3, 24 seq.)
brings it down still further to the age of twenty; matters are
still to some extent in a state of flux, and the ordering of the
temple worship is a continuation of the beginning made with the
tabernacle service by Moses. Now, in so far as the statistics of
the clergy have a real basis at all, that basis is post-exilian.
It has long ago been remarked how many of the individuals
figuring under David and his successors (e.g., Asaph, Heman,
Jeduthun) bear names identical with families or guilds of a later
time, how the two indeed are constantly becoming confluent, and
difficulty is felt in determining whether by the expression
"head" a person or a family ought to be understood. But,
inasmuch as the Chronicler nevertheless desires to depict the
older time and not his own, he by no means adheres closely to
contemporary statistics, but gives free play at the same time to
his idealising imagination; whence it comes that in spite of the
numerous and apparently precise data afforded, the reader still
finds himself unable to form any clear picture of the
organisation of the clergy,--the ordering of the families and
tribes, the distribution of the offices,--nay, rather, is
involved in a maze of contradictions.
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