Again....andrewcriddle wrote: ↑Thu Jan 05, 2023 10:11 am The Pentateuch upholds an unusually elaborate system of ritual observances for reconciliation with God. Sin offerings, trespass offerings etc. This is something which the Laws is very uneasy about. It opposes any suggestion that one can be in God's favour by rituals rather than moral behaviour.
Andrew Criddle
Yes, it looks as though the Pentateuch was incorporating local Canaanite-Transjordan-Nabatean/Judean/Samaritan rituals into the Pentateuch. Again -- the blend of cultures. But Plato certainly endorsed animal sacrifice. He even describes a covenant renewal ceremony (not in Laws but another work) where the leaders of Atlantis poor the blood of a bull over a covenant stone and promise to keep the covenant forever etc etc -- not unlike the Exodus covenant ceremony in some respects. But I don't know to what extent the Pentateuch speaks of rituals as a form of bribery of the divine.
But anyone reading the Pentateuch cannot fail to be impressed by the strongly moral message, the commands to be holy, the central command being to love God and then neighbour. Plato did endorse religious feasts on a regular basis and that's what the Pentateuch does, too.
Somewhere else I think Andrew said the Laws stressed rewards in the hereafter. Well, yes, Plato taught the immortal soul. But the Pentateuch rejected the idea of an immortal soul so it could hardly endorse a happy life in the Elysian fields. But there is no doubt that the Laws very much stressed happiness and fulfilment of life in the here and now -- just as did the Pentateuch.