Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/540

 514 P E N P E N in old Israel had been a faith which gave its support to the natural ordinances of human society ; it was now set forth in external and visible form as a special institution, within an artificial sphere peculiar to itself, which rose far above the level of common life. The necessary presup position of this kind of theocracy is service to a foreign empire, and so the theocracy is essentially the same thing as hierocracy. Its finished picture is drawn in the Priestly Composi- Code, the product of the labours of learned priests during tion ami t ne exile. When the temple was destroyed and the ritual introduc- interrupted, the old practices were written down that they Priestly might not be lost. Thus in the exile the ritual became Code. matter of teaching, of Torah ; the first who took this step, a step prescribed by the circumstances of the time, was the priest and prophet Ezekiel. In the last part of his book Ezekiel began the literary record of the customary ritual of the temple; other priests followed in his footsteps (Lev. xvii.-xxvi.) ; and so there arose during the captivity a school of men who wrote down and systematized what they had formerly practised. When the temple was restored this theocratic zeal still went on and produced further ritual developments, in action and reaction with the actual practice of the new temple ; the final result of the long- continued process was the Priestly Code. This Code, incorporated in the Pentateuch and forming the normative part of its legislation, became the definitive Mosaic law. As such it was published and put in action in 444 B.C. by the Babylonian priest and scribe Ezra. Ezra had come to Jerusalem as early as 458, at the head of a considerable body of zealous Jews, with full authority from Artaxerxes Longimanus to reform the community of the second temple in accordance with the law of God in his hand. But Ezra did not introduce this law imme diately on his arrival ; it took him fourteen years to effect his purpose. The external circumstances of the young community, which were exceedingly unfavourable, made it at first undesirable to introduce legislative innovations ; perhaps, also, Ezra needed time to correct the product of Babylonian learning by the light of Judagan practice, and wished, moreover, to train assistants for his task. The chief reason of the delay seems, however, to have been that, in spite of the royal favour, he could not get any energetic support from the local representatives of the Persian Government, and without this he could not have given authority to his new law. But in 445 a kindred spirit, Nehemiah b. Hakkeleiah, came to Jerusalem as Persian governor of Judaea. Ezra s opportunity had now arrived, and he was able to introduce the Pentateuch in agreement with the governor. The record of this step is contained in Neh. viii.-x. ; it is closely analogous to the narrative of the introduction of the Deuteronomic law under Josiah in 2 Kings xxii. Just as we are told there that Deuteronomy became known in 621 B.C., having been unknown previously, so we are told here that the Torah in the rest of the Pentateuch became known in 444, and was unknown till that date. This shows us, in the first place, that Deuteronomy contains an earlier stage of the law than the priestly Torah. And further, as the date of Deuteronomy can be inferred from the date of its publi cation and introduction under Josiah, so in like manner the date of the composition of the Priestly Code can be inferred from its publication and enforcement by Ezra and Nehemiah. The establishment of the right date for the written law is of the highest importance for our understanding of the prophets, and for our whole conception of the history of Israel. See the articles ISRAEL arid PROPHET, (j. WE.) PENTECOST, a feast of the Jews, was in its original meaning, as has been explained in PENTATEUCH (supra, p. 511), the closing feast of the harvest gladness, at which, according to Lev. xxiii. 17, leavened bread was presented at the sanctuary as the firstfruits of the new cereal store. Hence the names &quot;Feast of Harvest&quot; (Exod. xxiii. 16), &quot; Day of Firstfruits &quot; (Num. xxviii. 26) ; but the com moner Old Testament name (Exod. xxxiv. 22 ; Deut. xvi. 10, 16 ; 2 Chron. viii. 13) is &quot; Feast of Weeks,&quot; because it fell exactly seven weeks (Deut. xvi. 9), or, on the Jewish way of reckoning an interval by counting in both termini, just fifty days (Lev. xxiii. 16) after the offering of the first sheaf of the harvest at the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Pentecost or &quot; Fiftieth &quot; day is only a Greek equivalent of the last name (Trevr^Koo-r?; in the Apocrypha and New Testament). The orthodox later Jews reckoned the fifty days from the sixteenth of Nisan, cutting the ritual sheaf on the night of (that is, on our division of days, the night preceding) that day (see PASSOVER). In Deuteronomy Pentecost, like the other two great annual feasts, is a pil grimage feast (Deut. xvi. 16), and so it was observed in later times ; but, unlike the others, it lasts but one day, agreeably to its character (expressed in the name rnvy, AcrapOd, given to it by Josephus and the later Jews) as merely the solemn closing day of harvest-time. Like the other great feasts, it came to be celebrated by fixed special sacrifices. The amount of these is differently expressed in the earlier and later priestly law (Lev. xxiii. 18 sq. ; Num. xxviii. 26 sq.) ; the discrepancy was met by adding the two lists. The later Jews also extended the one day of the feast to two. Further, in accordance with the tend ency to substitute historical for economic explanations of the great feasts, Pentecost came to be regarded as the feast commemorative of the Sinaitic legislation. To the Christian church Pentecost acquired a new sig nificance through the outpouring of the Spirit (Acts ii.). See WHITSUNDAY. PENZA, a government of eastern Russia, bounded on the N. by Nijni Novgorod, on the E. by Simbirsk, and on the S. and W. by Saratoff and Tamboff, and having an area of 15,000 square miles. The surface is undulating, with deep valleys and ravines, but even in its highest parts it does not reach more than 600 to 900 feet above sea- level. It is chiefly made up of Cretaceous sandstones, sands, marls, and chalk, covered in the east by Eocene deposits. Chalk, potter s clay, peat, and iron are the chief mineral products, in the north. The soil is a black earth, more or less mixed with clay and sand ; the only marshes of any extent occur in the Krasnoslobodsk district ; and considerable sand-areas appear in the broad valleys of the larger rivers. There are extensive forests in the north, but the south shows the characteristic features of a steppe- land. The government is watered by the Moksha, the Sura (both navigable), and the Khoper, belonging respect ively to the Oka, Volga, and Don systems. Timber is floated down several smaller streams, while the Moksha and Sura are important means of conveyance for grain, spirits, timber, metals, and oils. The climate is harsh and continental, the average temperature at Penza being only 39-8 (12 2 in January and 68 5 in July). The population 1,356,600 in 1881, and in 1884 estimated at about 1,465,000 consists principally of Russians, mixed to some extent with Mordvinians ; there are also about 150,000 Mordvinians who are to a large extent Russified ; some 40,000 Meschoryaks, who have undergone the same process still more fully; and 60,000 Tatars, who still keep their own religion, language, and customs. The Russians profess the Greek faith, and very many, especially in the north, are Raskolniks. Somewhat less than 10 per cent, of the population (133,250 in 1881) live in towns ; the chief occupation of the inhabitants is agriculture, 61 per cent, of the soil being arable. Wheat and millet are raised only to a limited extent, the chief crops being rye, oats, buckwheat, hemp, potatoes, and beetroot. The averages for 1870-77 were 3,900,000 quarters of corn and 1,779,200 bushels of potatoes. The chief centres of corn export are Penxa, Narovtchat, and Golovinshtchina. Market-gardening is successfully