22. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 23. Speak to the children of Israel, saying, You shall not eat any fat of ox, or of sheep, or of goat. 24. And the fat of the beast that dies of itself, and the fat of that which is torn by beasts, may be employed for any other use: but you shall certainly not eat it: 25. For whoever eats the fat of the beast, of which men present an offering made by fire to the Lord, the person that eats i shall be cut off from his people. 26. And you shall eat no blood in all your habitations, whether it be of fowl or

8. PROHIBITION AGAINST EATING THE FAT AND BLOOD OF ANIMALS, VII. 22—27.

22-27. The aversion rooted in the Hebrew mind against partaking of what was supposed to be the seat or the emblem of animal life, was too strong and too universal, not to be embodied in a series of laws relating to animal sacrifices. Therefore, just as the interdiction against cating the blood and fat was appended to the code which begins the Book (III. 17), so it was inserted in the second code, but with greater fulness of detail. As the unlawfulness of eating fat was probably of later date and less familiar to the people, it was treated of first, and with unmistakeable clearness: the fat of the sacrificial quadrupeds, the ox, the sheep, and the goat, was to be avoided, even if these animals were not killed as sacrifices, and of course if they died of themselves or were torn by beasts, since then they were entirely unclean; in the latter case, however, the fat was permitted for other purposes, "it may be employed for any other use"; but in what manner that of clean sacrificial animals, whether slaughtered for the altar or not, was to be disposed of, is not specified in the Pentateuch. However, it must be observed that the laws with regard to fat seem to have arisen from the sacrificial system; therefore, the fat of other clean quadru

peds which were not offered, such as stags and roes, or of clean birds, was lawful; the fat on the bowels, the kidneys, and the flanks only was forbidden, not that imbedded in the flesh and remaining invisible unless the latter is cut; and the prohibition was probably at first limited to the places where offerings were presented, and but gradually extended universally (III. 17; see p. 93, 94). More comprehensive still is the precept concerning blood; it relates to all quadrupeds, whether sacrificial animals or not, and to all birds, and it is applicable to all times and countries: but the blood of fishes, and according to the Talmud, of the clean locusts, is not interdicted, probably because they were never presented as offerings; and thus we see here the partial operation of the same rule which pervades the regulations on fat. Hence Jewish tradition, though acknowledging the unlawfulness of all blood (ver. 26), restricted the dread punishment of excision to "the blood of life", that is, to the blood the loss of which causes the cessation of life; while it attributed a more lenient penalty to cating the blood found in the limbs, the liver, or the spleen; as indeed atonement also was wrought

of beast. 27. Any person that eats any blood, that person shall be cut off from his people.

28. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 29. Speak to the children of Israel, saying, IIe that offers the sacrifice of his thank-offering to the Lord shall bring his oblation to the Lord of the sacrifice of his thankofferings. 30. His own hands shall bring the offerings of the Lord made by fire, the fat with the breast shall he, bring, the breast to be waved for a wave-offering before the Lord. 31. And the priest shall burn the fat upon the altar; but the breast shall belong to Aaron and his sons. 32. And the right shoulder shall you give to the priest as a gift from the sacrifice of your thank-offerings. 33. Ile among the sons of Aaron, that offers the blood of the thank-offerings, and the fat, shall have the right shoulder for his portion. 34. For the wave-breast and the gift-shoulder have I taken of the children of Israel from the sacrifices of their thankofferings, and have given them to Aaron the priest and to his sons, for an eternal statute, from the children of Israel.

by "the blood of life" only, and not by any other (see p. 88). Why the prohibition, of blood and fat is en

forced with such vehement severity, and how it arose and look root, has been explained before (pp. 87-92).

9. THE PORTIONS OF THANK-OFFERINGS TO BE LEFT TO THE PRIESTS, VII. 28-34.

28-34. As with regard to the holocausts and the bloodless offerings (vers. 8-10), so with regard to the thankofferings, it appeared important to the reviser to add injunctions on the share which the priests were cutitled to claim. The offerer was to bring the gift which belonged to God and to His servants, with his own hands, spontaneously and cheerfully. On the allar were burnt the fat and the fat parts; the officiating priest was rewarded with the right shoulder; and the common order of the priests received the breast. The shoulder was

a portion or a present for the acting Aaronite, and was, therefore, "taken from" the whole victim; but the breast was to be devoted to God by the peculiar rite of "waving", which marked the offering as consecrated to the Lord of heaven and earth (sce pp. 137-139). The right shoulder was intended as a peculiar distinction; for the right side was, among ancient nations, generally regarded as pre-eminently honourable or auspicious; right hand and happiness became identical terms notions which were partially shared by the Ilebrews from early times.

35. This is the portion of Aaron, and the portion of his sons, from the offerings of the Lord made by fire, in the day when they were presented to minister as priests to the Lord; 36. Which the Lord commanded to be given them of the children of Israel, in the day that He anointed them, for an eternal statute throughout their generations. 37. This is the law of the burntoffering, of the bloodless offering, and of the sin-offering, and of the trespass-offering, and of the offering of consecration, and of the sacrifice of the thank-offering; 38. Which the Lord commanded Moscs in mount Sinai, in the day that He commanded the children of Israel to offer their oblations to the Lord in the wilderness of Sinai.

