Priestly source
Encyclopedia
The Priestly Source is one of the sources of the Torah
/Pentateuch in the bible. Primarily a product of the post-Exilic period when Judah was a province of the Persian empire (the 5th century BCE), P was written to show that even when all seemed lost, God remained present with Israel. It has been compared to a necklace strung with pearls: "the thread of the necklace is made up of genealogies, itineraries and a terse story line, with a strong interest in chronology ... [t]he pearls are the major stories". Its characteristics include a set of claims that are contradicted by non-Priestly passages and therefore uniquely characteristic: no sacrifice before the institution is ordained by God at Sinai, the exalted status of Aaron
and the priesthood, and the use of the divine title El Shaddai
before God reveals his name to Moses, to name a few.
(the Greek and Hebrew terms, respectively, for the bible's books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus
, Numbers
and Deuteronomy
) describe the history of the Israelites from the creation of the world, through the earliest biblical patriarchs and their wanderings, to the exodus
from Egypt and the encounter with God in the wilderness. The books contain many inconsistencies, repetitions, different narrative styles, and different names for God. There are, for example, two accounts of the creation, two genealogies of Seth and two of Shem, two covenants with Abraham and two revelations to Jacob at Bethel, two calls to Moses to rescue the Israelites from Egypt, two sets of laws at Sinai, and two accounts of the Tabernacle/Tent of Meeting. The repetitions, styles and names are not random, but follow identifiable patterns, and the study of these patterns led scholars to the conclusion that four separate sources lie behind them.
The 19th century scholars saw these sources as independent documents which had been carefully edited together, and for most of the 20th century this was the accepted consensus. But in 1973 the American biblical scholar Frank Moore Cross
published an influential work called Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic, in which he argued that P was not an independent document (i.e., a written text telling a coherent story with a beginning, middle and end), but an editorial expansion of another of the four sources, the combined Jahwist/Elohist (called JE). Cross's study was the beginning of a series of attacks on the documentary hypothesis, continued notably by the work of Hans Heinrich Schmid (The So-called Jahwist, 1976, questioning the date of the Jahwistic source), Martin Rose (1981, proposing that the Jahwist was composed as a prologue to the history which begins in in Joshua), and John Van Seters
(Abraham in History and Tradition, proposing a 6th century date for the story of Abraham, and therefore for the Jahwist). Even more radical was Rolf Rendtorff
(The Problem of of the Process of Transmission in the Pentateuch, 1989), who argued that neither the Jahwist nor the Elohist had ever existed as sources but instead represented collections of independent fragmentary stories, poems, etc.
No new consensus has emerged to replace the documentary hypothesis, but since roughly the mid-1980s an influential theory has emerged which relates the emergence of the Pentateuch to the situation in Judah in the 5th century under Persian imperial rule. The central institution in the post-Exilic Persian province of Yehud
(the Persian name for the former kingdom of Judah) was the reconstructed Second Temple
, which functioned both as the administrative centre for the province and as the means through which Yehud paid taxes to the central government. The central government was willing to grant autonomy to local communities throughout the empire, but it was first necessary for the would-be autonomous community to present the local laws for imperial authorisation. This provided a powerful incentive for the various groups that constituted the Jewish community in Yehud to come to an agreement. The major groups were the landed families who controlled the main sources of wealth, and the priestly families who controlled the Temple. Each group had its own history of origins that legitimated its prerogatives. The tradition of the landowners was based on the old Deuteronomist
ic tradition, which had existed since at least the 6th century and had its roots even earlier; that of the priestly families was composed to "correct" and "complete" the landowners' composition. In the final document Genesis 1-11 lays the foundations, Genesis 12-50 defines the people of Israel, and the books of Moses define the community's laws and relationship to its God.
(all Levites are priests, but according to P only the descendants of Aaron were to be allowed to officiate in the inner sanctuary).
