Now the code which is implicitly regarded as the standard is that
the discovery of which under Josiah is circumstantially narrated
in 2Kings xxii. xxiii., viz., Deuteronomy. We are led to this
conclusion, it is allowed on all hands, both by the phraseology
of the reviser and by the spirit of his judgments. He condemns
those sins specially against which Deuteronomy and the reformation
of King Josiah were directed. And the one verbal quotation made
from the book of the Torah is from Deuteronomy (2Kings xiv. 6;
Deuteronomy xxiv. 16). On the other hand, there are clear signs
that the author of the revision was not acquainted with the
Priestly Code. Nowhere is any distinction drawn between priests
and Levites; the sons of Aaron are never mentioned. The idea of
a central sanctuary before Solomon is contradicted by 1Kings iii.
2. In one section only, a section which has been greatly exposed
to corrections and interpolations of all kinds, namely, the
description of the temple and its consecration, 1Kings vi.-viii.,
do we meet with signs of the influence of the Priestly Code,
especially in the Massoretic text; in the Septuagint this is not
so much the case.
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