vid

I am interested in relation of Yahweh temple and "secular" ruler (king?) in ancient judaism, about the time of composition of Books of moses / Torah (~700BC according to Finkelstein?). Were they the same thing - head of kingdom also head of temple? Or were they close allies pulling the same string, like roman emperor and christian pope? Or were they independent ("secular"), occasionally struggling against each other?

Thanks

DCHindley

Take a look at Morton Smith's Parties & Politics that Shaped the Old Testsment, which most critics felt was well written regardles of whether they liked him or not.

I should have a copy around somewhere, but cannot find it at the moment, if you'd like some specifics. ... Oops! Found it. May be a dry hole after all.

If I recall correctly, most of the speculation surrounding David assuming some activies nomally associated with priests has to do with the interpretation of psalm 110 ("you [David] are a priest after order of Melchizedek forever"). This idea was expanded by the author of the NT book of Hebrews.

DCH

vid

I am interested only broadly in this. It would be enough to sum up in few senteces how close the temple was to "earthly ruler".

bacht

By 700 BCE the northern kingdom of Israel (Samaria) had fallen to the Assyrians, so there was no longer a Jewish king there.

In Judah the 1st temple was supposedly run by the Aaronite priesthood with assistance from the Levites. I don't think the worship of Yahweh became centralized in Jersualem until the time of king Josiah (late 7th C).

The kings in Judah were part of the Davidic line. I don't think they were allowed to officiate or interfere with the temple rituals.

The books of Kings and Chronicles cover this period.

andrewcriddle

There appears to have been controversy as to how far the kings of Judah had a role in temple ritual. 2 Chronicles 26 attributes king Uzziah's leprosy to his having officiated as a priest.

Andrew Criddle