In any case the
intermediate place in the series belongs to Deuteronomy, and if
we begin that series with the Priestly Code, we must in consistency
close it with the Sinaitic Book of the Covenant (Exodus xx. 23 seq.).
After King Josiah had published Deuteronomy and had made it the
Book of the Covenant by a solemn engagement of the people (621
B.C.), he commanded them to "keep the passover to Jehovah your God
as it is written in this Book;" such a passover had never been
observed from the days of the judges, or throughout the entire
period of the kings (2Kings xxiii. 21, 22). And when Ezra the
scribe introduced the Pentateuch as we now have it as the
fundamental law of the church of the second temple (444 B.C.), it
was found written in the Torah which Jehovah had commanded by
Moses, that the children of Israel were to live in booths during
the feast in the seventh month, and further, to use branches
of olive and myrtle and palm for this purpose, and that the people
went and made to themselves booths accordingly; such a thing had
not been done "since the days of Joshua the son of Nun even unto
that day " (Nehemiah viii.
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