It is well known how indifferent later
writers are to distinctions of time and degree in the heresy of
unlawful worship; they always go at once to the completed
product. But in actual experience the reformation was doubtless
accomplished step by step. At first we have in Hosea and Isaiah
the polemic directed against molten and graven images, then in
Jeremiah that against wood and stone, i.e., against Macceboth and
Asherim; the movement originated with the prophets, and the chief,
or rather the only, weight is to be attached to their authentic
testimony.
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Hezekiah only made a feeble and wholly ineffectual attempt in this
direction, and by no means "carried out the unification in Judah with
tolerable thoroughness." At the same time, one might concede even
this last point, and yet not give any ground for the theory at
which Noldeke wishes to arrive.
For his assumption is that the effort after unity had its old and
original seat precisely in the priestly circles of Jerusalem. If
the Priestly Code is older than Deuteronomy, then of course the
prophetic agitation for reform of worship in which Deuteronomy had
its origin must have been only the repetition of an older
priestly movement in the same direction.
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