Part 7 (1/2)

In 1 Samuel ii 13-16 we are told hoas the custom of the priests that when any man offered sacrifice, ”the priest's servant ca, with a fleshhook of three teeth in his hand

And he struck it into the pan or kettle, or caldron or pot; all that the fleshhook brought up the priest took for himself”

In the time of David the Lord had a table of shew-bread set before him--that is, a table spread with food in the temple, where he was supposed to come and take it when he desired, just as Africans place meal and liquor in their fetish houses Such tables were set in the great teon in the Apocrypha explains how the priests and their wos which were supposed to be consumed by the God

While the Lord and the priests were certainly not vegetarians, neither did they insist on a vegetable diet for their people The Lord's table of fare is set out in Leviticus xi, and a very curious _menu_ it is

The hare is expressly excluded ”because he cheweth the cud,” although he does nothing of the kind; but ”the locust after his kind, the bald locust after his kind, and the beetle after his kind, and the grasshopper after his kind,” are freely perulation, and one which throws ht on the divine methods, is recorded in Deut xvi 21--”Thou shalt not eat of anything that dieth of itself: thou shalt give it unto the stranger that is within thy gates that he may eat it, or thou mayest sell it unto an alien” To this day the Jews are particular in observing this Godlyof diseased ard to the question whether huion, or whether it was, as the orthodox generally assert, si heathen nations, it is necessary to bear in mind that every portion of the Jewish law is of later date than the prophets The book of the laas only found in the tis xxiii 10), and there is no evidence of its existence before that date There is reason to believe that the priestly code of Leviticus is later still, dating only fro the ideas of the age of Moses, it reflects those of almost a thousand years later It is therefore only in the historical books that we can expect to find traces of what the actual religion of Israel was There is ample evidence that hu of Judah, ”burnt his children in the fire” (2 Chron xxviii 3); Mannasseh, King of Judah, was guilty of the same atrocity (2 Chron xxxiii 6); Jereh place of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnohters in the fire” (vii 31); Micah reainst both animal and human sacrifice--”Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of raression; the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” (vi 7) In the well-known story of Abrahaenia, and the Roman one of Valeria Luperca, we have an account of the transition to a less barbarous stage in the substitution of aniend should be ascribed to the time of the father of the faithful, but there is, as we have seen, abundant evidence of the practice existing long subsequent to the time of Abraham, as by no means surprised at and in no way demurred to the divine command, ”Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whoet thee unto the land of Moriah; and offer hi upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of” (Genesis xxii 2) Anyone who at the present day should exhibit a faith like unto that of the patriarchal saint would be in jeopardy of finding himself within the walls of a cri after the time of Abraham we have an instance in the case of Jephthah, who vowed that if Jahveh would deliver the children of A whosoever came forth from his house to es xi 30, 31) In order to tone this down the Authorised Version reads ”whatsoever” instead of ”whosoever,” which is supplied in the in of the Revised Version Despite the e to his vow, it has been alleged that because his daughter petitioned to be allowed to bewail her virginity for two months, she was only condemned to a life of celibacy

This is preposterous Jahveh, unlike Jesus, had no partiality for the unmarried state He liked a real sacrifice of blood To lament childlessness was a common ancient custom, and even the Greek and Latin poets have represented their heroines ere sione, Polyxena, and Iphigenia, as actually lainity or unle instance in the Old Testah, as we have seen, there are numerous indications of huiven to human sacrifice ”None devoted, which shall be devoted of men, shall be ransomed; he shall surely be put to death” (Lev xxvii 29) Jahveh insisted on the sacrifice being co before the Lord to stay a famine

That a party remained in Israel who considered huion is evident also froh places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither ca asseverations were evidently called forth by assertions made by persons addicted to such practices, and those persons had the support of Ezekiel, who, in contradiction to the stateave them up to pollution, even as he hardened the heart of Pharaoh that they ht know that he was the Lord (Ezek xx 25-26)

THE PassOVER

”_Christ our passover is sacrificed for us_”

--Paul (1 Cor v 7)

