VIII THE EVOLUTION OF THEOLOGY 305 



Seer was going, " for the people will not eat till 

 he come, because he doth bless the sacrifice" 

 (1 Sam. x. 12). The use of the word "bless" 

 here as if Samuel were not going to sacrifice, but 

 only to offer a blessing or thanksgiving is curi- 

 ous. But that Samuel really acted as priest 

 seems plain from what follows. For he not only 

 asks Saul to share in the customary sacrificial 

 feast, but he disposes in Saul's favour of that 

 portion of the victim which the Levitical legisla- 

 tion, doubtless embodying old customs, recognises 

 as the priest's special property. 1 



Although particular persons adopted the pro- 

 fession of media between men and Elohim, there 

 was no limitation of the power, in the view of 

 ancient Israel, to any special class of the 

 population. Saul inquires of Jahveh and builds 

 him altars on his own account ; and in the very 

 remarkable story told in the fourteenth chapter of 

 the first book of Samuel (v. 37-46), Saul appears 

 to conduct the whole process of divination, 



1 Samuel tells the cook, "Bring the portion which I gave 

 thee, of which I said to thee, Set it by thee." It was therefore 

 Samuel's to give. "And the cook took up the thigh (or 

 shoulder) and that which was upon it and set it before Saul." 

 But, in the Levitical regulations, it is the thigh (or shoulder) 

 which becomes the priest's own property. "And the right 

 thigh (or shoulder) shall ye give unto the priest for an heave- 

 ottering," which is given along with the wave breast "unto 

 Aaron the priest and unto his sons as a due for ever from the 

 children of Israel" (Lev. vii. 31-34). Reuss writes on this 

 passage : " La cuisse n'est point agitee, mais simplement preleite 

 sur ce que les convives mange rout." 

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