19, 20). To
sanctify to Jehovah, to eat before Jehovah, to offer to Jehovah,
are here three equivalent ideas. If now, in Numbers xviii. 15
seq., every first birth is assigned without circumlocution to the
priest, and a special paschal offering is appointed in addition,
this can only be understood as the last phase in the development,
partly because the idea of dues altogether is secondary to that
of offerings, and partly because the immense augmentation in the
income of the priests points to an increase of the hierocratic
power. Ezekiel does not yet reckon the firstlings among the
revenues of the clergy (xliv. 28-3I); the praxis of Judaism, on
the other hand, since Nehemiah x. 37, is regulated, as usual, in
accordance with the norm of the Priestly Code.
The tithe also is originally given to God, and treated just as the
other offerings are; that is to say, it is not appropriated by
the priests, but eaten by those who bring it in sacred banquets.
It does not occur in the Jehovistic legislation, but Jacob
dedicates it (Genesis xxviii. 22) to the God of Bethel, a place
where, although the whole story is a projection out of a later
time, it would hardly be in harmony with the conceptions of the
narrator to think of the presence of priests.
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