The Biblical Tradition of Anointing Priests

Abstract

Mainstream biblical scholars of the current generation have generally accepted without question the old idea that, before the exile of Judah, priests were not at their installation. According to Martin Noth, who last formulated the main outlines of this hypothesis, the frequent mention of this practice in the Priestly traditions of the Pentateuch reflects rather a postexilic development from a rite applied only to kings through the monarchies of Israel and Judah.1 The process is derived through the separation of an intermediate stage in the evolution of this postmonarchic cultic system, the single anointed priest, the high priest who would follow Aaron.2 Noth's work is now several decades old, but his treatment of the anointing of priests has neither been advanced nor challenged directly during the interval.3 This paper contends first of all that the ancient Near Eastern evidence