#0 to camp The regulation corresponds to the normal levitical

purificatory procedure prescribed for physical discharges (Lev 15; note especially w 16f ), omitting, however, the reference to the washing of clothes. The cultic aspect (and basis) of the Deuteronomic regulation is also apparent in the use of the term 7 ( 1 9 5).

An ordinance unique to the Deuteronomic war code is presented in Dt 2 3.1 3 - 1 5 . This makes provision for a place (designated "a hand"

(1 9 6)) outwith the camp where the warriors must go to attend to the needs of nature (v 13). Specific mention is also made of a digging- tool ( : literally a tent-peg or stake) carried by the warriors as part of their equipment and used fcr the' burying of excrement (vl4 J, These stipulations, especially considered in conjunction with verses lOff and with the insistence on camp purity in verse 15 , raise the question as to whether natural evacuation constituted ritual defile­ ment . While no explicit statement is made to this effect anywhere in the Old Testament, it is possible that in theory, and perhaps to a lesser degree, natural functions might have been considered ritually unclean in line with, or as an extension of the unclean discharges

listed in Leviticus 15 . To what extent this might (or could) have been implemented in practice, is more difficult to determine. In the ease of the military camp, however, which is a sphere requiring a greater degree of ritual purity than normal life, the categories of defilement may have been extended to incldde natural functions. The J main emphasis in Dt 23.13Tf is certainly on the camp as a sacral

sphere; the writer is less concerned with details of defilement as such or with the implications of defilement for the warriors (there is for instance no reference to ritual lustration). The passage may therefore preserve the essential elements of an ancient law for camp sanitation, together with equally ancient principles for the mainten­ ance of, (warrior) ritual purity. Significantly, this ancient tradition is again revived, at a much later date, by the Essenes. A passage in the account of the Essenes by Josephus presents several notable

features which may usefully be compared with Dt 23.13TT. With

reference to the performance of natural functions Josephus reports : "....they dig a foot-deep pit with their mattock — for of such a

nature is the hatchet given by them to their neophytes, and covering themselves up with their cloak, that they may not give offence to the rays of the god (that is, the sun), they sit above it. Then they draw the earth they have dug out back into the pit; and they choose the most deserted place to do this, although this discharge of excrement is a natural function; they are accustomed to wash themselves afterwards, as if defiled" (1 9 7).

correspond with, the Deuteronomic information. The reference to the "most deserted place* is to some extent equivalent to the "place outside the camp" of Dt 23.13 • More significantly, a unique detail included by Josephus may elucidate a phrase in Dt 23.15b . Josephus notes that the Essenes cover themselves with their garment to avoid giving offence to the deity. With this we may compare the Deuteronomic statement that Yahweh must not see "anything indecent" ( ) in the camp. Taking the primary meaning of A a s "nakedness" (198), the phrase may be interpreted, "any indecent exposure*. The warning therefore may have its ultimate origin in an ancient cultic prohibition in which the real cause of offence to the deity was in fact physical exposure (especially of the private parts). Something of this original connotation is evident in the ancient altar law (Ex 20.24ff (E)),

which forbids altar-steps (or stepped altars) in order to prevent priests defiling the altar by the exposing of their "nakedness*

( ) (1 9 9). Thus Dt 23 ;15b may be seen to form an important

r- ' *.*

tradition-link, on the one hand with an ancient nakedness-tabu, and on the other, with the asceticism of the later Essenes (200).

According to Josephus, the Essenes wash themselves after defecation. This is the feature notably absent in Dt 23.13ff . The statement by Josephus that evacuation is a natural function, and the specific phrase "as if defiled", would seem to indicate that Josephus (and presumably, orthodox Judaism) did not consider natural functions to

be ritually defiling. This makes all the more valuable the points of "J agreement between Josephus* statement on the Essenes and the particular.J_Ï reference to camp purity in Dt 23.l3ff . For the Essenes, a more ] extreme ascetic praxis might well represent a logical extension and t application of the levitical ritual purity laws dealing with physical ’ discharges, while the point of contact with the Deuteronomic war code | I may indicate that the "askesis" of the Essenes and related groups is I ultimately linked with primitive Hebrew warrior asceticism. | Another feature of importance in Dt 23,15 is the indication of J Yahweh *s presence in camp; in the context this is presented as the

reason for maintaining ritual purity. G. von Rad contrasts the i consistent emphasis elsewhere in Deuteronomy and in the Deuteronomistic

j

"dwells* (i.e. has a dwelling place) in the camp (as for instance, , Nu 5 .3b (p)), but that Yahweh "walks about" (202) in the camp. This j may well be a modification on the part of the writer in order to

avoid any suggestion of Yahweh dwelling on earth. Moreover, the idea j of Yahweh moving about within the camp is completely in keeping with |

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