V
0^VQF7Si^
APP^ -^ 1919
4
THE ETHICS AND THEOLOGY
OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
Crown 8wo, price 2/6 each, net.
Modern Handbooks of Religion
RELIGION AS AFFECTED BY MODERN
SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY.
By Stanley A. Mellor, b.a., ph.d.
' Mr, Mellor's masterly discussion of these problems
may be strongly recommended.' — Review of Theology
and Philosophy.
RELIGION IN SOCIAL and NATIONAL LIFE
By H. D. Roberts.
' He writes with much freshness and earnestness.' —
Liverpool Post.
THE NEW TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT
OF MODERN KNOWLEDGE.
By Herbert McLachlan, m.a., b.d.
' Every topic is carefully and interestingly treated.' —
Christian World.
COMIHUNION OF MAN WITH GOD.
By R. NicoL Cross, m.a.
' A bracing and broadening study of an inexhaustible
subject.' — Christian Commonwealth.
JESUS AND CHRISTIANITY IN THE
TWENTIETH CENTURY.
By Alfred Hall, m.a.
' An able review of modem Christology.' — Times,
REVELATION of GOD in NATURE and MAN.
By Edgar Thackray, m.a., ph.d.
' He lays stress throughout his work on divine
immanence as suggesting the true sources of revela-
tion.'— Glasgow Herald.
THE DIVINE ELEMENT IN ART AND
LITERATURE.
By W. L. SCHROEDER, M.A.
' He adds to a serious and devout mind a consider-
siderable knowledge of the music, the art, and the
letters of present and past times.' — Times.
ETERNAL LIFE HERE AND HEREAFTER.
By S. H. Mellone, m.a., d.sc.
' An extraordinarily cheap book considering its size
and the amount of hard thinking and good writing
that it contains.' — Expository Times.
LINDSEY PRESS, 5 ESSEX STREET, STRAND, LONDON, W.C. 2.
THE
ETHICS AND THEOLOGY
OF
THE OLD TESTAMENT
ARTHUR W. FOX, M.A.
LONDON
5 ESSEX STREET, STRAND, W.C.
1918
PRINTED BY ELSOM AND CO.,
MARKEI PLACE, BULL
PREFACE
This book contains notes on the Ethics
and Theology of the Old Testament. It
must not be taken to be anything more.
The subject is too vast to be treated ade-
quately in a short space. Many lines of
argument necessary to the conclusions ad-
vanced have been omitted perforce. It is
intended to be read with the Bible in hand,
so that the points may be seen clearly. The
compiler is very sensible of its defects, and
hopes that the reader will consult some of
the books named in the Bibliography for
fuller information and reasoning. To all of
them he owes much, most of all to Dr.
Foster Kent's excellent ' Student's Old
Testament,' five volumes of which have been
already published, and the sixth is eagerly
awaited by all students of the Old Testament.
The author's object is to awaken an interest
in one of the most human and living collec-
tions of man's thought on the nature and
Preface
being of God, and his relations to man and
the world. He wishes too to scatter some
old misconceptions of the meaning of revela-
tion and inspiration, which have hindered
the Bible-reader from a real understanding
of the Jewish Scriptures.
He has based his conclusions not upon
those of great Old Testament scholars alone,
but on an independent and careful examina-
tion of the various books. Had greater
space been at his disposal, he could have
elaborated both the evidence and conclu-
sions drawn from it. His work has been
a labour of love undertaken in a spirit of
deep reverence, yet with that freedom of
investigation which alone can lead towards
truth. It is his earnest desire to induce
others to study the Old Testament, that
they too may perceive the wonderful evolu-
tion of thought and conduct, which is shown
so clearly in its various writings. He
acknowledges thankfully his debt to Dr.
Mellone, Principal of the Unitarian Home
Missionary College, for real help and valuable
suggestions.
A. W. F.
Todmorden, March, 19 18.
CONTENTS
Page
Chapter I
The Study OF THE Old Testament .... i
Chapter II
Earlier Hebrew Religion 20
Chapter III
Mosaism and the Hebrews 63
Chapter IV
The Birth OF Prophecy 104
Chapter V
The Literary Prophets 145
Chapter VI
The Religion OF a Book 183
Chapter VII
The Religion OF Sacred Song 212
Chapter VIII
Job, the Wisdom Literature, AND Daniel . . 245
Epilogue 285
Bibliography and Index ., ... ., . ... 289
Chapter I
THE STUDY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
The old view and the new. Inspiration and Revela-
tion. Textual Criticism. Historical Criticism. Illus-
trations of its results. Foundations of the study of
the Old Testament.
ALTHOUGH the old belief in the plenary-
inspiration of the Bible has largely
yielded to the assaults of criticism in the minds
of most reflective readers, its effects survive
in unexpected quarters. Dean Burgon once
stated its extreme position with fine exaggera-
tion, when he ventured to assert in subs-
tance that ' every word, every comma, every
letter, every full stop in the Holy Scriptures
were divinely inspired.' He forgot surely
that in most of the oldest original manu-
scripts there were no marks of punctuation.
When indeed a colon was inserted in
Romans ix. 5, in the excellent manuscript
Codex Ephraemi, he refused on dogmatic
2 Study of the Old Testament
grounds to recognize its existence. What
he meant in plainer terms was simply this :
the Spirit of God dictated precisely what was
written down, while the sacred authors wrote
from his dictation inerrant statements of
final truth. Others have called the ancient
writers ' God's pens directed by his Spirit,'
Such a. theory of inspiration — for theory
it is and nothing more — needs only to be
stated to show its inherent unreality. A
few sects cling to it in its crudity ; but most
scholars have rejected it, though all of them
have not shaken themselves free from its
influence.
Hence many theologians postulate a
different kind of inspiration for the Bible
from that which is the source of other sacred
or ennobling books. Thus they are led to
wrest the plain sense of a multitude of
passages in the Bible when they attempt to
interpret them. Others again persistently,
perhaps half unconsciously, imagine that the
conceptions of God in the various writings
of the Old Testament are one and the same.
Even if they do not admit this glaring
fallacy to themselves, its influence colours
no small part of their thought.
The scholars of the Roman Catholic
Inspiration and Revelation 3
Church do not hesitate to regard the Bible
as the secret treasure of their Church, which
alone is able to interpret it correctly accord-
ing to ecclesiastical tradition. Luther and
the Reformers effectually shattered that
arrogant claim, but set up a no less false
view of inspiration. With this view is
closely bound up an equally unreal concep-
tion of revelation, which in divine truth is
confined to the Bible and closes with the
end of the hallowed volume. Thus a radic-
ally untrue definition of revelation is held
up by a host of preachers for popular
acceptance.
Any scholar who holds that inspiration
means dictation by God, and that it is his
sole duty to interpret new truth in the light
of any such divine dictation, will never
understand the Bible. Such a conviction
does grave injustice more especially to the
Old Testament. In Puritan times and
before, it led to the absurd allegorizing into
a picture of Christ and his Church of that
collection of exquisite and sensuous bridal
odes known as the Song of Songs. Even in
our own day many struggle to do away with
the difficulty of the obvious conflict of
physical science with the narrative of
4 Study of the Old Testament
Creation (Genesis i.-ii. 4a) by lengthening
out the days of creation into myriads
of years. Such attempted harmonizations,
though pious in intention do not carry the
serious student far on the way towards truth,
but have a tendency to lead him away from
it. They are the direct result of that unreal
conception of inspiration which confuses it
with dictation and consequently accepts
its written results as infallible. Something
different then must be meant both by in-
spiration and revelation.
In the first place revelation must never be
regarded as a completed process, but rather
as the gradual unveiling by God of his
nature and being in the soul of man along
the centuries with so much light as the
thinkers in each were able to bear. By its
very essence it must be and is progressive,
as may be seen by any unprejudiced reader
of the Old Testament. At each stage of its
progress it displays unmistakable evidence
of the ideas of the thinkers during that stage.
In the various conceptions of the personality
of God we can follow the development in
thought about Jahveh {Jehovah) from the
family to the tribal god, from the tribal to
the national god, from the national to the
Inspiration and Revelation 5
supreme God of the universe. Similarly,
there is a distinct growth in the ethical
and spiritual perception of the character of
Jahveh corresponding to the ideals of the
holiest men of each succeeding generation.
To the authors of the early traditions
lying at the back of the book of Judges the
character of Jahveh appeared to be far less
exalted than to Hosea or Isaiah. Gideon,
Jephthah, and their contemporaries would
hardly have understood the thought of God
which breathes through the beautiful pages
of Deuteronomy. Step by step along the
ages of the past the thinkers of each gen-
eration, beginning from the vantage-ground
attained by the one immediately preceding
it, climbed gradually up the path of re-
velation, until the priests became supreme
and the Old Testament was finally closed.
So those who understand revelation to im-
ply finality fail to perceive the method of
God in relation to his children, as it is
displayed in the history of mankind. In
the past his Spirit stirred more gifted men
to think out the problems of God, the origin
of men and things, duty, life, death. They
were moved to utter their thoughts in speech,
or to write them down for the benefit of the
6 Study of the Old Testament
future. But they were left free to express
their ideas in their own words, with their
own imagery, limited largely by the con-
ditions of their own day, but occasionally
transcending these by the power of their
ideal. With each generation the ideal be-
came more exalted ; thus human progress
has been rendered possible, nor has it ceased
with the close of the Bible.
Such is inspiration, the stirring of the
Spirit of God in the soul of man to noble
thoughts and lofty ideals, while its conse-
quent result is revelation. The old view, by
which the Bible was regarded as the only
divinely inspired book, the actual and
' literal word of God,' is slowly but surely
passing away. The study of comparative
religions has hastened its passing by showing
that to other nations besides the Hebrews
inspiration and revelation have been given
in varying degrees and leading to various
heights of truth. The Old Testament in
particular has suffered sorely from its long
prevalence. Types of Christ have been
found in passages which have nothing to do
with Christ ; antitypes have been set in
opposition to the types, and prototypes been
set before both. False conceptions of the
Inspiration and Revelation 7
character of God drawn from the oldest
traditions of a primitive age have been
foisted into Christianity itself and endless
confusions have arisen.
Now a change has taken place in theo-
logical inquiry : it has been clearly realized
at last that the Bible is a human library
containing many different books, the work
of many different thinkers of widely dif-
ferent dates, each of which must be so
studied that we may understand its dis-
tinctive thought and characteristic manner
of expression. It is surely more important
to discover what a given writer really means
than to credit him with conceptions drawn
from a more advanced stage of thought.
The Old Testament especially must be read
in each of its parts not with the view of
importing into it that Christian theology
which is the growth of at least five cen-
turies, which may have its roots in the
Bible, but certainly is not found in its
full development in the Bible, much less in
the Hebrew Scriptures. It must be studied
with the plain object of getting at its origin-
al meaning, as it was intended by its writers
and recognized by their contemporaries.
It is only when the earnest and reverent
8 Study of the Old Testament
inquirer observes this guiding principle, that
he can hope to discover the true sense of
what he is reading. Doubtless he will make
many mistakes and commit some extrava-
gances : but as inscriptions and manuscripts
are discovered, as more is learned of the
thought and life of the neighbouring peoples
whose influence can be traced over Israel,
the possibility of mistakes grows less and
the attainment of truth becomes more
assured. It is the object of this little work
to trace the growth of the progressive self-
revelation of God in his relations with one
ancient people, which is found with unique
clearness and beauty in the Old Testament.
As far as can be divined with any degree of
certainty, the Hebrew nation differs from
every other people of antiquity in insisting
from its earliest origin upon the holiness of
God. That is why the study of its history
and religion is so essential to our modern
thought, to say nothing of the further reason
that Christianity cannot be understood
without it. The first step in any such in-
vestigation is to secure as accurate a text as
possible, so that we may feel comparatively
confident that we have before us what was
actually written by the writer in his very
Textual Criticism 9
words. First the various manuscripts must
be compared with one another that from
their different readings the best and most
coherent may be selected. If the printing-
press leaves room for many mistakes, the
copying out by hand of ancient manuscripts
left room for many more. Secondly the
translations of the earliest date must be
consulted, as they often help the student to
restore the original Hebrew of the manu-
script from which they have been made.
Amongst these the Septuagint or version of
the Old Testament by the ' Seventy Elders '
in Alexandria is of prime importance, as its
text differs often from that of our ordinary
Hebrew Bible and was earlier (250-105 B.C.).
Lastly and more sparingly the positive
blunders of the scribes who made the copy,
must be corrected as far as may be. It
must be remarked that there is no finality
in Textual Criticism : an older manuscript
than any which have survived, may yet be
found, and the text materially altered. But
there is good reason to believe that we have
a fairly correct text of the Old Testament in
its more essential parts, so that we may feel
a certain degree of security in attempting its
sound interpretation.
10 Study of the Old Testament
When Textual Criticism has done its
work, a further step must be taken. The
student needs not simply to be able to
translate it, but to understand what the
text means. This he can hardly achieve
without the aid of Historical Criticism, by
which an attempt is made to find out if
possible when the documents were written,
who wrote them, the circumstances under
which they were written, what their authors
meant by their writings, how those under-
stood them for whom they were written.
That is the process applied by all scholars to
ancient works of any country and in any
language : why then should the Old Testa-
ment alone be exempt from it, nay, how can
we hope to understand the Old Testament
without its employment ?
So far is its sacredness from being des-
troyed by this necessary process, that as its
historical application is perceived, its reli-
gious worth is immeasurably enhanced. It
is not holy, as not a few still believe, because
its manner of writing was fundamentally
different from that of other sacred books, but
because of what is written in it, because it is
possible to trace clearly in its pages a con-
tinuous revelation of God in the spirits of
Historical Criticism ii
prophet, historian, thinker, poet, which is
seen at its highest in the Hfe-work of Jesus
* the prophet of Nazareth.' It is the purpose
of Historical Criticism to investigate this
development in thought from its original
simphcity to its fullest achievement, from
its tiny seed to its ripened fruit. Hence
Historical Criticism is not only extremely
helpful, but absolutely essential, to the
correct understanding of the Old Testament,
as of all other ancient writings. It is the
guide leading by slow and painful steps to
the mountain-top, from which the widest
prospect can be obtained, noting by the way
the various view-points passed and calling
attention to the beauties of each.
This is not the place to recount the
different methods which have been adopted
to secure a better understanding of the Old
Testament or the scholars who have adopted
them. Such a narrative would fill a long
series of volumes. At this point it will
suffice to state that the general results
of Historical Criticism will be taken for
granted, though the extreme positions of
certain modern scholars will be set upon
one side as too speculative and as lacking
sufficient evidence. In the first place it will
12 Study of the Old Testament
be interesting by way of contrast to submit
examples of the older view of some portions
of the Old Testament, to show what His-
torical Criticism has done in the past, what
it can do in the present and future. Former
readers regarded the whole of the Pentateuch
— or first five books of the Bible — with a
few insignificant exceptions as having been
written by Moses, the book of Joshua as
bearing the name of its author, the Psalms as
having been produced by David save where
some are stated to be the work of other men.
Historical Criticism has long since sapped
the foundations of any such belief, which
involves the Bible-reader in a maze of con-
tradictions extremely puzzling to all who
accept the infallibility of the book. It has
been applied resolutely to the Pentateuch,
which with the book of Joshua makes up
the Hexateuch — or work in six parts — with
a surprising uniformity of results amongst a
great number of sober scholars. Colenso,
Driver, and many others in England,
Kuenen and Oort in Holland, Wellhausen
and Duhm in Germany, Dr. Moore and Dr.
Foster Kent in America, to name only a
few, have reached very definite conclusions
from their patient and laborious research :
Four Strands in the Hexateuch 13
while they differ widely in detail, they agree
in their main results.
At least four strands have been found
carefully intertwined or singly in the Hexa-
teuch, each representing the traditions of a
different period with a long interval between
the first and the last. The earliest is / or
the Jahvist (Jehovist) so called because from
the beginning he applies the name Jahveh to
God. The writing of his school is the most
vigorous and picturesque of the four, as
his conception of God is the most anthro-
pomorphic. His work may be said with
probable correctness to have been written
down from about 850 to 800 B.C. The
writers of his school, who are denoted by /
as if they were a single person for conveni-
ence, have a strong interest in the kingdom of
Judah and were also of the prophetic class.
About 750-700 B.C. the prophetic schools
of the northern kingdom began to compile
their history-book beginning with the story
of Abraham and probably ending with the
fall of Samaria in 721 B.C. They are known
by the general name of the Elohist denoted
by the symbol E, because they use the
word Elohim for God until the revelation of
his name to Moses (Exodus iii. 15). The
14 Study of the Old Testament
Elohist is more spiritual and less anthropo-
morphic than his predecessor and at the
same time less vivid and picturesque.
Somewhere about 650 B.C. an historian of
the Judah linked together / and E into one
history-book known as JE, which lies at the
basis of the historical portions of Deuter-
onomy and of much of its legislation. To-
gether with the book of Judges JE contains
the earliest legends and traditions of the
Hebrew race, which are told always to drive
home some moral lesson.
Some years after 621 B.C. the law-book of
Deuteronomy was added to JE to form what
may be styled JED. This may have occurred
just before or just after the Exile in 586 B.C.
At the same time the previous history was re-
touched by the Deuteronomist or D, whose
hand is most conspicuous in the early part of
Joshua. This school of writers edited Joshua,
Judges, Samuel, and Kings, making large
additions to each, and handing them down
substantially as they are found to-day. They
could not accept the ancient stories in their
original simplicity and occasional crudity:
hence they interwove narratives of their
own into the older traditions to correct them
according to their moral standards.
Four Strands in the Hexateuch 15
This process of rewriting history was
carried to a great excess by the priestly
writers of the Exile and just afterwards,
whose work is commonly known as P.
Believing that Israel from the first was a
' covenant people ' bound together in a divine
theocracy, in which the priest alone was en-
titled to sacrifice and the high priest was
spiritual head of the whole, they transferred
the gorgeous ritual of the Temple of Solomon
to the first days of the nation, and imagined
that their elaborate ceremonial code cen-
tred upon an impossibly splendid tabernacle
was revealed to Moses upon Sinai. This
with a bare annalistic account of the
patriarchs they interwove with JED, thus
forming JEDP, or the Pentateuch as it has
survived. Probably their work was not
completed until somewhere about 400-350
B.C. The style of these four schools of
authors or compilers is quite distinct and for
the most part the components can be
separated from one another, when each will
be found to form a connected story.
Historical Criticism has succeeded with
marvellous skill in disentangling these four
strands of tradition, so that the student is
able to assign each to its own place in the
i6 Study of the Old Testament
development of Hebrew religion with com-
parative certainty. The task at first was
one of enormous difficulty, requiring a
competent knowledge of Hebrew and its
cognate languages, a minute examination
of other ancient records and inscriptions,
a nicely balanced judgment, and above all
an intense sympathy with the matter under
investigation. It has had to combat deeply
rooted prejudices, to destroy the founda-
tions of many old and fondly cherished
beliefs.
What, then, are the foundations of the
present brief study of the theology and
ethics of the Old Testament ? First and
foremost it is based upon a searching ex-
amination of the Old Testament itself, such
as would be essential to the understanding
of any other ancient document. Next that
great religious library must be read as far
as possible in the light of the circumstances in
which its various books were written, read
as a collection of intensely human documents,
containing the record of God's progressive
self-revelation to his people along the
centuries of its independent existence, during
the Exile, and after its return to its beloved
home-land.
Foundations of the Study 17
Historical Criticism is a necessary guide
in any such investigation. Beginning with
the writings themselves it simply seeks to
discover their historical order, to arrive at
the actual meaning of each. From its
patient efforts we learn that the tradition of
Israel is fourfold, that the intertwined
strands can be separated, that each belongs
to a well-defined period. The positive re-
sults of this method of inquiry will supply
a generally secure basis for the conclusions
which will be drawn. An attempt will be
made to weigh the evidence impartially :
theories simply traditional or merely specu-
lative will be set in their proper places,
though they cannot be entirely ignored
without doing injustice to their underlying
thought. But many of the results of modern
criticism are as certain as human study and
human judgment can make them. They
are supported alike by such external evidence
as is available, and what is of far more im-
portance, by the Old Testament writings
themselves. Finality is not sought or at-
tempted, since it cannot be reached by
human thinkers : the student moves to-
wards truth, which in its fullness rests with
God alone.
c
i8 Study of the Old Testament
The prophet-preachers of the Hebrews
collected the oral traditions of the far past
of their race, writing them down to illustrate
profound moral lessons. Hence it will be
possible to discern their thoughts and ideals
in the realm of religion. This purpose in
their writing must be borne in mind in any
attempt to get behind their range of con-
ceptions to the traditions themselves as they
formed part of the national development.