P's God is majestic, and transcendent, and all things happen because of his power and will. He reveals himself in stages, first as Elohim
(a Hebrew word meaning simply "god"), then to Abraham as El Shaddai
(usually translated as "God Almighty"), and finally to Moses by his unique name, Yahweh
. P divides history into four epochs from Creation to Moses by means of covenants between God and Noah, Abraham and Moses. The Israelites are God's chosen people
, his relationship with them is governed by the covenants, and P's God is concerned that Israel should preserve its identity by avoiding intermarriage with non-Israelites. P is deeply concerned with "holiness", meaning the ritual purity of the people and the land: Israel is to be "a priestly kingdom and a holy nation" (Exodus 19:6), and P's elaborate rules and rituals are aimed at creating and preserving holiness.
(Genesis 1), for Adam's genealogy, part of the Flood story
, the Table of Nations, and the genealogy of Shem (i.e., Abraham's ancestry). Most of the remainder of Genesis is from the Yahwist, but P provides the covenant with Abraham (chapter 17) and a few other stories concerning Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
The book of Exodus is also divided between the Yahwist and P, and the usual understanding is that the Priestly writer(s) were adding to an already-existing Yahwist narrative. Chapters 1-24 (from bondage in Egypt to God's appearances at Sinai) and chapters 32-34 (the golden calf
incident) are from the Yahwist and P's additions are relatively minor, noting Israel's obedience to the command to be fruitful and the orderly nature of Israel even in Egypt. P was responsible for chapters 25-31 and 35-40, the instructions for making the Tabernacle and the story of its fabrication.
Leviticus 1-16 sees the world as divided between the profane (i.e., not holy) masses and the holy priests. Anyone who incurs impurity must be separated from the priests and the Temple until purity is restored through washing, sacrifice, and the passage of time. Leviticus 17-26 is called the Holiness code
, from its repeated insistence that Israel should be a holy people; scholars accept it as a discrete collection within the larger Priestly source, and have traced similar holiness writings elsewhere in the Pentateuch.
In Numbers the Priestly source contributes chapters 1-10:28, 15-20, 25-31, and 33-36, including, among other things, two censuses, rulings on the position of Levites and priests (including the provision of special cities for the Levites), and the scope and protection of the Promised Land
. The Priestly themes in Numbers include the significance of the priesthood for the well-being of Israel (the ritual of the priests is needed to take away impurity), and God's provision of the priesthood as the means by which he expresses his faithfulness to the covenant with Israel.
The Priestly source in Numbers originally ended with an account of the death of Moses and succession of Joshua ("Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo..."), but when Deuteronomy was added to the Pentateuch this was transferred to the end of Deuteronomy.
: the similarity between Joshua's crossing of the Jordan and Moses' crossing of the Red Sea is especially striking, for example. This hypothesis has lost almost all its supporters as it has become apparent that Joshua is thoroughly Deuteronomist
ic. While the crossing of the Jordan has extremely Priestly elements (the Israelites need the presence of the Levites, holding the ark of the covenant
, in order to cross), it is more probable that the Deuteronomist knew a "priestly" tradition of the Exodus separate from the one that produced the Pentateuch.
Torah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
/Pentateuch in the bible. Primarily a product of the post-Exilic period when Judah was a province of the Persian empire (the 5th century BCE), P was written to show that even when all seemed lost, God remained present with Israel. It has been compared to a necklace strung with pearls: "the thread of the necklace is made up of genealogies, itineraries and a terse story line, with a strong interest in chronology ... [t]he pearls are the major stories". Its characteristics include a set of claims that are contradicted by non-Priestly passages and therefore uniquely characteristic: no sacrifice before the institution is ordained by God at Sinai, the exalted status of Aaron
Aaron
In the Hebrew Bible and the Qur'an, Aaron : Ααρών ), who is often called "'Aaron the Priest"' and once Aaron the Levite , was the older brother of Moses, and a prophet of God. He represented the priestly functions of his tribe, becoming the first High Priest of the Israelites...
and the priesthood, and the use of the divine title El Shaddai
El Shaddai
El Shaddai [shah-'dah-yy] is one of the Judaic names of God, with its etymology coming from the influence of the Ugaritic religion on modern Judaism. El Shaddai is conventionally translated as God Almighty...
before God reveals his name to Moses, to name a few.
