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the significance and the value of the revelation which that political code contains. Regarded as an attempt by a long line of prophets to embody in the institutions of the primitive people the essential motives of justice, liberty, and humanity, this code is more eloquent than when regarded as an ideal given only by one prophet, comprehended only by him, the serious execution of which was never really attempted.

The growth of the ecclesiastical code or canon law of Hebraism will be the subject of consideration in the next chapter.

CHAPTER VI

THE CANON LAW

THE doctrine that the Hebrew code is a production of the gradual growth of the Hebrew people is applied by the modern scholar to their religious as well as to their civil codes. He does not believe that the Levitical system of worship, as it is contained in the books of Exodus and Numbers and especially that of Leviticus, was given by God to Moses in the form in which it is there found; he supposes that only the germ of it existed in the time of Moses, and that from that germ the elaborate system grew by a gradual process reaching its final form in the time of Ezra, about the year 450 B. C. To a certain school of theologians this hypo

1 All modern, that is, literary or non-traditional, students of the Bible accept this general view; that is, they agree that the germinant principles of the Levitical code are Mosaic, but its development was gradual, and its final codification, in the form in which we now possess it, was post-exilic and probably due to Ezra. Thus: "The principles by which the priesthood was to be guided were laid down, it may be supposed, in outline by Moses. In process of time, however, as national life grew more complex, and fresh cases requiring to be dealt with arose, these principles would be found no longer to suffice, and their extension would become a necessity. Especially in matters of ceremonial observance, which would remain naturally within the control of the priests,

thesis seems destructive not only of certain forms of worship, but of certain essential aspects of divine regulations such as those enjoined in Exod. xx. 24-26; xxii. 29, 30; xxiii. 14-19 would not long continue in the same rudimentary state; fresh definitions and distinctions would be introduced, more precise rules would be prescribed for the method of sacrifice, the ritual to be observed by the priests, the dues which they were authorized to receive from the people, and other similar matters. After the priesthood had acquired, through the foundation of Solomon's Temple, a permanent centre, it is probable that the process of development and systematization advanced more rapidly than before. . . . Although, therefore, there are reasons for supposing that the Priests' Code assumed finally the shape in which we have it in the age subsequent to Ezra it rests ultimately upon an ancient traditional basis; and many of the institutions prominent in it are recognized, in various stages of their growth, by the earlier pre-exilic literature, by Deuteronomy and by Ezekiel." Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament, S. R. Driver, D. D., pp. 153, 154. "The code of Holiness comes into the historic field first in connection with Ezekiel. It is a codification of the immemorial practice of the priests of Jerusalem going back to Aaron and Moses. The priest-code and the document which contains it cannot be proven till Ezra's time. It was a larger codification of the priestly ritual and customs coming down by tradition from Moses and Aaron in the priestly circles of Jerusalem, which had been carefully conserved as holy relics in the priestly families among the exiles, as bearing in them sacred memories and holy promises." The Higher Criticism of the Hexateuch, by Charles A. Briggs, D. D., p. 157. Professor Wellhausen traces the development of the Jewish hierarchy and thus states his conclusion: 66 To any one who knows anything about history, it is not necessary to prove that the so-called Mosaic theocracy, which nowhere suits the circumstances of the earlier periods, and of which the prophets, even in their most ideal delineations of the Israelite state as it ought to be, have not the faintest shadow of an idea, is, so to speak, a perfect fit for post-exilian Judaism, and had its actuality only there. Foreign rulers had then relieved the Jews of all concern about secular affairs; they had it in their power, and were indeed compelled to give themselves wholly up to sacred things,

truth. The churchman, that is, he who attaches great value to the institutional forms of thought

in which they were left completely unhampered. Thus the temple became the sole centre of life, and the prince of the temple the head of the spiritual commonwealth, to which also the control of political affairs, so far as these were still left to the nation, naturally fell, there being no other head." History of Israel, Julius Wellhausen, pp. 150, 151. Dr. Bruce sees in the organization of a hierarchy and a sacrificial system the sign of the degeneracy of the Jewish people. He says, “Judaism, apart altogether from critical questions, was distinct from Mosaism. The distinguishing feature of Mosaism, as we have seen, was that it asserted the supremacy of the moral as compared with ritual. This fundamental principle the prophets reasserted with new emphasis and widened range of application, so showing themselves to be the true sons of Moses. On the other hand, the distinctive character of Judaism was that it put ritual on a level with morality, treated Levitical rules as of equal importance with the Decalogue, making no distinction between one part of the law and another, but demanding compliance with the prescribed ceremonial of worship as not less necessary to good relations with God than a righteous life. This was a new thing in Israel; and it was a great downcome; a descent from liberty to bondage, from evangelic to legal relations with God, from the spirit to the letter." He nevertheless thinks the Code was a providential provision to meet that degeneracy and keep alive the spirit of Mosaism, and further says, 'It needs but a hasty and general survey of the priestly Code to be satisfied that there was much in it that tended towards the realization of the Mosaic ideal of a holy people faithful to Jehovah. One outstanding feature in it is the prominence given to the idea of sin. . . . It was well, it was a real advance in moral culture, that the religious system should be so altered as to develop a deeper consciousness of sin. It tended to a more exalted view of the holiness of God, and to greater heedfulness in conduct. The centralization of worship in a single sanctuary, and the commitment of the whole sacrificial service into the hands of a priestly class, if an innovation as regards Mosaism, had certainly a tendency to prepare men for the religion of the spirit which came in with Jesus. In old times, it would appear, killing for food and

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and worship as they are found in the church, generally also attaches great value to the sacrificial system as it is embodied in the church creed and expressed in the church ordinances. He regards the sacrificial system of the Old Testament as divinely organized and ordained; he reveres it as an ancient type foreshadowing the sacrifice of Christ and fulfilled in the Gospel; he looks upon it, therefore, as the most central feature of the Old Testament revelation; and it is not strange that he resists with the utmost vigor any view which treats the Levitical system as a human development, and the sacrificial system therein contained as temporary in its nature and now forever passed away, because it has fulfilled its purpose. But to this

sacrifice were the same thing, and every man was his own priest. Sacrifice was a thing of daily occurrence, and an essential element of religion. The centralization of worship changed all that. Sacrifice became an affair of stated seasons, public sacrifice for all Israel threw into the shade private sacrifice, and the offering of victims became the business of a professional class. But religion is not an affair for two or three seasons in the year, but for daily life. Therefore men had to find out for themselves means for the culture of piety independent of Levitical ritual. The synagogue, with its prayers and its reading of the scriptures, met the want, and educated men for a time when temple and sacrifice would finally disappear." Apologetics, by Alexander B. Bruce, D. D., pp. 262, 268, 269, 270.

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1 For a good statement of this view and a good presentation of the argument from the traditional point of view in favor of the Mosaic authorship of the Levitical Code, see The Book of Leviticus, by S. H. Kellogg, D. D., Expositor's Bible Series. The following paragraph (page 25) illustrates the spiritual interpretation of the Book of Leviticus by this school. After saying that one of the present uses of the "book is that it is a revelation of the charac

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