They have been set down in many cases so
exactly, that it is still possible to arrive at
their original form apart from the lesson
which it was intended to convey. Alike in
the oracles and narratives of the prophet-
preachers the student will find secure founda-
tions for such conclusions as he is able to
attain. From age to age their thought grew
in range and intensity, though each of them
plainly reveals the circumstances and con-
ditions of his own age. By their aid and
by the evidence which they offer, the student
will be able to trace religious progress step
by step, making each secure as he passes
along. So to him the Old Testament will
become luminous with heavenly light shining
through pure and holy human souls, and he
will be able not only to apprehend the growth
Foundations of the Study 19
of Hebrew religion, but the eternal progress
of all religion.
Nor will he forget that the ancient teachers
have their descendants in these later days,
who bear a closer resemblance to them than
is always either recognized or admitted.
He will bear in mind that the book of revela-
tion is not yet closed ; nor will he seek to
close it by limiting it to one nation or to one
period. He will proceed along the toilsome
path of patient research in perfect freedom,
moving from recess to recess, until he has
penetrated to the heart of the matter, as
far as his strength will permit. Then he will
lay the results of his inquiry before the
reader, knowing well that they are fallible
and liable to revision by later investigators.
The reasoned conclusions of some of the
greatest Old Testament scholars will be set
forth in the following pages, though an inde-
pendent judgment will be exercised in their
selection and with regard to their validity.
By this means it is hoped that the Old Testa-
ment will be no longer considered as a closed
and completed record of all revelation until
the New, but as a living human library con-
taining the narrative of a progressive revela-
tion of God himself to man and through man.
Chapter II
EARLIER HEBREW RELIGION
The early Hebrews. The most ancient Legends.
The Creation and the Fall. Two traditions of Cain.
The Sons of God and the Daughters of Men. The
Flood. An early Genealogy. The Tower of Babel.
Jahveh as he appeared to the Patriarchs. Early
Ethics and Theology.
THE earliest known home of Israel lay-
in Haran, between the Euphrates
and the Tigris, where the richness of the
soil had induced the original Semitic race
to make its first settlements. Its ancestors
were one of the youngest branches of the
parental stock, to which their kinship is
betrayed by their language and the most
ancient form of their religion. Many nations
descending from the ancestral race had
already attained a high degree of civiliza-
tion, while Israel was in its infancy, and
continued to exercise a powerful influence
upon its subsequent development.
The Early Hebrews 21
One of the first names of the tribes was
that of ' the Hebrews ' — the men who had
crossed over, the word ' river ' being under-
stood. It still remains uncertain, if the
river in question is the Euphrates or the
Jordan. In the one case the name would
be given to the nation on its departure from
its primitive home, in the other it would
date from the beginning of the conquest of
Canaan. The former explanation derives
some doubtful support from Genesis xiv. 13,
where Abram or Abraham is named ' the
Hebrew ' : but its force depends upon the
date assigned to that enigmatical chapter.
It is, however, of comparatively small
importance which alternative is chosen, so
long as it is remembered that the first
Hebrews were a clan or clans of emigrant
nomads leaving their first home under some
well-known leader, halting for a time in
Canaan, and settling for a longer period in
the district of Goshen in Egypt. This
leader is always represented as Abram in
the earliest documents, whose name after-
wards became Abraham, which form will
be used henceforth. The clan appears first
as his household ; behind his figure very
possibly was a real hero of the name, whose
22 Earlier Hebrew Religion
strong personality impressed itself so deeply
upon his followers that they learned to regard
him as their ' first father.' Genesis xiv.
may supply a hint of such a heroic person-
ality, where he is represented as a mighty
Sheikh able to recover his nephew Lot by a
rear-guard action with the powerful army of
the local kings. If indeed ' Amraphel king
of Shinar,' who appears in this narrative, be
the same with Hammur-abi, who flourished
about 2200 B.C., the evidence would be
definite. But as the date of the chapter is
uncertain, its testimony must not be pressed,
though it must not be overlooked.
One fact must be noted at the outset ;
all Semitic peoples have the custom of des-
cribing a whole clan by the single name of a
heroic leader, and embodying its history in
his exploits. The nations of Moab and
Ammon are thus described as the sons of
Lot by his own daughters (Genesis xix.
30-38). Indeed the later but more famihar
designation of the Hebrews as ' Children of
Israel ' differs little from the Irish and
Highland clan-names, such as the O'Neils,
that is ' descendants of Neil of the nine
hostages,' or the McDonalds, that is ' sons
of Donald.' Hence the story of Abraham
The Early Hebrews 23
in its essence may be nothing more than a
piece of graphically told clan-history.
Few of the earlier stories in Genesis have
survived exactly in their primitive form.
The oral traditions were written down by
the prophet-preachers of the kingdoms of
Judah and Israel with a definite moral
purpose. Hence it is natural to suppose
that they have toned down the crude
simplicity of the more ancient myths and
moulded the first legends to secure their
object. Some have maintained that the
patriarchs are the heroes or gods of local
Canaanite shrines, Abraham of Hebron,
Isaac of Beersheba, and so forth. But even
though the Hebrews found a considerable
civilization in Canaan, when they raided it,
there is no adequate support in the Old
Testament for this conjecture — it is nothing
more — wherein so far as they are concerned
there is almost no trace of ancestor worship.
It may, therefore, be passed by until more
conclusive evidence is produced in its
support.
So far as we know their story, the first
Hebrews were nomads starting from Mesopo-
tamia, seeking pasturage for their flocks and
herds as they passed westward. They must
24 Earlier Hebrew Religion
therefore have brought with them many of
their old conceptions and customs of worship
from their home in Haran. It is the task
of the rehgious historian to trace these ideas
and habits as nearly as may be to their source.
The matter involves much difficulty : the
surviving narratives are derived from a
period considerably later in the national
history, and cannot fail to be modified by
its thought. An invaluable antiquarian note
(Joshua xxiv. 2) runs thus : — ' Your fathers
dwelt of old beyond the Euphrates, even
Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father
of Nahor ; and they served other gods.^ Here it
is plainly asserted that the forefathers of
the Hebrews before their migration from
their earliest home were polytheists hke the
rest of the Semites, who remained such
through the future.
It cannot now be decided how long their
descendants continued to follow the practice
of their ancestors. Probably the clan of
Nahor which lingered along the banks of
the Euphrates, remained true to its ancient
faith. The clan of Abraham in its wander-
ings from pasture-ground to pasture-ground
would naturally tend towards the belief in a
tribal god, who could go with them on their
The Early Hebrews 25
journeys and protect them. A further note
is found concerning Enosh the son of Seth
(Genesis iv. 26), which declares ' Then men
began to call on the name of Jahveh.' In
other words the worship of Jahveh dated
from the time of Enosh, which would locate
its origin in Haran before the migration
took place. The note itself may have no
great historical value : but it does show
that in the opinion of its author there was a
time when Jahveh was either not known, or
not worshipped under that name. If the
two notes be taken together, it is possible
to infer that the worship of Jahveh was not
the practice of the nation in the far-off past,
though his name may not have been en-
tirely unknown in some of its families. It
has indeed been contended, perhaps with
more emphasis than force, by Friedrich
Delitzsch (' Babel and Bible,' pp. 71-72)
that the name Jahveh has been found as
part of proper names amongst the records of
Babylon. But greater agreement than exists
to-day in the interpretation of these vener-
able documents is needed, before a positive
conclusion can be reached.
The story of Jacob supplies a hint of
primitive polytheism in the family of Terah.
26 Earlier Hebrew Religion
When he was bidding farewell to Laban, he
is represented as making a covenant with his
wily father-in-law (Genesis xxxi. 53), where-
in the latter says, ' The God of Abraham and
the god of Nahor, the gods of their fathers,
shall judge between us.' It is true that the
word ' gods ' may be translated as in the
Septuagint by the singular word ' God ' :
but as the Hebrew verb is in the plural, such
a rendering is not so correct. Now Laban
is said to have had a household god or gods
(Teraph or Teraphim), which Rachel stole
from her father (Genesis xxxi. 30). Hence
it seems probable that Laban swore by his
family-god, while Jacob swore by his under
the name of ' the Fear of Isaac' Again it
is recorded that Jacob at a later period in
obedience to the divine command caused
the members of his caravan to ' put away
the strange gods,' which they had been
worshipping (xxxv. 2-4), which he buried
beneath the terebinth in Shechem. Hence
it would seem certain, that so long as he
remained with Laban, Jacob's household
worshipped other gods than the leader of
their clan. No doubt Laban's Teraph may
have been an image of Jahveh ; but that
is far from probable. Of course the evidence
The Creation and the Fall 27
based upon a single passage of disputed in-
terpretation must not be pressed too closely ;
but the passage itself is significant and must
be allowed its due weight in any faithful in-
vestigation of Hebrew religion.
It now becomes necessary to consider some
of the most ancient Semitic legends, which
the nomads almost certainly brought with
them from Mesopotamia, The first natural
questions which primitive man asks himself
are these. Whence did I come, what am I,
whither am I going, what is the source of all
that I see around me ? In the oldest legend
of the Creation with its accompanying story
of ' the Fall ' (Genesis ii. 4b-iii.) a noble
attempt has been made to find satisfying
answers in a beautiful and childlike form.
The Creation-story found in the opening of
Genesis (i.-ii. 4a) cannot properly be dis-
cussed at this point of the history : it is one
of the latest additions to the Pentateuch,
and though based on an old Babylonian
narrative its underlying thought is more
scientific and more spiritual than the one
under consideration.
Hitherto no close parallel to the earlier
account has yet been found in the Baby-
lonian records. Hence it may fairly be re-
28 Earlier Hebrew Religion
garded as an original contribution to re-
ligious thought from some northern Semitic
source. It may be noted that at the be-
ginning of the description of the Fall the
presence in Eden of the ' tree of life,' as well
as of the ' tree of knowledge,' has been
omitted. Much weight need not be attached
to the omission, which may be paralleled in
historians of a far later date. Oral tradition
is rarely exact or self -consistent in all of its
details. Though the narrative of the legend
has been invested with a fine prophetic
glamour, it is clearly most primitive and in
its earliest form lies within the beginnings of
recorded Hebrew thought. It is based upon
the inference that as children are born into
the ordinary family, so the human race must
have owed its origin to a solitary pair.
The story of the creation first of the man,
then of the woman, is in the highest degree
anthropomorphic. Jahveh is represented as
actually moulding Adam out of ' the dust of
the earth,' as literally ' breathing into his
nostrils the breath of life,' as making the
animals to be his companions, and upon the
failure of these as shaping Eve out of one of
his ribs. What matters most in this simple
process is that it finds an answer to the
The Creation and the Fall 29
question ' what is the source of all things ? '
in the creative activity of Jahveh. Again
after appointing the man and the woman to
tend the garden, during ' the cool of the day '
he comes to walk in it like an Eastern
monarch in his plaisance. It is very
human, yet at the same time very dignified,
and just what might have been expected
from childlike prehistoric thought.
Moreover, as it was natural for an Eastern
king to forbid his gardeners to eat of some
particularly choice fruit, Jahveh laid a
strong prohibition upon the man and the
woman. Immediately their curiosity was
aroused and made them long to break his
commandment. The idea of the ' tree of
knowledge ' has no exact parallel elsewhere
in Semitic thought. The ' tree of life,' on
the other hand, appears amongst the ancient
myths of many different nations. It is
worthy of remark that Semitic nations com-
monly ascribed the Creation to their own
chief deity, though they were far from deny-
ing the existence of other gods in their own
and in other peoples. It is of the essence of
polytheism to be tolerant.
The story of the Fall originally was prob-
ably an ' aetiological legend,' that is a legend
30 Earlier Hebrew Religion
attempting to explain the ' cause ' of com-
mon events in life. It would seem to have
been meant to account for the severe pangs
of child-birth, the necessity of hard and
laborious work, the serpent's peculiar way
of moving over the ground. The talking
serpent itself finds many parallels in the
numerous Eastern stories in which speaking
animals play a prominent part. As it has
survived in the dressing of the Judean
prophets, the legend has taken upon itself
a more solemn meaning than was probably
involved in it at first. It does explain what
it set out to explain, but it does infinitely
more. It describes in clearest terms the
source of temptation, sin, punishment.
Curiously enough the legend does not seem
to have influenced the later prophetic
theology ; nor do we find any allusion to it
in the Old Testament after the first six
chapters of Genesis.
The tale may contain reminiscences of the
fertile home of the first Hebrews in Mesopo-
tamia, as may be implied by the elaborate
geographical note upon the situation of Eden
(Genesis ii. 10-14), which seems to have been
added by a later editor. If that be the case,
the story itself grew in Haran or Syria, before
Two Traditions of Cain 31
the nomads made their first appearance in
Canaan. By it we learn that in older days
they held an anthropomorphic conception
of the nature and being of Jahveh, which
was lower than the more spiritual thought
of the prophets, who told the legend in such
a manner as to draw their own moral from
its teaching. It calls up the picture of a
far-distant past, when God was believed to
walk on the earth in a glorified human form,
to hold converse face to face with man,
to make a definite sound when he walked
(Genesis iii. 8), to present the characteristics
of a nobler and mightier man. In this guise
he will meet us again in the stories of the
patriarchs and in many of the later traditions,
though the lessons drawn from them are of
the loftiest and most impressive kind.
The early Creation-legend is followed by
two traditions of Cain, the ' smith ' or ' arti-
ficer ' (Genesis iv. 1-15, 25, 26 ; iv. 16-24),
which do not entirely agree with one another
in their respective views of his character.
In the former he is described with high
dramatic power as the first murderer, be-
cause his vegetarian offering was less accept-
able to Jahveh than Abel's sacrifice from his
flock. In this story he is pictured as con-
32 Earlier Hebrew Religion
demned to bear a particular mark stamped
upon his brow, so that men would recognize
him and suffer him to pass on unharmed.
The other tradition, which takes the form of
an annotated pedigree, makes Cain the father
of a distinguished family including Jubal
the first musician and Tubal-Cain the father
of smiths. No fratricidal murderer could
well be looked upon as the ancestor of such
noteworthy and useful descendants.
Hence probably two independent tradi-
tions have been joined together, of which the
second may be older than the first. It con-
tains a snatch of most ancient poetry in the
* sword-song ' of Lamech (Genesis iv. 23, 24),
which while it gives a high estimation of Cain
as able to exact a ' sevenfold vengeance,'
pays a still higher tribute to Lamech himself,
whose revenge was ' seventy and sevenfold.'
Surely neither Lamech nor his ancestor in
this tradition can be regarded as a common
murderer. The source of this fragment of
minstrelsy is unknown ; but of its extreme
antiquity there can be no reasonable doubt.
The first story of Cain was told to a people
not indisposed to hasty murder, to impress
upon their minds the heinousness of the sin.
In its earliest form it may have been simpler
The Sons of God 33
and told to explain why the murderer was
cast out of the camp and continually liable
to the revenge of the kindred of the murdered
man. The so-called ' brand of Cain ' may
once have been some particular tribal mark,
the meaning of which has been long lost.
Moreover it seems quite possible that the
' Kenites ' or ' artificers,' who played so
important a part in later Hebrew history,
may have been believed to be descendants
from the Cain of the second tradition.
Amongst these old-world legends has crept
in one which bears a closer resemblance to
the cruder forms of Oriental myth than is
usually found in the Old Testament. Evi-
dently it has been told by the prophetic
author just as it has come down to him. But
it bears the mark of its mythical origin no
less than of its venerable age. In substance
it is this : the ' Sons of God ' or ' angelic
beings ' had seen and captivated by the
daughters of men, had made them mothers of
renowned heroes and ' giants ' or ' Nephilim '
(Genesis vi. 1-8). Here is presented a cosmic
myth, which the author leaves as soon as he
has written it down without any explanation
save to account for the wickedness of man
and his subsequent destruction by ' the
34 Earlier Hebrew Religion
Flood.' In his Oriental view of women as
temptresses in chief it never seems to have
occurred to him that the ' Sons of God ' were
chiefly, if not wholly, to blame in this matter,
when he says ' it repented God that he had
made man,' so that they ought to have been
punished rather than man.
The essence of the myth is alien to pro-
phetic thought, which could hardly have
admitted beings so frail as surrounding the
throne of God. It is part of a cycle of myths
such as Jahveh's conflict with ' Rahab ' or
the ' great dragon ' (Isaiah xxx. 7, li. 9 ;
Psalm Ixxxix. 10), which the later prophets
and poets did not shrink from using to point
their moral, when all belief in the truth of
the myth had passed away. Similar stories
are told in the mythology of other nations.
Ancient Greece had its host of demigods
drawing their origin on the one side or the
other from divine parentage such as Hera-
cles and Achilles, with whom may be com-
pared the Romulus of Roman tradition. But
the manner in which its prophetic editor has
employed it is peculiar to himself : nor can
the reader fail to perceive his horror at the
myth itself and his haste to draw from it its
terrible consequences to the human race.
The Flood 35
Living as they had done in Haran in the
infancy of their race, the Hebrews had had
frequent experience of the destructive floods
caused by the overflowing of the Euphrates
and Tigris. There, too, they had doubtless
suffered from the torrential tropical rains,
which had left a deep impression upon their
minds. With their contracted notions of the
extent of the earth, they had come to the
conclusion that at least once the whole of the
world had been overwhelmed by a gigantic
deluge. Two accounts of this cataclysm
have been preserved in Genesis (vi. 9-ix. 17)
ingeniously blended into one. Here we have
the inestimable advantage of being able to
compare the joint narrative with the Baby-
lonian epic on the subject, which has also a
parallel narrative preserved by Berosus.
Both the joint Hebrew story and the single
Babylonian poem coincide in many of the
details, such as the building of the ark and
the sending forth of the two birds, though
their fundamental motives differ widely. In
the Hebrew tradition ' the Flood ' is sent by
Jahveh as a judgment upon the earth for the
wickedness of man. In the Babylonian epic
it would seem to have been caused rather by
the jealousy of man on the part of some of
36 Earlier Hebrew Religion
the gods than by any moral guilt. The end
of each contains both a resemblance and a
difference. In the Hebrew story it is said,
that when Noah offered sacrifice ' Jahveh
smelled the sweet savour ' and blessed him
and the earth for his sake (Genesis viii.
20-22). In the Babylonian poem occurs the
phrase ' the gods gathered like flies to the
sacrifice,' which is altogether on a lower
plane of thought than that of the Hebrew
writer. It may be urged that this differ-
ence of tone is due to the united prophetic
and priestly editing of the original legend,
as it was told amongst the primitive Hebrew
nomads. But there is no conclusive reason
against the supposition that the narratives
were parallel rather than interdependent.
No attempt has been made to separate the
two stories in the Hebrew tradition formed
as they are of the interwoven contributions
of the Jahvist and the priestly editors. It
may be noted that the former is more simple
and childlike, the deluge being caused by the
rain and lasting for ' forty days and forty
nights ' (Genesis vii. 12). In the latter it
was far more cataclysmic ; not only was
there rain, but the ' fountains of the abyss
were broken up ' (Genesis vii. 11), while the
The Flood 37
deluge lasted for a whole solar year. But in
each case the moral is the same : ' the Flood '
is God's judgment upon the guilty human
race. The prophetic and priestly editors
probably modified the legend, giving to it a
more ethical purpose than it had in its
original form, while the latter have made it
the occasion for the renewal of God's
covenant with Israel through Noah.
Such Flood-stories are not the monopoly
of Semitic nations. The Greeks had their
tradition of the destruction of the world on
account of man's wickedness by a deluge
from Zeus, from which Deucalion and Pyrrha
by the aid of a boat were the two survivors.
They repeopled the world by respectively
throwing stones over their shoulders : from
those cast by Deucalion men arose, women
from those cast by Pyrrha. It may be noted
in passing that / has preserved another and
not very edifying story of Noah, which does
not accord entirely with that of ' the Flood '
(Genesis ix. 20-27), ^^^ represents him as
the father of husbandry and first cultivator
of the vine. From this he both made wine
and fell a victim to its seductions to the open
mockery of his son Canaan. It is not easy
to decide why this tradition has been pre-
38 Earlier Hebrew Religion
served unless its object were in the first
place to warn the reader against drunken-
ness, in the second to fix a curse upon Canaan
the father of the Canaanites, which would be
fulfilled in the country called by his name.
The genealogy of Genesis x. (8-19, 21,
24-31) is most ancient, and has this special
claim to attention. It is the original method
of tracing the birth of nations from one
primal stock and their mutual relationship
by treating them as individuals descending
from the one ancestor. That such was the
intention of the compiler of the present
pedigree is obvious from some of its connect-
ing links. Canaan is said to have been the
father of Zidon, of such clans as the Jebusite
(15-17). Now Zidon was a great Phoenician
city, while the persons described as indi-
viduals were in reality clans as may be seen
in the subsequent history. Clearly, then,
Canaan is a personal name used to designate
the inhabitants of Canaan, which contained
and therefore was ' father ' of the city and
tribes mentioned as ' his sons.'
The genealogy contains an interesting
reference to one Nimrod, ' a mighty hunter
before Jahveh ' (x. 9). Whether he was, as
some maintain, the Accadian god ' Mero-
An Early Genealogy 39
dach,' or some later tyrant over the Hebrews,
is uncertain. Possibly verse 9 is a slightly
later note to identify this Nimrod, whom the
Jewish scholars regard as the founder of
Babylon, with the hero of a popular proverb.
