But while Eli is a man of distinction, perhaps
the owner of the sanctuary, at all events in a position of
thorough independence and the head of a great house, Jonathan is a
solitary wandering Levite who enters the service of the proprietor
of a sanctuary for pay and maintenance, and is indeed nourished
as a son by his patron, but by no means treated with special
respect by the Danites.
The latter case, it may well be conjectured, more nearly
represents the normal state of matters than the former. An
independent and influential priesthood could develop itself only
at the larger and more public centres of worship, but that of
Shiloh seems to have been the only one of this class. The
remaining houses of God, of which we hear some word from the
transition period which preceded the monarchy, are not of
importance, and are in private hands, thus corresponding to that
of Micah on Mount Ephraim. That of Ophra belongs to Gideon, and
that of Kirjathjearim to Abinadab. In fact, it appears that
Micah, in appointing one to minister at his sanctuary for hire,
would seem to have followed a more general practice.
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