the centre of the earth, is the appropriate place for the sanctuary, and it will be guarded by Yahweh's own people dwelling about it. The transjordanic territory is to be abandoned and all Israel is to dwell in Canaan, properly so called. The Dead Sea is to be made sweet by the waters flowing from the temple spring and all the land will enjoy abundant fruitfulness. The tribes will be settled, seven to the north and five to the south of the temple in such order as to break up the old jealousies. The temple is to be separated from the city of Jerusalem, that there may be less danger of defilement and is to be further protected by a sacred tract of land in which the priests dwell.

The temple itself is planned after the scheme of the one destroyed by Nebuchadrezzar, even the ornaments of palmtrees and cherubim being retained. Two courts, however, are to surround it, to secure more thorough separation from common things. The service is to be in the hands of the old priestly family of Zadok (appointed by David and confirmed by Solomon), to whom the Levites are to be subordinate. This is in deliberate contradiction with earlier practice, as Ezekiel himself tells us. Before the exile the menial work of the sanctuary had been performed by slaves given to the temple by the kings. These were foreigners uncircumcised in flesh and in heart as the prophet complains. The new temple is to have in their place the Levites, that is, priests of the old country sanctuaries. By the destruction of the sanctuaries in the days of Josiah these had been deprived of their means of support, and, although the Deuteronomist ordained that they should have a place in the Jerusalem temple, they had not been able to make good their claim in face of the Zadokites who were already in possession. They had become hangers-on of the sacred place, thankful to get a morsel of bread by performing menial service. This arrangement, which was apparently in effect before the fall of Jerusalem, is now distinctly legitimated by Ezekiel. Its advantage was that it provided consecrated persons for all the offices and definitely allowed the

exclusion of laymen from the sacred precincts. Even the prince is not to enter the inner court, but is to stand in the east gate when his sacrifice is offered (46 : 2).

The commonwealth will have little need of a secular ruler, and the prince is altogether secondary to the priesthood. The early experience of Judah with the monarchy had not been such as to encourage hope in a king. The few references to a new David show that Ezekiel did not care to make him prominent, and the prince of whom he speaks is to be only the collector of taxes for the temple service, not for himself or his household (45: 13-17; 46: 16-18). The prosperity of the people depends upon the priests, and exact regulations are laid down by which they must preserve their ritual cleanliness. Doubtless these regulations concerning clothing, marriage, and the observance of mourning are drawn from tradition, but we may suppose that the codification was intended to give them new importance. The chief duty of the priests is, of course, to offer sacrifice, though the work of instructing the people in matters sacred and profane is still theirs (44 : 23 f.).

Not only is the personnel of the temple thus exactly regulated; the services are brought into a system with special reference to this same matter of pollution and its avoidance. In the old days the primary purpose of sacrifice had been to gratify Yahweh by a gift, or else to enter into communion with him. The festivals were occasions for eating and drinking and rejoicing before Yahweh. This old joyous ritual is now replaced by a series of rites designed to preserve the purity of people, land, and sanctuary. It was traditional custom, no doubt, to apply sacrificial blood to a person or thing which had become ceremonially defiled, in order to remove the taboo. Ezekiel makes use of this same means to consecrate the building and its utensils, and provides that the consecration shall be renewed at stated intervals. His thought is that in a world full of unclean things the temple may contract defilement in spite of the most scrupulous care. The whole sanctuary is to be reconsecrated twice a year

(45 18-20). This is expressly said to be on account of any one who has erred or is dull of understanding, and it is in accordance with the view later carried through in the Law, namely, that wilful transgression must be punished, but that unwitting trespass causes defilement and must be purged away. And since defilement is contagious, even the sanctuary and its utensils may become polluted through the ignorance of the worshipper. The sacrifices which are performed in order to secure the purifying blood are called sinofferings. But the purpose of all the sacrifices is now supposed to be purification, as we see from a passage which in our version says that the prince shall provide the sin-offering, and the meal-offering, and the burnt offering, and the peace-offering "to make atonement" for the house of Israel (45 17). It would probably better represent the original idea to render "to purify the house of Israel," since the idea of atonement in the theological sense does not seem to be found in the Old Testament, at least not in connection with the sacrifices.

By this programme the ritual side of religion triumphed. Ezekiel completes the process begun by Deuteronomy, and the result is to reverse the teachings of the prophets. Amos declared Yahweh's scorn for offerings, sacrifices, and the festivals; Isaiah is equally emphatic in his condemnation; Jeremiah denied that Yahweh had given a law concerning ritual. Ezekiel, with sublime indifference to these declarations, makes ritual Yahweh's first concern. Ecclesiasticism has triumphed and will increasingly dominate Jewish thought.

CHAPTER XII

LEGALISM TRIUMPHANT

By putting religion into legal form Ezekiel protected it from a disintegrating syncretism. On the other hand, legalism is always in danger of degenerating into formalism. It is easy for us to exaggerate this danger and to underrate the advantages of a rigid code. The imageless worship of Yahweh was more elevated than the idolatry to which the whole gentile world was addicted. Humanly speaking, it could not have been preserved pure unless it had been guarded by ritual barriers. The terrible earnestness with which the prophet sought to exclude everything unclean from the sanctuary communicated itself to the Jewish community. The fact that the exiles were shut out from participation in civil affairs made them all the more devoted to matters of religion.

The rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem in the time of Darius was doubtless inspired by the Messianic hope. The disappointment which followed seemed to indicate that not enough care had been taken to separate the clean from the unclean. Those who clung to their faith in Yahweh as the only God could imagine no other reason for his delay to reveal himself. Hence came the anxious inquiry for ritual tradition, and a persistent effort to put that tradition into written form. Ritual is, from the nature of the case, capable of indefinite expansion. Deuteronomy, as we have seen, had comparatively few priestly regulations; Ezekiel added to the number; the guild of scribes who came after him carried on the process. Apparently the exiles who lived at a distance from the temple were more zealous in this work

than were the inhabitants of Jerusalem. The very fact that the ritual could not be carried out by those in exile made it easier for them to develop its theory. Evidence of their state of mind is given by the Talmud, which formulates the most elaborate rules for ceremonies though these have not been observed for eighteen centuries. The underlying thought is, of course, that when the kingdom comes everything necessary for a complete service must have been provided for.

For two centuries or more after Ezekiel the industry of the scribes spent itself in the collection of ritual traditions. The result was the elaborate code contained in the middle books of the Pentateuch. It is now almost impossible to disentangle the many strands which have here been interwoven. Some of the material is doubtless ancient, representing customs in vogue at Israelite sanctuaries before the Deuteronomic reform. But whatever its source, all of it has been brought under Ezekiel's point of view. One body of laws has, in fact, been supposed to be the work of Ezekiel, though the evidence is not convincing. This is the so-called Holiness code, which avows its design to protect the sanctity of Yahweh. Its watchword is: "Be ye holy, for I am holy" (Lev. 192). We have already discovered the inadequacy of this translation. It would be more in accordance with the author's idea to read: "Be ye separate from all that is profane because I am thus separate. This code (Lev. 1726) occupies a position intermediate between Ezekiel and the fully developed priestly system. The author uses many of Ezekiel's phrases and may be called a disciple of the prophet. If we may judge from the concluding exhortation of his book, he himself lived in exile, for this section regards dispersion among the gentiles as the supreme misfortune, and it shows the hope of the exiles by the promise that if they repent Yahweh will remember his covenant with the fathers and again be their God.

The scrupulosity of this writer is shown by his inclusion in his code of many things not mentioned in Deuteronomy.