The second passage (vv. 8, 9), which prohibits the use of wine and strong drink to the priest when on duty, is clearly a later addition. In x. 16-2o, we have an interesting example of the latest type of additions to the Hexateuch. According to ix. 15 (cf. v. I I) the priests had burnt the flesh of the sin-offering which had been offered on behalf of the congregation, although its blood had not been taken into the inner sanctuary (cf. iv. 1-21, vi. 26). Such treatment, though perfectly legitimate according to the older legislation (Exod. xxix. 14), seemed to a later redactor to demand an explanation, and this is furnished in the present section.
II. The Laws of Purification.—Chaps. xi.–xv. This collec tion of laws comprises four main sections relating to (I) clean and unclean beasts (xi.), (2) childbirth (xii.), (3) leprosy (xiii., xiv.), and (4) certain natural secretions (xv.). These laws, or toroth, are so closely allied to each other by their contents and literary form that they must originally have been one collection. The collection, however, has clearly undergone more than one redaction before reaching its final form. For chap. xii. which in v. 2 presupposes chap. xv. must originally have followed after that chapter, while the contents of the different sections exhibit clear traces of repeated revision. At the same time, it seems, like chaps. i.–vii., xvii.–xxvi., to have been formed independently of P and to have been added to that document by a later editor; for in its present position it interrupts the main thread of P's narrative, chap. xvi. forming the natural continuation of chap. x. ; and, further, the inclusion of Aaron as well as Moses in the formula of address (xi. 1, xiii. I, xiv. 33, xv. i) is contrary to the usage of P.
Chap. xi. consists of two main sections, of which the first (vv. 1-23, 42-47) contains directions as to the clean and unclean animals which may or may not be used for food, while the second (vv. 24-40) treats of the defilement caused by contact with the carcasses of unclean animals (in v. 39 contact with clean animals after death is also forbidden), and prescribes certain rites of puri fication. Many scholars maintain that the first section is a mis placed portion of the Law of Holiness, but the evidence only justifies the assignment of vv. 43-45 to that code. The close resemblance of xi. 2-23 to Deut. xiv. 4-20 is best explained on the theory that both passages were derived separately from an earlier source. Chap. xii. prescribes regulations for the purifica tion of a woman after the birth of (a) a male and (b) a female child. It has already been pointed out that this chapter would fol
low more suitably after chap. xv., with which it is closely allied in regard to subject-matter. The closing formula (v. 7) shows clearly that, as in the case of vv. 7-13 (cf. i. 14-17), the conces sions in favour of the poorer worshipper are a later addition. In chaps. xiii., xiv., the regulations concerning leprosy fall readily into four main divisions : (a) xiii. I-46a, an elaborate descrip tion of the symptoms common to the earlier stages of leprosy and other skin diseases; (b) xiii. 47-59, a further description of different kinds of mould or fungus-growth affecting stuffs and leather; (c) xiv. 1-32, the rites of purification to be employed after the healing of leprosy; and (d) xiv. 33-53, regulations dealing with the appearance of patches of mould or mildew on the walls of a house.
It may be regarded as certain that chap. xvi. consists of three main elements, only one of which was originally connected with the ceremonial of the Day of Atonement, and that it has passed through more than one stage of revision. The chapter consists of three independent sections: (I) vv. 1-4, 6, 12, 13, 34b (probably vv. 23, 24 also form part of this section), regulations to be ob served by Aaron whenever he might enter "the holy place within the veil." These regulations are the natural outcome of the death of Nadab and Abihu (x. 1-5), and their object is to guard Aaron from a similar fate ; the section thus forms the direct continuation of chap. x. ; (2) vv. 29-34a, rules for the observance of a yearly fast day, having for their object the purification of the sanctuary and of the people; (3) vv. 5, 7-10, 14-22, 26-28, a later expan sion of the blood ritual to be performed by the high priest when he enters the Holy of Holies, with which is combined the strange ceremony of the goat which is sent away into the wilderness to Azazel. No mention is made of the Day of Atonement in the pre-exilic period, and it is a plausible conjecture that the present law arose from the desire to turn the spontaneous fast ing of Neh. ix. 1 into an annual ceremony; in any case directions as to the annual performance of the rite must originally have pre ceded vv. 29 seq. Possibly the omission of this introduction is due to the redactor who combined (I) and (2) by transferring the regulations of (I) to the ritual of the annual Day of Atonement. At a later period the ritual was further developed by the inclu sion of the additional ceremonial contained in (3).