Background
The history of exilic and post-exilic Judah is little known, but a summary of current theories can be made as follows:- Religion in monarchic Judah centred around ritual sacrifice in the Temple. There worship was in the hands of priests known as ZadokZadokZadok was a high priest of the Israelites in Jerusalem after it was conquered by David.Zadok may also refer to:*Rabbi Zadok, tanna of the 1st-century CE*Zadok the Priest, an 18th-century coronation anthem by Handel...
ites (meaning that they traced their descent from an ancestor called Zadok, allegedly high priest under DavidDavidDavid was the second king of the united Kingdom of Israel according to the Hebrew Bible and, according to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, an ancestor of Jesus Christ through both Saint Joseph and Mary...
). There was also a lower order of religious officials called LeviteLeviteIn Jewish tradition, a Levite is a member of the Hebrew tribe of Levi. When Joshua led the Israelites into the land of Canaan, the Levites were the only Israelite tribe that received cities but were not allowed to be landowners "because the Lord the God of Israel himself is their inheritance"...
s, who were not permitted to perform sacrifices and were restricted to menial functions. - While the Zadokites were the only priests in Jerusalem, there were other priests at other centres. One of the most important of these was a temple at Bethel, north of Jerusalem, which Josiah had tried to suppress. Aaron was in some way associated with Bethel, since it was the centre of the "golden calf" cult of the northern kingdom of IsraelKingdom of IsraelThe Kingdom of Israel was, according to the Bible, one of the successor states to the older United Monarchy . It was thought to exist roughly from the 930s BCE until about the 720s BCE, when the kingdom was conquered by the Assyrian Empire...
(Bethel was one of the main religious centres of Israel and had royal support until Israel was destroyed by the Assyrians in 721). - Following their conquest of Jerusalem the Babylonians destroyed the Temple and took most of the Zadokite priesthood into exile, leaving behind the Levites, who were too poor and marginalised to represent a threat to Babylonian interests. The temple at Bethel now assumed a major role in the religious life of the remaining inhabitants of Judah, and the non-Zadokite priests, under the influence of the Aaronite priests of Bethel, began calling themselves "sons of Aaron" to distinguish themselves from the "sons of Zadok".
- When the Zadokite priests returned from exile after c.538 and began re-establishing the temple in Jerusalem they came into conflict with the Aaronite priests. The Zadokites won the conflict but adopted the Aaronite name, whether as part of a compromise or in order to out-flank their opponents by co-opting their descent.
- The Zadokites simultaneously found themselves in conflict with the Levites, who objected to their subordinate position. The priests also won this battle, writing into the Priestly document stories such as the rebellion of KorahKorahKorah or Kórach Some older English translations, as well as the Douay Bible), spell the name Core, and many Eastern European translations have Korak...
, which characterises the challenge to priestly prerogative as unholy and unforgivable.
The Priestly work
The Pentateuch or TorahTorah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
(the Greek and Hebrew terms, respectively, for the bible's books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus
Leviticus
The Book of Leviticus is the third book of the Hebrew Bible, and the third of five books of the Torah ....
, Numbers
Book of Numbers
The Book of Numbers is the fourth book of the Hebrew Bible, and the fourth of five books of the Jewish Torah/Pentateuch....
and Deuteronomy
Deuteronomy
The Book of Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible, and of the Jewish Torah/Pentateuch...
