socioreligious distinctiveness from the alien majority or surrounding culture (see D. L. Smith 1989: 80–84, 139–51). What has appeared as rigid and formalistic ritual regulations to generations of theological critics can be better understood in terms of the process of cultural distancing and, thus, of survival. Given such a significant function for cultural, and especially cultic, distinction, it is remarkable to find in this conclusion to Zechariah a situation in which such boundaries are to be