The Makers and Teachers of Judaism / From the Fall of Jerusalem to the Death of Herod the Great

by Charles Foster Kent

Section CII. THE TRADITIONAL ACCOUNT OF THE ADOPTION OF THE PRIESTLY LAW

[Sidenote: Ezra 7:1, 6-10] In the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Ezra, a descendant of Aaron, went up from Babylon; and he was a scribe skilled in the law of Moses, which Jehovah, the God of Israel, had given. And the king granted him all his request, inasmuch as the hand of Jehovah his God was upon him. And some of the Israelites, and of the priests, the Levites, the singers, the porters, and the temple servants went up to Jerusalem [with him]. And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king. For on the first day of the first month he began the journey from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, since the good hand of God was with him. For Ezra had set his heart to seek the law of Jehovah, and to observe it and to teach in Israel statutes and ordinances.

[Sidenote: Neh. 7:73b, 8:4-6] And when the seventh month drew near, all the people gathered themselves together as one man to the broad place that was before the Water Gate. And they spoke to Ezra the priest and scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which Jehovah had commanded Israel. And Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly of men and women, and all who could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month. And he read from it before the open place that was before the Water Gate, from early morning until mid-day, in the presence of the men and women and of those who could understand; and all the people were attentive to the book of the law. And Ezra the priest and scribe stood upon a wooden pulpit, which they made for the purpose and opened the book in the sight of all the people—for he was above all the people—and when he opened it all the people stood up. And Ezra blessed Jehovah, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, while they lifted up their hands and bowed their heads and worshipped Jehovah with their faces to the ground.

[Sidenote: Neh. 8:9-12] Then Ezra the priest, the scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, This day is holy to Jehovah your God; mourn not, nor weep; for all the people when they heard the words of the law. Then he said to them, Go away, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions to him for whom nothing is prepared, for this day is holy to our Lord; and do not be troubled, for the joy of Jehovah is your bulwark. So the Levites quieted all the people, saying, Be still, for the day is holy, and do not be troubled. And all the people went away to eat and drink and to send portions and to make a great rejoicing, for they had understood the words which had been made known to them.

[Sidenote: Neh. 8:13-19] And on the second day the heads of fathers' houses of all the people, the priests and the Levites were gathered together to Ezra the scribe, in order to gain an insight into the words of the law. And they found written in the law, how Jehovah had commanded by Moses that the Israelites should dwell in booths at the feast in the seventh month; and that they should proclaim aloud in all their cities and in Jerusalem: Go forth to the mount and bring olive branches and branches of wild olive and myrtle and palm branches and branches of thick trees to make booths, as it is prescribed. So the people went out and brought them, and made themselves booths, each man upon the roof of his house and in their courts and in the courts of the house of God and in the open space at the Water Gate and in the open space at the Ephraim Gate. And all the assembly of those who had come back from the captivity made booths and lived in the booths; for since the days of Joshua the son of Nun to that day the Israelites had not done so. And there was very great gladness. And day by day, from the first to the last day, he read in the book of the law of God. And they celebrated the feast seven days, and on the eighth day, as was the custom, there was a concluding solemn assembly.

[Sidenote: Neh. 9:1-3] Now in the twenty-fourth day of this month the Israelites were assembled with fasting, and with sackcloth and earth upon their heads. And the children of Israel had separated themselves from all foreigners, and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. And they stood up in their place and read in the book of the law of Jehovah their God a fourth part of the day; and another fourth part they confessed and worshipped Jehovah their God.

[Sidenote: Neh. 9:6-8] And Ezra said, Thou art Jehovah, even thou alone; thou hast made heaven and the heaven of heavens with all their host, the earth and all things that are on it, the seas and all that is in them, and thou preservest them all and the host of heaven worshippeth thee. Thou art Jehovah the God, who didst choose Abraham and bring him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and didst give him the name Abraham, and find his heart faithful before thee and make a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanites to his descendants, and hast performed thy words, for thou art righteous.

