His ignoring
of it is not intentional, for he is far from hating the cultus
(xvii.26). But, as priest and prophet, staying continually in
the temple at Jerusalem, he must have known it, if it had existed
and actually been codified. The fact is one which it is difficult
to get over.
Thus the historical witnesses, particularly the prophets, decide
the matter in favour of the Jehovistic tradition. According to the
universal opinion of the pre-exilic period, the cultus is indeed of
very old and (to the people) very sacred usage, but not a Mosaic
institution; the ritual is not the main thing in it, and is in no
sense the subject with which the Torah deals. /1/
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1. That the priests were not mere teachers of law and morals,
but also gave ritual instruction (e.g, regarding cleanness
and uncleanness), is of course not denied by this. All that is
asserted is that in pre-exilian antiquity the priests' own praxis
(at the altar) never constituted the contents of the Torah,
but that their Torah always consisted of instructions to the laity.
The distinction is easily intelligible to those who choose
to understand it.
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