All these changes are the natural outcome of
the importation of the hierocracy into Mosaic times. From the
second version we can go further and understand the origin of the
third. In the earlier version the princes of the tribe of Reuben
were forced to give way to a prince of the tribe of Judah. In
the progress of time Korah the prince of the tribe of Judah is
replaced by the eponymous head of a post-exilic Levitical family,
of the same name. The contest between clergy and aristocracy is
here transformed into a domestic strife between the higher and the
inferior clergy, which was no doubt raging in the time of the
narrator. Thus the three versions are developed, the origin and
collocation of which appears from every other point of view to be
an insoluble enigma. The one arises out of the other in the
direct line of descent: the metamorphoses took place under the
influence of great historical changes which are well known to us;
and in the light of Jewish history from Josiah downwards they
are by no means unintelligible. /1/
********************************************
1 The details of the demonstration will be found in the Jahrbb.
Pages:
778
779
780
781
782
783
784
785
786
787
788
789
790
791
792
793
794
795
796
797
798
799
800
801
802