10. CONCLUSION OF THIS CODE, VII. 35-38.

85-38. Now the reviser considered that he had fully accomplished his object; he had supplemented the document, which he found treating of the ritual of the chief classes of sacrifice, by the insertion or addition of regulations regarding the share which the priests could demand in each case; and therefore, desirous that this sacrificial code so enlarged and qualified, should be looked upon as complete in itself, he appended a double formula of conclusion, one comprising the portions assigned to the priests (vers. 35, 36) which he was careful to describe as granted “by an eternal statute for all generations", and one reviewing all the various kinds of offering referred to in the code the holocaust (VI. 1—6; VII. 8), the bloodless offerings (VI. 7-11; VII. 9, 10), the sin-offering (VI. 17-23), the

trespass-offering (VII. 1-7), the offering of consecration (VI. 12—16), and the thank-offering (VII. 11—21, 28— 34), besides the prohibition of blood and fat applying to all classes alike (VII. 22-27); and he described all these ordinances as having been communicated to Moses "on Mount Sinai", whereas the compiler of the later code, who had formed a more complete theory of the progress of revelation, declared them to have been proclaimed "from the Tent of Meeting". This document, the first outlines and beginnings of which were an early effort of composing a sacrificial system, though its interpolations are of much later date, found its place after a subsequent and more developed code for reasons which have been indicated in the Introduction.

B. THE CONSECRATION OF THE SANCTUARY AND ITS UTENSILS, AND OF AARON AND HIS SONS AS PRIESTS.

ON THE HEBREW PRIESTHOOD.

I. SURVEY OF THE ORDINANCES OF THE PENTATEUCH WITH RESPECT TO THE PRIESTS AND LEVITES.

In order to arrive at a distinct view of the origin and progress, the nature and value of the order and system of priesthood among the Hebrews, it appears expedient to commence with a plain and accurate sketch of the ordinances of the Pentateuch regarding the priests and Levites; then to attempt an impartial estimate of these laws and arrangements; next to prove how they varied and fluctuated within the compass of the Pentateuch itself; and then to proceed to the testimonies of history tonding eithor to support or to disprove their oxistonco; aflor which we shall bo onabled to draw, at least in goneral outlines, a picturo of the gradual growth of priestly and Lovitical institutions among the Israelites.

1. It is not difficult to deduce the nature and character of the Hebrew priesthood from the statements of the Pentateuch. The definitions are so distinct and the allusions so unmistakeable, that they scarcely leave room for conjecture or hazardous combination. It is truo that tho etymology of the Hebrew term for priost (cohen) is doubtful; but at the time of even the oldest part of the Pentateuch, the etymological meaning, even if it were still preserved in the consciousness of the nation, was less considered than the notion with which the word had gradually been invested. Now when the priests were consecrated to their office, they are said to have been brought near God. It was their function to come near God,2 or to approach Ilim. They are, therefore, those that are near God. They live and work in His presence, ready both to bring before Him the pious

.

3

1 Lev. VII. 35; Num. XVI. 5; comp. Exod. XXVIII. 1.

2 Lev. XXI. 17; comp. Ezek. XLIV. 15, 16.

Exod. XIX.22; comp. Ezek. XLIV.13.

4 Lev. X. 3; Ezek.XLII. 13; XLIII. 19; Ezek. XL. 46; XIV. 4; comp. Jerem. XXX. 21.

9

4

7

or penitent devotions of Israel, and to convey to the latter from Him peace and atonement. They preserve the purity of the Divine abode which is constantly defiled by the transgressions of the community. They receive, in particular, the flesh of the sin-offorings, in order "to remove the iniquity of the congrogation, to make atonement for them before the Lord." They are appointed to fill up the vast chasm that separates the holiness of God from the sinfulness of His people. They "belong" to God, and to Him alone, for whose sake they must desert father and mother, and fight and suffer. They are His "servants" or ministers." They have been "chosen" by Him, not on account of their merit, but by a free act of His mercy. Therefore, whoever opposes them, is guilty of revolt against the majesty of God. No other or "stranger" is permitted, under penalty of death, to perform the priests' functions. Hence their chief characteristic must be holiness, since they were elected to be perpetually near the Holy One and to serve Him; 1o they wore singled out from the rest of their brothron "to be sanctified as most holy". To hallow and to install as priests are used as corrolativo torms. 12 By noglecting what contributos to their sanctity they profane the holiness of God; 13 and the High-priest is himself "the holy one of the Lord"." Thus "to bring near God" means, in its deeper and more internal sense, to approach to His sanctity, and to remove, by securing pardon for the sins of the people, the distance by which they are separated from God, and to hallow them by expiation. It is obvious that all these attributes of the priests coincide, in nearly every particular, with the characteristics by which the Pentateuch distinguishes the people of Israel. God bore the Hebrews on eagles' wings, and brought them to Himself. 15 He has designed them as an instrument of blessing for all nations. 10 He has chosen them to be His peculiar people, " not on account of their power and greatness, but from the love He feels towards them, 18 since He has declared Israel to be His firstborn son. 19

11

1 Lev. XVI. 16; Num. XIX. 13, 20. 2 l.cv. X. 17; comp. Exod. XXVIII. 38; Num. VIII. 19; XVIII. 1.

4 Exod.

3 Num. XVI. 5. XXXII. 27-29; Deut. XXXIII. 9.

5 Deut. XXI. 5; Ezek. XL. 46; XLIII. 19; 1 Chr. XXIII. 13.

6 Num. XVI.5, 7; XVII.5, 20; comp. Ps. LXV. 5; Exod. XXVIII. 1; Deut. XXI. 5; 1 Sam. II. 28; Hebr. V. 4.

7 Num. XVIII. 7, "I have given your priest's office to you as a service of gift"; comp. Hebr. V. 4.

.

17