) describe the history of the Israelites from the creation of the world, through the earliest biblical patriarchs and their wanderings, to the exodus
The Exodus
The Exodus is the story of the departure of the Israelites from ancient Egypt described in the Hebrew Bible.Narrowly defined, the term refers only to the departure from Egypt described in the Book of Exodus; more widely, it takes in the subsequent law-givings and wanderings in the wilderness...
from Egypt and the encounter with God in the wilderness. The books contain many inconsistencies, repetitions, different narrative styles, and different names for God. There are, for example, two accounts of the creation, two genealogies of Seth and two of Shem, two covenants with Abraham and two revelations to Jacob at Bethel, two calls to Moses to rescue the Israelites from Egypt, two sets of laws at Sinai, and two accounts of the Tabernacle/Tent of Meeting. The repetitions, styles and names are not random, but follow identifiable patterns, and the study of these patterns led scholars to the conclusion that four separate sources lie behind them.
The 19th century scholars saw these sources as independent documents which had been carefully edited together, and for most of the 20th century this was the accepted consensus. But in 1973 the American biblical scholar Frank Moore Cross
Frank Moore Cross
Frank Moore Cross, Jr. is Hancock Professor of Hebrew and Other Oriental Languages Emeritus at Harvard University, notable for his work in the interpretation of the Dead Sea Scrolls, his 1973 magnum opus Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic, and his work in Northwest Semitic epigraphy...
published an influential work called Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic, in which he argued that P was not an independent document (i.e., a written text telling a coherent story with a beginning, middle and end), but an editorial expansion of another of the four sources, the combined Jahwist/Elohist (called JE). Cross's study was the beginning of a series of attacks on the documentary hypothesis, continued notably by the work of Hans Heinrich Schmid (The So-called Jahwist, 1976, questioning the date of the Jahwistic source), Martin Rose (1981, proposing that the Jahwist was composed as a prologue to the history which begins in in Joshua), and John Van Seters
John Van Seters
John Van Seters is a scholar of the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East. Currently University Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of North Carolina, he was formerly James A. Gray Professor of Biblical Literature at UNC. He took his PhD at Yale University in Near Eastern Studies...
(Abraham in History and Tradition, proposing a 6th century date for the story of Abraham, and therefore for the Jahwist). Even more radical was Rolf Rendtorff
Rolf Rendtorff
Rolf Rendtorff is Emeritus Professor of Old Testament at the University of Heidelberg. He has written frequently on the Jewish scriptures and is notable chiefly for his contribution to the debate over the origins of the Pentateuch Rolf Rendtorff (born 10 March 1925) is Emeritus Professor of Old...
(The Problem of of the Process of Transmission in the Pentateuch, 1989), who argued that neither the Jahwist nor the Elohist had ever existed as sources but instead represented collections of independent fragmentary stories, poems, etc.
No new consensus has emerged to replace the documentary hypothesis, but since roughly the mid-1980s an influential theory has emerged which relates the emergence of the Pentateuch to the situation in Judah in the 5th century under Persian imperial rule. The central institution in the post-Exilic Persian province of Yehud
Yehud
Yehud is a city in the Center District in Israel that is part of the joint municipality of Yehud-Monosson. In 2007, Yehud's population was approximately 25,600 .- History :...
(the Persian name for the former kingdom of Judah) was the reconstructed Second Temple
Second Temple
The Jewish Second Temple was an important shrine which stood on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem between 516 BCE and 70 CE. It replaced the First Temple which was destroyed in 586 BCE, when the Jewish nation was exiled to Babylon...
