THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
xxiii. 9-14 connects with it the feast of first-fruits, after which the new harvest might be enjoyed. Pentecost or the feast of weeks depends upon this, occurring seven weeks later, celebrated as a rest day and time of special offerings and convocation. The feast of tabernacles begins on the fifteenth day of the seventh month and continues eight days, the first and last of which are days of convocation, each day having its special offering. While this feast commemorates the sojourn in the wilderness, Lev. xxiii. 39 brings it into connection with the harvest. The new moons are celebrated with special offerings (Num. xxviii. 11-15); the new moon of the seventh month is a rest day with convocation, blowing of the trumpet, and special offerings. The Day of Atonement, occurring on the tenth day of the seventh month, is an absolute rest day with convocation and its own ritual of offerings, a penitential festival with fasting and high-priestly atonement for sin and impurity. The Sabbatical year occurs once in seven years, the land is not cultivated, and the products are common property. The jubilee year falls at the end of a cycle of seven Sabbatical years, therefore every fiftieth year. It begins on the day of atonement with the blowing of trumpets, involves a complete rest of the land, and the people recover their earlier possessions and Hebrew slaves their freedom. The basis of this is the idea that the land is Yahweh's, while his people are his guests, his servants, and therefore not man's servants. The religious interest is dominant throughout. Passover, unleavened bread, and the feast of tabernacles are commemorative. Especially closely connected with religious ideas are the day of atonement, and the Sabbatical and the jubilee year. All, with the exception of the Passover, are celebrated with convocations at the sanctuary with collective offerings, among which offerings for sin are constant excepting at the daily and Sabbath sacrifice. The times are fixed by the months, yet the feasts of unleavened bread, of Pentecost, and of booths are related to the seasons and to agriculture.
Ezekiel (xlv. 17-xlvi. 15) omits Pentecost, and locates the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month, with a seven days' use of unleavened bread, with daily sacrifice of burnt offerings, foodofferings, and sin-offerings. And he places the feast of tabernacles on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, continuing seven days with special offerings. On the days of new moon and Sabbath, offerings are required, and a daily morning offering consisting of burnt offering and food-offering. On the first day of the first and of the seventh month the sanctuary is to be cleansed by the blood of a sinoffering. Thus Ezekiel is close to the Priest Code, though the prince makes the offerings in the name of the people, the feasts are fewer, atonement day
appears to be semiyearly, and the
3. Compari- household Passover is not mentioned.
son of The Deuteronomic passage is xvi. 1-17,
Other and deals with three great festivals at
Codes. the central sanctuary. In the month
of Abib occurs the Passover, not a celebration at home, but at the central sanctuary and for a single day, though unleavened bread is
to be eaten for seven days in memory of the hurried flight from Egypt. Pentecost is celebrated seven weeks after the commencement of harvest at the central sanctuary with enjoyment of the gifts brought. The feast of tabernacles is loosely placed at the close of the harvest and vintage and is also celebrated at the central sanctuary. Thus Deuteronomy differs from the Priest Code and Ezekiel in not fixing exactly the time of celebration, the accompaniment of sin-offering is lacking, and the offerings are not those of the community as a whole, but are enjoyed as festal meals. The Sabbath celebration is provided for in the Deuteronomic decalogue, and the basis is humanitarian. There is no Sabbatical or jubilee year, though a release of Hebrew debtors and slaves takes place. The festival of new moon does not appear, still less the day of atonement or the double temple cleansing of Ezekiel. The exposition of the Yahwistic Code is complicated by Deuteronomic redaction of the passages which deal with the festivals (Ex. xxiii. 10-17, xxxiv. 18-26; cf. xii. 34, 39, xiii. sqq.). As they stand these passages involve a seven days' festival of unleavened bread in Abib (commemorative), a harvest festival (of first-fruits), and a feast of ingathering at the close of the year. The Sabbath has the same humanitarian basis as in Deuteronomy, and the products of the land in the seventh year are common property. Ex. xxxiv mentions again these same three festivals, but the feast of weeks bears the same name as in Deuteronomy, and verses 25, 19-20 indicate that the Passover did not originate with Deuteronomy.
This review shows that the Priest Code and the Yahwistic Code stand at the two extremes of1 the development, with Ezekiel and Deuteronomy coming in between; and, further, it is clear that the order is JE, Deuteronomy, Ezekiel, and P. The historical writings confirm this result.
4. Order of Thus in Neh. viii. 14 sqq. mention is Develop- made of a festival of the Priest Code
ment of the (feast of booths) of which it is ex- Codes, pressly said " since the days of Joshua had not the children of Israel done so." In II Kings xxiii. 21-23, is found another note of similar character, related to the celebration at the central sanctuary. The prophetical writings are in connection with the Yahwistic Code, and earlier history also accords with this. A sacrificial feast in the city of Samuel is mentioned in I Sam. ix. 12 sqq., and a family festival and sacrifice in Bethlehem in I Sam. xx. 6. There are pilgrimages also to sanctuaries where a festal meal is eaten (I Sam. i. 3 sqq.; cf. Hos. ix. 4-5). Mention occurs often of an ancient festival (Judges xxi. 19; I Kings viii. 2), while a festival of the northern kingdom is placed in the eighth month (I Kings xii. 32) which is probably the retention or reinstitution of an ol,d custom, and has relation to the feast of booths. Frequent mention occurs of the Sabbath and the new moon, though the latter was not legislated for in the earliest codes. I Sam. xxv. 2 sqq. and II Sam. xiii. -i mention a festival of sheep-shearing, the characteristic of which was a somewhat exuberant joy. The ethical character of the religion of Israel per-