Priestly source
The Priestly source is perhaps the most widely recognized of the sources underlying the Torah, both stylistically and theologically distinct from other material in it. It is considered by most scholars as the latest of all sources, and "meant to be a kind of redactional layer to hold the entirety of the Pentateuch together," it includes a set of claims that are contradicted by non-Priestly passages and therefore uniquely characteristic: no sacrifice before the institution is ordained by Yahweh at Sinai, the exalted status of Aaron and the priesthood, and the use of the divine title El Shaddai before God reveals his name to Moses, to name a few.
In general, the Priestly work is concerned with priestly matters – ritual law, the origins of shrines and rituals, and genealogies – all expressed in a formal, repetitive style. It stresses the rules and rituals of worship, and the crucial role of priests, expanding considerably on the role given to Aaron.
Background
The history of exilic and post-exilic Judah is little known, but a summary of current theories can be made as follows:- Religion in monarchic Judah centred around ritual sacrifice in the Temple in Jerusalem. There, worship was in the hands of priests known as Zadokites, meaning that they traced their descent from an ancestor called Zadok, who, according to the Hebrew Bible, was the high priest appointed by Samuel. There was also a lower order of religious officials called Levites who were not permitted to perform sacrifices and were restricted to menial functions.
- While the Zadokites were the only priests in Jerusalem, there were other priests at other centres. One of the most important of these was a temple at Bethel, north of Jerusalem. Bethel, the centre of the "golden calf" cult, was one of the main religious centres of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and had royal support until it was destroyed by the Neo-Assyrian Empire in 721 BCE. Aaron was in some way associated with Bethel.
- In 587 BCE, the Neo-Babylonian Empire conquered Jerusalem and took most of the Zadokite priesthood into exile, leaving behind the Levites, who were too poor and marginalised to represent a threat to their interests. The temple at Bethel now assumed a major role in the religious life of the inhabitants of Judah, and the non-Zadokite priests, under the influence of the Aaronite priests of Bethel, began calling themselves "sons of Aaron" to distinguish themselves from the "sons of Zadok".
- When the Zadokite priests returned from the Babylonian captivity after c. 538 BCE and began establishing the Second Temple, they came into conflict with the Levites. The Zadokites won the conflict but adopted the Aaronite name, whether as part of a compromise or to out-flank their opponents by co-opting their ancestor.
- The Zadokites simultaneously found themselves in conflict with the Levites, who objected to their subordinate position. The priests also won this battle, writing into the Priestly document stories such as the rebellion of Korah, which paints the challenge to priestly prerogative as unholy and unforgivable.
The Priestly work
The 19th century scholars saw these sources as independent documents which had been edited together, and for most of the 20th century this was the accepted consensus. But in 1973 the American biblical scholar Frank Moore Cross published an influential work called Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic, in which he argued that P was not an independent document, but an editorial expansion of another of the four sources, the combined Jahwist/Elohist. Cross's study was the beginning of a series of attacks on the documentary hypothesis, continued notably by the work of Hans Heinrich Schmid, Martin Rose, and Van Seters. as well as Rolf Rendtorff, who argued that neither the Jahwist nor the Elohist had ever existed as sources but instead represented collections of independent fragmentary stories, poems, etc.
No new consensus has emerged to replace the documentary hypothesis, but since roughly the mid-1980s an influential theory has emerged which relates the emergence of the Pentateuch to the situation in Judah in the 5th century BCE under Persian imperial rule. The central institution in the post-Exilic Persian province of Yehud was the reconstructed Second Temple, which functioned both as the administrative centre for the province and as the means through which Yehud paid taxes to the central government. The central government was willing to grant autonomy to local communities throughout the empire, but it was first necessary for the would-be autonomous community to present the local laws for imperial authorisation. This provided a powerful incentive for the various groups that constituted the Jewish community in Yehud to come to an agreement. The major groups were the landed families who controlled the main sources of wealth, and the priestly families who controlled the Temple. Each group had its own history of origins that legitimated its prerogatives. The tradition of the landowners was based on the old Deuteronomistic tradition, which had existed since at least the 6th century BCE and had its roots even earlier; that of the priestly families was composed to "correct" and "complete" the landowners' composition. In the final document Genesis 1–11 lays the foundations, Genesis 12–50 defines the people of Israel, and the books of Moses define the community's laws and relationship to its God.
Since the second half of the 20th century, views on the relative age of P and the Holiness Code have undergone major revision. Scholars including, Israel Knohl, and Christophe Nihan have argued for the younger age of H compared to P. Together with Jacob Milgrom, Knohl also identifies passages related to H elsewhere in the Pentateuch. Authors such as Bill T. Arnold and Paavo N. Tucker have argued that most of the narrative sections traditionally ascribed to P should be connected with H instead.
Many scholars attribute the laws in the P source to the desire to glorify the Aaronide priestly caste responsible for their composition.
Narrative of the Priestly source
The Priestly source begins with the narrative of the creation of the world and ends at the edge of the Promised Land, telling the story of the Israelites and their relationship with their god, Yahweh, encompassing, though not continuously, the first four books of the Pentateuch,. The Priestly source makes evident four covenants, to Adam, Noah, Abraham, and Moses, as God reveals Himself progressively as Elohim, El Shaddai, and Yahweh. Fragments belonging to the Priestly source known as the P texts, whose number and extent have achieved a certain consensus among scholars.Recently Axel Buhler et al., to apply an algorithm, considered the 'priestly base text', as running, though not continually, from Genesis 1 to Exodus 40, and "characterized by an inclusive monotheism, with the deity gradually revealing itself to humanity and to the people of Israel in particular," beginning in Genesis 1-11, where God is called Elohim, and ending "with the construction of the tent of meeting," reflecting, along with cult, "a progressive revelation of YHWH." This text is dated to the early Persian period, and as the rites highlighted there, circumcision and Sabbath, do not need a temple, the text shows its "universalist, monotheistic and peaceful vision." Buhler et al. also concluded that P texts correspond to around 20% of the narrative in Genesis, 50% of that in Exodus, and 33% in both.
Characteristics, date and scope
Characteristics
The Priestly work is concerned with priestly matters – ritual law, the origins of shrines and rituals, and genealogies – all expressed in a formal, repetitive style. It stresses the rules and rituals of worship, and the crucial role of priests, expanding considerably on the role given to Aaron.P's God is majestic, and transcendent, and all things happen because of his power and will. He reveals himself in stages, first as Elohim, then to Abraham as El Shaddai, and finally to Moses by his unique name, Yahweh. P divides history into four epochs from Creation to Moses by means of covenants between God and Noah, Abraham and Moses. The Israelites are God's chosen people, his relationship with them is governed by the covenants, and P's God is concerned that Israel should preserve its identity by avoiding intermarriage with non-Israelites. P is deeply concerned with "holiness", meaning the ritual purity of the people and the land: Israel is to be "a priestly kingdom and a holy nation", and P's elaborate rules and rituals are aimed at creating and preserving holiness.
Cases have been made for both exilic and post-exilic composition, leading to the conclusion that it has at least two layers, spanning a broad time period of 571–486 BCE. This was a period when the careful observance of ritual was one of the few means available which could preserve the identity of the people, and the narrative of the priestly authors created an essentially stable and secure world in which Israel's history was under God's control, so that even when Israel alienated itself from God, leading to the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile in Babylon, atonement could still be made through sacrifice and ritual.