, which functioned both as the administrative centre for the province and as the means through which Yehud paid taxes to the central government. The central government was willing to grant autonomy to local communities throughout the empire, but it was first necessary for the would-be autonomous community to present the local laws for imperial authorisation. This provided a powerful incentive for the various groups that constituted the Jewish community in Yehud to come to an agreement. The major groups were the landed families who controlled the main sources of wealth, and the priestly families who controlled the Temple. Each group had its own history of origins that legitimated its prerogatives. The tradition of the landowners was based on the old Deuteronomist
Deuteronomist
The Deuteronomist, or simply D, is one of the sources underlying the Hebrew bible . It is found in the book of Deuteronomy, in the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings and also in the book of Jeremiah...
ic tradition, which had existed since at least the 6th century and had its roots even earlier; that of the priestly families was composed to "correct" and "complete" the landowners' composition. In the final document Genesis 1-11 lays the foundations, Genesis 12-50 defines the people of Israel, and the books of Moses define the community's laws and relationship to its God.
Characteristics, date and scope
The Priestly work is concerned with priestly matters - ritual law, the origins of shrines and rituals, and genealogies - all expressed in a formal, repetitive style. It stresses the rules and rituals of worship, and the crucial role of priests, expanding considerably on the role given to AaronAaron
In the Hebrew Bible and the Qur'an, Aaron : Ααρών ), who is often called "'Aaron the Priest"' and once Aaron the Levite , was the older brother of Moses, and a prophet of God. He represented the priestly functions of his tribe, becoming the first High Priest of the Israelites...
(all Levites are priests, but according to P only the descendants of Aaron were to be allowed to officiate in the inner sanctuary).
P's God is majestic, and transcendent, and all things happen because of his power and will. He reveals himself in stages, first as Elohim
Elohim
Elohim is a grammatically singular or plural noun for "god" or "gods" in both modern and ancient Hebrew language. When used with singular verbs and adjectives elohim is usually singular, "god" or especially, the God. When used with plural verbs and adjectives elohim is usually plural, "gods" or...
(a Hebrew word meaning simply "god"), then to Abraham as El Shaddai
El Shaddai
El Shaddai [shah-'dah-yy] is one of the Judaic names of God, with its etymology coming from the influence of the Ugaritic religion on modern Judaism. El Shaddai is conventionally translated as God Almighty...
(usually translated as "God Almighty"), and finally to Moses by his unique name, Yahweh
Yahweh
Yahweh is the name of God in the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jews and Christians.The word Yahweh is a modern scholarly convention for the Hebrew , transcribed into Roman letters as YHWH and known as the Tetragrammaton, for which the original pronunciation is unknown...
. P divides history into four epochs from Creation to Moses by means of covenants between God and Noah, Abraham and Moses. The Israelites are God's chosen people
Chosen people
Throughout history and even today various groups of people have considered themselves as chosen by a deity for some purpose such as to act as the deity's agent on earth. In monotheistic faiths, like Abrahamic religions, references to God are used in constructs such as "God's Chosen People"...
, his relationship with them is governed by the covenants, and P's God is concerned that Israel should preserve its identity by avoiding intermarriage with non-Israelites. P is deeply concerned with "holiness", meaning the ritual purity of the people and the land: Israel is to be "a priestly kingdom and a holy nation" (Exodus 19:6), and P's elaborate rules and rituals are aimed at creating and preserving holiness.
Date
P is widely accepted to date from the exilic or post-exilic period (6th/5th centuries). Good cases have been made for both possibilities (exilic or post-exilic), leading to the conclusion that it has at least two layers, spanning a broad time period of 571-486 BCE. This was a period when the careful observance of ritual was one of the few means available which could preserve the identity of the people, and the narrative of the priestly authors created an essentially stable and secure world in which Israel's history was under God's control, so that even when Israel alienated itself from God, leading to the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile in Babylon, atonement could still be made through sacrifice and ritual.Pentateuch
P is responsible for the first of the two creation stories in GenesisCreation according to Genesis
The Genesis creation narrative describes the divine creation of the world including the first man and woman...
(Genesis 1), for Adam's genealogy, part of the Flood story
Noah's Ark
Noah's Ark is a vessel appearing in the Book of Genesis and the Quran . These narratives describe the construction of the ark by Noah at God's command to save himself, his family, and the world's animals from the worldwide deluge of the Great Flood.In the narrative of the ark, God sees the...
