Gerhard von Rad wrote, “Our best starting-point [for determining their view of ‘righteousness’] is the so-called liturgies of the gate, which represent a curious ceremony that took place at the entry of a procession into the pre-exilic Temple, and some idea of which is given in Pss. xv and xxiv. The people coming in seek admission at the gate of the outer forecourt, and ask what the prerequisites are: ‘Who may ascend the mountain of God, who may stand in his holy place?’ To this the cultic officials answer from within: ‘He whose hands are clean and whose heart is pure, who does not direct his thought towards evil, who does not swear deceitfully ….’ This means that a selection of Jaweh’s commandments was put before those who entered. Admittedly, we do not have to conclude from this that in ancient Israel the fulfilling of the commandments was in principle antecedent to the reception of salvation and the cult, since those seeking admission were certainly not coming before Jahweh for the first time—they had been members of the community of Jahweh from the beginning. But this much becomes clear: those who came to worship were asked for something like a declaration of loyalty to Jahweh’s will for justice.”[1]

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