Be that as it may, the compiler's purpose in
putting together this genealogy was in great
part to claim that all the peoples of the
earth were of one stock, and therefore ought
to have been worshippers of Jahveh. His
sources are unknown, and may have been
largely imaginary. Eastern peoples are great
upholders of genealogies, which have often
been handed down by word of mouth long
before they were reduced to writing. This
custom grew upon the Israelites and may be
seen in its full tediousness in the Chronicler
(I Chronicles i.-ix.). Whatever maybe thought
of the later pedigrees, which have a close
likeness to their present-day successors, it is
certain that /'s sources were very ancient,
and may have been the offspring of a long
line of oral tradition. In that consists its
chief interest to modern investigators.
The last of the earher Hebrew legends of
this kind is the story of the ' Tower of Babel '
(Genesis xi. 1-9), which may have been com-
pounded of two separate legends, as some
40 Earlier Hebrew Religion
scholars hold on no very convincing evidence.
Starting from the genealoger's conviction
that all nations were of one stock, this old
story concludes that they must all have once
lived together and spoken one language.
How, then, had even neighbouring peoples
come to use quite different tongues ? The
author had also noticed the fact that in the
centre of ancient Babylon was a high tower ;
or he may have seen the ruins of some old-
world city with the remains of a similar
tower within it or near it. How, then, had
this city come to be left in ruins ? These
were the questions he attempted to answer
in his legend. The peoples of the earth
gathered together to build a city with a
tower which would reach right into heaven,
a matter of no great difficulty to that primi-
tive thought which conceived the vault of
heaven to be solid and comparatively near
to the earth which it covered.
Jahveh hearing some tumult upon earth
came down to see what might be its cause.
When he found that his creatures were
trying presumptuously to reach his dwell-
ing, he took instant measures to circumvent
them. He confounded the speech of the
builders so that they could no longer under-
The Tower of Babel 41
stand one another. Thus they were com-
pelled to cease building, and were scattered
over the face of the earth. The city and
tower remained in ruins as the monument
of Jahveh's punishment of the sin of pre-
sumption, while the differing languages of
the nations proclaimed the same abiding
truth. The old writer adds one of his
favourite ' etymological puns,' naming the
city Babel, which he derived wrongly from
the Hebrew root halal — confusion, because
Jahveh had confounded the speech of the
nations. Bab-el or Bab-el-Illah in reality
means the gate of god. The traditional false
etymology need excite no surprise ; it has
many parallels in the Old Testament, and
at least one in the New (Galatians iv. 25).
What is noteworthy in the story is the anthro-
pomorphic character of Jahveh, who had to
come down from heaven to see what was
happening upon earth and to put an end to
it. The legend is manifestly one of the
stock, which the Hebrews brought with them
from their early home across the Euphrates.
The old traditions which have just passed
under examination, differ from one another
in many respects, sometimes flatly contra-
dicting one another. But when they have
42 Earlier Hebrew Religion
been stripped of the prophetic conceptions
of Jahveh of 900 to 800 B.C., they will be
found to agree closely in certain definite
ideas of his personality and being, which
reappear in the earliest stories of the patri-
archs. Though he was believed to be the
Creator of heaven and earth (Genesis ii. 4b),
he does not seem to have been regarded as
the only God. The fathers of Israel are said
to have worshipped other gods beyond the
Euphrates (Joshua xxiv. 2), where nothing
is urged of the unreality of these, nor are they
dubbed ' idols,' as Isaiah would have called
them. If Abraham be understood to typify
a clan, his God would naturally be that of
the clan whether known as Jahveh or not.
Of the tribal conception of deity there is no
direct evidence in the first eleven chapters
of Genesis, a fact which may be due to the
prophetic revision of their stories.
In the narratives of the patriarchs there
is more testimony pointing towards this
conclusion. Indeed it was less natural to
represent Jahveh as a tribal or family god,
when the theme was the history of mankind.
Though most of the clans and nations had
each its own chief deity, each of them re-
garded its own deity as the most powerful
Jahveh and the Patriarchs 43
of the gods and usually referred to him as
the source of all things. To the ancient
Babylonian for example ' Marduk ' was the
creator of heaven and earth after his victory
over ' Tiamat,' the monster of the abyss,
whose body he cut in twain to form the arch
of heaven and the earth beneath it. Hence
he became the supreme Babylonian god,
though others also were worshipped.
In the ' story of the patriarchs ' two dis-
tinct conceptions of the being and nature of
Jahveh appear, the Judean {/), which is
more anthropomorphic and bears a greater
resemblance to that of the primitive legends,
and the Israelitish (E), which is more spiritual
and loftier. It will be convenient to discuss
them separately, beginning with /, and
using the forms Abraham and Sarah to
denote the patriarch and his wife. Through-
out /'s account of Abraham Jahveh main-
tains the closest intimacy with his wor-
shipper, speaking with him face to face.
To him personally the call to Canaan is
uttered (Genesis xii. 1-4). Nor during the
famine when he was in Egypt and attempted
to save his own life by passing off his wife as
his sister, is his conduct in any way censured
(Genesis xii. 10-20). It is quite true that
44 Earlier Hebrew Religion
when Hagar and Ishmael were banished into
the wilderness, the angel of Jahveh appeared
to show her the hidden spring (Genesis xvi.
7-14) ; but this expression may mean simply
Jahveh himself. At least with Abraham his
dealings are always personal and face to
face. With two of the heavenly host he
comes in person to announce the birth of
Isaac to the aged patriarch, has his feet
washed according to Eastern custom, even
eats of the meal prepared for him (Genesis
xviii. 1-15). His two angels leave him to go
on to Sodom, whither he soon follows them
to see for himself if its guilt is as great as has
been reported to him (Genesis xviii. 20, 21).
Before leaving him he permits Abraham to
plead with him to mitigate his sentence upon
the guilty cities, if certain conditions are
fulfilled (Genesis xviii. 23-33), ^'^^ departs
after having ' left communing with Abraham.'
To Lot indeed he sent his two angels to save
him from destruction (Genesis xix. 1-22) ;
but with Abraham his relations are always
personal and direct. It is the simple and
beautiful conception of God caring per-
sonally for his faithful worshipper.
Of the Isaac of / it must be confessed that
he is a somewhat shadowy personage, who
Jahveh and the Patriarchs 45
was not even allowed to go and choose his
own wife, Eleazar, Abraham's steward being
entrusted with this delicate task (Genesis
xxiv.). As his story adds little to our per-
ception of Hebrew thought upon the person
and being of Jahveh, it may be passed over
and the more vivid narrative of Jacob be
put under examination. Even of this typic-
ally pious Hebrew cattle-breeder much need
not be said. His chronicler is so deeply
interested in his deeds and misdeeds, that
his story is of small help to the matter in
hand. His piety is no doubt sincere after its
kind, though his conduct cannot be deemed
irreproachable. Still he is a more probable
founder of a civilized nation than Esau.
He is followed in the record of his wiles with
much of the same mischievous glee as the
Odysseus of Homer, to whom he bears some
resemblance.
After he has twice beguiled that typical
Bedawin Sheikh Esau, Jacob flees with the
connivance of his mother to her kinsfolk in
Padan-Aram. On his way he sees a vision
renewing to him the promises made to
Abraham (Genesis xxviii. 10, 13-16, 19, 21b,
where much of /'s narrative has given way
to that of E). After first by Laban's
46 Earlier Hebrew Religion
trickery marrying his elder daughter Leah,
then her sister Rachel, and faithfully serving
his father-in-law while enriching himself, he
leaves Laban to return to Canaan. When
with some reasonable fear he is going to
meet the twice deluded Esau, one night he
wrestles alone till morning with Jahveh
himself, who finally overcomes him by put-
ting his thigh out of joint (Genesis xxxii.
24-29, 31, 32), whereafter ' the children of
Israel eat not the sinew of the hip, which is
upon the hollow of the thigh unto this day.'
The divine wrestler changes his name to
' Israel,' renews his promises to him and
departs without revealing his name to him
directly. This legend is one of the most
anthropomorphic in the Old Testament, and
is clearly used to explain the origin of a well-
known custom. The change in Jacob's
name may point to the fusion of two petty
clans into one larger tribe. Throughout the
story of Jacob the conception of Jahveh is
the same with the one already indicated as
characteristic of /'s writing.
To the patriarchs of the earliest narrative
Jahveh appears as a family-god, though
Abraham does once refer to him as the
' Judge of all the earth,' which may be ren-
Jahveh and the Patriarchs 47
dered of ' all the land ' (Genesis xviii. 25).
His powers extend beyond the family and
may have been thought to cover the whole
land of Canaan ; but he especially chose out
the family of Abraham for distinguished
favour, promising to give it a great inherit-
ance and to increase it into a mighty
multitude. / gives indications of the recog-
nition of other gods, who, however, were not
to be worshipped. But Jahveh is always
pictured under a human likeness and with
characteristics far different from the spiritual
God of the ' literary prophets.' He is indeed
represented as a ' righteous God, expecting
righteousness from his worshippers.' But
the earlier standards of righteousness would
be very crude and human, much more so than
they appear in the surviving stories. How
far this conception is due to the Judean pro-
phets who first wrote down the oral tra-
ditions, it is not easy to decide.
The oldest view of worship is very simple.
The worshipper said to his god, ' If I worship
you and offer sacrifices to you, I claim that
you will protect and bless me.' This by no
means lofty conception of the mutual obliga-
tion between man and God held wide sway
amongst the Hebrews to the time of the
48 Earlier Hebrew Religion
Exile. Hence it is natural to assume that
the forefathers of the race were inspired by
the same conviction of the relations between
Jahveh and his people which was entertained
by their remote descendants, of which indeed
there is good evidence in the early stories.
At all events in / he is represented in the
guise of a man of marvellous power, but
neither as omniscient nor as omnipotent.
If his will is to be done, he must perform it
in much the same way as a man is compelled
to do. The idea is primitive, but it does
bring Jahveh into closest communion with
his people.
The Israelitish prophets (E) were later in
the date of their writing than their southern
compeers : hence £'s conception of Jahveh,
while it tends to remove him from direct
personal contact with the patriarchs, is
at the same time more spiritual and elevated.
Apparently he opens his narrative with the
story of Abraham, of which the beginning
has been largely lost or supplied from /.
As has been noted, he never refers to God as
Jahveh, but always uses the generic term
Elohim, until the special revelation of the
divine name to Moses in Midian (Exodus iii.
15). Nor does he bring him down from
Jahveh and the Patriarchs 49
heaven to utter his commands or to work
his will. These he achieves through an act
of volition or by means of an angel (Genesis
xxii. II), or more frequently by dreams
(Genesis xxxvii. 5-1 1). E makes Abraham
a more perfectly righteous man adding more
considerateness to his character. He de-
scribes the patriarch as sorely distressed
when compelled by Sarah to part with
Hagar and Ishmael (Genesis xxi. 8-14), as
only letting them go upon God's assurance
that it would be well with them, and as
bestowing upon them some provisions for
their journey.
Furthermore E gives evidence of the
common belief that Jahveh could not be
worshipped outside of his own land by
putting that conviction into the mouth of
Abraham when excusing himself to Abime-
lech in Gerar (Genesis xx. 11). Besides he
tries to soften the patriarch's treatment of
Sarah in respect of this prince by repre-
senting her as actually his sister by another
wife (Genesis xx. 12). Similarly he enters
his protest against human sacrifices and
substitutes a ram for Isaac just when his
father was on the point of sacrificing him
upon the altar in Moriah (Genesis xxii.
50 Earlier Hebrew Religion
1-14). It must not however be inferred
from this story, that those hideous sacrifices
occurred frequently amongst the Hebrews
until a later time, when they were con-
taminated by the worship of Molech. This
legend of Isaac may also be intended to
glorify mount Moriah, on which the Temple
of Solomon was built. £ as a good Israelite
is much fuller in the story of Jacob and
Joseph as the direct ancestors of the people
of the northern kingdom.
Both in / and E one or other of the patri-
archs had set up altars in various parts of
Canaan, such as at Hebron, Shechem, and
Beersheba, thus consecrating what may have
been primitive Canaanite shrines to God.
That is a practice followed later by the
Roman Catholic Church, which has changed
many pagan monuments into altars of God,
and hallowed tens of thousands of wells once
sacred to heathen deities. Both prophetic
schools used the earliest traditions which
had come down to them for this pious
purpose. In E strangely enough is found
an instance of what appears to be a survival
of primitive stone-worship. In his account
of Jacob's dream which he saw when on his
way to Laban (Genesis xxviii. 11, 12, 17, 18,
Jahveh and the Patriarchs 51
20, 2ia, 22), he pictures him as consecrating
upon awaking, the stone which had been
his pillow by setting it up on end and pouring
oil over it. At the same time Jacob says,
' This stone, which I have set up for a pillar,
shall be God's house — Beth-el : and of all
that thou shalt give me, I will surely give
the tenth part to thee ' (xxviii. 22). Clearly
Jacob is represented as somehow believing
that God inhabited the stone, which he had
erected to him.
Such stones, or Baal-pillars, were common
all over Palestine and survive in many lands.
They commemorated originally the sun's
fertilizing power ; in their neighbourhood
were often found and are found to-day those
' stone circles ' or ' Gilgals,' which are in
part tombs in part temples. E also tells
how Rachel stole her father's teraphim
(Genesis xxxi. 19), gives a hint that Jacob's
God was not that of Laban (xxxi. 53), and
twice refers to the former as the ' Fear of
Isaac ' (xxxi. 42, 53), an expression peculiar
to him, which may indicate that Isaac was
the hero or local Canaanite god of Beer-
sheba. More probably it simply means
' the God whom Isaac feared.' It has
already been noted that according to E
52 Earlier Hebrew Religion
' strange gods ' were worshipped for a time
in Jacob's household (Genesis xxxv. 1-4).
Herein are evidences of the fact, that while
the ancient Hebrews regarded Jahveh as
their tribal god, they did not deny that there
were other gods and may upon occasion
have worshipped them.
From E's writing with its strong anti-
quarian tendency many traces of a worship
much older than his own time may be per-
ceived. As has just been said, there is
primitive stone-worship with the custom of
setting up a pile of stones crowned by a pillar,
or a soKtary pillar, to commemorate some
important event such as a treaty. Both
/ and E give a number of indications of tree-
worship amongst the first Hebrews, or at
least of the consecration of Canaanite holy
trees by fixing near them the dwelHngs of
the patriarchs. Near Shechem stood the
* Soothsayer's terebinth ' (Genesis xii. 6),
obviously a spot where oracles were given.
Here / established one of the resting-places
of Abraham, whose favourite home stood
near the ' Terebinth-grove of Mamre ' —
■Hebron (Genesis xiii. 18, xiv. 13, xviii. i).
Both the single tree and the grove must have
been consecrated places to the Canaanites.
Jahveh and the Patriarchs 53
But though / and E have much in com-
mon a marked difference in theological
thought parts the two schools of authors.
Though the word holy in later times the
distinctive title of Jahveh does not seem to
occur in Genesis, E's conception of the being
of God comes nearer to it than that of /.
The word itself implies separation or aloof-
ness, much in the sense of the taboo of the
less advanced religions. When it is used to
convey the essence of Jahveh it carries with
it the idea of a magnificence which keeps
him apart from his worshipper, who regards
him with distant awe if not positive fear.
By removing God from personal contact with
his servants E tended to give him this
aloofness or holiness, which at first was rather
a distinction in majesty than in ethical
thought and conduct. In his story of Jacob's
dream at Beth-el he makes the patriarch
exclaim, ' How dreadful is this place ! this
is none other but the house of God, and this
is the gate of heaven ' (Genesis xxviii. 17).
Thus the northern prophet marks the sanc-
tity of the shrine where Jeroboam set up one
©f his ' golden bulls ' in honour of Jahveh ;
thus, too, he hints at that dread of God in
Jacob, which later became reverent Vv^orship.
54 Earlier Hebrew Religion
It now remains to gather up the scattered
threads of early Hebrew theology and ethics.
The task is of much difficulty : it is seldom
easy to discern which idea belongs to the
primitive thought of the race, which to the
prophetic schools which collected and edited
the oral traditions. Long before / and E
had been joined into JE there had already
been a line of distinguished prophetic
teachers both in Judah and Israel. These
had exercised a mighty influence upon the
more thoughtful of their people. They
themselves had recognized the continuity of
revelation along the ages ; yet they had
painted Abraham, to take one example, in
the colours of the best thought of their own
time. Indeed he has become rather a
Hebrew saint than the typical founder of
a nation. Under their skilful hands tradi-
tion has been transfigured, until most of its
mythical and legendary crudities have dis-
appeared, and the patriarch as we know him,
has become the pattern of his race.
That is the way in which early historians
write history : they are unwilling or unable
to project themselves back into the past, to
think its thoughts, to reproduce them
exactly in their writings. The difficulty is
Jahveh and the Patriarchs 55
increased when like / and E they set out
upon their task with a definite moral purpose.
Like the priests of centuries later these two
schools could not believe that their heroes
could have fallen beneath the standards of
their own time. Fortunately for posterity
the early historians were single-minded and
have suffered some traits and characteristics
of the earlier form of the tradition to appear
in their narrative, notably in the case of
Jacob, the most human and the most
humanly portrayed of the patriarchs.
It will be simpler first to review the ethical
ideals of the earliest Hebrews. That their
standard was by no means lofty has been
seen already. The song of Lamech for
example (Genesis iv. 23, 24) is merely the
glorification of revenge, which long remained
a stern Hebrew quality, though by no means
confined to that ancient race. Similarly,
Abraham's deception of the Pharaoh or of
Abimelech, if we regard him with / to have
told a falsehood in respect of Sarah or given
a plausible excuse as in E, is the one con-
siderable blot upon his character which must
have descended from oral tradition. In
neither account is there any moral con-
demnation of his sordid cowardice expressed
56 Earlier Hebrew Religion
or implied, of the fact that the early Hebrew
did not hesitate to subordinate his wife's
honour to his personal safety. Nay, Jahveh
is represented as punishing the innocent
king for an unconscious sin. That cannot
have represented the standard of the pro-
phetic authors either in their judgment of
falsehood or the treatment of Sarah. We
need only contrast the episode with the
account of Nathan's severe rebuke of David
for an act of despicable perfidy and adultery
(2 Samuel xii. 1-23), which emanated from the
same school of writers as are denoted by /.
Again, the story of Jacob's young manhood
abounds in details, which exhibit an equally
low standard of right and wrong. Who can
but S5nnpathize with Esau, generous though
twice defrauded by his brother ? Yet here
no moral condemnation is pronounced, per-
haps because of /'s hatred of Edom, which
is personified under the name of Esau.
Jacob was sincerely pious in his way ; but
his piety did not prevent him from using
unworthy means to ascend to eminence and
wealth. His tendency to bargain was a
ruling principle with him : even at the
outset of his career he dared to make a
bargain with Jahveh (Genesis xxviii. 20, 21b,
Early Theology and Ethics 57
22) to preserve and prosper him, in which
case he would repay him with worship and a
tithe of his substance. Such a bargain was
quite ahen to prophetic thought, and must
date back to the primitive tradition, to a
time indeed when men were accustomed to
such relations with their gods.
In sum it may be affirmed with consider-
able confidence that the Hebrews brought
with them a comparatively lowly standard
of ethics from their ancient home. They
nourished the nomad's bloodthirsty satis-
faction in murderous revenge, the nomad's
care for his own life at the expense of all
else where woman was concerned, the
Oriental's light regard for woman as seen in
the story of Judah and Tamar (Genesis
xxxviii.), and the nomad's habit of cheating
his fellow nomad as occasion served. In
this connexion no sympathy need be wasted
upon Laban for the trickery of Jacob,
though Jacob himself can only be admired
for the cleverness of his device. The story
of their dealings with one another is mani-
festly a camp-fire tale set down without any
ethical purpose and no doubt very popular
with its people. Though some of their kin-
dred races in Mesopotamia from which they
58 Earlier Hebrew Religion
had migrated, had attained an unusually
high degree of civilization, with a corres-
pondingly high ethical standard, the original
Hebrews had reached neither the one nor
the other at the beginning of their nomadic
life. They had much to learn ethically,
which they did learn so thoroughly that
their descendants have been able to teach
many of the most progressive races of the
world.
Once more the Hebrews would seem to
have brought with them some survivals of
the most primitive Semitic cults, such as the
worship of trees, stones, and wells, which
they not only took down with them into
Egypt, but brought back with them on their
return to Canaan. Their culture at this
early date was no less primitive than their
ethics. Their wandering life in the wilder-
ness would tend to obliterate their memories
of the older civilized nations with which they
had once been in contact, though it may
reasonably be concluded to have drawn them
to the worship of one tribal or national god,
who would guard and guide them on their
wanderings. The nature of this deity has
been set forth tentatively on account of the
scarcity of positive evidence, but with no
Early Theology and Ethics 59
small degree of probability. As might well
be expected Jahveh was in essence a sky-god,
the only kind of deity likely to appeal to
nomads, who depended upon the sky for
rain to renew their pasture-grounds, to
fertiHze their scanty tillage, who suffered
so severely from extremes of temperature
and the violence of storms.
