is he mentioned in Deuteronomy xxxiii. 8. In the genealogies of the Priestly Code one main branch of the tribe of Levi is still called, like the eldest son of Moses, Gershom, and another important member is actually called Mushi, 2:e., the Mosaite. It is not impossible that the holy office may have continued in the family of Moses, and it is very likely that the two oldest houses in which it was hereditary, those at Dan and at Shiloh, may have claimed in all seriousness to have been descended from him. Afterwards, as Deuteronomy xxxiii. 8 seq. informs us, all priests honoured Moses as their father, not as being the head of their clan but as being the founder of their order. The same took place in Judah, but there the clerical guild ultimately acquired a hereditary character, and the order became a sort of clan. _Levite_, previously an official name, now became a patronymic at the same time, and all the Levites together formed a blood-kinship, /1/ -- Footnote 1. The instance of the Rechabites shows how easily the transition could made. -- Footnote a race which had not received any land of its own indeed, but in compensation had obtained the priesthood for its heritage. This hereditary clergy was alleged to have existed from the very beginning of the history of Israel, and even then as a numerous body, consisting of many others besides Moses and Aaron. Such is the representation made by Deuteronomist and subsequent writers, but in Deuteronomy we read chiefly of the _Levites_ in the provincial towns of Judah and of the _priests_, the _Levites_ in Jerusalem, seldom of Levi as a whole (x. 8 seq., xviii. 1) /2/ -- Footnote 2. On Deut xxvii. compare Kuenen, Theol. Tidjdschr., 1878, p. 297. -- Footnote