I.II

Such was the actual historical course of the centralisation of the cultus, and such the three stadia which can be distinguished.  The question now presents itself, whether it is possible to detect a correspondence between the phases of the actual course of events and those of the legislation relating to this subject.  All three portions of the legislation contain ordinances on the subject of sacrificial places and offerings.  It may be taken for granted that in some way or other these have their roots in history, and do not merely hang in the air, quite away from or above the solid ground of actuality.

I.Ii.1.  The main Jehovistic law, the so-called Book of the Covenant, contains (Exodus xx.24-26) the following ordinance:  “An altar of earth shalt thou make unto me, and thereon shalt thou sacrifice thy burnt offerings and thy peace-offerings, thy sheep and thine oxen; in place where I cause my name to be honoured will I come unto and will bless thee.  Or if thou wilt make me an altar of stones, thou shalt not build it of hewn stones, for if thou hast lifted up thy tool upon it thou hast polluted it.  And thou shalt not go up to mine altar by steps, that thy nakedness be not discovered before it.”  Unquestionably it is not the altar of the tabernacle, which was made of wood and plated over with brass, nor that of Solomon’s temple, which on its eastern side had a flight of steps, 1

************************************** 1.  The altar of the second temple had no steps, but a sloping ascent to it, as also, according to the belief of the Jews, had that of the tabernacle.  The reason, moreover, for which in Exodus xx.26 steps are forbidden, disappears when the priests are provided with breeches (Exodus xxviii.42). ****************************************

and had a passage right round it at half its height, that is here described as the only true one.  On the other hand, it is obvious that a multiplicity of altars is not merely regarded as permissible, but assumed as a matter of course.  For no stress at all is laid upon having always the same sacrificial seat, whether fixed or to be moved about from place to place; earth and unhewn stones 2 of the field

**************************************** 2.  The plural “stones” is perhaps worthy of note.  There were also sacrificial places consisting of one great stone (1Samuel xiv.33, vi.14, 15; 2Samuel xx.8; Judges vi.20, xiii.19, 20; 1Kings i.9); to the same category also doubtless belongs originally the threshing-floor of Araunah, 2Samuel xxiv.21; compare Ezra iii.3, [ (L MKWNTW ].  But inasmuch as such single sacred stones easily came into a mythological relation to the Deity, offence was taken at them, as appears from Judges vi.22-24, where the rock altar, the stone under the oak which was conceived of as the seat of the theophany, upon which Gideon offers, and out of which the flame issues (vi.19-21), is corrected into an altar upon the rock.  The macceboth are distinguished from the altar in Exodus xxiv.4, yet elsewhere clearly put on the same plane with it (Gen. xxxiii.20), and everywhere more or less identified with the Deity (Gen. xxviii.). ********************************************