But they also serve another very important function, and that was the formation and maintenance of a differentiated ethnic identity or in Priestly parlance, the formation and maintenance of a holy peoples separated out from other nations by rules that mark her as God's people.

但是它们也有另外一个很重要的功能，这个功能形成并维护了,一个分化的种族身份，或者用神职人员的说法，这些规则促使了神圣民族的形成和保持,这个民族和其他的城邦区别开来，被标记为上帝的子民。

耶鲁公开课 - 旧约导论课程节选