is absolutely controlled by one infinite mind. The physical, intellectual, and spiritual domains of universal creation are divinely correlated. The perfect and imperfect are truly interrelated, and therefore may the finite evolutionary creature ascend to Paradise in obedience to the Universal Father’s mandate: “Be you perfect, even as I am perfect.”

If the writer of Leviticus was a Spirit-inspired soul, as I am sure he was, I suspect he simply “tuned in” to this truth and wrote it down, or it was revealed to him in some other way. Evidently, it certainly is not original to Urantia…

Thanks again for writing; I don’t suppose I really answered you question all that well, but I thank YOU for giving me this food for thought today!