[Sidenote: Neh. 9:32-37] Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the terrible God, who keepest covenant and kindness, let not all the affliction seem little before thee, that hath come on us, on our kings, our nobles, our priests, our prophets, our fathers, and on all thy people, since the days of the kings of Assyria to this day. However thou art just in all that has come upon us; for thou hast done right, but we have done wickedly, neither have our kings, our nobles, our priests, nor our fathers, kept thy law nor heeded thy commands and thy testimonies with which thou didst testify against them. For they have not served thee in the time of their kingly rule, and in spite of thy great goodness that thou gavest them, they have not turned from their wicked deeds. Behold, we this day are slaves, and as for the land that thou gavest to our fathers to eat its fruit and enjoy its good gifts, see we are only slaves in it. And it yieldeth a great income to the kings whom thou hast set over us because of our sin; also they have power over our bodies and over our cattle, at their pleasure, and we are in great distress.

[Sidenote: Neh. 9:38] Moreover in addition to all this we made a fixed covenant and wrote it out, and our nobles, our Levites, and our priests were enrolled upon the sealed document.

[Sidenote: Neh. 10:28-31] And all those who had separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the law of God, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, every one who had knowledge and insight, strongly supported their kinsmen, their nobles, and entered into a solemn obligation and took oath to walk in God's law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commands of Jehovah our Lord, and his ordinances and his statutes; and that we would neither give our daughters to the peoples of the land nor take their daughters as wives for our sons; and that, if the peoples of the land should bring wares or any grain on the sabbath day to sell, we would not buy of them on the sabbath or on a holy day; and that on the seventh year we would leave the land uncultivated and would refrain from the exaction of any debt.

[Sidenote: Neh. 10:32-39] We also imposed upon ourselves the obligation to give yearly the third part of a shekel for the service of the house of our God, for the bread that was set forth, and for the continual burnt-offering, for the sabbaths, the new moons, the fixed feasts, and the holy things, and for the sin-offerings to make atonement for Israel, and for all the work of the house of our God. And we cast lots, the priests, the Levites, and the people, for the wood-offering, to bring it into the house of our God, according to our father's houses, at appointed times year by year, to burn upon the altar of Jehovah our God, as it is prescribed in the law; and to bring the earliest products of our ground, and the first of all fruit of every kind of tree year by year, to the temple of Jehovah; also the first-born of our sons and of our cattle, as is prescribed in the law, and the firstlings of our herds and of our flocks, to bring to the house of God to the priests who minister in the house of our God; and that we should bring the first bread baked of our dough, the fruit of every kind of tree, the new wine and the oil, to the priests, in the chambers of the house of our God; and the tithes of our ground to the Levites; and that they, the Levites, should receive the tithes in all the cities of our agricultural districts. And that the priest the son of Aaron should be with the Levites, when the Levites shall bring up the tithe of the tithes to the house of our God, to the chambers, into the store-house. For the Israelites and the sons of Levi shall bring the gifts of grain, of new wine, and of oil, into the chambers, where are the vessels of the sanctuary, and the priests who minister and the porters and the singers, and that we would not neglect the house of our God.

I. The Ezra Tradition. The tradition regarding Ezra and his work presents many difficult problems. Part of it is found in the heart of the book of Nehemiah; while another part is now found in the second half of the book of Ezra. It is not entirely clear whether this dislocation is due to the Chronicler, who desired to give Ezra, the priest and scribe, the precedence before Nehemiah, the layman, or to the mistake of a scribe. A recent writer (Professor Torrey, in Composition of Ezra-Neh.) has shown convincingly that the Ezra story in its present form is at least from the school to which the Chronicler belonged, if not from his own pen. Not only does it abound in the characteristic phrases of this voluminous editor, but it also reflects at many points his peculiar conception of the history of this period. Ezra is described as a descendant of Aaron and "a scribe skilled in the law of Moses." His work as interpreter of the law, which he is represented as bringing in his hand, is typical of the scribes, who were becoming the chief teachers of Judaism in the days of the Chronicler (the Greek period). The decree of Artaxerxes found in the seventh chapter of Ezra suggests at every point its late Jewish origin. It confers upon Ezra, the scribe, royal authority far eclipsing that given by Artaxerxes to Nehemiah, his favorite. A sum representing more than three million dollars is placed at Ezra's disposal. At his summons seventeen hundred priests, Levites, singers, and servants of the temple rally about the standard of the faithful scribe. He is represented as going under the royal protection to Palestine to instruct the Judean community, to reform its abuses, and to institute the rule of the law of Moses which he bore in his hand.

