Source: Douglas A. Knight and Amy-Jill Levine, The Meaning of the Bible: What the Jewish Scriptures and Christian Old Testament Can Teach Us (HarperOne, 2024).
This podcast delves into the cultus of ancient Israel, exploring its practices beyond the negative connotations of the modern term "cult." It examines how this public expression of religion, encompassing sacred spaces, rituals like sacrifice and dietary laws, and religious professionals, served to hallow time and space, strengthen community bonds, and resist assimilation rather than simply reflecting neurotic behavior. The podcast also discusses the shift from diverse domestic and local cultic practices to the centralization of worship in the Jerusalem Temple, highlighting the temple's political and economic significance in addition to its religious function. Finally, it explores purity laws as a means of maintaining holiness and accessing the sacred, and the complex issue of sacrifice, including the controversial practice of child sacrifice, within the broader context of ancient Israelite worship.
The Concept and Purpose of Cultus: In biblical studies, the term "cultus" is used technically to refer to formal forms of worship, distinct from the negative connotations often associated with the modern term "cult." It encompasses sacred spaces like temples and shrines, rituals such as sacrifice, dietary restrictions, and ablutions, and religious professionals like priests and temple singers. Essentially, the cultus represents the public, communally recognized expression of religion, focusing on orthopraxy (right practice) rather than individualistic religious activity. From a biblical perspective, cultic activities serve significant purposes: they hallow time and space, enable practitioners to draw closer to the divine, strengthen communal bonds, and sanctify their bodies. These practices are seen not as neurotic acts driven by fear of divine wrath following ritual errors (as suggested by some interpretations like Freud's), but as a means for ancient Israel to tell its origin story, bring the divine presence into daily life, resist assimilation by marking the community as distinct, and allow all members to participate in religious life. Rather than arbitrary regulations, these practices provide continuity in the face of chaos, meaning where there might be emptiness, and belonging where there might be alienation, potentially even serving to prevent neurosis by establishing order and structure.
Sacred Spaces in Ancient Israel: Ancient Israelite cultic practices evolved through various sacred spaces, starting not with a central temple but likely in the home and at localized sacred spaces or "high places." While archaeological evidence for specific home-based worship spaces is difficult to identify due to the nature of construction and lack of preserved furnishings, numerous artifacts like figurines and incense holders might indicate cultic functions, though interpreting their specific use requires caution. The biblical narrative details the wilderness tabernacle (mishkan) as a portable shrine built according to divine blueprints, containing objects like the ark, menorah, altar of incense, and table for the bread of the Presence. Though no remains of this tabernacle have been found, its description in the Torah served to shape Israel's self-identity, allowing later generations to visualize it and reminding a population that had lost its temples (destroyed by Babylonians and Romans) that the divine presence traveled with them. As the narrative progresses, the tabernacle is depicted as coming to rest, notably at Shiloh, which became a significant cultic site before the centralization of worship. The most prominent sacred space discussed is the Jerusalem temple. The text describes Solomon's First Temple as the "house of God," where the divine presence was particularly experienced. While definitive archaeological remains of this early temple are lacking, its description highlights its size and the elaborate nature of its construction, potentially idealizing the building. Temples were not merely houses of worship; they were also political symbols, economic hubs, and national banks. This centralization of the cult, particularly under King Josiah, aimed to consolidate political power by restricting religious influence and directing donations to Jerusalem, although local shrines and the national temple could sometimes function complementarily or antithetically. The Second Temple, built after the Babylonian exile, was initially less grand than its predecessor but was later expanded significantly by King Herod before its destruction by the Romans.
Religious Professionals: Priests and Levites: The performance of cultic functions in ancient Israel involved specific religious professionals, primarily priests and Levites, although all Israelites could potentially participate in cultic activities like sacrifice, pilgrimage, prayer, and personal piety. The biblical narrative traces the origin of priests back to figures like Melchizedek and establishes the tribe of Levi as the priestly order, with Aaron and his descendants having a special role as priests. Levites served as substitutes for Israelite firstborn sons dedicated to God and received tithes for their service in the sanctuary. Priests were required to maintain ritual purity (avoiding certain impurities like contact with corpses, skin disease, or genital emissions) and be unblemished to serve at the altar. They were not expected to hold day jobs or own agricultural land beyond restricted areas, relying on tithes, leftovers from grain offerings, and portions of meat from sacrifices for their sustenance. While priests serving in the temple were likely well-provided for, Levites and priests living away from the centralized sanctuary, especially after the closure of high places under Josiah, could face poverty. The biblical text reveals complex attitudes towards priests and Levites, with instances of criticism (Jacob's condemnation, the Levite in Judges 19, the Levite/priest in the Good Samaritan parable, Aaron's role in the Golden Calf incident, Nadab and Abihu's "unholy fire," Saul's massacre of priests, Solomon's deposition of Abiathar) suggesting internal power struggles and highlighting deviations from ideal behavior or practice. After the Babylonian exile, in the absence of a monarchy, priests took on significant governmental roles, enhancing the role of the temple and potentially using "Songs of Ascents" to encourage pilgrimage to Jerusalem. However, priestly authority was sometimes checked by other elites and prophets, who criticized corruption and ritual failings among the priesthood.