In the older legend of the Flood Jahveh
sent forty days and forty nights rain upon
the sinful earth, just as when gratified by
the steam of Noah's sacrifice he promised
that interchange of seasons by which the
land might be made fruitful (Genesis vii. 4,
viii. 20-22). He rained ' fire and brimstone
out of heaven ' upon the guilty cities of
Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis xix. 24, 25).
These varied forms of his activity clearly
prove Jahveh to have been originally re-
garded as a sky-god. The fact that the
patriarchs set up stone pillars pointing sky-
ward is additional evidence of this conclu-
sion (Genesis xxviii. 18, xxxi. 45, xxxv. 14).
In the last case Jacob ' poured a drink
offering and poured oil upon the pillar,'
which he had set up, thus affording a strong
testimony to the sacredness with which he
invested the stone as a symbol of Jahveh.
6o Earlier Hebrew Religion
The ' teraphim ' or ' household images '
possibly of Jahveh may well have been
borrowed at a later date from the Canaanites,
who had long been civilized when Israel
attacked and conquered them. It is how-
ever probable that in the dawn of their
thought a sacred stone, tree, or well, may
have been used either as a symbol or shrine.
The original altars were very simple ; for
the most part they were made of earth and
easily built up as need required, though in
some cases low piles of unhewn stones were
their chosen materials. They were altars
suitable to nomads, such as nomads have in-
variably erected from the infancy of their
history. Whether God was known to the
patriarchs as Jahveh must still remain an
unsolved problem. / intended such to be
believed, and the traditions preserved by
his school are the most ancient which have
survived : E apparently held the opposite
belief, in which he was followed by the
priestly writers in their account of the
patriarchal age. P's point of view will be
presented later, when his completed work
falls under review. That of E is more
difficult to understand unless it was the re-
ceived tradition of the northern kingdom,
Early Theology and Ethics 6i
though the evidence of the occurrence of the
name Jahveh in ancient Babylonian docu-
ments is of doubtful validity.
Under whatever name he was worshipped,
Jahveh's character and essence were the
same. Like his worshippers in both, but
nobler and more majestic, mightier far than
they, yet limited in power, knowing in-
finitely more than they did yet by no means
omniscient, he presented a venerable figure
in the mind of his faithful servants, which
might well inspire their fearful awe. Though
he was said to have eaten and talked with
the father of their race, Abraham always
treated his divine visitant with seemly
reverence, and his descendants imitated their
ancestor. He had no regular priest, if any
priest at all ; for the enigmatical personality
of Melchizedek (Genesis xiv. 18-20) may or
may not belong to this early period. Wlien
sacrifice was due the Sheikh himself offered
it on behalf of the clan, the head of the family
for the rest of its members, who in each case
expected a return in blessing for the worship
and the offering.
Between the writing of / and E there is
evidence of a distinct exaltation in the char-
acter of Jahveh, as has been shown in its
62 Earlier Hebrew Religion
place. But even at its highest it remained
primitive ahke in its majesty and its Hmita-
tions as compared with the fuller revelation
made through Amos and Isaiah. Hence we
cannot fail to perceive the smallness of the
beginnings out of which a mighty growth was
destined to be developed to the priceless
advantage of mankind. From the earliest
time of which we have any knowledge Jahveh
would seem to have been conceived of by his
people as essentially a righteous God accord-
ing to the standards of the time. Nowhere
in the Old Testament is there so much as a
hint of the ascription to him of those dis-
creditable episodes, which fill up the stories
of most of the gods of polytheism. A right-
eous God he remained in the subsequent
thought of Israel, when the standards were
lifted high as heaven itself. His holiness in
the first instance was rather a separation in
majesty and might from his worshipper, a
source of timid awe rather than of warm
affection. Gradually its conception grew in
depth and breadth, until it covered a supreme
standard of moral excellence and required a
corresponding holiness in his servants.
Chapter III
MOSAISM AND THE HEBREWS
The Divine Names. The Ethics of Sacrifice. Mosa-
ism and its Sources. The ' Shorter Code.' The Feast
of the Passover. The Sabbath. General Conclusions.
BEFORE endeavouring to estimate the
contribution of Moses to the rehgion
of the Hebrews, it will be essential to discuss
briefly the Divine names, to ascertain the
meaning and ethics of sacrifice. The generic
name for any God in the Old Testament is
Elohim, the plural form of the rarer and more
poetical Eloah. The word itself, though
plural, takes a singular verb, when it means
a single God : nor does it denote a plural-
ity of persons as older interpreters once
asserted, a conception quite alien to the
Hebrew mind. There are many suggestions
of the derivation of the word Elohim : the
prevailing one traces its formation to a root
64 MOSAISM AND THE HEBREWS
implying fear. Hence Elohim would mean
'the power which inspires fear or awe.'
Its most frequent though not its true
singular is the word El, which in the Pen-
tateuch is usually found combined with
some word expressing an attribute of deity.
Melchizedek for example (Genesis xiv. i8)
is said to have been priest of ' El-Ely on,'
which is inexactly rendered ' Most high God.'
The strict meaning of El is still uncertain :
provisionally it may be connected with a
root implying ' strength,' thus meaning ' the
strong one.' The word ' Ely on ' is better
translated ' Almighty,' so that together ' El-
Elyon ' means ' God Almighty.' Unless, as
many suppose, Genesis xiv. is a late addition
from an unknown source, the phrase is all
but invariably found in post-exilic literature :
but to assert that it is entirely post-exilic is
to prejudge the date of the chapter cited.
Another compound form of the Divine
Name is ' El-Shaddai,' which, according to
P, was the name by which Jahveh was known
to the patriarchs (Exodus vi. 3), in spite of
/'s frequent use of the name Jahveh itself.
Too much weight need not be assigned to
this the youngest of the compilers of the
Pentateuch, who freely employs the title
The Divine Names 65
' El-Shaddai ' in his additions to JE (Genesis
xvii. I, xxviii. 3, xliii. 14, xlviii. 3). It
is once found in the so-called ' Blessing
of Jacob ' (Genesis xlix. 25) in a passage
which is usually given to E, but which may
readily be a later addition to the poem by P.
The meaning of ' shaddai ' is uncertain ;
but the common rendering ' Almighty ' is
probably wrong. In the Septuagint it is
treated as a personal pronoun and translated
by such phrases as my or thy God. No doubt
this rendering may be due to the fact that
the original meaning of the word had long
been forgotten. But the tradition has some
weight : it would seem to imply that the
word ' shaddai ' was an ' intensive and per-
sonal epithet,' and there it may be left until
further evidence be forthcoming.
Of much greater importance and of no less
uncertainty are the meaning and pronuncia-
tion of the word Jahveh. One of its trans-
literations into the Greek has preserved the
form 'la^e, which seems to follow the most
ancient tradition : thus the word may be
written ' Jahveh ' and pronounced ' Yahweh.'
Some contend that the true pronunciation
of the word had been lost before the Penta-
teuch was written down in its final form.
66 MOSAISM AND THE HEBREWS
But their contention does not seem to be well
founded, since tradition must be allowed its
due weight, though at a later time it was for-
bidden to utter the Divine Name to a great
extent. In the Septuagint the word is
almost invariably translated ' the Lord,' be-
cause in the manuscript translated the word
was written with its true Hebrew consonants,
while the vowels of the word ' Adonai ' =
' my Lord ' were substituted for the original
vowels. Thus the scribe intended the reader
to use the word ' Adonai ' for the more
correct ' Jahveh.'
From this fact the unintelligible form
' Jehovah ' has arisen, which dates no
further back than about a.d. 1520, during
the early years of the Reformation. It is
an impossible form which only long usage
has sanctified. The form Jahveh is much
truer and was probably used by the earlier
writers of the Old Testament. But what is
its meaning ? Here we must rest content
with the double strand of evidence supplied
by tradition. E clearly connects the name
with the Hebrew word to be (Exodus iii.
12-15). First he presents the words of the
divine promise as, ' i will be surely with
thee ' ; secondly he represents the word
The Divine Names 67
Jahveh as the equivalent of the clause ' i
WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE.' Similarly P
identifies the name Jahveh with God's con-
stancy to his people both in the past and
through the future (Exodus vi. 2-8). Thus
by both of these authorities the name
Jahveh appears to be derived from the root
meaning 'to be.' Self -existence is not im-
plied, which is an abstruse conception never
entering into the minds of those early
thinkers. What is meant is simple exist-
ence and its continuity. Hence it may be
assumed with much probability that the
name Jahveh means ' He who exists con-
tinually and is constant.' No doubt that
derivation is merely traditional : but in the
absence of any final authority, tradition
must be suffered to speak for itself.
At this point it will be advantageous to
investigate briefly the original purport and
ethics of sacrifice, of which a few hints have
already been given. In its origin the offer-
ing of the whole or part of an animal to God
was quite simple and natural. When the
head of the household killed a lamb or any
other clean animal, he was accustomed to
build up an earthen altar or to use a con-
venient slab of rock, whereon to burn part
68 MOSAISM AND THE HEBREWS
of the victim in honour of his god. The god
himself as founder of the feast, was held to
be entitled to his share of it ; he was ex-
pected to be present and to bless all the
partakers of it. In primitive times he was
imagined in some way to find food in the
sacrifice (Genesis viii. 21, 22). Nay, if
J ah veil could be pictured as actually eating
of Abraham's meal thus making it sacrificial
(Genesis xviii. 3-8), it is fair to conclude
that in the beginning the burnt offering was
regarded in some sense as his food. Thus
the ' first fruits ' of cattle or of the ground
were offered to Jahveh as a thank offering and
as his share of the results of his beneficent
providence.
In later times out of this simpler sacrifice
of thankful affection were developed the
sin and . trespass offerings, whereby men
hoped to win the divine forgiveness for their
wrongdoing. In the Bedawin encampment,
or even in the later village-life, an animal
was not killed every day for food : it was a
solemn occasion to be marked by a special
ritual and glad thankfulness. Thus by
taking his share of the banquet the god was
brought into close fellowship with his wor-
shippers, who felt him to be in fact the head
The Ethics of Sacrifice 69
of their clan. But the sacrifice always in-
volved the notion of mutual obligation and
reciprocal benefit. If a man sacrificed to a
particular god, he claimed the care and
blessing of that god. This fundamental
idea, as has already been pointed out, is
bluntly stated in E's narrative by Jacob
himself (Genesis xxviii. 20, 21a, 22).
It can hardly be doubted that this con-
ception of bargain lay at the very root of
sacrifice as an integral part of Semitic
worship. Even in the time of Amos the
chiefs of the northern kingdom imagined
that it was possible to secure Jahveh's
favour by the offering of countless hecatombs
in his honour. The severity of its denun-
ciation by the ' literary prophets ' proves
clearly its prevalence in their time. The
Israelites attributed their prosperity under
Jeroboam II, directly to Jahveh's favour
secured by elaborate worship and lavish
sacrifices. Originally these were joyous feasts
not entirely free from excessive eating and
drinking. Thus the ethics of sacrifice^yas in
the main the unethical principle of a mutual
bargain, in which Jahveh was expected to
care for his worshippers, because they wor-
shipped him and burned offerings to him.
70 MOSAISM AND THE HEBREWS
It is now possible to consider the revela-
tion through Moses to the ' Children of
Israel.' That he delivered them from an
oppressive bondage in Egypt and led them
to Kadesh Barnea on the south of Canaan is
a tradition so deeply rooted in Hebrew
history, that however many of its details
may be legendary, its substantial truth
cannot reasonably be doubted. A singu-
larly futile attempt has been made to remove
Moses from the realm of the actual, an under-
taking as needless as impossible. Nor can
Cheyne be admitted to have proved his
theory that ' Mizraim ' = ' Egypt ' was in
reality a tract of northern Arabia. So much
of his argument depends upon the use of the
clan-name of ' Jerahmeel,' from which he
derives a multitude of important names
geographical and personal by the simple
process of emending the Hebrew text, that
great weight cannot be attached to it. So
constantly does he introduce this favourite
catchword into his later writings, that the
student of ' David Copperfield ' is irresistibly
reminded of ' King Charles Fs head ' in
' Mr. Dick's memorial.' It is a pity that so
fine a scholar to whom Old Testament
criticism owes so vast a debt, should have
MOSAISM AND ITS SOURCES 7I
been so persistently misled in his old age by
an Ignis Fatuus under the guidance of
Winckler and others.
The meaning of the name ' Moses ' is
obscure and no conjectural derivation will
be attempted. But such a deliverer cer-
tainly existed, who by excellent strategy
succeeded in saving his people. It will not
be necessary to review the traditions gathered
around his name, nor to trace the wanderings
of the Hebrews through the peninsula of
Sinai. It seems certain that the tribes
marched directly to the great oasis of
Kadesh Barnea, where they settled for a
considerable time, before they made their
attack on Canaan. From this admirable
camping-ground for a nomadic people spies
were sent forth shortly before the death of
Moses (Numbers xiii.) ; from the same place
they attacked Sihon the king of the Amorites
(Numbers xxi. 21-30), before they passed
round Moab and are said to have defeated
the more or less legendary Og king of Bashan
(Numbers xxi. 33-35). Indeed the his-
torical retrospect of Deuteronomy (i. i, 2)
begins with Kadesh Barnea and implies a
long sojourn there.
On their way through the ' Arabhah ' or
72 MOSAISM AND THE HEBREWS
wilderness Moses had found for his people a
sacred mountain named Sinai in the older,
Horeb in the later tradition, which he re-
garded as peculiarly Jahveh's throne, when
he descended to earth. To its summit he is
represented as climbing to meet God and
receive his revelation (Exodus xix. 2 seqq.).
Even so late as the ' Song of Deborah ' Jah-
veh is portrayed as coming from Sinai to the
rescue of his people (Judges v. 4, 5). This
mountain was probably at some distance
from the camp, though its site has not been
exactly determined. It seems likely too
that Moses actually wrote something upon
' two tables of stone,' to contain which he
made a sacred chest or ' Ark ' (Exodus xxv.
10, which, however, belongs to P ; cf.,s
Deuteronomy x. i). By this must be under-
stood a plain box of acacia wood, which stood
in the little tent pitched outside of the camp
during the sojourn in the Wilderness (Exodus
xxxiii. 7).
To this primitive sanctuary the people
brought their disputes to be settled by Moses,
who sat at the door to receive them (Exodus
xviii. 13-27). This simple tent differs far
from the gorgeous ' tent of meeting ' de-
scribed by P as set in the midst of the host
MOSAISM AND ITS SOURCES 73
(Exodus xxxvi,, xxxvii.) and modelled on
the Temple of Solomon. It never seems to
have occurred to him that such a tabernacle
could not possibly have been made and set
in order by comparatively uncivilized nomads
in an uncultivated country. His descrip-
tion of the ' tabernacle ' is as fictitious as his
host of priests and Levites created to support
Aaron in his office of high priest. Doubtless
Aaron may have been a simple priest like
Eli, with one or two assistants appointed to
administer the duties of the sanctuary. But
in the older and sounder tradition not only
Moses went into the tent, but Jethro his
father-in-law, who was a Kenite priest and
Sheikh (Exodus xviii. 7). To understand
what Moses really was to his people we must
put out of our minds the priestly account of
the wanderings, which is post-exilic and
largely an elaborate piece of invention, made
with perfect honesty of purpose and with a
firm conviction of its accuracy. This school
of writers knew what the ceremonial in the
Temple had been up to their own time : they
believed that what had existed in their day
must have been from the beginning. They
wrote history backwards, carrying into the
past the product of centuries of development.
74 MOSAISM AND THE HEBREWS
What religion, then, did Moses reveal to
the Hebrews, what were the ordinances which
he actually issued, what apart from the in-
spiration of Jahveh was the ultimate source
of his teaching ? First and foremost he
taught that Jahveh was the sole God of
Israel. By this statement an exact mono-
theism is not implied, which indeed was only
established in the thought of the prophets by
the time of Amos in the eighth century B.C.
What is meant is that Jahveh had especially
chosen Israel of all the nations upon earth
to be his people (Exodus iii. 16-18), just as
Chemosh had chosen Moab, that therefore
Israel must worship Jahveh alone as Moab
worshipped Chemosh alone.
Whence did Moses derive the name
Jahveh ? Some assert that Jahveh was a
' Canaanite name ' ; whence it would follow
that the Hebrews adopted the very name
of their God from the people whom they
attacked and in a great measure subdued.
Unless by this answer it is understood that
the Hebrews had learned the name of Jahveh
during the patriarchal age, and taken it with
them into Egypt, it has little inherent
probability in spite of similarities to the
Divine Name to be found amongst the
MOSAISM AND ITS SOURCES 75
Phoenicians. Where there is no positive
evidence, it is necessary to rely partly upon
tradition, partly upon the balance of proba-
bilities. Taking, therefore, the oldest tradi-
tion of / we conclude that the clan of Abra-
ham brought with them the name Jahveh
from Haran, when the first migration began
(Genesis xii. i).
Further we infer on the same grounds that
the clan worshipped Jahveh as such until the
settlement in Egypt. During their abode in
Goshen the Hebrews were in the end so utterly
crushed by the oppression of the Pharaoh,
that they may well be supposed to have all
but forgotten the name of the God of their
fathers, which would only be preserved
faintly by tradition in some of their families,
possibly the family of Levi. Of this Moses
was a member, who when he came to be their
leader appealed to them by the ancient
name of their God. Had he introduced an
entirely new Divine Name, his appeal to them
would almost certainly have failed. As it
was they were not too faithful to their God
(Exodus xxxii. ; Numbers xxv. 1-6) : had
his name been quite new to them, they would
hardly have followed Moses when by its
inspiration he led them to liberty. The story
76 MOSAISM AND THE HEBREWS
of the ' burning bush ' at least in /'s narrative
(Exodus iii. 2-4a, 5, 7-9, 16-18) does not
conflict with this conclusion, in which Jahveh
maintains an abiding interest in his people.
The same line of argument applies to the
hypotheses of those who derive the Divine
Name from the Kenites, because Moses is
said to have married the daughter of their
priest (Exodus ii. 15-22). Doubtless he is
represented as spending some years of his
life amongst this Midianite clan. But no hint
is given of Jethro's knowledge of the name
Jahveh before his visit to Moses and the
people in the wilderness ; nor does it seem
to have been known to any other Midianite
clan. Moreover the Kenites were absorbed
by the Hebrews and became part of the
fighting men who went up to assail Canaan
from the south under Caleb (Judges i. 12-15),
who is described elsewhere as the Kenizzite
or Kenite (Numbers xxxii. 12).
But though Caleb is also said to have been
one of the two faithful spies sent into Canaan
(Numbers xiii. 30), it does not follow that he
or his clan gave the name of their God to
the Israelites. The Kenites may just as
readily have adopted the name and worship
of Jahveh from the larger people. No other
MOSAISM AND ITS SOURCES 77
source of the Divine Name than its primitive
existence amongst the Hebrews or their
ancestors, either before or soon after they
crossed the Euphrates, fits in so well with all
of the probabilities of the case. For the
present, therefore, it will be sufficient to
assume that Moses derived the name of
Jahveh from the traditions of his race,
which had been all but obliterated during
the terrible interval of persecution, but
which formed a strong rallying point in his
appeal to his people.
The long period of sojourn on the fringe of
the wilderness may have helped to con-
solidate Jahveh's sole worship. That Moses
conceived of him as a sky-god the source of
the familiar phenomena of the sky may be
seen in the story of his revelation to his
first prophet. The venerable legend of the
'burning bush ' (Exodus iii. 2-4a) points in
this direction. His abode on the ' mount of
consecration ' is confirmatory evidence (Exo-
dus xix. 3). His further appearance with
* smoke as of a furnace,' the quaking of the
mountain, the thunder of the divine voice
(Exodus xix. 18-21) is inseparably associated
with a desert thunder-storm. Herein too
may be seen a hint of his holiness. Though
78 MOSAISM AND THE HEBREWS
Moses himself like the patriarchs was per-
mitted to talk with him face to face, the rest
of the people remained at a distance lest
they should be consumed (Exodus xix. 21).
That prohibition implies ' separation,' which
is the root-meaning of ' holiness,' no less than
the extreme awe inspired by the hallowed
presence.
Hence it is possible that we ought to date
this conception of the holiness of Jahveh
from the revelation of Moses. Too much
emphasis must not be placed upon narratives
which are in a great degree legendary. But
the uniformity of tradition certainly sup-
ports these two elements in the thought and
worship of Jahveh as owing their inception
chiefly if not wholly to Moses. He was the
first founder of the federation of tribes out
of which the nation was formed. He shaped
their common ideas with regard to their God.
He taught them to worship Jahveh alone
as their national deity, thus giving them a
dawning sense of nationality for the first
time, while he bade them reverence him as a
holy God.
