Willis : Hebrew Law 
19 
course sometimes it is not so difficult to identify the two codes. 
The ten commandments as found in the twentieth chapter of 
Exodus are thus recognized as a part of the code of the north- 
ern tribes, and the ten commandments as found in the thirty- 
fourth chapter of Exodus, as a part of the code of the southern 
tribes. Most of the provisions found in one code are found 
duplicated in one form or another in the other code, and of 
course this is the explanation of what would otherwise be 
practically an inexplicable phenomenon. The law as found 
in these codes is that adapted to an agricultural life more than 
to a pastoral life. About 621 B.C. occurred another codifica- 
tion of the law. This is found in the Book of Deuteronomy. 
By this codification the law was slightly changed so as to adapt 
it still more to agricultural conditions. The compiler of 
Deuteronomy incorporated in his code only one of the sets of 
the ten commandments found in the earlier codes, and for 
some reason chose the ten commandments of the northern 
code rather than those of the southern code. 70 The additions 
and changes in these earlier ten commandments made by 
the author of Deuteronomy illustrate the difference between 
Deuteronomy and the earlier codes of the northern and south- 
ern tribes. About 440 B.C. occurred the last codification of 
Hebrew law which is found in the Old Testament. This codi- 
fication has been called the Priestly codification. It was 
abstract, statistical, systematic, prosaic, and less anthro- 
pomorphic than all the earlier codes, and generally adapted 
to commercial life. For the most part it is found in the book 
of Leviticus, and includes the so-called Holiness Code of chap- 
ters seventeen to twenty-six of Leviticus (compiled a century 
or so earlier) ; but the Priestly codifier, or redactor, generally 
thought to have been Ezra, also worked over and compiled all 
the earlier codes. As a consequence no one of the three codes 
referred to can be found in the Old Testament printed by it- 
self. So far as the redactor worked over the old codes he evi- 
dently tried to compile rather than codify, and that is why 
we find side by side in Genesis and Exodus provisions from the 
law of the northern code, provisions from the law of the 
southern code, and provisions from the Priestly code. Deuter- 
onomy has had very little working over, but both Leviticus, 
Numbers, and Joshua reveal the work of the redactor. The 
70 5 Deut. 7-21. 
