The influence possessed by the
latter is purely moral; the Torah of God is not a document in
their hands which guarantees their own position, but merely an
instruction for others in their mouths; like the word of the
prophets, it has divine authority but not political sanction, and
has validity only in so far as it is voluntarily accepted. And
as for the literature which has come down to us from the period of
the Kings, it would puzzle the very best intentions to beat up so
many as two or three unambiguous allusions to the Law, and these
cannot be held to prove anything when one considers, by way of
contrast, what Homer was to the Greeks.
To complete the marvel, in post-exile Judaism the Mosaism which
until then had been only latent suddenly emerges into prominence
everywhere. We now find the Book regarded as the foundation of all
higher life, and the Jews, to borrow the phrase of the Koran, are
"the people of the Book;" we have the sanctuary with its priests
and Levites occupying the central position, and the people as a
congregation encamped around it; the cultus, with its
burnt-offerings and sin-offerings, its purifications and its
abstinences, its feasts and Sabbaths, strictly observed as
prescribed by the Law, is now the principal business of life.
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