HIGH PLACE, SANCTUARY

Its top has become smooth aad polished by repeated anointings with blood or oil, perhaps even by the kisses of the worshippers (of. 1 K 19>8, Hos IS^).

It is impossible within present limits to describe fully this important discovery, or to discuss the many problems which it raises (see, for details, PEFSt, 1903, 23 ft.; Macallster, Bible Sidelights pom the Mound of Gezer, 64 fl.; Vincent, op. cit. 109 ff., aJl with plans and illustrations). It must, however, be added that ' all round the feet of the columns and over the whole area of the high place the earth was discovered to be a regular cemetery, in which the skeletons of young infants, never more than a week old, were deposited in jars ' — evidence of the sacrifice of the firstborn (Macalister, op. cit. 73 f.). Similar ancient high places, but on a smaller scale, have been found at TeS es-Safi (perhaps the ancient Gath), and in the north of Palestine, by the Austrian and German explorers, of whose discoveries an excellent summary is given by Father Vincent in his recently pubUshed work above cited.

Several examples of another type of high place have been discovered on a rocky summit overlooking Fetra ; the most complete is that described in Hastings' DB iv. 396. Still another type of Semitic sanctuary with temple, presenting many features of interest, is minutely described and illustrated by Flinders Petrie in his Researches in Sinai, 1906, chs. vi. vii. x.

4. Combining the materials furnished by these recent discoveries with the OT data, we find that the first essential of a Hebrew high place was the altar. This might consist merely of a heap of earth or unhewn stones, as commanded by Ex 20^; or, as shown by surviving examples (see Altah, § 2), it might be hewn out of the solid rock and approached by steps. Against this more elaborate type the legislation of Ex 20*''-was intended as a protest. Equally indispensable to the proper equipment of a high place (cf. Dt 12^ Hos 10' RV etc.) were the stone pillars or mazzebaha, the symbols of the deity (see Pillar), and the wooden tree-stumps or poles, known as ashSrdhs (which see). To these must be added a laver or other apparatus for the ceremonial ablutions of the worshippers. If the sanctuary possessed an image of the deity, such as the golden buUs at Dan and Bethel, or other sacred object — an ark, an ephod, or the like — a building of some sort was required to shelter and protect it. Such was Micah's 'house of gods' (Jg 17'), and the 'houses of high places' of 1 K 123i RV. The ark was housed at Shiloh in a temple (l S 1' 3'), and a similar building is presupposed at Nob (21»- '). Every sanctuary of importance presumably had a dining-hall (9^ RV 'guest-chamber'), where the worsivippers joined in the sacrificial feast (cf. l**).

6. At these local sanctuaries, and at these alone, the early Hebrews worshipped J" their God. The new sanctuary established by David at the threshing-fioor of Araunah, where afterwards the Temple of Solomon was erected, was at first but another added to the list of Hebrew high places. At these, from Dan to Beersheba, sacrifices were offered by individuals, by the family (1 S 1'), and by the clan (20'); there men ate and drank ' before the Lord ' at the joyful sacrificial meal. Thither were brought the tithes and other thankofferings for the good gifts of God; thither men resorted to consult the priestly oracle, to inquire of the 'Lord' in cases of difficulty; and there justice was administered in the name of J". At the local sanctuary, when a campaign was impending, the soldiers were consecrated for 'the wars of J"' (see Wak). There, too, the manslayer and certain others enjoyed the right of asylum. But there was a darker side to the picture. The feasts were not seldom accompanied by excess (Am 28, Is 28'; cf. 1 S 1"); prostitution even was practised with reUgious sanction (Dt 23", 1 K 14").

6. 'The history of the high places Is the history of the old religion of Israel' (Moore). As the Hebrews

HILKIAH

gradually became masters of Canaan, the high places at which the local Baals and Astartes had been worshipped became, as we have seen, the legitimate sanctuaries of J", in harmony with the universal experience of history as to the permanence of sacred sites through all the changes of race and religion. At these the most zealous champions of the reUgion of J" were content to worship. It was inevitable, however, that in the circumstances heathen elements should mingle with the purer ritual of Jahweh worship. It is this contamination and corruption of the cultus at the local sanctuaries that the eighth-century prophets attack with such vehemence, not the high places themselves. In Hosea's day the higher aspects of the religion of J" were so completely lost sight of by the mass of the people, that this prophet could describe the reUgion of his contemporaries as un-adulterated heathenism, and their worship as idolatry.

While this was the state of matters in the Northern Kingdom, the unique position which the sanctuary at Jerusalem had acquired in the south, and the com-parative purity of the cultus as there practised, gradually led, under the Divine guidance, to the great thought that, as J" Himself was one, the place of His worship should also be one, and this place Jerusalem. The Book of Deuteronomy is the deposit of this epoch-making teaching (see esp. 12'*'). Whatever may have been the extent of Hezekiah's efforts in this direction, it was not until the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah (622-621 B.C.) that effective measures were taken, under the immediate impulse of Deuteronomy, for the de-struction of the high places and the suppression of the worship which for so many centuries had been offered at the local shrines (2 K 23™-). But the break with the ideas and customs of the past was too violent. With the early death of Josiah the local cults revived, and it needed the discipline of the Exile to secure the victory of the Deuteronomio demand for the centraliza-tion of the cultus.

7. To men inspired by the ideals of Dt. we owe the compilation of the Books of Kings. For them, accord-ingly, the worship at the local sanctuaries became illegal from the date of the erection of Solomon's Temple — 'only the people sacrificed in the high places, because there was no house built for the name of the Lord until those days' (1 K 3^ RV). From this standpoint the editors of Kings pass judgment on the successive sovereigns, by whom 'the high places were not taken away' (1 K 15" RV and oft.). This adverse judgment is now seen to be unhistorical and undeserved.

A. R. S. Kennedy.

HIGH PRIEST.— See Priests and Levites.

HILEN (1 Ch 6=8).— See Holon, No. 1.

HILKIAH CJah [is] my portion,' or 'portion of Jah'). — A favourite priestly name. 1. Father of EU- akim, Hezekiah's chief of the household (2 K 18" etc. = Is 363 etc.. Is 22!»-M). 2. A priest of Anathoth, probably of the line of Eli (see 1 K 2»- ^i), father of Jere-miah (Jer 1'); he is not to be identified with the next. 3. The high priest in B.C. 621, who 'found' during the repairs of the Temple and brought to Josiah's notice, through Shaphan, 'the book of the law' (2 K 22'-" = 2 Ch 34*-") , which occasioned the reformation of reUgion thereafter effected (2 K 231-" =2 Ch 342»-35"). Hilkiah headed the deputation sent to consult Huldah on this discovery (2 K 22'2-2»=2 Ch Zi^"-^'); and presided over the subsequent purification of the Temple (2 K 23<''). He was a chief actor in the whole movement. There is no reason to doubt that his find was the genuine dis-covery of a lost law-book; this book was unmistakably the code of Deuteronomy (wh. see). 4. Father of the Gemariah of Jer 29'. 5.6. Levites of the clan of Merari (1 Ch 6«- 26"). 7. A 'chief of the priests' returning from the Exile in B.C. 536 (Neh 12'- ")■ 8. A com-panion of Ezra at the public reading of the Law (Neh 8') ; he appears as Ezekias in 1 Es 9«. G. G. Findlay.

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