And finally, let its due
weight be given to the simple fact that an exiled priest saw
occasion to draft such a sketch of the temple worship. What need
would there have been for it, if the realised picture,
corresponding completely to his views, had actually existed, and,
being already written in a book, wholly obviated any danger lest
the cultus should become extinct through the mere fact of its
temporary cessation?
Here again a way of escape is open by assuming a lifeless
existence of the law down to Ezra's time. But if this is done it
is unallowable to date that existence, not from Moses, but from
some other intermediate point in the history of Israel. Moreover,
the assumption of a codification either as preceding all praxis,
or as alongside and independent of it, is precisely in the case of
sacrificial ritual one of enormous difficulty, for it is obvious
that such a codification can only be the final result of an old
and highly developed use, and not the invention of an idle brain.
This consideration also makes retreat into the theory of an
illegal praxis impossible, and renders the legitimacy of the
actually subsisting indisputable.
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