This view is the axiom
that underlies the whole ritual legislation of the middle part of
the Pentateuch. It is indicated with special clearness by the
LPNY (HL MW(D (before the tabernacle), introduced at every turn
in the ordinances for sacrifice.
What then are we to infer from this as to the historical place of
the Priestly Code, if it be judged necessary to assign it such a
place at all? By all the laws of logic it can no more belong to
the first period than Deuteronomy does. But is it older or
younger than Deuteronomy? In that book the unity of the cultus is
COMMANDED, in the Priestly Code it is PRESUPPOSED. Everywhere it
is tacitly assumed as a fundamental postulate, but nowhere does it
find actual expression; /1/ it is nothing new, but quite a thing
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1. Except in Leviticus xvii.; but the small body of legislation
contained in Leviticus xvii-xxvi is the transition from Deuteronomy
to the Priestly Code.
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of course. What follows from this for the question before us?
To my thinking, this:--that the Priestly Code rests
upon the result which is only the aim of Deuteronomy.
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