638 



TABERNACLE. 



ays that from th* passage beginning Neh. viii. 14, 

 " we lern that the use of booths on that occasion 

 had no foundation in traditional usage, but was based 

 directly on the law, which then for the first time be- 

 came generally known." But the passage does not 

 s.iv tliat the law then first became generally known. 

 It'doei nut intimate that the use of booths was an in- 

 novation on traditional usage. In a sentence con- 

 structed to throw especial emphasis on the adverb, 

 the author of Nehemiah says that the children of 

 Israel had not to done tho thing since the times of 

 Joshua ; the fair inference is not that they had never 

 done the thing before, but rather that they had al- 

 ways been in the habit of doing it, but never so con- 

 picuously as on this occasion. 



The writer of the article mentioned above further 

 ays : " According to the law in question, the booths 

 Were to be a memorial of the wilderness wandering, 

 xxiii. 43, but of this there is no hint in Deuter- 

 onornv ; anil .... it is certain from Exodus 

 that the fnt had originally agricultural and not his- 

 il significance." But the two are not necessarily 

 en-la -live ; it is entirely credible that the agricultural 

 significance may have hod a historical meaning added 

 to it, as tho accounts say was tho case. There is no 

 need, therefore, to look for any custom of living in 

 l> i )tUs daring the vintage, or of providing temporary 

 shelter for those who came from a distance to the 

 vals in order to account for the booths of this 

 foait ; tho historical reason assigned for them is suf- 

 ficient, though it does not exclude the other reasons, 

 provided they are authentic. 



The same author says : " In Jud. ix. 27 we find a 

 vintage feast at Shechem among the Canauuites, 

 from whom the Israelites first learned the ways of 

 agricultural life, and from whom so much of tlie popu- 

 lar religion was copied." Here the intimation that 

 tho Feast of Tabernacles is a development from some 

 uitiite vintage feast is as gratuitous as the state- 

 ment that the Israelites first learned agriculture from 

 th) O.inannites, or that much of tho popular religion 

 meaning the religion of Jehovah, then counted cor- 

 rect was copied from them. HJ further explains 

 that the autumnal feasts of Israel, that finally dcM-1 - 

 oped into the Feast of Tabernacles, were originally 

 h -Id at many local sanctuaries, and that " it was the 

 fivna of great shrines that gradually tended to draw 

 worshippers from a distance to temples like those of 

 Jerusalem and Bjthel. Finally, the Deuterouomio 

 law of the one sanctuary .... put nn end to 

 all local religions feasts," and "obscured the old 

 significance of the festal cycle, and made room for 

 tin historical interpretation of the celebrations." 

 This might bo plausible if there were some proof 

 that the feast in question was ever celebrated else- 

 where than at the central sanctuary, but of such 

 proof there is no vestige. 



According to the Biblical accounts, as they now 

 atand, th-j P.vssovgn festival was instituted by Moses, 

 jmt b jfore thj Israelites left Egypt, and was at that 

 time kept by them, though in a primitive and incom- 

 plete form. Whethar it superseded or incorporated 

 any oldar festival usages, we are not informed, but 

 certainly no one can trace any connection between 

 the pjMover and the sacrifice to Jehovah whii ! 

 rael asked Pharaoh's leave to make in tin- wilder 

 If tho writer of Ex. xii. 84, 39, was writing history, 

 h certainty did not intend to be understood as here 

 giving a different account of the origin of thfl feast 

 of nulavned brood from that which he had already 

 s 3-28 : verses 34 and 39 are rather to be 

 "*1 as mentioning an incident that occurred, 

 with which Ihi! people l.-ft 



!. irid also illustrating how certain j'ople, who 



had I..--N ii.-i/li-.'ent about obeying the command to 



put B<VIIV I. .-iveii from their hotise, were, after all, 



liL'U.ullv couipclloj to cut unleavened In cud. 