He first holds a great synagogue service in which the law is read and interpreted to the people. They are then bidden to observe the Feast of Booths or Tabernacles in accordance with its regulations. Later, when he discovers that the people of the land have entered into foreign marriages, he tears his clothes and hair and sits for hours overwhelmed by the great crime that rests upon the community. When the people are gathered about him, he upbraids them for their laxness and secures the appointment of a commission with himself at the head to investigate and put an end to these evil practices. When after three months the community has been purified from this foreign element, the people are again assembled to listen to the reading of the law. Then Ezra utters a fervent prayer in which he sets forth Jehovah's leadership of his people in the past and the disasters which have come as a result of their sins. After this public petition for Jehovah's forgiveness, the people through their nobles, Levites, and priests subscribe in writing to the regulations imposed by the lawbook that Ezra had brought. Its more important regulations are also recapitulated. They are to refrain from foreign marriages, to observe strictly the sabbath laws, and also the requirements of the seventh year of release, to bring to the temple the annual tax of one-tenth of a shekel and the other dues required for its support and for the maintenance of the priests and Levites.

II. The Historical Value of the Ezra Tradition. Recognizing that the Ezra tradition comes from the hand of the Chronicler, certain Old Testament scholars are inclined to regard it as entirely unhistorical. It can no longer be regarded as a strictly historical record. Like II Chronicles 31, it is shot through with the ideas current during the Greek period. With no desire to deceive, but with nothing of the modern historical spirit, the Chronicler freely projects the institutions, ideas, and traditions of his own day into these earlier periods. The result is that he has given not an exact or reliable historical record, but his own conception of the way in which the course of history should have unfolded. The Ezra tradition also lacks the support not only of contemporary testimony, but also of all the Jews who wrote during the next few centuries. Ben Sira in his review of Israel's heroes speaks in highest terms of Nehemiah, but knows nothing of Ezra's work. Even the comparatively late Jewish tradition reflected in the opening chapters of II Maccabees attributes to Nehemiah the re-establishment of the temple Service and the collection of the sacred writings of his race. At many points the Ezra tradition is also inconsistent with the straightforward contemporary record contained in Nehemiah's memoirs. The real question is whether or not there is a historical nucleus in the Ezra story, and if so, what are the facts which it reflects.

III. The Facts Underlying the Ezra Tradition. The later records make it clear that during the latter part of the Persian period the attitude of the Jews in Palestine toward their neighbors became more and more exclusive. Nehemiah appears to have given a great impetus to the movement which ultimately resulted in the Samaritan schism and the high wall that henceforth separated Jew and Gentile. The emphasis on the strict observation of the sabbath grew stronger and stronger, until at the beginning of the Greek period the Jews of Jerusalem preferred to fall before the sword of their foes rather than fight on the sabbath day (cf. Section CIII). The ritual of the temple became even more elaborate, and its income was greatly increased during the latter part of the Persian period. The extension of the territory of the Judean community implied that its numbers were increased by the return of loyal Jews attracted by the security offered by its walls and by the new spirit that animated the Jews of Palestine. The priestly laws which were formulated to meet the new needs of the Judean community appear to have been written in Palestine and by those closely connected with the temple service, but in the emphasis upon the sabbath and in their endeavor to prevent marriage with foreigners they suggest the presence and influence of Jews who had returned from the land of the dispersion. It is possible that among those who thus returned was the priest Ezra, and he may have been at the head of one of these groups of returning exiles. In the days of Josiah the code contained in the newly discovered Book of the Covenant was presented to the people in a public assembly and adopted and enforced by the king, who acted as the representative of the people (Section LXXXIII:iii). It is probable that in the small Judean community new regulations gained acceptance in the same way, except that the people were represented by their nobles and priests rather than by a king. The tradition of Ezra, therefore, is typical of the great movement that shaped the life of Judaism in the century immediately following the work of Nehemiah.

