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 not asserted that the cultus before the Iaw (of which
the darker sides are known from Amos and Hosea) was better
than the legal, but merely that it was more original; the standard
of judgment being, not the moral element, but merely the idea,
the primary meaning of worship. Nor is it disputed further that
the belief in the dependence of sacrifices and other sacred acts
upon a laboriously strict compliance with traditional and prescriptive
rites occurs in the case of certain peoples, even in the remotest
antiquity. But with the Israelites, judging by the testimony of the
historical and prophetical books, this was not on the whole the
case any more than with the ancient Greeks; there were no
Brahmans or Magians in either case. Moreover, it must be carefully
noted that not even in the Priestly Code do we yet find the same
childish appreciation of the cultus as occurs in such a work as the
Rigveda, and that the strict rules are not prescribed and
maintained with any such notion in view as that by their
observance alone can the taste of the Deity be pleased; the idea
of God is here even strikingly remote from the anthropomorphic,
and the whole cultus is nothing more than an exercise in piety
which has simply been enjoined so once for all without any one
being in any way the better for it.
-- Footnote
Two details still deserve special prominence here. In the Priestly
Code the most important sacrifice is the burnt-offering; that is
to say, in point of fact, the _tamid_, the _holocaustum juge_,
consisting of two yearling lambs which are daily consumed upon
the "altar of burnt-offering," one in the morning, another
in the evening. The custom of daily offering a fixed sacrifice
at a definite time existed indeed, in a simpler form, /2/
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account