Cultic Centralization

Israelite religion and its representation in the Hebrew Bible underwent a profound change in the mid-to-late first millennium BCE. Before this time, sacrifices to the Israelite divinity, like those to other Near Eastern gods, were made at multiple sanctuaries by diverse priests. By the Persian and Hellenistic periods, however, the number of Yahwistic sacrificial sites had been reduced to a few temples—most notably, Jerusalem (the most holy site for Jews) and Mount Gerizim (the most holy site for Samaritans)—which were controlled in the main by a small number of priests who claimed descent from a common ancestor (namely, Aaron). 

Scholars have long insisted that it was the composition of the book of Deuteronomy that entrenched the value of centralizing the cult to as few sanctuaries in Israel as possible—a value which was then tacitly accepted by all subsequent biblical legislators with little modification. My 2019 book Centralizing the Cult: The Holiness Legislation in Leviticus 17–26 challenges this interpretation. 

Awarded the 2021 Manfred Lautenschlaeger award for theological promise, this book begins by showing that cultic centralization evolved over centuries; it is therefore unjustified to assume that there was a single textual tradition that shaped the emergence of centralized socio-cultic structures in ancient Israel. Subsequent chapters show how the so-called “Priestly traditions” of the Pentateuch, and especially the Holiness legislation of Leviticus 17­–26, developed arguments in favor of a centralized cult that did not depend on Deuteronomy.

Leviticus 17–26 have long been thought to contribute little to the legislation of centralization in the Pentateuch; they seem to be more interested in encouraging the community of Israel to be sanctified via law obedience, while also dealing with the minutiae of priestly conduct and ritual practice. Centralizing the Cult reveals, however, that Leviticus 17–26 use ritual legislation to make a new and distinctive case for the Israelites to pursue a religious, social, and economic life that is of a fundamentally centralized character. The Israelites, if they are to be holy, must be willing to defer to central authorities in all aspects of their everyday lives, diligently avoiding divisions or local factions, consenting to centralized socio-cultic hierarchies, and remaining devoted to the cause of protecting the central shrine with a standardized form of sacrificial worship.

Throughout this book, I reveal how this distinctive concept of centralization reflected the historical challenges that faced priests during the Persian era, as they sought to encourage the value of communal unity and the pooling of resources to ensure the successful functioning of the newly established Second Temple in Jerusalem. Whereas it is sometimes argued that the Persian period was largely irrelevant to the history of cultic centralization, I reveal how the Jerusalem temple needed to assert its centrality in the absence of a Judahite monarch, and when faced with a well-resourced temple counterpart in Gerizim and a few sanctuaries that were operating in the diaspora. The ideas that the Jerusalem priesthood promoted during this period (such as the value of collective holiness) as well as the socio-cultic norms they entrenched (for instance, the value of restricting the number of agents who can mediate God’s cult) shaped the history of Judaism long after the difficult years of the early Persian era. Indeed, they continue to influence religious practice today.

My research on cultic centralization and the Priestly traditions has developed in other publications.

• Two pieces, “Space and Memory in the Book of Leviticus” and “The Tent of Meeting as Monumental Space: The Construction of the Priestly Temple in Exod 25–31, 35–40” draw on spatial theory to show how the image of the Priestly wilderness promotes the value of cultic centralization by creating an idealized shrine of the past—a space that could move beyond the practical limitations of the authors’ present to create a motivating “counter-present” monument.
• “Unity and Hierarchy: North and South in the Priestly Traditions” studies key passages in Exodus and Numbers that describe the collaboration of leaders from the northern and southern tribes in the wilderness cult, arguing that these passages work to promote an ideal form of pan-Israelite unity in which all the tribes worship in a single sanctuary but with Judeans occupying the prime leadership positions. 
• “Sabbath and Sanctuary Cult in the Holiness Legislation: A Reassessment" explores how the authors of Leviticus 17–26 used the Sabbath to promote “temporal standardization” in accordance with a shared concept of the week that is determined by the sacrificial rhythm of the central sanctuary, on the one hand, and a centralized set of rules about when the Israelites can engage in work, on the other.
• “Aaron’s Vestments in Exodus 28 and Priestly Leadership” (co-authored with Christophe Nihan) closely reads the description of the high priest’s vestments in Exodus 28 to reveal the sophisticated means by which this passage promotes the value of centralized worship under a single high priestly leader.
• “‘The Temple which You Will Build for Me in the Land’: The Future Sanctuary in a Textual Tradition of Leviticus” reviews an important textual variation in a manuscript tradition of Leviticus found at Qumran (namely, 4QReworked Pentateuch C) that introduces an explicit command to the Israelites to continue the rituals of the wilderness cult in a single, central temple in the land. It thus provides important evidence that Leviticus was used to promote cultic centralization in the Second Temple period.

My publications have also explored how cultic centralization and temple centrality were promoted in other materials outside the Priestly traditions. 

• “Cultic Centralization and Deuteronomy’s Influence in the Pentateuch: The Laws of Deuteronomy 12, Exod 20:22–26, and Leviticus 17 Revisited” compares three passages prescribing altar practice in order to illustrate the complex legacy of Deuteronomy in texts that regulate the location and manner of Yahwistic sacrifice. 
• In “Gates and Entrances in Ezekiel 40–48: The Social Utopia of the Temple Vision”, I look beyond the Pentateuch to explore how the temple vision of the book of Ezekiel promotes a social utopia in which all roles and hierarchies after the Babylonian exile are to be defined according to the degree to which specific groups are granted access the central temple.