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The belief that the cultus goes back to pre-Mosaic usage is
unquestionably more natural than the belief that it is the main
element of the Sinaitic legislation; the thought would be a
strange one that God should suddenly have revealed, or Moses
discovered and introduced, the proper sacrificial ritual. At the
same time this does not necessitate the conclusion that the
Priestly Code is later than the Jehovist. Nor does this follow
from the very elaborately-developed technique of the agenda, for
elaborate ritual may have existed in the great sanctuaries at a
very early period,--though that, indeed, would not prove it to be
genuinely Mosaic. On the other hand, it is certainly a
consideration deserving of great weight that the representation of
the exclusive legitimacy of so definite a sacrificial ritual,
treated in the Priestly Code as the only possible one in Israel,
is one which can have arisen only as a consequence of the
centralisation of the cultus at Jerusalem. Yet by urging this the
decision of the question at present before us would only be
referred back to the result already arrived at in the preceding
chapter, and it is much to be desired that it should be solved
independently, so as not to throw too much weight upon a single
support.
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