Before leaving for a time the question of
the meaning of holiness, it will be of interest
to consider why certain animals were held
MOSAISM AND ITS SOURCES 79
to be ' clean,' some to be ' unclean.' This
distinction is at least as old as Moses :
probably it goes back to the beginnings of
the race, when particular animals were be-
lieved to be the ' totems ' of certain families
or tribes, and so were ' taboo ' to these
families or tribes. To each of them the
animal had its distinct relationship, and
thus in the process of time had become to a
certain extent consecrated. Such animals
were neither used as food nor wantonly
destroyed. Later they came to be looked
upon as ' unclean,' that is as defiling those
who injured them or partook of their flesh.
That animals once held to be ' taboo,' or in
a certain sense sacred, should continue to be
set apart as ' unclean,' need excite no sur-
prise. When the original meaning of the
distinction was lost, the distinction itself was
jealously preserved as a fundamental matter
of religious observance. Possibly too the
prohibition to eat unclean animals justified
itself by its satisfactory sanitary results,
thus securing a firmer conviction of its
validity. That Moses was the first to make
the distinction is in the highest degree im-
probable : that he used a traditional custom
under ,the belief of its sacredness and for
8o MOSAISM AND THE HEBREWS
the benefit of his people may be taken as all
but certain.
Next arises the important question what
was the ethical content of his teaching ?
In his traditional capacity of lawgiver how
did he discharge his office ? As leader of
the Hebrews he was also their ' judge,'
just as the Sheikh to-day is amongst the
nomadic Bedawins. He sat at the door of
the sanctuary to hear all the subjects in
dispute brought before him (Exodus xviii.
13-27). He pronounced his verdicts = ' mish-
patim ' in individual cases ; but they gradu-
ally became embodied into a collection of
'precedents, which was the earliest form of
the ' Torah ' = ' teaching.' According to the
passage just cited (verses 14-17) by the
advice of Jethro to lighten his labour he
chose suitable men from the heads of the
various families to give similar verdicts.
There is no reason to doubt the literal truth
of this tradition, which agrees exactly with
the practice of nomadic tribes.
No examination of the great body of the
Torah afterwards attributed to Moses and
undoubtedly growing from his spirit will be
attempted here. Many of the oldest laws
may well date from his time, though as they
MOSAISM AND ITS EtHICS 8t
have survived they have been far removed
from their original setting. Laws which
suit nomads have been mingled with laws
which could only have come into being
amongst an agricultural people. The three
great farming feasts for example — the Feast
of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks,
and the Feast of Tabernacles — could not
have been instituted in the wilderness.
The first commemorated the beginning of the
harvest, the second the end of the wheat-
harvest, the third the vintage. Such festi-
vals could only have been ordained amongst
a settled people tilling the soil and cultivating
the vine. But side by side with these later
laws are many, which may well have come
down from the time of Moses. To take one
illustration, ' Thou shalt not seethe a kid
in its mother's milk ' (Exodus xxxiv. 26),
is manifestly most ancient and may have
been necessary at the period of its issue. In
connexion with this subject it must be borne
in mind that ideals are prophetic, while laws
are the embodiment of long standing custom
and experience.
What then did Moses achieve towards the
ethical growth of Israel ? This is a difficult
question, which as yet admits of no final
G
82 MOSAISM AND THE HEBREWS
answer. It seems certain that he wrote ten
very sacred commandments upon ' two
tablets of stone,' which were preserved with
the utmost care in a consecrated chest said
to have been made by him for the purpose.
Some would date these tablets only from the
united monarchy under Solomon, as made
and placed for the first time in his Temple.
But the tradition of their earlier date is too
ancient, too definite, to be entirely set aside.
It is found in each of the four strands of which
the Pentateuch is compiled. Each of them
attributed these first commandments to
Moses as uttered to him by Jahveh on the
mountain.
Many subsidiary traditions have been
blended with the main one, which do not
always agree strictly with it or with one
another. But it remains distinct, consistent,
and what is more eminently suited to its
place in history. Hence it is natural to
conclude that Moses did write ' ten words '
or ' commandments ' on two stone slabs,
which were long preserved by the Israelites,
and possibly renewed with additions in a
more exalted form during the early days of
the kingdom. Now two such ' decalogues '
or ' collections of ten words ' at least are to
MOSAISM AND ITS EtHICS 83
be found in the Pentateuch. Of each of
these two forms shghtly differing from each
other survive, but in each case pointing to a
common origin. The decalogue found in
Exodus xxxiv. (14-26) is blended of two
slightly different forms of one tradition. It
is usually considered the earliest of its kind :
but in its present form it cannot have come
down from Moses, though some of its in-
junctions may have done so. In it the cele-
bration of the three feasts commented upon
above is distinctly commanded (i8a, 22, 23).
As has been said agricultural feasts have their
origin in agricultural life, nor are the laws
commanding their celebration made before
their institution. Hence Moses could not
have been the author of this decalogue in its
present form.
Which Decalogue, then, do we owe to
Moses ? The second is the well-known
' prophetic decalogue ' as it is commonly
called to-day (Exodus xx. 3-17 ; Deu-
teronomy V. 6-21), which with the excep-
tion of the prohibition of image-worship
deals with simple ethical principles. It may
be noted that both of these decalogues
enjoin the observation of the ' Sabbath.'
The two forms of the prophetic decalogue
84 MOSAISM AND THE HEBREWS
have some minor differences of importance,
but in the main are in close agreement. No
doubt in their present shape they have
grown from a more simply stated original,
while they point to a loftier ideal than can
be traced in Exodus xxxiv. But it by no
means follows that the form which they
assumed under the deeper inspiration of the
later prophets was theirs from their first
utterance.
Nor is it by any means certain that the
very simplicity of many of the commands is
not a proof of their early origin. There is
nothing in these which does not apply to
nomads just as fittingly as to a people
settled down in their own land. If we omit
the long explanation (Exodus xx. 4b-6), the
command will run ' Thou shalt not make
unto thee a graven image ' : if further we
change graven into molten in agreement with
Exodus (xxxiv. 17), we shall get such an
injunction as Moses may well have uttered,
and room will be left for the ' Teraphim '
and ' Baal-pillars,' which we know were
honoured by kings as pious as David and
not condemned by prophets such as Elijah.
If also from the commandment referring to
the Sabbath we omit the historical explana-
MOSAISM AND ITS EtHICS 85
tion (Exodus xx. 9-1 1) which is plainly later,
we shall have just such a commandment as
may well have come from Moses.
The same method of reasoning applies with
equal force to the form of the ' ten words,'
as it appears in Deuteronomy (v. 6-21),
where quite a different account of the origin
of the Sabbath is given from that found
in Exodus (xx. 9-11). Obviously the reason
given in each case for the keeping of the
Sabbath is later than the custom itself.
Hence in the Deuteronomic form, if the
commandments be reduced to their lowest
terms, a similar conclusion to that already
attained will be reached. In sum it seems
not only possible but probable, that the
original form of the prophetic decalogue, one
of the noblest moral codes ever revealed to
an ancient nation, may be ascribed to Moses.
The fact that the later prophets seized upon
it as containing the kernel of their ethical
teaching, that they extended some of its
simpler enactments, made it largely the
basis of their instruction, does not prove that
they originated it.
Moses according to tradition had been well
educated as ' the son of Pharaoh's daughter '
(Exodus ii. 10). He would therefore in all
86 MOSAISM AND THE HEBREWS
probability be instructed in Egyptian ethics
as well as in other branches of knowledge.
Now the Egyptians had a comparatively
high standard of ethics. Hence the balance
of evidence would seem to incline to the
ascription of the simplest form of the second
decalogue to him. It may be remarked that
the number ten is the natural one to be chosen
for this sacred purpose : the fingers of both
hands would readily suggest its use in such a
moral code to the man of an earlier day.
It is utterly impossible in a limited space
to discuss even cursorily the great problem
as to which of the laws in the existing collec-
tion may be ascribed to Moses. But of the
ceremonial enactments very few would date
from his age. One distinctive Hebrew rite,
that of circumcision, must be noted amongst
these. It is true that P asserts that it was
the divinely prescribed mark of God's coven-
ant with Abraham (Genesis xvii. 10-14).
He may represent an early tradition ; but
his authority cannot weigh against that of /
where there is conflict of evidence. In a
remarkable passage (Exodus iv. 24-26)
Jahveh is described as meeting Moses and
seeking to slay him, because his son had not
been circumcised. Indeed Zipporah his wife
MOSAISM AND ITS EtHICS 8/
by promptly fulfilling this rite alone was able
to save his life. From this passage it may
be inferred that / regarded Moses as the
originator of circumcision. Herodotus (ii.
104) asserts that only the Colchians, Egyp-
tians, and Ethiopians from their first origin
used circumcision.
Still it does not seem probable that the
Hebrews learned this rite from the Egyptians,
but that it was an old tribal mark brought
with them from Haran. Originally it may
have been a prenuptial ceremony (Genesis
xxxiv. 19) ; but later it was performed on
the eighth day after birth. In spite of /'s
story of Zipporah it would seem that Moses
adopted this practice from the oldest tradi-
tion and did not borrow it from Egypt. As
the reason of its origin became forgotten, it
was invested with a sacred character be-
coming alike the token of Jahveh's covenant
with Israel through Abraham and the mark
of the purification of the infant boy. Its
primeval antiquity is further supported by
the use of flint knives during a considerable
period after they had fallen out of general use.
The antiquity of many ceremonies attri-
buted to Moses cannot be proved, nor is it
probable in itself. The religion of the nomad
88 MOSAISM AND THE HEBREWS
does not admit of elaborate ritual, such as P
has prescribed in full detail. Nor are there
any traces of such ritual in subsequent
Hebrew story until its beginnings with the
Temple of Solomon. It is not even possible
to assert that Moses introduced the sin and
trespass offerings. These can hardly date
further back than the time when the priests
had gained overpowering influence in the
control of Temple-worship. The earlier
critics were wont to assign to Moses the
' shorter code ' (Exodus xx.-xxiii.), which
was known as the ' Book of the Covenant '
because of the covenant detailed in the
next chapter. But the true ' Book of the
Covenant ' is really to be found in the com-
plex chapter of Exodus xxxiv., which con-
tains some of the oldest laws in the Penta-
teuch, which is in fact described as ' the
writing of the covenant ' (verse 27).
The ' shorter code,' while containing many
primitive enactments proves itself to be a
gradual compilation of Torah. Some in-
junctions, as we should expect, are designed
for nomadic tribes ; some point to the period
of the Judges ; some imply the existence of
the kingdom, or at least a settled state of
society. There is plain reference to the
The Passover 89
tilling of the soil and the culture of the
vine (Exodus xxii. 29, xxiii. 10, 14-17),
which nomads rarely achieve save in the
most rudimentary fashion. There is an
interesting reference to holiness connecting
it with the idea of taboo (Exodus xxii. 31) :
' And ye shall be holy men unto me ; there-
fore ye shall not eat any flesh that is torn of
the beasts of the field ; ye shall cast it to
the dogs.' There is the sense of a symbolic
value in stones in the prohibition to use
any tool to fashion the stones of which an
altar is made (Exodus xx. 25), while the
more frequent altar of earth is mentioned in
the previous verse and may be erected any-
where. Moreover the Hebrew was allowed
himself ' to offer upon it his burnt offerings
and his peace offerings.' His ' peace offer-
ings ' would be made to win peace from
Jahveh in case of any offence against him.
The whole code though not very early con-
tains a collection of the precepts of many
generations.
One feast the Hebrews brought with them
into Canaan from their nomadic days, the
feast of the ' Pesach ' or ' Passover.' The
origin of this important festival is lost in
comparative obscurity. It can hardly have
go MOSAISM AND THE HEBREWS
been a spring-sacrifice of the firstlings of the
flock to redeem ' the first-born males ' of the
human family, as there is no trace of human
sacrifices amongst the primitive Hebrews as
a general practice. Doubtless Moses when
he wished to get his people into the wilder-
ness by any possible means, alleged this
spring festival to induce the Pharaoh to let
them go (Exodus x. 9). But that festival
has nothing to do with the Passover which
is described later (Exodus xii. 1-14, where
P preserves an ancient tradition). But the
ritual depicted by P throws some light upon
the primitive character of the feast. Clearly
it was an occasion of solemn meaning, which
may not at first have been celebrated year
by year.
An essential rite was the sprinkling of the
lintel and door-posts with the blood of the
slain lamb, which was to be eaten roasted
and not boiled (Exodus xii. 7-9). Now the
blood-rite implies the seeking for some great
deliverance. A similar implication is to be
found in the tradition that Jahveh's angel
passed over the homes of Israel, when he
smote the first-born of Egypt (Exodus xii.
13). The blood-sprinkling may point to the
custom of placing the teraphim just within
The Passover 91
the house or tent. But its object was to
secure especial favour and protection from
the deity in some grave crisis. The blood of
every offering was Jahveh's and not to be
eaten by his worshippers, because the
* blood was the life ' of the victim.
Later in the history the feast of the Passover
was always connected with the deliverance
from Egypt, though it was joined to the
feast of ' Unleavened Bread.' It is true
that in the account of Josiah's celebration
of the Passover (2 Kings xxiii. 22) it is said
' Surely never such a Passover was kept from
the days of the judges, nor in all the days of
the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of
Judah.' But in that saying the emphasis is
on the word such, and the reference is to the
magnificence of the ceremonial adopted by
Josiah from Deuteronomy. The word ' Pe-
sach ' means the ' passing over,' and may
well have involved the forgiveness of some
serious sin. We may rest secure that this
the oldest of the festivals came with the
Hebrews into Palestine and was afterwards
consecrated by association with the event
of greatest national importance.
The Hebrews brought another festival
with them from Haran, which is known as
92 MOSAISM AND THE HEBREWS
the ' Sabbath.' The word itself is derived
from a Hebrew root meaning the desisting
or coming to an end not directly the enjoyment
of rest, though when men cease to work they
may certainly be said to rest. The Hebrew
week does not appear to have been the
Babylonian astrological week, in which each
day was consecrated to a particular planet,
the seventh being ' Saturn's day.' Hence
the ' Chiun ' of Amos v. 26, though un-
doubtedly the Babylonian name for Saturn
has no connexion with the origin of the
Sabbath. The prophet of Tekoa only asserts
his conviction of the idolatry of Israel during
the sojourn in the wilderness.
Neither was the Hebrew day the same with
the Babylonian Sabbath, which was cer-
tainly an unlucky day, on which even the
king was not allowed to do some things.
It corresponded to the Roman dies nefasti=
' days of evil omen,' on which no public
business could be done. It had no evil
associations to the early Hebrews, who
esteemed it a day of gladness. Though no
work was to be done upon it, for long it had
little of its later harsh severity. One of
man's earliest discoveries was that the moon
takes twenty-eight days to complete its
The Sabbath 93
changes. Hence four weeks of seven days
were naturally derived, the last of which in
each week was the Sabbath. Isaiah (i. 13, 14)
joins it with the glad ' feasts of the new
moon,' thus giving a hint of its ultimate
origin. Hence the Sabbath began by being
a ' lunar feast,' marking in some way the
phases of the moon. Gradually it grew in
sacred worth to the Israelites, who finally
found its first establishment in the thought
that ' God rested from his creative work on
the seventh day ' (Genesis ii. 1-3 ; Exodus
XX. 11) thus instituting the first Sabbath.
Our authority for the divine origin of the
hallowed day is certainly late, being derived
from P. But its conception represented the
spirit of the Israelites and their reverence
for the Sabbath from quite an early period
of their history. Though some of the pro-
phets denounced a mere outward regard for
it, those who compiled Deuteronomy cer-
tainly taught their people to hallow the
Sabbath, though they gave an historical
and less sublime explanation of its sanctity
(Deuteronomy v. 15). But whatever the
cause the day itself was held in deep affec-
tion, and in its celebration differed widely
from the customs of all other nations. As
94 MOSAISM AND THE HEBREWS
Vv^e learn from one of the great anonymous
prophets of the Exile or soon afterwards
{Isaiah Ivi. 1-7), the Israelites in Babylonia
kept their Sabbath in such a way as to dis-
tinguish themselves from the people of the
land, thus enabling the faithful amongst
them to preserve their nationality and fit
themselves for their return to Jerusalem.
Hence from a survey of all the evidence it
would seem to be established that under the
influence of their great teachers the Hebrews
ordained, observed, altered, and adapted to
their varying needs a primitive Semitic
festival. This they called the Sabbath, the
keeping of which they developed along their
own individual lines, gradually turning a once
joyous feast into a day of rigorous rest in its
most literal sense. This day of rest has been
one of their greatest contributions to the
well-being of Christian nations, which have
adopted it from them, though they have
changed the day from the seventh to the
first.
Probably Moses found these two feasts in
existence amongst the tribes in Goshen, the
Passover kept in its simplest form, the
Sabbath observed faithfully week by week,
so far as Egyptian tyranny permitted.
General Conclusions 95
Though certainly the most ancient Passover
was not celebrated with the complicated
ritual of a later time, he may very well have
changed what had been a feast of propitiation
into a memorial of the deliverance from
Egypt, At all events though blended with a
later agricultural feast, tradition unmistak-
ably points to its observance as such for a
considerable period before the Exile. But
Moses made some highly important original
contributions to the thought and life of the
' Children of Israel.' He was the first to give
something approaching a corporate life to
the kindred clans, which became more
securely established during the slow conquest
of Canaan and was completed under the vic-
torious rule of David. He achieved this great
result largely by revealing to them a common
deity and giving them a common worship.
Recalling the sacred name of Jahveh the
tribal God of Abraham and his descendants,
he stirred long forgotten memories of an
earlier and happier time in the crushed
hearts of his oppressed countrymen. In
Jahveh's name he led them, rebellious as they
often were, in safety through the barren
desert of Sinai to Kadesh Barnea on the
southern boundary of that land, wherein
96 MOSAISM AND THE HEBREWS
according to their oldest traditions their
fathers had Hved a happy pastoral life. But
he did more for them : he revealed some-
thing of the nature and being of Jahveh.
He taught them that they were Jahveh's
people, to whom he had uttered promises to
which he had been and would be faithful.
By the very name Moses showed them that
Jahveh had existed from the distant past,
had been the God of their ancestors, would
continue to exist in the future to be their
God. So long as they worshipped him alone
as their national God, he would be constant
to them and bestow upon them alike his
blessing and his protecting care.
Of greater importance for the growth of
spiritual truth their mighty leader had for-
bidden them to worship Jahveh under the
symbol of any molten image. It is uncertain
if he included the teraphim under this strict
prohibition : but it is improbable, since even
so devout a Jahveh- worshipper as David had
such an image in his house (i Samuel xix.
13-17). But the fact remains that in his
ordering of the worship of Jahveh no image
of any kind was permitted. The sacred
chest or ' Ark ' was his only symbol, and
remained such for centuries. Doubtless
General Conclusions 97
whatever Moses himself may have thought
of the matter, the average IsraeHte imagined
that Jahveh dwelt in some mysterious way
in the Ark, as is shown by many episodes in
its subsequent history (i Samuel v.-vii. 2 ;
2 Samuel vi. 6-11). But the absence of an
image by the altar of sacrifice in itself laid
the foundation of that more spiritual worship
of Jahveh, which was the most precious
revelation given to the Hebrew people.
Besides Moses taught that he was a holy
God, whatever his conception of the meaning
of the word holiness may have been. That
deep thought in its turn sowed the seeds of
the prophetic teaching of the need of holiness
in his worshippers. So it was a priceless con-
tribution to the ethical progress of Israel,
through Israel of the nations of the world.
It is uncertain if he was the first to prohibit
the eating of blood to his people. That
practice seems to look back to an earlier
origin. To ancient peoples there was some-
thing highly sacred in the blood, which to
them represented the life itself, and con-
sequently ought to be offered to God himself
by being poured out upon the ground and
smeared over the sacrifice. But there can
be no question that he attached great im-
H
98 MOSAISM AND THE HEBREWS
portance to the prohibition and made it an
essential part of his ordinances for worship.
It must not, however, be understood from
the foregoing considerations that his con-
ception of the nature and being of Jahveh
was in any way so exalted or so spiritual as
that of his greatest prophetic successors.
In the first place he does not seem to have
had any such deep conviction that Jahveh
was the only God, as Amos or Isaiah had.
To him Jahveh was Israel's God, and as such
to be worshipped by Israel as its only God.
But that more limited conception did much
to bring about the later monotheism.
Though far less anthropomorphic than that
of his predecessors his thought of God would
be coloured by many of the less noble human
attributes which were far more slightly con-
demned if condemned at all in those early
days. Stern cruelty, vindictive jealousy,
plain partiality, and many other such
qualities would seem to him to be a part of
the divine no less than of human nature.
Thus Jahveh the God of Israel was a being
less to be loved than feared, to be worshipped
alone lest his destructive anger should be
kindled against his people, and he should blot
them from the face of the earth.
