ABSTRACT

THE keystone of this whole edifice of priestly authority was the Torah. In its name the High Priest, the priest-hood, and the Temple itself as an institution, claimed and exacted the obedience of Israel. The word Torah means “doctrine” or “teaching,” in particular, “religious teaching.” It is generally rendered by the Law, following the Septuagint, and also Josephus and Paul, who use ὁ νόμος; but this is not an exact equivalent. The term Law, with its suggestion of formalism, rigidity and dryness, fails to represent the infinite variety of meaning in the word Torah. 1 The sovereignty of the Torah is one of the essential factors of Late Judaism and demands special attention. The Law had always been the central interest of the Jews, but it had never attained, before the exile, the absolute and despotic sway which it exercised over post-exilic Judaism. 2 This was due in part to the determination of the priesthood of the Return, but above all to the disappearance of that natural check to formalism, the phenomenon of Prophecy.