LEVITICUS 21, 22. REGULATIONS FOR PRIESTS AND FOR MATTERS IN WHICH PRIESTS ARE SPECIALLY RESPONSIBLE. The Chapter s offer distinct points of comparison with P, and also with Ezek., which will be noticed below. All point to the superiority, in point of time, of H to P; the relation to Ezekiel is dubi... [ Continue Reading ]
RESTRICTIONS FOR THE PRIESTS. To approach a corpse was to suffer defilement (_cf._ Numbers 5:2 * Numbers 19*, Tob_2:8 ff., Sir_34:25); this is, therefore, forbidden to the priest, except in the case of the nearest relations; Ezekiel (Ezekiel 44:26) prescribes a period of seven days-' cleansing even... [ Continue Reading ]
RESTRICTIONS FOR THE HIGH PRIEST. The title occurs here for the first time in the Law; the phrase used is literally the priest who is chief among his brothers. It is, however, implied in P in Leviticus 16 (_cf._ also the references to Aaron (Leviticus 8 f.). Ezekiel does not mention it, but he too s... [ Continue Reading ]
LIST OF BODILY DEFECTS which prevent a priest from actually joining in the priestly rites, though he is still supported by the dues. The presence of a deformed or mutilated priest at the altar would destroy the holiness with which Yahweh has dowered it. Blemish in a priest, as in a victim, may have... [ Continue Reading ]