For
after they have lost their original contents and degenerated into
mere prescribed religious forms, there is nothing to prevent the
refilling of the empty bottles in any way accordant with the
tastes of the period. Now, accordingly, the feast of tabernacles
also becomes historical (Leviticus xxiii.), instituted to commemorate
the booths under which the people had to shelter themselves during
the forty years of wandering in the wilderness. In the case of
Easter a new step in advance is made beyond the assignation of its
motive to the exodus, which is already found in Deuteronomy and
in Exodus xiii. 3 seq. For in the Priestly Code this feast,
which precisely on account of its eminently historical character
is here regarded as by far the most important of all, is much
more than the mere commemoration of a divine act of salvation, it
is itself a saving deed. It is not because Jehovah smote the
firstborn of Egypt that the passover is afterwards instituted on
the contrary, it is instituted beforehand, at the moment of the
exodus, in order that the firstborn of Israel may be spared.
Thus not merely is a historical motive assigned for the custom;
its beginning is itself raised to the dignity of a historical
fact upon which the feast rests,--the shadow elsewhere thrown only
by another historical event here becomes substantial and casts
itself.
Pages:
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249