IV. Origin and Aims of the Priestly Laws. The late priestly laws which moulded the life of Judaism are found in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. They do not constitute a unified code, but rather are made up of a series of smaller groups of laws, the older nucleus being the Holiness Code found in chapters 17-26 of Leviticus (cf. Section XCIII:iii). In some cases variants of the same law are found in different groups. Certain of these laws simply reiterate in slightly different form those already found in the primitive and Deuteronomic codes; but in general they supplement these earlier codes. The formulation, collection, and codification of these later laws apparently continued until toward the latter part of the Persian period when the Samaritan schism (Section CIII) fixed them in their present form.

To these laws was prefixed, as an introduction, the priestly history that opens with the account of creation in the first chapter of Genesis and briefly traces Israel's history to the settlement in Canaan. The interest of these late priestly historians is, like that of the Chronicler, in the origin of institutions. Thus the object of the first chapter of Genesis is to give the traditional origin and authority of the sabbath. The account of the flood culminates in a covenant embodying the command that man shall not eat of the blood of sacrificial animals; the priestly stories regarding Abraham aim to give the origin of the rite of circumcision. Israel's early experiences in the wilderness furnish the setting for the giving of the law at Sinai. In this way the late editors of these opening books of the Old Testament connect all of Israel's legislation with Moses and aim to establish its divine authority.

V. Their Important Regulations. The central aim in all these late priestly laws was similar to that of Ezekiel: it was to make Israel a holy people and to prevent them from falling again into the sins to which were attributed the overwhelming disasters that had overtaken them. This aim they sought to accomplish: (1) by making the temple and its services the centre of the life of the people and through ceremonial barriers and regulations to shield it from everything that might pollute it; (2) by rendering the temple service attractive; (3) by insuring through rigid ceremonial laws the purity of its priesthood; (4) by preserving the ceremonial cleanliness of the people through strict laws regarding the food which they ate and elaborate provisions for their purification in case they were contaminated by contact with that which was regarded as unclean; (5) by prohibiting absolutely all marriages with the heathen; and (6) by emphasizing the rigid observation of the sabbath and other distinctive institutions. In general these late priestly laws represented a return to the older and more primitive conception of religion, and defined duty in terms of ceremonial rather than moral acts.

VI. Their Practical Effects. Later Judaism represents to a great extent the result of the rigid enforcement of these regulations. Its life was centralized more and more about the temple. In its services the people found their chief interest and joy. The numbers of the priests and Levites were also greatly increased. To the older temple dues many new ones were added. Thus each man brought to the temple the first-born of his flock. Even his oldest son must be redeemed within a month after his birth by a gift of five shekels (which represented in modern currency between three and four dollars). Of every animal slain the shoulder, two joints, and the stomach went to the priests. Of the vintage and oil and grain they received about one-fiftieth. In addition a tithe was turned over to the Levites. Part of the wool in every sheep-shearing, as well as a part of the bread which they baked, found its way to the temple. In addition a large income came through the vows made by the people or the conscience money which was paid either in currency or gifts. Although the priests had no temporal authority by which to enforce these laws, it is evident that the people bore their heavy burdens gladly and brought willingly their offerings, that they might thereby win a definite assurance of Jehovah's favor. The law was to them a source of joy rather than a burden. Their love for it steadily grew until two centuries later during the Maccabean persecutions there were many who were ready to lay down their lives for it.