Prolegomena to the History of IsraelWellhausen, Julius
Religion
Prolegomena to the History of Israel
Wellhausen, Julius
Bible. Old Testament -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.; Jews -- History -- To 70 A.D.; Judaism -- History -- To 70 A.D.
-- Footnote
1. It is impossible to explain away this discrepancy by the
circumstance that in the Priestly Code the day is reckoned from
the evening; for (1.) this fact has no practical bearing, as the
dating reckons at any rate from the morning, and the evening
preceding the 15th is always called the 14th of the month (Leviticus
xiii. 27, 32); (2.) the first day of the feast in Deuteronomy
is just the day on the evening of which the passover is held, and
upon it there follow not seven but six days more, whereas in the
Priestly Code the celebration extends from the 14th to the 21st of
the month (Exodus xii. 18). When the MXRT H#BT: is made to
refer, not as in Josh. v. 11 to the 14th, but as in Jewish
tradition (LXX on Leviticus xxiii. 11) to the day following the
15th of Nisan, thee 16th of Nisan is added to the 14th and 15th
as a special feast day.
-- Footnote
Another advance consists in this, that not only the passover,
as in Deuteronomy, or the additional first day of the feast besides,
but also the seventh (which, according to Deuteronomy xvi. 8,
is marked only by rest), must be observed as _miqra qodesh_ in
Jerusalem. In other words, such pilgrims as do not live in the
immediate neighbourhood are compelled to pass the whole week there,
an exaction which enables us to mark the progress made with
centralisation, when the much more moderate demands of Deuteronomy
are compared. The feast of tabernacles is in the latter law also
observed from beginning to end at Jerusalem, but the Priestly Code
has contrived to add to it an eighth day as an _`acereth_ to the
principal feast, which indeed still appears to be wanting in the
older portion of Leviticus xxiii. From all this it is indisputable
that the Priestly Code has its nearest relations with Deuteronomy,
but goes beyond it in the same direction as that in which Deuteronomy
itself goes beyond the Jehovistic legislation. In any case the
intermediate place in the series belongs to Deuteronomy, and if
we begin that series with the Priestly Code, we must in consistency
close it with the Sinaitic Book of the Covenant (Exodus xx. 23 seq.).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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