Blue Bloods and White Trash. Who Were the New Age Priests? (21 December, 2014, 29 Kislev, 5775)
Contents:
1. Introduction. Jeroboam ben Nebat replaces the Levites
2. Where Did the Replacements Come From?
3. Were the Priests of King Jeroboam Guttersnipes and "White Trash"?
4. Were the Priests of King Jeroboam Chiefs and Upper Class Types?
5. A Parallel in Recent Jewish History?
6. The Origin of the Druids?
7. The Lesson for Today
===============================
===============================
1. Introduction. Jeroboam ben Nebat replaces the Levites
Jeroboam son of Nebat led the northern Ten Tribes of Israel who rebelled against the Dynasty of David in Jerusalem.
Jeroboam became monarch over the independent Kingdom of Israel.
Jeroboam also forbade the Israelites to make the three-times-a year Pilgrimage to Jerusalem. He set up shrines in Beth-el and Dan with golden calves.
The Levites were demoted and others appointed as priests in their place (1-Kings 12:26-31).
Consequently all, or at least most, of the Levites moved southwards to Judah.
2-Chronicles 11:
13 The priests and the Levites who were in all Israel presented themselves to him [i.e. to Rehoboam King of Judah] from all their territories. 14 The Levites had left their common lands and their holdings and had come to Judah and Jerusalem, because Jeroboam and his sons had prevented them from serving as priests of the Lord, 15 and had appointed his own priests for the high places, and for the goat-demons, and for the calves that he had made. 16 Those who had set their hearts to seek the Lord God of Israel came after them from all the tribes of Israel to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the Lord, the God of their ancestors. 17 They strengthened the kingdom of Judah, and for three years they made Rehoboam son of Solomon secure, for they walked for three years in the way of David and Solomon.
See:
Druids and Israel. A Comparison of the Sages of Judah with those of the West
http://hebrewnations.com/articles/secular/druids.html
===============================
===============================
2. Where Did the Replacements Come From?
The replacement of the Levites is recorded in Scripture.
1-Kings 12:
31 He also made houses on high places, and appointed priests from among all the people, who were not Levites.
The words translated above as from among all the people in Hebrew are Me-ksot ha-am i.e. from the edges [ends, extremes] of the people.
This is how the King James translates it.
[1-Kings 12:31] AND HE MADE AN HOUSE OF HIGH PLACES, AND MADE PRIESTS OF THE LOWEST OF THE PEOPLE, WHICH WERE NOT OF THE SONS OF LEVI.
Usually we avoid comparing non-Hebrew Translations etc but in this case we made an exception.
Here is a selection of some of the translations of the Hebrew expressions "Me-ksot ha-am" in 1-Kings 12:31.
http://biblehub.com/commentaries/1_kings/12-31.htm
New International Version
from all sorts of people
New Living Translation
ordained priests from the common people
English Standard Version
from among all the people
King James Bible
of the lowest of the people
Holman Christian Standard Bible
from every class of people
International Standard Version
from the fringe elements of the people
American Standard Version
from among all the people
Darby Bible Translation
from all classes of the people
Young's Literal Translation
of the extremities of the people
Pulpit Commentary
Verse 31. -made priests of the lowest of the people [Heb. "from the ends," i.e., from all classes, ex universe populo (Gesen.)...
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
and made priests of the lowest of the people... the words may be literally rendered, "from the extremities" or "ends of the people" (u); meaning not merely from the extremist parts of his country, but rather out of the whole of the people; out of all sorts of them, out of any of them, without any distinction of tribe: for so it follows,
===============================
===============================
3. Were the Priests of King Jeroboam Guttersnipes and "White Trash"?
1-Kings 12:
31 He also made houses on high places, and appointed priests from the extremes of the people [Hebrew: Me-ksot ha-am], who were not Levites.
The Sages (Rabbi in one version, Rabbi Akiva in another) said they were appointed from the lowest extremes, from the trash.
Talmud Yerushalmi, Aovodah Zarah 1:5; Talmud Yerushalmi, Gittin 4:4.
This is similar to most of the above translations.
