The one
distinction is made visible in the ordering of the camp in Numbers
ii., where Levi forms around the sanctuary a cordon of protection
against the immediate contact of the remaining tribes; on the
whole, however, it is rather treated as a matter of course, and
not brought into special prominence (Numbers xviii. 22). The other
is accentuated with incomparably greater emphasis. Aaron and his
sons alone are priests, qualified for sacrificing and burning
incense; the Levites are hieroduli (3 Esdras i. 3), bestowed
upon the Aaronidae for the discharge of the inferior services
(Numbers iii. 9). They are indeed their tribe fellows, but it is
not because he belongs to Levi that Aaron is chosen, and his
priesthood cannot be said to be the acme and flower of the general
vocation of his tribe. On the contrary, rather was he a priest
long before the Levites were set apart; for a considerable time
after the cultus has been established and set on foot these do not
make any appearance,--not at all in the whole of the third book,
which thus far does little honour to its name _Leviticus_. Strictly
speaking, the Levites do not even belong to the clergy: they are
not called by Jehovah, but consecrated by the children of Israel
to the sanctuary,--consecrated in the place of the first-born, not
however as priests (neither in Numbers iii.
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