Instead of the Ecclesiastical History
of the Hexateuch, the Book of Judges forthwith enters upon a secular
history completely devoid of all churchly character. The high priest,
who according to the Priestly Code is the central authority by the
grace of God, is here quite left out in the cold, for the really
acting heads of the people are the Judges, people of an entirely
different stamp, whose authority, resting on no official position,
but on strength of personality and on the force of circumstances,
seldom extends beyond the limits of their tribe. And it is plain
that in this we behold not the sorry remains of an ecclesiastico-political
system once flourishing under Moses and Joshua, now completely
fallen into ruins, but the first natural beginnings of a civil
authority which after a course of further development finally led
to the monarchy.
In the kernel of the Book of Judges (chaps. iii.-xvi.) there
nowhere occurs a single individual whose profession is to take
charge of the cultus. Sacrifice is in two instances offered, by
Gideon and Manoah; but in neither case is a priest held to be
necessary.
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