Cultic centralization in the Old Testament

Abstract

In the first chapter it is argued that Deuteronomi_sm was not an active force in Judah before or during the time of Jehoash. While it is impossible to determine precisely the degree to which religious and political factors combined to influence IHezekiah's reformation, this king's centralization of sacrificial worship at Jerusalem reflects the crystallization of opinion which is associated with the Deuteronomic circle and is the first historical indication of the presence and activity of the Deuteronomic movement in the Southern Kingdom.

In the second chapter, the major opinions concerning Deuteronomy are examined and it is argued that Urdeuteronomium provided the principal motivation for Josiah's reformation. While the book is to be assigned to the seventh century, it should be recognized as the final deposit of a long period of growth and development.

In the final chapter, the view that the Deuteronomic demand for cultic centralization had its origin in the Jerusalem cult traditions and the claims of the Jerusalem temple to a position of primacy is examined and rejected. This Deuteronomic demand is to be interpreted in the light of the Deuteronomic theology with its insistence upon one Cod, one nation, and one cult, all defined and interpreted through one tóráh, which Deuteronomy claims to be. Deuteronomy declared to Israel the will of Yahweh expressed in the Sinai covenant and just as the prototype of Deuteronomy as a covenant document was the Decalogue, so the prototype of the Deuteronomic central sanctuary was Mount Sinai, where Israel originated. Moth's theory of an Israelite amphictyony is then examined and rejected. Israel's constitutive factor was its faith and the unity of Israel as the people of Yahweh originated at the establishment of the Sinai covenant. The thesis ends with a brief examination of the consequences of Josiah's implementation of cultic centralization.