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Sanctuary
Bibliography
N. H. Snaith, The Distinctive Ideas of the Old Testament (1944), 24-32; R. de Vaux, Israel, Its Life and Institutions (1961), 274-311.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)
sank’-tu-a-ri, sank’-tu-a-ri (miqdash, miqqedhash, qodhesh, "holy place"; hagion):
1. Nature of Article
2. The Graf-Wellhausen Hypothesis
The Three Stages
3. Difficulties of the Theory
(1) Slaughter Not Necessarily Sacrificial
(2) Sacrifice and Theophany
(3) Alleged Plurality of Sanctuaries
(4) The Altar of God’s House
(5) Local Altars in Deuteronomy
4. The Alternative View
(1) Lay Sacrifice
(2) Three Pilgrimage Festivals
5. The Elephantine Papyri
The Elephantine Temple
LITERATURE
1. Nature of Article:
The present article is designed to supplement the articles on ALTAR; HIGH PLACE; PENTATEUCH; TABERNACLE; TEMPLE, by giving an outline of certain rival views of the course of law and history as regards the place of worship. The subject has a special importance because it was made the turning-point of Wellhausen’s discussion of the development of Israel’s literature, history and religion. He himself writes: "I differ from Graf chiefly in this, that I always go back to the centralization of the cult, and deduce from it the particular divergences. My whole position is contained in my first chapter" (Prolegomena, 368). For the purposes of this discussion it is necessary to use the symbols J, E, D, H, and the Priestly Code (P), which are explained in the article PENTATEUCH.
It is said that there are three distinct stages of law and history.
2. The Graf-Wellhausen Hypothesis:
The Three Stages:
(2) The second stage is presented by Deuteronomy in the Law and Josiah’s reformation in the history. Undoubtedly,
(3) The third great body of law (the Priestly Code, P) does not deal with the question (save in one passage,
See Criticism (The Graf-Wellhausen Hypothesis).
3. Difficulties of the Theory:
(1) Slaughter Not Necessarily Sacrificial
(2) Sacrifice and Theophany
The view that the altars were erected at places that were peculiarly holy, or at any rate were subsequently sanctified by a theophany, is also untenable. In the Patriarchal age we may refer to
(3) Alleged Plurality of Sanctuaries
The hypothesis of a multiplicity of sanctuaries in JE and the history also leaves out of view many most important facts. The truth is that the word "sanctuary" is ambiguous and misleading. A plurality of altars of earth or stone is not a plurality of sanctuaries. The early legislation knows a "house of Yahweh" in addition to the primitive altars (
(4) The Altar of God’s House
Moreover a curious little bit of evidence shows that the "house" had quite a different kind of altar. In
(5) Local Altars in Deuteronomy
Deuteronomy also recognizes a number of local altars in 16:21 (see ICC, at the place) and so does Later Deuteronomistic editors in
4. The Alternative View:
(1) Lay Sacrifice
The alternative view seeks to account for the whole of the facts noted above. In bald outline it is as follows: In pre-Mosaic times customary sacrifices had been freely offered by laymen at altars of earth or stone which were not "sanctuaries," but places that could be used for the nonce and then abandoned. Slaughter, as shown by the instances cited, was not necessarily sacrificial. Moses did not forbid or discourage the custom he found. On the contrary, he regulated it in
(2) Three Pilgrimage Festivals.
The JE legislation itself recognizes the three pilgrimage festivals of the House of God (
5. The Elephantine Papyri:
The Elephantine Temple.
Papyri have recently been found at Elephantine which show us a Jewish community in Egypt which in 405 BC possessed a local temple. On the Wellhausen hypothesis it is usual to assume that the Priestly Code (P) and Deuteronomy were still unknown and not recognized as authoritative in this community at that date, although the Deuteronomic law of the central sanctuary goes back at least to 621. It is difficult to understand how a law that had been recognized as divine by Jeremiah and others could still have been unknown or destitute of authority. On the alternative view this phenomenon will have been the result of an interpretation of the Law to suit the needs of an age some 800 years subsequent to the death of Moses in circumstances he never contemplated. The Pentateuch apparently permits sacrifice only in the land of Israel: in the altered circumstances the choice lay between interpreting the Law in this way or abandoning public worship altogether; for the synagogue with its non-sacrificial form of public worship had not yet been invented. All old legislations have to be construed in this way to meet changing circumstances, and this example contains nothing exceptional or surprising.
LITERATURE
J. Wellhausen, Prolegomena to the History of Israel, chapter i, for the critical hypothesis; H. M. Wiener, EPC, chapter vi, PS passim for the alternative view; POT, 173 ff.
Harold M. Wiener