i8 79 ] WELLHAUSEN S GESCHICHTE ISRAELS 605 



oracles ; and oracles in such a state of society must have 

 been in great demand. The technical knowledge re 

 quired for this function could only be propagated in a 

 guild which, though it might adopt outsiders like Samuel, 

 would for obvious motives be mainly hereditary. And of 

 course the best priests would be those who had their 

 skill by direct succession from Moses. When Micah had 

 a Levite to work his oracle, he was confident that Jahve 

 would give a favourable response. 



One of the most effective arguments in the book is 



directed against the peculiar theory of Noldeke that a 



priestly movement for unity of the sanctuary preceded 



the prophetic movement which culminated in the law of 



Deuteronomy. But is not the argument unnecessarily 



encumbered by the thesis that Isaiah shows no hostility 



to the high places, provided they are purified of images 



(Isa. xxx. 22), and that Hezekiah s abolition of the high 



places is presumably unhistorical ? Can it be supposed 



that in the case of the local sanctuaries there would be 



any practical difference between purification and total 



abolition ? Isaiah condemns the whole worship of his 



contemporaries in Jerusalem and out of it ; it is all 



loathsome to Jahve. But Jerusalem has a permanent 



significance in Isaiah s eyes as the local seat of God s 



kingship. It is true, as Wellhausen observes, that this 



distinction does not belong to the temple so much as to 



the city. But Isaiah himself recognises in the clearest 



way that the presence of Jahve makes Jerusalem a seat 



of worship, the hearth of God, the place of solemn and 



festal assembly (iv. 5 ; xxxiii. 20) . In these respects it 



is an absolute contrast to the Bamoth whose significance 



is merely superstitious and based on will- worship (i. 29 ; 



xvii. 8 ; cf. Micah v. 13), and which in virtue of the 



idols are not sanctuaries of Jahve at all (xxxi. 6, 7). 



Certainly there is nothing in this teaching to cast doubt 



on the record that Hezekiah, who purified the temple, 



sought to put down the high places. And without such 