General Conclusions 99
His relations with Israel's enemies, who
were also his enemies, were fierce and piti-
less. They were to be devoted, that is to
be utterly destroyed, men, women, and
children alike (Joshua vi. 24-27) by his
conquering people. Again, if such a figure
occurred to his mind, Moses would think of
Jahveh's omnipotence simply as resembling
the might of an Oriental despot highly
exaggerated. Similarly he would contem-
plate Jahveh's wisdom as far exceeding that
of an exceptionally wise man. The idea of
infinity did not present itself easily before
the Hebrew mind. But for all these limita-
tions of outlook Moses was in a very true
sense the founder alike of Israel's nationality
and of its religion. Hence his people do
well to recognize their supreme debt to the
first of their prophets, the earliest of their
lawgivers, and the greatest of their national
leaders.
Naturally enough additions springing from
further revelation of God through the succeed-
ing prophets, of man's ceremonial zeal from
the orderly minds of the priests, were as-
cribed to Moses : they had grown from his
spirit and were largely the fruit of his life
and teaching. These are to be found chiefly
100 MOSAISM AND THE HEBREWS
in the vast mass of legislation developed
through almost ten centuries yet given to
him in all good faith. That was the habit
of all ancient nations. The Hindus have
given to Gotama the first Buddha, the teach-
ings of a considerable line of Buddhas, just
as the Greeks gave to Solon a multitude of
laws, which he neither saw nor conceived.
So with Moses, extremely little of his practi-
cal legislation has come down to us. Yet the
fourfold tradition persists in making him
not only the leader and prophet but also the
lawgiver of Israel. In other words he was
the judge in chief of his nation. By degrees
a collection of his decisions would be accu-
mulated and kept to serve as precedents in
the retentive memories of an eastern race.
This collection would be hallowed by the
remembrance of what Moses had actually
been, of what he had done for the benefit of
his people. In due course additions would
be made to it from many sources, especially
from the words of his successors, long after
he had passed from earth. Amongst such
sources must be named a ' priestly Torah,'
which would preserve directions for the
ordering of sacred ritual, with the customs
of worship and sacrifice and a certain amount
General Conclusions ioi
of ethical teaching, for a considerable time
before it was perhaps engraven on a pillar or
set down in writing. All succeeding law-
givers in Israel looked back to Moses as the
first of their office : hence they regarded their
own additions born of later needs and circum-
stances as merely expansions of his original
utterances. Nor did they ever hesitate to
put forth their ordinances in his name and
to attribute them directly to him.
On his ethical side Moses was supremely
great : he was the first to perceive the ethical
needs of the community of Israelites, the
first to issue a moral code which is still the
recognized basis of civilization amongst
many peoples. As has been said he was the
first to give the Hebrews a sense of collective
nationality. It is true that in his day and
for centuries afterwards this nationality
took little account of the individual as such.
The nation was so closely knit together that
an individual sin corrupted and brought
punishment upon the whole people (e.g.,
Joshua vii.). Hence for centuries it de-
veloped no real perception of or belief in
the future Hfe. What the Israelites claimed
from Jahveh was this and nothing more :
if they worshipped him alone with constant
102 MOSAISM AND THE HEBREWS
fidelity, he would perpetuate their nation as
a nation, not that he would give each one of
them eternal life. They looked for prosperity
and happiness on earth and no further. In
that limitation they stand almost unique
amongst the nations of the earth : nor did
they shake themselves free from it until they
had come into contact with the Persians and
Greeks.
Moses therefore in his work and teaching
sowed the seeds of a mighty development.
Though his own conception of Jahveh may
have been to a large extent elemental, and
in no high degree spiritual, from it and from
it directly the most truly spiritual conception
of the God of the universe has been evolved
step by step, in proportion as man's mind
was able to bear the light broadening along
the generations. In like manner though his
conception of holiness may have been to a
certain extent ceremonial and below the
loftiest ethical heights, it was the direct
source of the prophetic teaching that the
worshippers of a holy God must be holy too.
The very fact of its revelation in his great
soul has set the nations of earth upon the
path to a truer, more spiritual, purer and
more profound perception of the character
General Conclusions 103
and demands of holiness, which has its
ripened fruit in the Hfe and teachings of
Jesus of Nazareth.
It is so often forgotten to-day in all lands
so-called Christian, that Jesus himself was
a Jew, a prophet in a direct line from Moses.
Hence the Hebrew lawgiver and prophet
must be looked upon as one of the world's
greatest creative spirits in the realm of
religion and ethics. However much he owed
to the thought alike of Egypt and the genera-
tions before him, he has laid all succeeding
ages under a supreme obligation, which they
would do well to recognize thankfully. A
certain set of self-styled rationalistic critics
refers to the Israelites scornfully as ' a half-
barbarous nation.' To them and to their
great leader Moses these very critics owe
almost all of their purer notions of ethics,
almost all of their clearer thought of God.
Chapter IV
THE BIRTH OF PROPHECY
The Hebrews under the Judges. The word Prophet.
The Sons of the Prophets. Samuel and his successors.
Divination and the Prophets. Rehgious thought in
the days of Samuel. Religious thought in the time
of David. Solomon and his Temple. The Solitary
Prophets. Ehjah and Elisha.
BEFORE attempting to estimate the
growth and influence of the prophets
amongst the Hebrews it will be necessary to
survey briefly the state of affairs during the
period of the Judges. The book of that name
has not survived in its earliest form. It con-
tains many old traditions of a line of tribal
deliverers and heroes, which are in great part
historical. But its setting is far from his-
torical. First it assumes that Canaan was
conquered completely under the leadership
of Joshua (Judges ii. 6-10). Secondly, it
imagines that the Hebrews were one people
Hebrews under the Judges 105
united in the worship of Jahveh, from which
they fell away from time to time and were
punished by the Canaanite tribes left in their
own land by Jahveh for that purpose (Judges
ii. 6-23, iii. 7, etc.). The recurrent phrase,
' And the children of Israel did that which
was evil in the sight of Jahveh ; and Jahveh
delivered them into the hand of Midian
seven years ' (Judges vi. i) with the variant
name of the punishing race, is due to the
Deuteronomic editor of the earlier book (ii.
6-xvi.). He looked upon the old traditions
in the light of his time ; hence he used them
to point out the sin and judgment of idolatry.
Later two appendixes (xvii., xviii. ; xix.-
xxi.) were added also containing old tradi-
tions, though the latter has been rewritten
by P. Finally the fragment of an old and
genuine narrative of the gradual conquest of
Canaan (i.-ii. 5) was prefixed to the whole
work. The word Judge= Shophet means
rather a national hero, a devout worshipper
of Jahveh, who delivered a tribe or con-
federacy of tribes from its oppressors. When
he had defeated his foes, he ruled as a kind
of dictator, until he died leaving in the case
of Gideon his sovereignty to his son (Judges
ix., x.). Obviously the tribes made their
io6 The Birth of Prophecy
conquest either singly or in small leagues,
and were parted from one another by strong
Canaanite cities. It was not until the time
of David that they became one nation. It
is also clear that the traditions themselves
are ancient and little altered by the editor.
From them the unsettled state of society in
those wild days can be discerned no less than
the laxity of morals and religion.
What, then, were the religious ideas preva-
lent at this time amongst the Hebrews ?
With comparative certainty it may be ob-
served that the tribes adopted the shrines
of the Canaanites, wherever they con-
quered them, as well as the symbols of their
worship. The name Jerubbaal with its
faulty etymology (Judges vi. 32) implies that
they did not shrink from calling Jahveh him-
self ' Baal,' of using the name ' Baal ' in the
names of their children. The Canaanites
being a much more highly civilized people
than their assailants influenced them even
in their form of worship. Every lofty hill-
top and many single trees or groves had each
its altar with its ' Baal-pillar ' (Massebha)
and ' lopped log ' or Asherah. Here the
Hebrews worshipped Jahveh, but used some
of the Canaanite rites. Even so earnest a
Hebrews under the Judges 107
J ah veil- worshipper as Hosea at a later time
could contemplate these pagan symbols as
parts of the worship of Jahveh. In pic-
turing the desolation of Israel for its sins he
expresses the final horror thus : ' For the
children of Israel shall abide many days
without king, and without prince, and with-
out altar, and without pillar, and without
ephod or teraphim ' (Hosea iii. 4). What
survived to his day must have preceded it.
Hence it may be seen that the pillar, ephod,
and teraphim were symbols of Hebrew
worship from a time dating soon after their
arrival in Canaan. Of these the pillar was
probably adopted from the Canaanites.
All of these symbols are mentioned in the
book of Judges as being extremely sacred.
Abimelech was made king near a pillar under
' the terebinth in Shechem ' (Judges ix. 6).
Now the pillar was a well-known symbol
of Baal. This word is not the real name
of a God. It is a generic rather than an
individual title ; it means the ' masculine
principle,* so that a husband is called Baal,
though Ishi is the more usual term (Hosea ii.
16). By a late prophet (Isaiah Ixii. 4)
Israel is said to be ' Beulah,' that is ' wedded '
to Jahveh. By the side of the pillar usually
io8 The Birth of Prophecy
stood an ' Asherah,' which symboHzed the
' female principle,' though the word is some-
times used for an actual ' goddess of for-
tune ' (i Kings XV. 13). Such an Asherah
stood by the altar of Baal under the tere-
binth at Ophrah, which Gideon threw down
(Judges vi. 25). Doubtless a pillar would
be there also, as Ophrah would be an old
Canaanite shrine.
The two symbols represented the divine
powers giving fertility to the earth, and so
were connected with the sun. When the
Hebrew tribes conquered parts of the land
there was nothing to prevent them from
using the old altars and symbols of the beaten
enemy. Perhaps too they forgot Jahveh in
the more riotous Canaanite worship of Baal,
though more probably they still worshipped
him at the shrine of the heathen deity. The
worship of Baal was much coarser than any
which they had brought with them from the
wilderness. It was marked by gross sen-
suality : sacred prostitutes of both sexes
formed an integral part of its ritual and were
known as the ' kadesh ' and ' kadeshah '
(Hosea iv. 13, 14 ; Amos ii. 7 ; 2 Kings
xxiii. 7). Most of our evidence for this
sexual indulgence at the consecrated shrines
Hebrews under the Judges 109
of Canaan comes from a later date. But
such a custom must have had its origin in a
remote antiquity. The Hebrews neither
learned it in a moment nor brought it with
them from their nomadic life. They found
it in Canaan, and yielded easily to its seduc-
tive influence.
The ' ephod ' is difficult to define exactly.
It occurs under four forms in the Old Testa-
ment. First there is the simple linen gar-
ment, the ' ephod bad ' of the priests, which
the child Samuel wore in Shiloh (i Samuel
ii. 18). Secondly there is the ' ephod ' by
which oracles were taken, which was a sort
of bag into which the sacred lots ' urim '
and ' thummim ' were placed, from which
they were drawn out (i Samuel xxiii. 6, 9).
Thirdly there was the high priest's sacred
garment, which was woven in gorgeous
colours and hung over his shoulders (Exodus
xxviii. 6-12).
None of these is mentioned in the book of
Judges, where the word itself occurs twice
(viii. 27, xvii. 5). In the first example it
can only be an image of some sort set up by
Gideon overlaid with the gold taken from the
Midianites. In the second case the ' ephod '
is closely connected with the images made by
no The Birth of Prophecy
Micah for his sanctuary in Mount Ephraim,
and is mentioned side by side with the
' teraphim,' which were images fashioned
like a man (i Samuel xix. 13), and possibly
used for divination. Hence this ' ephod '
must have been one of a set of images.
Probably the original meaning of the word
has been lost from its former connexion with
idolatry. Gideon's ' ephod ' at all events was
an image, which he intended to symbolize
Jahveh in spite of the teaching of Moses.
Micah, the Ephraimite, was certainly a
Jahveh-worshipper, as he obtained a ' Levite'
to be his priest (Judges xvii. 7-13) expecting
to be richly blessed because he had been so
fortunate. Here the word ' Levite ' can
only mean one trained for the priesthood,
not a member of the tribe of Levi. Wlien the
Danites robbed Micah of his images and his
priest, they set up a shrine at Laish, known
later as Dan (Judges xviii. 30), where long
afterwards Jeroboam the son of Nebat set
one of his ' golden bulls ' at the ancient
sanctuary. The priest is said to have been
Jonathan, the grandson of Moses.
From Micah's story we learn that a man
could set up his own son as his priest, or if
he could get a Levite he paid him an annual
Hebrews under the Judges hi
sum for ministering at his private shrine.
Thus from the book of Judges we learn that
there was no fixed temple of Jahveh as in the
later period, that men offered sacrifices much
as they chose, that they thought themselves
fortunate if they secured a Levite to be their
priest, that there was no definitely fixed
order of priests, that the Hebrews adopted
the symbols of Canaanite worship, and may
have often served the gods of Canaan, though
they never entirely abandoned the worship
of Jahveh as their peculiar God.
We learn, too, that heroes who clung to
the sole worship of Israel's God were the
natural leaders of their tribes against their
foes. They are said to have been filled with
the ' spirit of Jahveh ' (Judges vi. 34), as
sacrificing when Jahveh's angel appeared to
announce his will (vi. 19-21, xiii. 18-20).
They regarded Jahveh as the divine leader
of the tribal army (v. 4), indeed as the
' warrior-god,' ready to help his oppressed
worshippers. Jephthah the Gileadite does
not hesitate to offer up his own daughter to
Jahveh because of his rash vow to give him
' whatever met him first from his home ' on
his return from victory (xi. 30-40). Mani-
festly the time of the Judges was a rude age
112 The Birth of Prophecy
in respect of the Hebrews with relatively
low ethical ideals, but observing the sanctity
of a vow.
The story of Samson shows a still lower
tone than that of most of the Judges. His
name is curious and connected with the sun,
just as Beth-Shemesh meant the ' house of
the sun.' He has been said to be the centre
of a solar myth applied to some actual strong
man. His carrying off the gates of Gaza
(Judges xvi. 3) is said to typify the sun
carrying off the gates of darkness in the
morning. The seven locks of his hair are
said to symbolize the seven rays of the sun
in which his strength consists. When they
are shorn off at the instigation of ' Delilah '
= ' the night ' he loses his might : when they
are grown once more it is renewed, andso forth.
But such an explanation is perhaps a little
too easy and too clever. What is more im-
portant to note is the fact that Samson was
a ' Nazarite,' that is a man under a vow to
drink no strong drink, to live such a Ufe as a
Bedawin lived. Under his personality is
pictured a revolt amongst the tribes against
the growing civilization arising from the
gradual absorption of the Canaanites (xiii.
2-7). It is also significant that he is said to
Hebrews under the Judges 113
be of the tribe of Dan, a large body of whose
members under the pressure of the PhiUs-
tines migrated to the northern town of Laish
(Judges xviii.). His successor after a long
period was Jehonadab the son of Rechab
(2 Kings X. 15-17), whose followers had
much in common with the Nazarites. They
were Jahveh-worshippers, who chose to
worship him with the simplicity of an older
time, and regarded Baal-worship as directly
due to more luxurious modes of living.
The book of Judges reveals a disturbed
state of society, a conquest proceeding by
degrees, a stern conception of Jahveh as
fighting his people's battles at their head.
In the original traditions is scarcely a trace
of organized worship, though a temple of
Jahveh is said to have existed in Shiloh,
when the Danites set up Micah's images at
Laish (Judges xviii. 31). But its influence
would be merely local not national. Simi-
larly Gideon established a sanctuary at
Ophrah (Judges viii. 27), where his image
probably symbolized Jahveh. Other shrines
of a like kind are referred to as well known,
which would certainly be Canaanite sanc-
tuaries taken over by the Hebrews, as they
conquered the neighbourhood of each.
114 The Birth of Prophecy
Whatever may be said of the mass of the
people, it is quite evident that there were
enthusiastic worshippers of Jahveh, who were
able to call many followers in his name to
aid them in battle with his foes. As in
religious matters so it was in ethical : the
standards of right and wrong were by no
means lofty. Jael the wife of Heber the
Kenite committed a deadly sin against eastern
notions of hospitality by murdering Sisera
in her tent (Judges iv. 21, v. 24-27). Yet
Deborah with a fine unction blessed her in
her magnificent triumph-song (Judges v, 24).
Ethical ideas are almost absent from the
story of Samson. Ehud's murder of Eglon
(Judges iii. 21-23) though intensely patriotic
was despicably treacherous and could only
have been applauded by comparatively un-
civilized men. But the book is ennobled by
the faithfulness to Jahveh of the heroic
leaders, who gathered armies to fight his
battles. Their conception of him might not
be high, but their fidelity to him was beyond
reproach. In his name they dared fearful
odds ; in his name they triumphed, and
governed the tribes to which they themselves
belonged.
One valuable hint on the growth of the
The Word Prophet 115
order of prophets is to be gained from this
deeply interesting book. Deborah the Judge
was also a prophetess= Nabfah, who dwelt
and possibly ministered at a little shrine
under the sacred palm called by her name
(Judges iv. 4, 5). The derivation of this
word is much disputed : perhaps the most
plausible explanation is to trace it to a
Hebrew root meaning ' to bubble over,' that
is with inspiration. This derivation has the
solid advantage of covering all the various
kinds of prophets of Jahveh found in the
Old Testament.
An interesting antiquarian note has been
added to the earliest tradition of Samuel,
the substantial truth of which cannot be
doubted (i Samuel ix. 9). It runs thus,
' Beforetime in Israel, when a man went
to inquire of God, thus he said, Come,
let us go to the Seer ; for he that is
now called a Prophet was beforetime called
a Seer,^ The office of this Seer =Roeh was
to be consulted amongst other things about
lost property (i Samuel ix. 1-7). He was
held in high repute near his abode, and the
priest and people would not eat of the sacri-
ficial meal until he had blessed it (i Samuel
ix. 22, 23). Such a meal was held at the
ii6 The Birth of Prophecy
' high place,' where the sacrifice was offered,
in this case at Ramah. The Seer differed
widely from the later prophet. Though his
gift of what is sometimes called ' second
sight ' was highly valued, he was no religious
or political reformer, though he had some
interest in national politics. Yet he must
have been esteemed more honourable than
the priest who offered the victim, since the
feast was incomplete without his blessing.
At all events the character of Samuel the
Seer stood so high, that he was able to anoint
first Saul then David to be king over Israel
(i Samuel x. i, xvi. 13, 14).
The word ' gazer '='' Chozeh' was some-
times used for prophet, which may have
meant ' he who sees visions,' that is one who
receives revelations from Jahveh in dreams.
Throughout E are evidences that such reve-
lations were believed to be alike common and
truthful (e.g., Genesis xxxvii. 5-1 1). But
in Amos vii. 12, Amaziah the priest of Beth-el
uses the word in much the same sense as
prophet. He may have meant simply to
taunt Amos as a visionary. But Amos's
answer (vii. 14) implies that he did not so
understand the priest : he refused to be
ranked as a member of one of the ' prophetic
The Word Prophet 117
guilds,' and declared that he owed his call
to Jahveh directly. That such ' dreamers '
existed is clear ; but how far they became
organized revealers of the divine will is en-
tirely uncertain.
Another frequent name for prophet is
* man of God,' that is ' inspired by God '
(2 Kings V. 8). The phrase explains itself,
but is usually applied to the ' solitary pro-
phets,' who lived alone in many parts of
both kingdoms. The Greek word Trpo^^Trjs
itself, of which our word prophet is a deriva-
tive, originally meant a forth-teller not a
foreteller, though both functions gradually
became blended. When the priestess of
Delphi uttered her oracles, they were usually
unintelligible to those who consulted her.
Hence she employed a ' prophet ' to inter-
pret her words. Thus the prophets of
Israel were ' those who interpreted the will '
of Israel's God to the people. That is a
sense admirably suited to the later prophets,
but it does not accord with the earliest of
the class living in the time of Samuel.
First it will be helpful to examine some
of the Hebrew methods of ascertaining
Jahveh's will. Like the surrounding tribes
they used divination of various kinds,
ii8 The Birth of Prophecy
notably by the ephod and teraphim. Of
the ephod enough has been said ; of the
teraphim little or nothing is known of their
earliest employment. In addition to these
the people consulted those who uttered in-
cantations, observed omens, wove spells,
consulted familiar spirits, used a kind of
necromancy (Deuteronomy xviii. lo, ii).
But none of these is ever called a prophet.
A sort of medium is described in the person
of the ' witch of Endor,' who professed to
have called up Samuel from his grave to
instruct Saul (i Samuel xxviii. 6-25).
There is also one trace of a belief similar
to that of the ancient Greeks who imagined
that Zeus revealed his will by the talking
oaks of Dodona. David is represented as
inquiring of Jahveh if he should attack the
Philistines and as receiving his answer by
• the sound of marching in the tops of the
mulberry trees ' (2 Samuel v. 23, 24). So
there was a famous tree near Shechem known
as ' the soothsayer's terebinth ' (Genesis
xii. 6), where oracles may have been given.
