LAW IN OLD TESTAMENT
No hint is given in the elaborate description of any means for drawing off water. The symbolical interpretation gives a fine suggestiveness to these vessels. The priest of J” draws near to Him as Lord of the furthest abyss and of the rolling storm clouds.
Although, as we have seen, the molten sea and ten lavers have no parallel in the account of the tabernacle, yet we find there a single laver. It is mentioned only in passages which are secondary in relation to P§ (Ex 30!7-*1319 351 388 3039 4011, Lv 844), and nothing is said as to its size or shape. It consisted of two parts, the basin and its pedestal (jz). The word ‘base’ (73122) is not used. In Ex 38° it seems to be stated that it was made of the mirrors of the serving women. Others, with some violence to the Hebrew, render ‘(provided) with mirrors for the serving women.’ Its purpose was definite, viz. that the priests might wash their hands and feet there before entering the tabernacle, by the door of which the laver stood on the inner side of the brazen altar. Soin He 10” the imagery is applied to the true worshipper, and in Tit 3° the laver becomes a type of the baptismal font, by which (διὰ λουτροῦ παλιγγενεσίας) believers have access into the Church of the firstborn. In Zerub- babel’s and Herod’s temples there was, in accord- ance with P’s representation, a single laver.
LiTERATURE.—Keil, Nowack, and Benzinger on Bibl. Archwo- logy (only the first translated); Gesenius, Thes.; the com- mentaries on Exodus and 1 Kings.
G. HARFORD-BATTERSBY.
LAW (IN OLD TESTAMENT).—
i. History of the term ‘Torah.’
ii. Torah threefold—judicial, ceremonial, moral. iii. Rise and history of written Torah. iv. Synonyms of ‘law’ :—
(1) Mishpat ; (2) hok, hukkah ; (8) mizwah ; (4) ‘édwoth or “édoth ; (5) pikkudim.
vy. The different codes of Hebrew law :-—
A. JE: (1) the Decalogue ; (2) Book of the Covenant— summary of its provisions—the ‘ Little Book of the Covenant’—age and character of the Book of the Covenant.
B. Deuteronomy—summary of its provisions—changes in the laws repeated from JE—the new provisions introduced.
C. The Law of Holiness (H)—summary of its provisions —compared with Book of the Covenant.
D. The Priests’ Code (P}—summary of its provisions— P characterized and compared and contrasted with earlier codes and with institutions of other Semitic peoples—danger of abuse of ceremonial law—pxda- gogic office of the Law.
Literature.
The Heb. word for ‘law’ is térah (an), from hérah (7a), to point out Gn 46%, or to direct Jg 138, meaning properly, a pointing out, or direc- tion, and being used specially of authoritative direction, given in Jehovah’s name—primarily, no doubt, by priests, though it is by no means limited to what is given by them—on points of moral, religious, or ceremonial duty.
The root yarah signifies properly to throw or cast ; and hence it is possible, as has been conjectured (Wellh. Η δέ. 394, cf. Skizzen, iii. 167, ed. 2, 143; Nowack, Arch. ii. 97; Bens:nger, Arch, 408), that the primitive meaning of hérah in this con- nexion was to cast the sacred lot—or arrows used as lots—at a sanctuary, for the purpose of ascertaining the will of the deity on behalf of those who came to consult it (the word is used of casting lots Jos 186, and of shooting arrows 1S 3086 ai.). Comp. the use made by the priest of the Ephod and Urim and Thummim, 18 143-18 (LXX) 41 (esp. LXX) 42 etc. Térah, it this view be correct, will have denoted originally the ‘direc- tion’ obtained by means of the sacred lot: it remained a duty of the Isr. priest to teach J’’s térah, though this particular method of ascertaining it no doubt fell early into abeyance, and the term acquired a more general sense. Comp. the pr. names ‘Terebinth(s) of Moreh,’ or ‘the teacher’ (Gn 128, Dt 1189), and ‘Gibeath-Moreh,’ ‘ Hill of the teacher’ (Jg 71), most probably the seats of ancient Canaanite oracles.
i. The word had a history ; and in order to under- stand it preperly, the stages of its history must
be briefly noted. (1) One of the earliest passages in which it occurs is Ex 181820 (E), where the
LAW (IN OLD TESTAMENT)
LAW (IN OLD TESTAMENT) 65
decisions given by Moses on disputes ‘ between a man and his neighbour’— evidently on secular iatters—are termed the ‘statutes’ and ‘directions’ of God. This passage sets before us Heb. law in its beginnings. ‘It is to be remembered that in early Semitic life government was largely ad- ministered by means of ‘‘ Téroth,” authoritative decisions, delivered by the chief or judge, who gave his verdict upon the basis of custom or pre- cedent. It was the reign of Themis, or of what we might call Consuetudinary Justice.* A picture of such an administration, actually conducted by Moses on such lines, stands before us in the narra- tive of Ex 187’ (Ryle, Canon of the OT, p. 32). Decisions given in this way, eapecially on difficult questions (cf. Ex 1856), would naturally form pre- cedents for future use (cf. O7JC? 304); and thus an increasing body of civil and criminal law would gridually grow up. (2) In the proghers the term is used of teaching given in Jehovah’s name— sometimes by priests, but more frequently by