Other explanations however exist.
===============================
===============================
4. Were the Priests of King Jeroboam Chiefs and Upper Class Types?
The word "Katseh" means extreme, end, but also gives us words like "katsin" meaning officer. Yehudah Kiel (quote below) takes the word "katseh" to connote "most important" i.e. Jeroboam appointed priests from amongst the most important men in Israel!
Yehudah Kiel (in the commentary Daat Mikra):
# He appointed priests from all ends of the people, from every tribe, and from every major household, and not just from the Tribe of Levi.
cf. Judges 18:2 So the Danites sent five of their leading [Hebrew: Miksotem] men from Zorah and Eshtaol to spy out the land and explore it.
Genesis 47:12
And he took some [Miketseh] of his brethren, even five men, and presented them unto Pharaoh (KJ). The word [mikatzeh in these instances] means the most important amongst them....
Compare this understood meaning of the expression "from the ends of the people" to the related term "corners of the people" [where it is understood to mean chieftains] (Judges 20:2). #
Kiel goes on to admit that the sages interpreted the expression "from the extremes" as denigrating and as meaning from the dregs of the people. He then quotes from the commentary "Kli Yakar" (Shlomo Ephraim Luntschitz, 1550-1690, Prague) as opining that both opinions were correct! The Kli Yakar is quoted as saying the Jeroboam took from the "ends" of the people means he took from both extremes, from the highest and lowest, in order to draw the people after him by showing that all are equal before the Almighty.
It should be noted that this was both revolutionary and a negative action. Its intention was to change both the religious beliefs and the social order that had prevailed amongst the Israelites heretofore.
The effects of this action would result in the Israelites adopting the pagan ways of the heathen around them. Consequently they were exiled by the Assyrians and lost consciousness of their Hebrew origins.
This is how we now view it and as it is described by Scripture.
In those days it may be that the actions of Jeroboam were considered progressive ones.
For some it was the equivalent of a New Age.
===============================
===============================
5. A Parallel in Recent Jewish History?
A parallel to Jeroboam having chosen his new priests from amongst the highest and lowest classes may be found in recent Jewish History.
The Nazis during the Holocaust used Jewish collaborators to help them exterminate the Jewish People. In the ghettoes there were Jewish Policemen working on behalf of the Germans and in the concentration camps there were prisoners (called “Kapos”) who helped control the other inmates. Some of the Kapos were Jewish.
The Jewish Policemen and the Jewish Kapos were mostly criminals or intellectuals. [None of them were religious.] They were therefore drawn from the highest and lowest ends or fringes of society.
See:
Traitors. Jewish Policemen in Nazi Service and Kapos
http://hebrewnations.com/articles/jew/traitors.html
===============================
===============================
6. The Origin of the Druids?
The Kingdom of Jeroboam was that of the Ten Northern Tribes. These were destined to be exiled by the Assyrians, lose consciousness of their ancestry, and eventually be found in Western Europe. In Britain and Gaul and other Celtic areas we find a class known as the Druids.
The Druids show parallels between the Ancient Levites of Israel and the Pharisee-Sages of Judah.
Their religious beliefs in some respect recall those of the Hebrews as well as of the pagan Canaanites.
There are two popular conceptions of the Druids:
One is the British Romantic notion that the druids were benign wizard types possessing much wisdom along with astronomical and scientific achievements.
Archaeology lends some substance to this view.
On the bother hand there are Roman reports (also substantiated by archaeology) of human sacrifice, ritual cannibalism, and other pagan barbaric practices.
Both approaches have something to them. The Druids reflected both sides of the coin.
This may have been an outcome of Jeroboam introducing pagan practices as well as appointing retrograde social elements to priestly functions.
See:
Druids and Israel. A Comparison of the Sages of Judah with those of the West
http://hebrewnations.com/articles/secular/druids.html
===============================
===============================
7. The Lesson for Today
The actions of Jeroboam led to a degeneration of Israelite society, an almost irrevocable split with Judah, and the eventual exile and loss of identity of most of the Hebrew nation.
This should be corrected.
The way to do it is to begin a reform in reverse order.