e Samaritan schism and the high wall that
henceforth separated Jew and Gentile. The emphasis on the strict
observation of the sabbath grew stronger and stronger, until at the
beginning of the Greek period the Jews of Jerusalem preferred to fall
before the sword of their foes rather than fight on the sabbath day (cf.
Section CIII). The ritual of the temple became even more elaborate, and
its income was greatly increased during the latter part of the Persian
period. The extension of the territory of the Judean community implied
that its numbers were increased by the return of loyal Jews attracted by
the security offered by its walls and by the new spirit that animated the
Jews of Palestine. The priestly laws which were formulated to meet the new
needs of the Judean community appear to have been written in Palestine and
by those closely connected with the temple service, but in the emphasis
upon the sabbath and in their endeavor to prevent marriage with foreigners
they suggest the presence and influence of Jews who had returned from the
land of the dispersion. It is possible that among those who thus returned
was the priest Ezra, and he may have been at the head of one of these
groups of returning exiles. In the days of Josiah the code contained in
the newly discovered Book of the Covenant was presented to the people in a
public assembly and adopted and enforced by the king, who acted as the
representative of the people (Section LXXXIII:iii). It is probable that in
the small Judean community new regulations gained acceptance in the same
way, except that the people were represented by their nobles and priests
rather than by a king. The tradition of Ezra, therefore, is typical of the
great movement that shaped the life of Judaism in the century immediately
following the work of Nehemiah.

IV. Origin and Aims of the Priestly Laws. The late priestly laws which
moulded the life of Judaism are found in the books of Exodus, Leviticus,
and Numbers. They do not constitute a unified code, but rather are
made up of a series of smaller groups of laws, the older nucleus
being the Holiness Code found in chapters 17-26 of Leviticus (cf. Section
XCIII:iii). In some cases variants of the same law are found in different
groups. Certain of these laws simply reiterate in slightly different form
those already found in the primitive and Deuteronomic codes; but in
general they supplement these earlier codes. The formulation, collection,
and codif