In truth it is, quite on the
contrary, a proof of the post-exilian date of the Priestly Code
that it makes sons of Aaron of the priests of the central
sanctuary, who, even in the traditional understanding (2Chronicles
xiii. 10), are in one way or other simply the priests of
Jerusalem. By this means it carries their origin back to the
foundation of the theocracy, and gives them out as from the first
having been alone legitimate. But such an idea no one could have
ventured to broach before the exile. At that time it was too well
known that the priesthood of the Jerusalem sept could not be
traced further back than David's time, but dated from Zadok, who in
Solomon's reign ousted the hereditary house of Eli from the position
it had long previously held, first at Shiloh and Nob, and
afterwards at Jerusalem, at what had become the most prominent
sanctuary of Israel.
In a passage of Deuteronomic complexion, which cannot have been
written long before the exile, we read in a prediction made to Eli
regarding the overthrow of his house by Zadok:
"I said indeed, saith Jehovah the God of Israel, that thy house
and the house of thy father shall walk before me for ever; but now
I say, Be it far from me, for them that honour me I will honour,
but they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.
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