Thus it is evident that the Hebrews like
other ancient peoples had distinct methods
of consulting Jahveh in various kinds of
divination. These excited the fierce wTath
Divination and the Prophets 119
of the greater prophets at a later time, but
were the natural customs of an older day.
They always precede the age of distinguished
religious teachers and form part of the
common stock and practices of primitive
mankind. They may rightly be regarded
as the first searchings after the divine, the
cruder preparations for fuller revelation
to come.
In this respect the Hebrews resembled
other nations : they had not fallen from a
higher state of revelation, but were emerging
from a lower plane of thought. To aid them
in their ascent they had a unique possession,
by which they stand out in marked contrast
with most other ancient races. These had
their individual prophets and founders of
religions : but few if any have had so long a
line of noblest teachers succeeding one an-
other in such rich profusion. It is of the
highest importance to trace the growth of
prophecy from its crude beginning to its
unique culmination under its greatest ex-
ponents.
The first organized body of prophets so
called bore a close resemblance to a band of
modern Dervishes, indulging in inarticulate
transports in Jahveh's honour. It has been
120 The Birth of Prophecy
thought that they were of Canaanite origin ;
but of this there is no certainty. They were
guilds Hving at a later time in little communi-
ties, using ' lute, tambourine, pipe, and lyre '
to stimulate their divine frenzy. Such a
band met Saul after his anointing as king by
Samuel (i Samuel x. 10-13) ; by them as by
the overpowering influence of the crisis in
his life Saul yielded to ecstasies like theirs.
Once again he is said to have acted in this
way when he was in pursuit of David his
son-in-law (i Samuel xix. 18-24), though
this tradition is neither so early nor so
probable as the former.
These ' sons of the prophets ' appear with
startling suddenness in Hebrew story to
disappear no less suddenly. From the time
of Samuel nothing is heard of them for
several centuries. Of their origin nothing
certain is known : but their conduct agrees
closely with that derivation of the word
prophet which traces it to the root ' to
bubble over.' Their inspiration was in-
articulate, displaying itself in physical and
mental excitement. Doubtless their prac-
tices would impress deeply the people and
serve to keep alive solemn reverence for
Jahveh. Such early manifestations of loyalty
The Sons of the Prophets 121
to the divine being must never be stigmatized
as folly. From small beginnings great re-
sults are achieved. Some of the ' solitary
prophets ' indulged in actions not untinged
by frenzy. Elijah is said to have run
swiftly before Ahab's chariot (i Kings xviii.
46), while Elisha needed the stimulus of a
minstrel's music once to enable him to utter
his message (2 Kings iii. 15).
In due time these bands of enthusiasts
became known as ' sons of the prophets,'
that is ' members of a prophetic guild ' (2
Kings iv. 38). Elisha evidently did much
to organize them, and their manifestations
may have become less purely emotional,
though the one whom he sent to anoint Jehu
the son of Nimshi was thought to be mad
by the rest of the captains (2 Kings ix.
1-12). In the days of Amos the professional
prophets who gathered round the various
temples of Jahveh still bore the name of
' sons of the prophets,' with whom he
angrily disclaimed any dealings (Amos vii.
13, 14). Whatever the guilds became, they
began their mission somewhere about the
time of Samuel, who though by no means of
their kind had much sympathy with them
as devotees of Jahveh. Many of the early
122 The Birth of Prophecy
Christians at Corinth indulged in manifesta-
tions similar to theirs and caused St. Paul
much trouble by their inarticulate egoism
(i Corinthians xiv. 5-18). That is what is
meant by ' speaking with tongues,' namely,
the utterance of babbling noises.
In discussing the place of Samuel in the
history of prophecy we are met by serious
difficulties. The records present two por-
traits of him differing materially from one
another. In the first he appears as a hal-
lowed seer, in the second as a Hebrew saint.
The first is certainly nearer to the truth than
the second : but clearly he was a man of un-
usual gifts, who impressed his personality so
deeply upon the men of his day that an
exaggerated picture of him has found its
way into history. He may actually have
judged Israel and prepared the waj^ for the
kingdom, which was due to the oppression
of the Philistines (i Samuel ix. 15-17). At
all events he was the leading spirit in the
worship of Jahveh, to which he had tra-
ditionally been dedicated from his birth
(I Samuel i. 11). He dwelt at Ramah,
where there was a hill-top sanctuary at
which he may have ministered occasionally.
Here his influence was so great that he was
Samuel and his Successors 123
regarded as a kind of prophet, though he was
known as the ' seer,' or as ' the man of God.'
But he must have been more than an or-
dinary seer ; otherwise he could hardly have
become one of the most commanding figures
in Hebrew history before the kingdom. So
great indeed did he come to be, that his
latest biographer has given him many
unreal episodes and speeches. He cannot be
credited with uttering a long oration on the
miseries of the kingdom many years before
they had been experienced (i Samuel xii.).
Nor can the same speaker, when his nation
asked him for a king, have actually blessed
the monarch as God's gift to save his people
from the Philistines, and banned him as
a punishment for their rejection of him
(i Samuel ix. 16, cf. viii. 4-22).
While then no final conclusion can be
reached about the real Samuel as he actually
lived, his influence is seen to be intensely real.
His relationship to the ' prophetic guilds ' of
his time is also very obscure. He may have
organized them and set them in a surer way
of gaining an abiding influence over their
countrymen, so that they might help to keep
alive the sacred flame of the worship of
Jahveh. In this he was supremely in-
124 The Birth of Prophecy
terested : it was in the name of Jahveh that
he anointed both Saul and David to be king.
If he did not in fact govern a portion of
Israel, he was little less than ruler of that
portion. He was constantly consulted by
Saul until their quarrel. Nay, it was to his
wraith that Saul is said to have applied for
counsel just before the fatal battle of Mount
Gilboa. Though many legends have grown
around his name, it still remains venerable
as that of the first true successor of Moses,
who did much to establish upon a secure
foundation the religion of Jahveh.
Samuel did not live to see David ascend
the throne and pursue his victorious career.
But his work did not die with him. Saul
and David were both devout Jahveh- wor-
shippers and did much to make their religion
the faith of the whole people. A long line
of distinguished prophets took up the work
of their great predecessor. Of these Nathan
and Gad are especially named and something
is told of each of them. In a Deuteronomic
passage Nathan is said to have warned David
against building a temple for Jahveh, when
he brought back the ark from the PhiUs-
tines to Mount Zion (2 Samuel vii. 1-17)
after his conquest of Jerusalem. Nathan
Samuel and his Successors 125
rebuked with unsparing rigour the king for
his sin against Uriah the Hittite (2 Samuel
xii. 1-9, 13, 14). Finally Nathan joined
with Bathsheba in the disreputable court
intrigue by which Solomon secured the
throne (i Kings i. 9-52). He must, there-
fore, have been a man of sterling courage
and great weight at the court, though his
last recorded act was one of treason against
David's eldest surviving son.
Of Gad little more is known than that
he rebuked David to his face, when in his
pride he numbered the people, and fore-
told his punishment (2 Samuel xxiv. 10-25).
Whether these two men knew Samuel per-
sonally is quite uncertain, but they kept
alive his spirit. Gad is called the ' king's
seer,' which implies that he held the highly
important office of religious instructor and
revealer of Jahveh's oracles to David. How
these oracles were given is unknown : but
Gad's method must have differed from the
consultation of the ephod, which was per-
formed by the king himself in conjunction
with the priest of the sanctuary (i Samuel
xxiii. 9). It is noteworthy that after David
ascended the throne he is never represented
as inquiring of Jahveh ' by the ephod,' but
126 The Birth of Prophecy
simply as ' inquiring of Jahveh ' (2 Samuel
ii. I, V. 19). Hence Gad must have em-
ployed some other means of discovering
Jahveh's will, or he may have trusted to
direct inspiration like the later prophets.
What, then, was the prevailing religious
thought in the days of Samuel ? It must
not be imagined that the worship of Jahveh
was what it became at a later period.
Though he had no actual image, the ' ark '
took the place of an image. It was re-
garded as Jahveh's residence by most of
his worshippers. Hence has arisen the story
of Uzzah, who was said to have been struck
dead by presumptuously steadying it on
its way to Jerusalem (2 Samuel vi. 6-8).
Similarly arose the story of the blessing of
the house of Obed-edom, while it remained
there (vi. 11). Under the influence of its
symbolism David clad in the priest's garment
(ephod bad) danced before it as it was borne
triumphantly to its resting-place on Mount
Zion, where it stood in a simple tent till the
days of Solomon.
Nor at this time was it considered a sin
to call Jahveh by the name of Baal. Saul
was his true worshipper ; yet he did not
hesitate to call one son ' Ish-Baal '= ' Baal's
Religious Thought under Samuel 127
man ' (2 Samuel ii. 8), while the equally
pious Jonathan named his son ' Merib-Baal '
= ' Baal's warrior' (2 Samuel iv. 4, where
he appears as Mephibosheth ; cf . i Chroni-
cles viii. 34, where the true name is found).
The later editors have substituted the word
' Bosheth ' = ' shame ' for 'Baal' in both
of these cases as in many others, holding it
impossible for persons so devoted to Jahveh
to use the generic name of a heathen deity
as part of the names of their sons. But Saul
and Jonathan intended to do honour to
Jahveh by thus using a title very generally
applied to him in their time. The worship
of Jahveh has been rightly called syncretisHc,
that is to say it took up into itself much
of the popular worship of Baal. Wlien the
Israelite was worshipping at the local shrine
where the Canaanite had worshipped before
him, and addressing Jahveh as Baal, he
believed himself to be worshipping Jahveh
in all honesty. But gradually the worship
of Jahveh at the sanctuary of the local Baal
lost its distinctive features and the worship
of the local Baal himself in part took its
place. Hence the campaign against the 'high
places ' in the Deuteronomic reformation
under Josiah (2 Kings xxiii. 13-15).
128 The Birth of Prophecy
During this period and long afterwards no
conception of the universality of Jahveh was
to be found even amongst his true worship-
pers. To David he was the ' God of Israel,'
who had taken for his portion the land of
Israel, who could not be worshipped out-
side of its boundaries (i Samuel xxvi 19).
Similarly the conception of Jahveh's being
was limited, while the ethical standards of
the day matched the conception. The right
and duty of revenge, however treacherous,
ruled in the mind of Joab (2 Samuel iii.
23-28), of Absalom (xiii. 28, 29), and was the
common practice of all Israelites. David no
doubt condemned the murder of Abner with
extreme severity ; but his anger was partly
stirred by the sense of the political loss which
he had sustained in this way. That he did
not shrink from revenge himself is shown in
his charge given to Solomon shortly before
his death (i Kings ii. 1-9). In that remark-
able utterance, which is found in a scene un-
doubtedly in essence historical, there is a
curious blending of piety with treacherous
cruelty. He commanded his son to put to
death his loyal general Joab, possibly because
he had slain his son Absalom, with an in-
gratitude truly royal.
Religious Thought under David 129
That David was genuinely pious cannot
be doubted ; but his piety belonged to his
own day and seldom soared above it. It did
not prevent him from committing his das-
tardly crime against Uriah, though it did
constrain him to repent when his baseness
was made manifest to him. He had the
gifts of the hero in rich measure : he was a
resourceful commander, a faithful friend, a
warm-hearted and generous man in many
respects ahead of the kings of his time. He
was an intensely human man, dowered with
great and noble qualities, but by no means a
saint as he has often been represented. Of
his capacity as a religious poet something
will be said in its place : here it will be well
to note carefully that not many of the
Psalms are certainly his, probably none
exactly as he wrote them. None of them
bears a close resemblance to the dirges over
Saul and Jonathan (2 Samuel i. 19-27) and
over Abner (2 Samuel iii. 33, 34), which have
survived apparently in their original form.
The first shows David as a great and tender-
hearted poet, who knew how to sing the
faithfulness of friendship with deep and
moving power.
The most striking event in the reign of
K
130 The Birth of Prophecy
Solomon was the building of the Temple
and his palace on Mount Zion. At the same
time he established the Levitical priesthood
under Zadok, who took the place of the de-
posed Abiathar. This single event did more
to accomplish the unification of the worship
of Jahveh than any other in Hebrew his-
tory. But its importance must not be
exaggerated ; at first the Temple was rather
a royal chapel than a national sanctuary.
The farming feasts were celebrated at home,
not within its precincts. There was no high
priest in the later sense ; the king himself
consecrated the sanctuary and offered sac-
rifices (i Kings viii., ix. 25).
An increasing number of priests would
be needed to maintain the services in the
new shrine. But Zadok the head of them
was Solomon's very humble servant depend-
ent upon him for his office and support.
He would never have dared to protest
against the ecclesiastical policy of the great
king, which was rather prudential than
strictly religious. Though Solomon was
a faithful worshipper of Jahveh as patron-
God, if such an expression may be used, of
his kingdom, without hesitation he built
temples for his numerous wives side by side
Solomon and his Temple 131
with that of Jahveh. The Deuteronomic
editor says in so many words, ' Then did
Solomon build an high place for Chemosh
the abomination of Moab in the mount that
is before Jerusalem, and for Molech the ab-
omination of the children of Ammon. And
so he did for all his strange wives, which
burnt incense and sacrificed unto their
gods ' (i Kings xi. 7, 8). This comparatively
late authority charitably assumes that '' his
wives turned away his heart after other
gods.' It is clear that Solomon hoped to
strengthen his position as king by marrying
a multitude of heathen princesses, though
their number has probably been exaggerated.
Now it must not be assumed that Solomon
regarded either Chemosh or Molech as
' abominations.' He looked upon the one
as the national god of Moab, the other as
that of Ammon. Hence he provided sanc-
tuaries for the worship of his Moabite and
his Ammonite wives respectively. Nay,
sometimes he may have worshipped with
them without ever holding himself false to
Jahveh. The Deuteronomic principle of a
single sanctuary was not born in his time ;
' high places ' abounded on every conspicu-
ous eminence each with its separate priest.
132 The Birth of Prophecy
Nor were they condemned by Isaiah as such,
though Amos and Hosea held the worship
at them to be not of the right kind. We
must be careful not to read back into the
reign of Solomon the conceptions of a later
age. He certainly deemed it no sin to
worship with his wives, so long as he recog-
nized Jahveh as the supreme God of Israel.
Nor did he hesitate to offer sacrifices at
well-known ' high places ' such as Gibeon
(i Kings iii. 4). So little does his biographer
condemn the king, that he represents him
as receiving divine promises in a vision. In
reading the history of the kingdom we must
rid ourselves of the conceptions of the
Deuteronomists if we are to hope to under-
stand it.
Soon after Rehoboam came to the throne,
Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, rebelled against
him taking with him ten of the tribes and
acting under the instigation of Ahijah the
Shilonite, a prophet of Jahveh (i Kings xi.
26-40). By later authors he is always de-
nounced as ' Jeroboam the son of Nebat,
who made Israel to sin ' (i Kings xv. 30).
His sin upon examination appears to have
been threefold. First he rebelled against
tlie lawful king, secondly he set up two
Jeroboam's Golden Bulls 133
' golden bulls ' at Bethel and Dan, thirdly
he made priests of the ordinary people not
of the tribe of Levi (i Kings xii. 25-33).
The first needs no comment, though it was
a deadly sin to the Deuteronomists. The
second they regarded as a lapse into idolatry,
the third as the degradation of the priest-
hood. Whatever Jeroboam's other sins may
have been, he was no deliberate idolater.
His only son's name, Abijah = ' my father is
Jahveh ' proves his constancy to Jahveh,
whose symbols he intended the ' golden bulls'
to be. These he set up at either end of his
kingdom to prevent his subjects from feeling
the need of going up to Jerusalem to worship
in the Temple. By this means he attempted
to establish two temples to Jahveh in his
kingdom, which would rival the older
Temple of Solomon. In this politic purpose
he succeeded ; nor did either Elijah or even
Amos condemn these sanctuaries as such.
Similarly the latest redactors of the book
of Kings took great offence at his promis-
cuous manner of making priests (i Kings
xiii. 33, 34) to the utter disregard of the sole
claim of the tribe of Levi to this office.
Such a practice was intolerable to the later
high ideal of the Levitical priesthood and its
134 The Birth of Prophecy
representatives amongst the priestly writers.
His people appear to have seen nothing
wrong in his action ; nor did the great pro-
phets of his own kingdom ever denounce
him for performing it. He was a practical
ruler far-sighted enough to perceive the
powerful attraction of the noble Temple of
Solomon to his subjects and determined to
provide counterbalancing attractions. Simi-
larly his method of filling up his priesthood
rather implies that the later practice of con-
fining it to the tribe of Levi was not firmly
established than any intentional slur upon
it. The foregoing view is opposed to the
traditional interpretation : but it is drawn
entirely from the facts of the case and from
such evidence as is afforded by the complex
account of his reign. In fact in Old Testa-
ment interpretation it is of little use to cling
to the presuppositions of the Deuteronomic
or priestly editors, which are based upon no
contemporary evidence, but on the habits
of thought of their own respective periods.
During the reigns of Jeroboam and his
successors both in Judah and Israel arose a
number of ' solitary prophets ' of Jahveh,
who lived either by themselves or at most
with a single attendant, coming forth sud-
The Solitary Prophets 135
denly from their homes to utter their message
on important occasions. Of this kind was
Ahijah the Shilonite, who used a symbohc
action to emphasize his words (i Kings xi.
29-39). The royal temples had each its
band of professional prophets maintained
by the king and consulted by him when he
was undertaking any expedition. Naturally
they often uttered oracles in accordance
with the king's wishes (Micah ii. 5-11).
Ahab had four hundred such (i Kings xxii.
6-28), of whom one was incorruptible,
Micaiah, the son of Imlah. These were
prophets of Jahveh, whose worshipper there-
fore Ahab must have been. Nor is he said
to have consulted any other kind of prophet,
whatever Jezebel may have done.
Moreover he called his sons by the
name of Jahveh, namely Jehoram = ' Jahveh
is exalted,' and Ahaziah = ' Jahveh hath
grasped,' a further proof that he had not
abandoned the national religion. In strong
opposition to the professional prophets stood
men like Micaiah, who dared to foretell evil
to Ahab, when it needed great courage to do
so. Prophets of his kind never imagined,
however, that the rest of the guild were
consciously deceiving Ahab. On the con-
136 The Birth of Prophecy
trary they held that a ' lying spirit ' from
Jahveh himself put false words into their
mouth to lead the king to his ruin (i Kings
xxii. 20-23). Doubtless the kings of both
kingdoms followed the oracles of the pro-
phets which agreed with their own wishes,
thus differing little from other kings.
Elijah the Tishbite stands out amongst the
' solitary prophets ' as a stern enthusiast of
a mighty personality, around whose name so
many legends have gathered that it is difficult
to present a picture of the real man (i Kings
xvii.,xviii.,xix.,xxi. 17-29; 2 Kingsi.,ii.). A
native of Gilead he led an ascetic life, making
appearances and disappearances so suddenly
that he was believed to be borne hither and
thither by the ' spirit of Jahveh ' (i Kings
xviii. 9-12). Towards the close of his life
he is described as ' an hairy man with a girdle
of leather about his loins ' (2 Kings i. 8),
in other words he was a Nazarite trimming
neither his hair nor beard and wearing a skin
garment. It seems certain that he was an
anchorite in his manner of life, while his
athletic frame and his deep knowledge of the
by-ways of his native land made it easy for
him to appear and disappear mysteriously.
Like all his fellow prophets he believed that
Elijah the Tishbite 137
Jahveh himself had given to him the exact
words of his message. A terrible drought
afflicted Israel, of which there is confirmatory
evidence from other sources. Ahab had
married Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, king
of Tyre (i Kings xvi. 31, where Zidonians is
put for Tyrians). For her worship he built
a temple in honour of the Tyrian Baal.
Many of the people followed the custom of
the queen, and Elijah's wrath was aroused.
Regarding the drought as a punishment for
this falling away from Jahveh, he came from
his mountain home to confront Ahab, to
denounce the worship of Baal side by side
with that of Jahveh. The great scene on
Mount Carmel is described with unmatched
sublimity of words, in which truth is so
closely intermingled with legend that they
can no longer be disentangled (i Kings
xviii.). The story represents the conflict of
two ideals ; it is not simply a contest between
Jahveh and Baal. With keen penetration
Elijah saw the sensual associations insepar-
able from the worship of Baal, while he him-
self stood for the stern purity and simplicity
of the worship of Jahveh. He saw that the
first would be the ruin of his country, that
in the second was its supreme hope. He does
138 The Birth of Prophecy
not seem to have thought of any land save
his own as under the sway of Jahveh ; he
uttered no protest against the ' golden bulls,'
nor against worship at the ' high places,' so
long as it was the worship of Jahveh. It
was for Jahveh the God of Israel that he
was ' very jealous ' : by his side he could
tolerate no alien worship.
