15. The Manual for the Priests
The priests officiated at the altar; hence they
were provided with (1) a directory of procedure to
be observed by the worshiper and the priest at the
offering of the various kinds of sacrifice (Lev.
i.vi. 7), and a book on the disposal of the sacrifice
(Lev. vi. 8-vii.).
The priests required authorization; hence they had (2) the record
of Aaron's consecration to the priest-
hood, an official act that established
the order and placed it on a legal
basis, and the precedent for future in
ductions into
the priestly office; to.
gether
with laws enacted to meet the deficiencies
in the legislation which were revealed on that occa
sion (viii a.). Approach to Yahweh was condi
tioned upon holiness of life, both ceremonial and
moral; hence there was furnished for Israel and
given to the priests as the teachers of the laws and
guardians of the worship and overseers of the ritual:
(3) a directory of ceremonial purity anc'
a
law of
holiness, containing (a) laws concerning foods that
defile, diseases or natural functions that render unclean, and an annual day of national ceremonial
purification (x.-avi.), and (b) laws
concerning
holiness of life (avii.-xxvi.), followed by an appendix on vows, tithes, and things devoted .(xxvii.).
These small collections of laws and precedent, all
of which relate particularly to subjects of professional importance to the priests, form a distinct
section of the Pentateuch-the book of Leviticus
-and, as thus segregated, constituted a manual
for the use of the priests. The laws contained in
each of three divisions of the handbook, as it may
be termed, were enacted at Sinai, according to
express declaration. The directions for the consecration of Aaron and his sons were prepared during
Moses' first sojourn of forty days in Mount Sinai
(Ex. xxis.), and the instructions were carried out
immediately after the erection of the tabernacle.
The function occupied a week. At its end the
punitory death of Nabad and Abihu was the occa.
sion of new legislation (trey. a. 6-20). The directory of procedure to be observed at the sacrificial
services is dated after the erection of the tabernacle
(i. 1); and the book on the disposal of the sacrifice
was elaborated at the same general time, when
"he commanded the children of Israel to offer their
obligations to Jehovah" (cf. vii. 38 with i. 2). The
appointment of an annual day of atonement was
made sometime after the death of Aaron's older
sons (xvi. 1), and met a requirement of the tabernacle law
(Ex. xxx. 10).
The regulations concerning ceremonial purity and holiness of life are
throughout attributed to Moses, the representative
of Yahweh
(Lev. xvii. 1, xviii. 1
et passim), when
he was in or, as the preposition may be translated,
at Mount Sinai (xxvi. 1, xsvi. 46; for the usage of
the preposition, cf.
Num. xx. 23
with 25, xxxiii.
37 with 38;
Deut. i. 6, ix. 8;
and for the fact that
some of the legislation was enacted in the camp,
(cf.
Lev. xxiv. 10-23).
Possibly some laws, but
certainly not all, that were enacted after the departure from Sinai were inserted for the sake of
convenience in their proper place in
the manual
(cf. perhaps xxv. 32-34 with Num. sxxv.). And
it may be added, though no importance is attached
to the matter, that if changes took place in the
priestly praxis at a later time, there could scarcely
have been serious objection to the introduction of
the necessary verbal modification into the text of
the law as contained in the handbook.
Many orders were issued while the Israelites
were still at Mount Sinai and during the march to
Canaan which were recorded in the annals of the
State, but did not belong in a law book. But
there was
also legislation of a permanent character
upon civil, religious, and ecclesiastical matters
enacted while the people were yet at the Mount
and after their departure. The documents to
which these laws bore relation were the book of
the covenant, the specifications for the tabernacle,
and the collections relating to the priests. Only