The Passover is the most important and impressive festival of the Jews, instituted, it is said, by God himself, and a type of the sacrifice of his only son Its observance was h the circu out the sacrificial details, they still, in the custo _pro teh priest, preserve the most primitive type of priesthood known

The Bible account of the institution of the Passover is utterly incredible After afflicting the Egyptians with nine plagues, God still hardens Pharaoh's heart (Exodus x 27), and tells Moses that ”about ypt and slay all the firstborn

But in order that he shall n, he orders that each family of the children of Israel shall take a la, and smear the doorposts of the house with blood, ”and when I see the blood I will pass over you” The oht not make a mistake and slay the very people heould have been the result if soiana in ”The Forty Thieves,” had wiped off the blood from the Israelite doorposts and sprinkled the doorposts of the Egyptians Moses received this command on the very day at the close of which the paschal lambs were to be killed

This was very short notice for co with the head of each faht As the people were two million in number and the lambs had to be all males, without blemish, of one year old, this supposes, on the most moderate computation, a flock of sheep as numerous as the people Who can credit this ence of those to whom such a story is proffered?

What, then, is the correct version of the origin of the Passover? Dr

Hardwicke, in his _Popular Faith Unveiled_, following Sir W more or less than the pass-over of the sun across the equator, into the constellation Aries, when the astronomical lamb was consequently obliterated or sacrificed by the superior effulgence of the sun” It is noticeable that the principal festivals of the Jews, as of other nations, were in spring and autu and when the harvest ripened But while allowing that this may have deterround of its significance The story relates that when Moses first asked Pharaoh to let the Israelites go, it was that they ht celebrate a feast in the wilderness which was accompanied by a sacrifice (see Exodus v i and iii 19) Thisthat there was known to be a festival at this season prior to the days of Pharaoh And at the festival of the spring increase of flocks the God must of course have his share

Epiphanius declares that the Egyptians ration which once raged at the tin of Aries, thereby to symbolise the fiery death of those animals ere not actually offered up Von Bohlen says the ancient Peruvians marked with blood the doors of the tes, to syestion that owing to peculiarities of diet or of constitution soyptians which passed over and spared the Jews, is a very plausible one, and deserves more attention than it has yet received, since it would account for many features in the institution But there renification, which seems indicated in the thirteenth chapter of Exodus in connection with the institution of the Passover There we read the order, ”Thou shalt set apart [the in more properly reads ”cause to pass over”] unto the Lord, all that openeth theof an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb; and if thou will not redeem it, then thou shalt break his neck: and all the firstborn ofthy children shalt thou redeee: ”Is it possible to avoid the conclusion that immolation of their firstborn sons would have been incumbent on the worshi+ppers of Jahveh, had they not been thus specially excused?” In one of the oldest portions of the Pentateuch (Exodus xxii 29) the coive unto me” In Exodus xii 27, xxiii 18, xxxiv 25; and Numbers ix 13, the Passover is spoken of as particularly the Lord's own sacrifice

Why is the ass only mentioned besides man? One cannot but suspect that his introduction is an interpolation by the reforrown the custom of human sacrifice, betrayed by the phrase ”thou shalt break his neck”

Nineteenth Century, April, 1886

The law proceeds to enjoin that the father shall tell his son as the reason for the festival, how the Lord ”slew all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of beasts: therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all that openeth themales; but all the firstborn of my children I redeem” Evidently here is the notion of a substitutionary offering, although the reason given is not the true reason In Exodus xxxiv 18-20, the festival is brought into the same connection with immediate reference to the redemption of the firstborn In the story of Abraham and Isaac we have the same idea

God commands the patriarch to offer up his only son as a burnt sacrifice (Gen xxii 2), an order which he receives without astonishment, and proceeds to execute as if it were the n of reluctance A er from Jahveh, however, intervenes and a ram is substituted I do not doubt that this story, like siy, indicates an era when animal sacrifices were substituted for human ones

Observe that Elohim, the old Gods, claim the sacrifice and Jahveh, the new Lord, prevents it