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.
sacerd.
1, 2) and Josephus (Ant., iv. 4, 8, 22).
V.I.3. The amount which at last is required to be given is enormous.
What originally were alternatives are thrown together, what
originally was left free and undetermined becomes precisely
measured and prescribed. The priests receive all the sin and trespass
offerings, the greater share of the vegetable offerings, the hides
of the burnt offerings, the shoulder and breast of meat offerings.
Over and above are the firstlings, to which are added the tithes
and first-fruits in a duplicate form, in short, all _kodashim_,
which originally were demanded merely as ordinary meat offerings
(Deuteronomy xii. 26 = ver. 6, 7, and so on), and were
consumed at holy places and by consecrated guests indeed, but not
by the priest. And, notwithstanding all this, the clergy are not
even asked (as in Ezekiel is the prince, who there receives the
dues, xlv. 13 seq.) to defray the cost of public worship; for
this there is a poll-tax, which is not indeed enjoined in the body
of the Priestly Code, but which from the time of Nehemiah x. 33
[32] was paid at the rate of a third of a shekel, till a novel of
the law (Exodus xxx. 15) raised it to half a shekel.
V.II.
V.II.1. To the endowment of the clergy in the Priestly Code belong
finally the forty-eight cities assigned by Joshua in accordance
with the appointment of Moses (Numbers xxxv.; Josh. xxi.). The
tribes gave them up freely; the smaller giving few and the larger
more (Numbers xxxv. 8). The Aaronidae and the three families of
the Levites cast lots about them in four divisions; the sons of
Aaron get thirteen cities in Judah, the Levites ten in
Ephraim-Manasseh, thirteen in Galilee, and twelve in the territory
eastward of Jordan. It is not merely the right to inhabit, but,
in spite of all apologetic rationalism, the right of absolute
possession that they receive (Josh. xxi. 12), inclusive of a portion
of land two thousand ells square (square in the strictly literal
sense; Numbers xxxv. 5), which serves as public common.
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