6oo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



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the fourth book of Moses dwells with such marked emphasis, is not 

 commanded. The order of sacrifices appointed in Ezekiel is at va- 

 riance with that in the more recent code. Ezekiel nowhere mentions 

 the ark of the covenant. According to him, the new year begins on 

 the tenth of the seventh month, while the festival of the trumpets, or- 

 dained in Leviticus for the first of that mouth (the present new year 

 of the Jews), is nowhere referred to. We are not to suppose, however, 

 that the festivals, the ark, etc., did not yet exist in the time of Eze- 

 kiel. They existed, no doubt, but were still too intimately associated 

 with pagan customs and superstitions to receive or merit the coun- 

 tenance of a prophetic writer. In Leviticus the process of assimila- 

 tion above described had reached its climax. The new meaning had 

 been successfully engrafted upon the rites and symbols of the olden 

 time ; and they were thenceforth freely employed. The legislation 

 of the Levitical code exhibits the familiar features which in every 

 instance mark the ascendency or consolidation of the hierarchical 

 order. The lines of gradation and distinction between the members 

 of the order among themselves are precisely drawn and strictly ad- 

 hered to. The prerogatives of the whole order as against the people 

 are fenced about with stringent laws. The revenues of the order are 

 largely increased. In the older code of Deuteronomy, the annual tithes 

 were set apart for a festival occasion, and given over to the enjoyment 

 of the people. In the new code, the hierarchy claims the tithes for its 

 own use. New taxes are invented. The best portions of the sacri- 

 ficial animal are reserved for the banquets of the Temple. The first- 

 born of men and cattle belong to the priesthood, and must be ran- 

 somed by the payment of a sum of money. In no period prior to the 

 fifth century b. c. was the hierarchy powerful enough to design such 

 laws. At that time, however, when in the absence of a temporal sov- 

 ereign they, with the high-priest at their head, were the acknowledged 

 rulers of the state, they were both prepared to conceive and able to 

 carry them into effect. The language of Leviticus contributes not a 

 little to betray its late origin. 1 The authorship of Moses attributed 

 to the Levitical code is symbolical. The name of Jloses is utter!)/ 

 unknown to the elder prophets. In all their manifold writings it does 

 not occur a single time, though they make frequent reference to the 

 past. There can now be little doubt that the composition of the bidk 

 of Leviticus,, and of considerable portions of the books of Numbers, 

 Exodus, and even parts of Genesis, belongs to the epoch of the second 

 Temple, and that the date of these writings may be approximately 

 fixed at about one thousand years after the time of Moses. As to the 

 story of Israel's desert wanderings, it rests upon ancient traditions 



1 To mention only a single instance, ha Shera (meaning the name, i. e., the ineffable 

 name of God) was not employed urttil a very late period in the history of the Jews, when 

 the fear of taking the name of the Lord in vain induced men to avoid, if possible, men- 

 tioning it at all. We find ha Shem in the above sense in Lev. xxiv. 11. 



