The Priestly Code consists of a number of regu- lations which are largely ceremonial in character. The laws of ceremonial uncleanness and other kindred matters are precisely defined : the great occasions of the ecclesiastical year are ordained, and the ritual due to them established. Further, the various types of sacrifice are described, the occasions on which they are to be performed, and the method of performing them. In regard to the whole of this legislation, we need only for our present purpose to call attention to two points. In tlie first place, it is important to observe that the whole order is rested upon the covenant - relation with God, and, more than this, that the character of God is placed in definite connexion with the rules laid down. The holiness of God requires this elnljoiate ceremonial order to pre- serve it from the contamination of h.asty and unfit intruders, and to retain the condition of the peo]ile at a level high enough to enable tlicm to use their covenant privileges. This is proved by the refrain which recurs at intervals in the course of Leviticus — 'I am the Lord'; and by such marked [ihrases as the following : ' Ye shall not profane my holy name ; but I will be hallowed among the children of Israel ; I am the LORD which hallow you, that brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God ; I am the LoRD ' (Lv Sa'^-^). But, in the second place, it is no less important to notice the extraordinarily limited moral ranjjje of the laws enacted. In Lv 6 there is a short list of moral delinquencies which require the atonement of a guilt ollcring. These consist chieily of broken pledge and other forms of dis- honest dealing. Besides this there are sacrifices ordained for sins of ignorance : ' If any one shall .sin unwittingly, in any of the things which the Lord hath commanded not to be done, and shall do any one of them ; and if the anointed priest shall sin so as to bring guilt upon the people ' (Lv 4'-^). If we are instilied in referring this command to the legislation which appears in Exodus, it will include a certain number of other moral delinquencies. Thus, besides the Deca- logue, there are regulations concerning assault and murder, the proper treatment of slaves, the
ETHICS
ETHICS
779
relations of parents and children, and specially concerning idol-worship and magic. Besides these there are ordinances referring to lost property ; the duty of actively aiiiing the restoration of straying animals is inculcated ; the poor are re- membered, and severe condemnations passed upon those who judge unjustly. The service for the Day of Atonement is placed in close connexion with the unwarranted intrusion of the sons of Aaron into the presence of the Lord (Lv 16'), and is apparently intended to do away with ceremonial breaches of the covenant - relation, though the ritual would lend itself easily to a deeper mean- ing. See Atonement (Day of).
The legislation in the Book of Deuteronomy, as it stands at present, covers a good deal of the ground of the preceding books. It repeats and further develops laws elsewhere laid down. There is the same rigorous condemnation of idolatry, the same care for justice and equality between man and man, and the like. But there is a more pro- nounced insistence on the moral character of God, and the close relation of God to the people in view of His moral character. He is repre.^ented as demanding exclusive worship, but as being faithful and long-suB'erinfj (Dt 7"), caring not only for the people of His choice, but also in a special de^ee tor the fatherless and stranger. The characteristic feature of Dt is that which it is now the f:isliion to call its pnrenetic tone ; it goes so far, indeed, as to find a spiritual meaning for circumcision as opposed to that which is purely ceremonial. Moreover, the relation of the people to God is presented in a more spiritual manner : the ' first preat commandment of the law,' ' Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all tliy soul, and with all thy mind,' is in Dt 6'.*
It has seemed hardly consistent with the subject of the present article to go into any preciseness of detail as regards the Pent, legishition. Enough, hoivever, has been said to establish the truth of the position maintained at the outset, that morality for the Jew meant that which God had commanded ; immorality, that wliieh God forbade. It is obvious that the 15k. of Dt takes a slightly diilerent view of moral life from that which is expounded in Lv. Tlie laws concerning the functions of judges (12"- »), the kingly olhce (IT""-*), the single central shrine, and the killing of animals for food (1'2"), clearly contemplate, either in fact or in anticipa- tion, the position of a settled nation. Similar cases might be quoted from the earlier books. But whereas in Lv the largest portion of the look concerns the ritual order in the land of Canaan, the Bk. of Dt is chiefly concerned with the religious effect upon the people.
One fact, however, U noticeable about a]l the tKX>k8 alike, and that ia the highiy archaic character of the re^latiorm them- ■elvea. The law and the ritual of sacrifice, the importance Ifiven to ceremonial pollution, the pnicticca connected witfi the avenprer of tilood, the ui*e of liie Uz taliunig, the le% irate law of marriage, the use of the ordeal, are all of them archaic in char- actor, and must have Bun-ived into later JudaiHm out of an archaic state of society. As in other cases upon which anthro- pology haa thrown much light, practices have survived after their primary mcanitig has been lost. It is therefore reasonable to suppose that the evolution of ethics among the Jews followed ■oniothing like the same course as among other progressive nations. Uaving been flr^t CTpressed in terms analogous to those of early humanity all the world over, the distinctively moral elementa were disentangled from the moss of nidimentary ideas, and took their place as the ruling principles of the religious polity of Juflma. It has sometimes been maintained that the elaborate cert-inoniat is a subsequent development to the more spiritual attitude of iJeuteronomy. This is surely Inconsistent with the t^'aching of anthropology. The more spiritu 4l conceiJtions rise naturally out of the less spiritual ; the moral trutn breaks loose from the half-savage priictice in which it was enshrined. It ia almost inconceivable that this order should be reveracd ; and that the mind of the nation should have passed from a lofty spiritual conception of life to