, the Table of Nations, and the genealogy of Shem (i.e., Abraham's ancestry). Most of the remainder of Genesis is from the Yahwist, but P provides the covenant with Abraham (chapter 17) and a few other stories concerning Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
The book of Exodus is also divided between the Yahwist and P, and the usual understanding is that the Priestly writer(s) were adding to an already-existing Yahwist narrative. Chapters 1-24 (from bondage in Egypt to God's appearances at Sinai) and chapters 32-34 (the golden calf
Golden calf
According to the Hebrew Bible, the golden calf was an idol made by Aaron to satisfy the Israelites during Moses' absence, when he went up to Mount Sinai...
incident) are from the Yahwist and P's additions are relatively minor, noting Israel's obedience to the command to be fruitful and the orderly nature of Israel even in Egypt. P was responsible for chapters 25-31 and 35-40, the instructions for making the Tabernacle and the story of its fabrication.
Leviticus 1-16 sees the world as divided between the profane (i.e., not holy) masses and the holy priests. Anyone who incurs impurity must be separated from the priests and the Temple until purity is restored through washing, sacrifice, and the passage of time. Leviticus 17-26 is called the Holiness code
Holiness code
The Holiness Code is a term used in biblical criticism to refer to Leviticus 17-26, and is so called due to its highly repeated use of the word Holy. It has no special traditional religious significance and traditional Jews and Christians do not regard it as having any distinction from any other...
, from its repeated insistence that Israel should be a holy people; scholars accept it as a discrete collection within the larger Priestly source, and have traced similar holiness writings elsewhere in the Pentateuch.
In Numbers the Priestly source contributes chapters 1-10:28, 15-20, 25-31, and 33-36, including, among other things, two censuses, rulings on the position of Levites and priests (including the provision of special cities for the Levites), and the scope and protection of the Promised Land
Promised land
The Promised Land is a term used to describe the land promised or given by God, according to the Hebrew Bible, to the Israelites, the descendants of Jacob. The promise is firstly made to Abraham and then renewed to his son Isaac, and to Isaac's son Jacob , Abraham's grandson...
. The Priestly themes in Numbers include the significance of the priesthood for the well-being of Israel (the ritual of the priests is needed to take away impurity), and God's provision of the priesthood as the means by which he expresses his faithfulness to the covenant with Israel.
The Priestly source in Numbers originally ended with an account of the death of Moses and succession of Joshua ("Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo..."), but when Deuteronomy was added to the Pentateuch this was transferred to the end of Deuteronomy.
Joshua
It was once thought that P and J extended into JoshuaBook of Joshua
The Book of Joshua is the sixth book in the Hebrew Bible and of the Old Testament. Its 24 chapters tell of the entry of the Israelites into Canaan, their conquest and division of the land under the leadership of Joshua, and of serving God in the land....
: the similarity between Joshua's crossing of the Jordan and Moses' crossing of the Red Sea is especially striking, for example. This hypothesis has lost almost all its supporters as it has become apparent that Joshua is thoroughly Deuteronomist
Deuteronomist
The Deuteronomist, or simply D, is one of the sources underlying the Hebrew bible . It is found in the book of Deuteronomy, in the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings and also in the book of Jeremiah...
ic. While the crossing of the Jordan has extremely Priestly elements (the Israelites need the presence of the Levites, holding the ark of the covenant
Ark of the Covenant
The Ark of the Covenant , also known as the Ark of the Testimony, is a chest described in Book of Exodus as solely containing the Tablets of Stone on which the Ten Commandments were inscribed...
, in order to cross), it is more probable that the Deuteronomist knew a "priestly" tradition of the Exodus separate from the one that produced the Pentateuch.
External links
- The Priestly source isolated, at wikiversity
- The narrative of the priestly source isolated, at wikiversity