II.II.
At all times, then, the sacrificial worship of Israel existed, and
had great importance attached to it, but in the earlier period it
rested upon custom, inherited from the fathers, in the post-exilian
on the law of Jehovah, given through Moses. At first it was naive,
and what was chiefly considered was the quantity and quality of
the gifts; afterwards it became legal,--the scrupulous fulfilment
of the law, that is, of the prescribed ritual, was what was looked
to before everything. Was there then, apart from this, strictly
speaking, no material difference? To answer this question our
researches must be carried further afield, after some preliminary
observations have been made in order to fix our position.
II.II.1. In the Pentateuch the sacrificial ritual is indeed copiously
described, but nowhere in the Old Testament is its significance
formally explained; this is treated as on the whole self-evident
and familiar to every one. The general notion of a sacrifice is
in the Priestly Code that of _qorban_, in the rest of the Old
Testament that of _minha_, /1/ ie., "gift;"
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