Ritual Purity and Impurity: The biblical system classifies relationships to the sacred into three categories: holy (set apart for God), profane (ordinary, set apart from the holy), and impure (unable to approach the sacred). This state of impurity is ritual, not moral; an evil person could be ritually pure, while a saintly person could be impure. Major sources of impurity relate primarily to life and death events, such as birth, menstruation, ejaculation, irregular genital discharges, corpses, animal carcasses, and certain skin conditions (often referred to as "leprosy," though not modern Hansen's disease). The concern is with recognizing disruptions to normal life, particularly concerning the boundaries of life and death. While modern interpretations sometimes associate impurity with the repugnant or see these laws as oppressive, the sources suggest they were not designed to perpetually marginalize women or promote social hierarchy. The primary consequence of ritual impurity was restriction from accessing the site of the sacred, such as the wilderness tabernacle or the Jerusalem temple, and from eating meat offered in sacrifice. However, regaining purity was generally straightforward, usually involving ritual bathing and washing of clothes. Some forms of impurity, like corpse contamination or diagnosed skin conditions, required additional specific rituals. The prescriptive laws in the Torah regarding isolation for certain conditions like "leprosy" are contrasted with biblical narratives where affected individuals are not always depicted as being removed from society or declaring themselves unclean, suggesting that adherence to these laws, particularly those related to proximity to the sacred, may have varied, especially farther from the central sanctuary. The Nazirite vow is also mentioned as a practice involving intentional purity restrictions (avoiding impurity, alcohol, and cutting hair) as a form of personal religiosity.
Dietary Laws: Among the most recognizable biblical regulations are those concerning diet, specifying which foods are "proper" or "fit" for consumption, though the term "kosher" itself is not biblical in this context. These laws are presented as a way to maintain Israel's holiness and distinguish it from other nations, thus applying primarily to Israelites and resident aliens. The main criteria for land animals deemed acceptable for consumption are having a split hoof and chewing the cud, which excludes animals like pigs, camels, and rabbits. Water-dwelling creatures must have fins and scales, forbidding shellfish. Other prohibitions include consuming carrion and anything containing blood. Various rationales have been proposed for these laws, including holiness and distinctiveness as explicitly stated, potential historical connections to Egyptian or other cultural practices (though these are debated), health benefits (some forbidden foods can cause illness, but not all), and symbolic interpretations (like Philo's analogy linking animal characteristics to desired human behavior). Unlike purity laws where impurity inevitably occurs and must be removed, dietary laws focus on avoidance – one simply says no to forbidden foods. While pig bones are found in archaeological sites of non-Israelite populations in the region, they are notably absent or scarce in Israelite sites, suggesting the prohibition or lack of access became a significant marker of Israelite identity, particularly emphasized in later texts.
Sacrifice: Sacrifice was a central ritual practice in ancient Israel, understood as an efficacious means of connecting humanity and divinity. It acknowledged the preciousness of life by slaughtering animals for consumption, emphasizing a distinction from ordinary agri-farm slaughter. Historically, sacrifice transitioned from being offered by individuals anywhere to being a professional practice performed by priests in centralized locations, ultimately focused on the Jerusalem temple. Sacrifices were distinguished from profane slaughter by specific cultic requirements, including who performed the act, the condition of the animal, and the structure of the altar. Common sacrifices included the burnt offering (olah), often for thanksgiving or purification, and the peace or well-being offering, given for thanks. Votive offerings fulfilled vows, and freewill offerings were given voluntarily. The "sin offering" (often translated from the Hebrew term) did not primarily atone for moral or civil transgressions or high-handed sins against God, which were handled by other means like the judicial system or were outside the atonement system. Instead, it primarily served to remove impurity from the sanctuary or cleanse individuals from unwitting violations, postpartum impurity, skin diseases, or discharges. Special sacrifices were mandated for holidays, with the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) involving unique rituals, including purification offerings for the priest and people and the use of two goats, one sacrificed as a sin offering and the other designated for "Azazel" and sent into the wilderness carrying the people's iniquities. While the biblical tradition forbids human sacrifice (e.g., child sacrifice), the sources acknowledge mentions of its practice among Israelite neighbors and even among Israelites themselves, sometimes in response to national crisis, suggesting a complex historical reality alongside the explicit prohibition. Enigmatic passages even exist that could be interpreted as God commanding such acts to highlight evil. The story of the "binding" of Isaac is often read as a rejection of child sacrifice, though the text itself presents the substitution of the ram as Abraham's initiative in that specific instance, rather than a general prohibition. Conversely, the story of Jephthah sacrificing his daughter is presented as a tragic fulfillment of a vow. Prophets also used the imagery of child sacrifice to underscore the importance of a morally upright life over excessive ritual.