The festival having been thus instituted, supple- 

 mental directions were afterward given, at different 

 times, in regard to it, defining its position in the sa- 

 cred year, its relations to the harvest, and its rela- 

 tions to the central sanctuary, and defining other 

 points concerning it. 



In contradiction to this, the articles on PASSOVEB 

 and PENTATEUCH in the ENCTCXOP.KDIA BKITANXICA 

 represent that this festival was, in its beginnings, a 

 spring feast, arising from " the accumulation of tho 

 sacrifices of firstlings and fallings " at that season ; 

 that " it appears from the Jehovist that something 

 of this kind existed before the exodns, and gave oc- 

 casion to the request of Moses for leave to lead tho 

 people out into the wilderness to sacrifice to Jeho- 

 vah ; " that the feast of unleavened bread was origin- 

 ally n different thing an agricultural feast, presup- 

 posing a fixed residence in Canaan (as if they had 

 no agriculture in Egypt) ; that up to the time of 

 Josiah " this sacrifice was not tied to any set feast ; " 

 that the BUMJMMeft originally was probably that of 

 some dance attendant on the feast, the historical 

 idea now connected with it being a later interpreta- 

 tion ; that the sacrifice of the lamb and the feast of 

 unleavened bread became united into one in Josiah's 

 time; that the feast underwent further modifica- 

 tions during the exile, and again after the exile. In 

 proof that " the Deuteronomic passover was a new 

 thing in the days of Josiah," is urged the passage be- 

 ginning 2 Ki. xxiii. 21 : " There was not made tho 

 like of this passover from the days of the judges who 

 judged Israel, and nil tho days of the kings of Israel 

 and the kings of Judah." But the difference be- 

 tween this particular passover and previous feasts of 

 the kind, as we naturally understand by the context, 

 did not consist in the fact that the feast itself, in 

 the form in which it was now observed, was on inno- 

 vation, but rather in the circumstances and tho spirit 

 of tho observance. 



Evidently, the view thus sketched is inconsistent 

 with the I'entateuchal accounts. It is equally at 

 variance with tho statements of the other historical 

 books. These inform us that the passover was cele- 

 brated shortly after Joshua crossed the Jordon. .1 . li. 

 v. 10, 11 ; that it was one of the festivals of Solo- 

 mon's time, 2 Chron. viii. 13 ; cf. 1 Ki. ix. 25 ; that 

 it WUM prominent in Hezekiab's reform, 2 Chron. xxx. 

 1, -J. 5, 15, 17, 18, 13, 21. Confessedly, the books 

 of Joshua and Chronicles know of no separation be- 

 the passover and the feast of unleavened 

 bread, but use the terms together in their descrip- 

 tions. Confessedly, tho writers of 2 Ki. xxiii. and 2 

 Chron. xxxv. represent Josiah's passover to be of 

 the genuine Mosaic type, not anew feast just con- 



tliveil. 



Under tho outline fonnd in the Pentateuch, eve:y 

 Biblical statement concerning the passover run bo 

 naturally placed, with no necessity for rejecting miy 

 of the testimony, or putting a forced meaning upon 

 it. The account thus obtained will be found to b> 

 simple, intelligible, and consistent, and suited to 

 the explanation of all incidental questions that miso 

 on the subject. In contrast with this, the account 

 found in the BIUTANNICA article, based upon a pro- 

 ]>osed reconstruction of the Ilexateuch, is compli- 

 cated, involves improbable assumptions, and requires 

 us to reject as false or impossible both a large pro- 

 jxirtion of the statements made in the Ilcxiitciich 

 itself, and many of the statements of the other 

 books. 



The Tahm-nnrlt im the Central Sanctuary. Tho 

 three Pcntutcnchal laws concerning places of sacri- 

 fice are found in Ex. xx., in Lev. xvii., and in i 

 xii., supplemented by other ptissatrcs in Deuteron- 

 omy. The first of tlie three, so far as its words go, 

 neither restricts sacrifice to one place nor implies 

 ! rnoro places than one for it. This law is referred to 