Wlien for the moment he had prevailed,
Jezebel determined to kill him, and one of
his moods of deep despondency fell upon
him. He fled to Horeb, where he is said to
have received his commission to anoint Jehu
the son of Nimshi to be king and Elisha the
son of Shaphat to succeed him as prophet
(i Kings xix. 1-18). In the wonderful vision
at Horeb the character and motives of
Elijah are clearly seen. He went thither
in deep despair ; he returned encouraged
to do the remainder of his work. It is not
necessary to press the details of the story :
its supreme value consists in the portrayal
of the character and ideals of the man.
Such a man could not fail to inspire his fol-
lowers with strength and enthusiasm ; they
could but revere the stern prophet who had
dared to tell the unpalatable truth to the
great king face to face.
Elijah the Tishbite 139
Nor was Ahab in spite of many faults
entirely the evil monarch whose picture has
survived as painted by his resolute enemies.
He was brave, chivalrous, wise, a capable
general, and a successful king, who could
not have been unpopular with all of his sub-
jects. If he was guilty of a heinous sin
against Naboth, so was David against Uriah.
Hence no common courage was needed to
meet him on his way, to condemn him for
having ' troubled Israel,' to denounce ruin
upon him and his. This Elijah did more
than once, so deeply did his confidence in
Jahveh stir him to do this dangerous duty.
His next public appearance was provoked by
a serious crime committed by Ahab against
Naboth under the evil influence of his wife,
who was the chief figure in the treacherous
tragedy. The right of inheritance was and
is of supreme sanctity to eastern nations.
This Ahab and Jezebel violated by the legal
murder of Naboth for the sake of his vine-
yard. Elijah's whole sense of justice and
right was outraged by this flagrant crime.
Once more he denounced Jahveh's judgment
upon him (i Kings xxi. 17-29) so powerfully
that Ahab afterwards repented and was
promised a respite from the threatened
140 The Birth of Prophecy
calamity. This repentance is quite as much
to his credit as that of David for his sin
against Uriah. Yet his biographers in their
estimate of him have overlooked this and
several other pieces of evidence of a not
wholly ignoble nature (e.g., i Kings xx.
26-34), because he had dared to permit the
worship of Baal Melcharth alongside that of
Jahveh. In that he was wrong : but he
must be judged by the whole and not by a
part of the evidence.
Elijah had already called Elisha to be his
successor (i Kings xix. 19-21), but he did
not survive to anoint Jehu the son of Nimshi.
With his new disciple according to the tradi-
tion he moved from place to place, until
they left the ' prophetic guild ' at Jericho
to cross the Jordan (2 Kings ii. 1-12).
There in the region of Mount Nebo a flaming
chariot and horses bore him from Elisha's
sight, while he dropped his mantle as a sign
that a double portion of his spirit would
rest upon his disciple. The tradition is in
great part legendary and has some affinity
with the one representing the grave of Moses
as unknown.
Its author would have rightly ranked
Elijah with Moses as his truest successor.
Elijah the Tishbite 141
He left an ineffaceable impression upon the
hearts of his countrymen. He had with-
stood an unusually able and powerful
monarch not only in the interest of the sole
worship of Jahveh, but as the vindicator of
one of the most cherished rights of the people
of Israel. His mysterious way of coming
and going had fired the imagination not
only of his contemporaries, but of those who
followed him. They endowed him with
superhuman powers, such as are given again
and again to their heroes and saints. Elijah
has come down to us rather as the desert-
saint than as the mighty human personality
which was actually his. Through all the
legends which have gathered round his name,
this personality stands out with convincing
force. The Jews of the time of Jesus ex-
pected him to appear to prepare the way for
the coming of the Messiah. With pro-
founder insight Jesus saw the renewal of the
spirit of the prophet of Israel in the sturdy
soul of John the Baptist. Elijah's figure
remains as that of a mighty leader in the
days of a serious crisis, as one who since the
time of Moses did most to secure the sole
worship of Jahveh in his own land. Indeed
he paved the way for the coming of the
142 The Birth of Prophecy
' literary prophets ' who taught that Jahveh
was not only the sole God of Israel, but
Lord of all the earth.
Elijah passed away leaving a worthy
successor behind him. Elisha was cast in
a kindlier mould, though now and then he
was guilty of cruelty according to tradition.
Before he obeyed Elijah's call, he asked
leave first to go and give his father and
mother the kiss of farewell (i Kings xix. 20).
He was unsilfish : when he left his home,
he left a prosperous farmstead, for he was
' ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen ' at
the time (i Kings xix. 19). Yet without a
murmur he left all behind to take upon
himself the hard and dangerous office of a
prophet. Around him as around his master
many miracle-stories have grown, of which
the majority consists of acts of kindness.
Though he was interested in the ' pro-
phetic guilds ' (2 Kings vi. 1-7) he lived
simply by himself with his one attendant
Gehazi, until the latter was stricken with
leprosy. To his lowly home came great men
such as Naaman the S5n:ian seeking for his
help (2 Kings v. 9-19). Here he was con-
sulted more than once by the king. His
career need not be followed closely : but
Elijah and Elisha 143
it must be remembered that he was not
merely a prophet but a pohtician, whose
wise advice more than once saved his country
from ruin. He was the inspiring force
behind the rebelHon of Jehu, who perhaps
did little credit to his prophetic sponsor (2
Kings ix.). Though he had no new revela-
tion to give, he was constant in all things to
the spirit of his master, faithful to the
worship of Jahveh as sole God of Israel.
When he lay dying he sent for Jehu's grand-
son, Joash, to give him final counsel. Well
might the king as he hung over the dying
prophet exclaim, ' My father, my father, the
chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof '
(2 Kings xiii. 14). He served his God
faithfully displaying alike profound religious
conviction and fervent love of his country.
Elijah and Elisha prepared the way for
the ' literary prophets ' who succeeded them.
They had definite limitations ; but their
teaching formed a sound foundation for
further building. In them we trace the grow-
ing ethical tone of the prophets. Neither
of them soared beyond the conception of
Jahveh as sole God of Israel. Naaman for
example is represented as receiving 'two
mules' burden of earth,' that he might build
144 The Birth of Prophecy
an altar in Damascus to worship Jahveh {2
Kings V. 17-19). Obviously, both he and
Elisha believed such worship to be im-
possible in an alien land without some such
compromise as this. Elijah too perceived
the moral iniquity of Ahab's crime against
Naboth, as Nathan had done in a similar
case before him. He represented Jahveh
as passing sentence upon the king for his un-
doubted guilt. That was the foundation of
the later teaching of the ethical holiness of
Jahveh, which plays so important a part in
the writings of Amos and Isaiah. Elijah
and his disciple Elisha perceived clearly the
gross and degrading sensuality of the worship
of Baal : hence they stood forth boldly for
the purity of worship, for the righteousness
of Jahveh. They left their work unfinished,
as all men even the greatest must do. But
it remains ever to their glory that they
saw the light and gave up all to follow
its guidance along the upward path towards
truth.
Chapter V
THE LITERARY PROPHETS
Affairs in Judah and Israel after the death of Elisha.
The coming of Amos. Hosea the Israelite. Isaiah of
Jerusalem. Micah the Morashtite. Deuteronomy.
Jeremiah of Anathoth. Ezekiel the Exile. The
Second Isaiah. The Message of the Literary Prophets.
WITHIN forty years after the death of
EUsha a new era began in prophecy,
founded upon the old, but of immense conse-
quence in its inherent power and effect upon
the nation. This was the age of the 'Literary
Prophets,' who began their work by uttering
their message in the market-place of one or
other of the larger towns in Israel and Judah
(Amos vii. 10-17) 5 but finding themselves
suspected or despised, issued their oracles in
a written form to be read in public either by
themselves or their disciples. Some were
peasants, some aristocrats, some descended
from priestly families, some actually priests.
146 The Literary Prophets
The writings of many were collected in their
own lifetime or after their death, and have
been handed down under their own names.
Some are only known by large collections or
scattered fragments of their oracles, which
have been attached to the writing of better
known prophets. The books of Isaiah and
Jeremiah for example contain almost more
of the words of a number of anonymous
prophets than of the actual sayings of their
reputed authors.
At this point it will be advantageous to
survey very briefly the social advancement
in Israel and Judah during the forty years
between the death of Elisha and the coming
of Amos. In Israel a strong ruler, Jeroboam
II (782-743 B.C.) had recovered the former
boundaries of his kingdom and peaceful pros-
perity followed victorious war. In Judah
similarly a great king, Uzziah, reigned pos-
sibly from 789 to 737 B.C., during the
last years of which his son Jotham was
regent after his father had become a leper.
In both kingdoms the ruling classes had
grown wealthier and more powerful : they
indulged in riotous luxury and joined the
priests in grinding the face of the poor. The
worship of Jahveh was celebrated with a
Affairs in Judah and Israel 147
Canaanite magnificence degenerating often
into grave debauchery. The national festi-
vals were joined with national fairs and fre-
quented by pilgrims coming from a great
distance.
Gorgeous palaces were built by the great
nobles, who lived largely by plundering the
mass of the people. Every ' high place '
had its sacrifices, while the great temples
were distinguished by innumerable offerings.
But the leaders of neither kingdom under-
stood the need of practising strict morality.
They had yet to learn that Jahveh was a
God of righteousness, who demanded right-
eousness from his worshippers. Hence cor-
ruption grew apace and ended in ruin and
exile. That fine poem the so-called ' Bless-
ing of Moses,' which is in reality the work of
an Israelite poet of this time (Deuteronomy
xxxiii.), thrills with triumphant thankful-
ness to Jahveh for blessing Israel with so
splendid a prosperity. Like the majority of
his day he dreamed that this prosperity was
a proof of Jahveh's satisfaction with his
people. Hence all but the poor were filled
with a proud self-complacency not easy to
shake, which led by quick downward stages
to utter decay.
148 The Literary Prophets
At this time Amos received his call and
delivered his stern message of speedy des-
truction because of national sin (765-760
B.C.). He was a shepherd of the desolate
mountain region of Tekoa, beneath whose
bare heights he cultivated a watery kind of
fig (vii. 14), Living a lonely life in narrow
circumstances he looked with suspicion upon
the luxury of the towns of Israel where he
sold his wool. As he followed his sheep, or
gazed upon the nightly heavens glittering
with innumerable stars, or heard the howling
of savage beasts in the darkness, his keen
eyes took in all that he saw, and he has
left us occasionally vivid vignettes of desert-
life (iii. 4, 5, 8, 12). As he says, ' The lion
hath roared, who will not fear ? Jahveh
hath spoken, who can but prophesy ? '
(iii. 8). He chose the northern kingdom,
which was far more powerful than his own
land of Judah, as the true representative of
the Israel of Jahveh. He was strictly a
monotheist, who took a great forward step,
when he made Jahveh ask ' Have I not
brought up Israel from Egypt, and the
Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians
from Kir ? ' (ix. 7). Thus he recognized
that Jahveh had guided these foreign nations
The Coming of Amos 149
as providentially as he had led Israel to its
land. From the moment of his call he put
all on one side and went about the divine
errand, until he was silenced by Amaziah
the priest of Bethel (vii. 10-17). He re-
turned home and wrote down his message
almost entirely in the form in which it has
survived.
His teaching is intensely ethical. He
begins by denouncing Jahveh's judgment
upon the neighbouring nations in each case
for some grave moral crime (i. — ii. 5).
Turning to Israel he rudely scatters its hope
of escaping any such fate, because it was
Jahveh's people, which had been faithful to
its ritual worship (ii. 6-15). Of the ruling
classes he asserts with pitiless force, ' They
know not how to do right, saith Jahveh, who
store up violence and robbery in their
palaces ' (iii. 10), while he charges the great
ladies of Israel with oppression of the needy
and with drunkenness (iv. 1-3). He calls
attention to such signs of Jahveh's wrath as
famine, drought, pestilence, and an earth-
quake (iv. 6-13), after condemning the
popular worship at Bethel with its tithes and
offerings as pure transgression. Next he
shows the ruling classes their infamous
150 The Literary Prophets
luxury, their brutal oppression of the poor,
uttering the memorable words which contain
the pith of his message : ' Seek good and not
evil, that ye may live, and Jahveh the God
of hosts be with you, as ye say. Hate the
evil, and love the good, and establish judg-
ment in the gate ; it may be that Jahveh,
the God of hosts, will be gracious unto the
remnant of Joseph ' (v. 14, 15).
The title ' Jahveh the God of hosts ' is
frequent in Amos and may mean that ' the
God of the heavenly hosts ' will come to
punish the guilty people. Seeing the rulers
looking forward to a ' day of Jahveh,' when
he would appear to give them greater glory,
he warns the Israelites that that day will
be one of gloom, when Jahveh will punish
them for their sins by causing them to be
carried off into exile beyond Damascus
(v. 27). Thus though more dimly than his
successors he looks upon the Assyrians as
the agents of J ahveh's vengeance . Similarly,
he lays the foundation of Isaiah's doctrine of
the ' restoration of a faithful remnant ' (v. 15).
He ends his oracles with a graphic picture of
the oppression of the poor (viii. 4-6) and a
terrible presentation of the total destruction
of the people (viii. 8 — ix. i-io).
The Coming of Amos 151
It is true that his book ends with a promise
of restoration, which agrees with v, 18. But
most critics hold that this section (ix. 11-15)
is a later addition to relieve the gloom of his
message. Their reasoning is clever but not
wholly convincing : it is based upon their
views of Messianic prophecy, which they are
apt to date too late in some cases. Nor can
it be maintained with absolute confidence
that Amos had no hope of the deliverance of
a ' remnant ' of the faithful. Be that as it
may the shepherd of Tekoa struck a new and
continuous note in Hebrew prophecy, which
had had a momentary sound in Nathan's
reproof of David and Elijah's condemnation
of Ahab's crime against Naboth,
The very essence of his message was that
J ah veil was not only the universal God but
a righteous God, who would be content with
no ritual worship or pilgrimages to sacred
shrines such as that of Beersheba, but de-
manded righteousness from his people high
and low alike. As they were his chosen
nation, so would their punishment for sin be
more severe. He does not seem to have
denounced the ' golden bulls,' but the corrupt
worship at their altars. Himself a man of the
people, he could see with fatal clearness the
152 The Literary Prophets
oppression of the poor by those who ought
to have cared for their needs, for which no
outward piety or lavish offerings would
atone. He called them to quit their evil
ways, lest the horrors of exile should over-
take them. They heeded not the warning
voice, and within forty years Samaria was a
heap of ruins and the people of the northern
kingdom disappeared as a nation from the
peoples of the earth.
During the last years of Jeroboam II (745-
743 B.C.) and the subsequent anarchy (743-
721 B.C.) appeared a man of gentler soul,
whose message though no less uncompromis-
ing than that of Amos was wrung from his
very heart and mingled with promises of a
more hopeful future at the price of genuine
repentance. Hosea the son of Beeri was an
Israelite, and his words were directed to his
native land with the anguish of one who
loved it more than life. He had had the sad
fate of marrying Gomer, daughter of Dib-
laim, who was untrue to him (i. 2-9).
Hence he called his children by symbolic
names when he wrote his story for the in-
struction of his people. The first was
Jezreel on account of Jehu's murders
there (2 Kings ix., x.) ; the second was
HosEA THE Israelite 153
Lo-ruh amah = one who has not known a
father's loving pity; the third was Lo-
ammi, because Israel no longer would
be Jahveh's people (i. 4, 6, 9). Hosea
loved his wife too dearly to leave her in the
terrible plight to which her guilt had brought
her. He bought her back at the price of a
slave, maintaining her no longer as a wife
but free from sin (iii. 1-3). Such was the
tragedy of his life in actual experience,
through which he received a revelation of
Jahveh to Israel of his loving nature no less
than of his eternal justice.
The prophecy falls into two parts (i.-iii. ;
iv.-xiv.), the first probably delivered during
the last years of Jeroboam II, the second
during the murderous succession of the
following kings. The first part may be con-
sidered first. Amos had fastened upon
ethical corruption as the source of Israel's
exile : Hosea went to the root of the matter
by tracing this moral decline to the sym-
bolism of the ' golden bulls.' He realized
that though his people imagined themselves
to be worshipping Jahveh, they were in
fact worshipping Baal. Their use of images
had led them away from the more spiritual
thought in which they had been reared into
154 The Literary Prophets
the grosser Canaanite religion. From his
own sad experience he had learned that
Israel had wandered away from Jahveh her
husband, and ascribed to the local Baals the
fertility of her soil.
The ordinary Semitic conception of the
national gods was that in each case they
were husbands of the land which they had
adopted. Hosea elevated this idea into one
of much tenderness and nobility. Himself
a long-suffering husband, he had been able
to perceive Jahveh's tenderness towards his
erring wife Israel. Hence he denounced her
popular worship as idolatry (ii.), as mere
harlotry with an eye to the immoral practices
at the great sanctuaries. For this sin a
ravaged land and the exile of its people were
the certain penalty (ii. 1-14). Then by one
of those sudden changes characteristic of
his oracles, he imagines Jahveh as alluring
back his faithless wife, as causing her to
repent and restoring her to her former
greatness. His covenant would be extended
even to the wild creatures of the land, and
he would betroth her to himself ' in righteous-
ness, in judgment, in loving-kindness, and in
mercies ' (ii. 14-23), so that she would learn
his true nature and worship him for ever.
HosEA THE Israelite 155
The swiftly increasing national corruption
made Hosea take a sterner tone in his next
collection of oracles : but even here his con-
ception of the leal love, as Sir G. Adam Smith
well translates the word chesed, of Jahveh to
his people impels him to utter more than one
oracle of promise. He begins by a sorrowful
yet severe condemnation of the practical
idolatry of the land, whose people relied no
longer upon Jahveh, but now on Assyria,
now on Egypt (iv.). Then he attacks the
priests, who made a rare harvest out of the
' sin-offerings ' of the guilty Israelites. They
ought to have taught the people better ;
they contented themselves with an idolatrous
ritual, out of which they made their profit.
With deep anguish he speaks of the
frivolous professions of repentance put for-
ward by the Israelites, which would be
utterly rejected (vi.-vii. 2). They trusted
to win his favour by burnt offerings : his
answer was plain and direct, ' I have desired
leal love, and not sacrifices ; and the know-
ledge of God more than burnt offerings '
(vi, 6). This ' constant love ' has three
implications in Hosea ; it denotes Jahveh's
feeling towards Israel, the feeling which
Israel ought to entertain towards Jahveh,
156 The Literary Prophets
the emotion which ought to subsist between
Israehte and Israehte. It is the distinctive
feature of Hosea's message to Israel, which
he doubtless confined to his own people.
But this conception of his is one of the pro-
foundest in the Old Testament and prepared
the way for the fuller truth ' God is love.'
Though he did not take so sweeping a view
of the surrounding nations as Amos, he
pierced more deeply into the nature and
being of God.
Turning from the priests to the king Hosea
represents him as a coarse drunken monarch,
utterly unfit to govern justly. He and his
court had lost their faith in Jahveh and
sought the help of foreign powers (vii. 2-1 1);
hence they would be severely punished,
while their false friends in Egypt would mock
them (vii. 16). A terrible picture follows
of national corruption and destruction,
which is painted in tears, nay, in the pro-
phet's heart's blood (viii.-x.). But thinking
of his own tenderness to his sinful wife, his
soul went forth to Jahveh, who must surely
be more loving than man. In Israel's youth
Jahveh had made him his son, taught him
to walk in the right way (xi. 1-4). Nor
could he forget his love for the guilty people,
HosEA THE Israelite 157
or even yet abandon it to destruction. In
his own words ' I will not execute the
fierceness of mine anger, for / am God, not
man ' (xi. 9). In other words Jahveh will
forgive Israel, because of his loving nature
as God. The prophet's mood changes ;
once more he denounces Israel's sin and its
punishment (xii., xiii.) in words flaming with
scorching fire. But he does not end his
message thus : he bids Israel repent, trust
in Jahveh, leave off idolatry ; then would a
calm and peaceful prosperity be theirs in
leal love shown by Jahveh to his people, by
his people to Jahveh (xiv.). Just in this
conception of the loving nature of God does
Hosea make his highest and most original
contribution to the religion of mankind.
Turning now to the southern kingdom of
Judah we find that it had been much less
troubled than Israel because of its unbroken
succession of Davidic kings. When Uzziah
passed away (737 B.C.) it was highly pros-
perous though debased by gross tyranny
over the poor, some idol-worship, and the
luxurious living of the upper classes. At
this time Isaiah a young married man of
aristocratic parentage received that divine
vision, which he has described so magnifi-
158 The Literary Prophets
cently (vi.), which made him a prophet of
Jahveh. Only mere hints of his activity
can be given, who was poet, prophet, and
statesman combined. He had learned much
from Amos, something from Hosea. To his
unswerving loyalty to Jahveh was joined a
keen political sagacity, which enabled him
to guide his country safely through a serious
crisis.
One distinctive feature of his message
was his insistence upon the absolute holiness
of Jahveh, which combined his supreme
majesty with his ethical perfection. Such
a God required his people to be holy too in
its human measure. From Amos he had
learned the universality of Jahveh of hosts,
from Hosea to give his sons symbolic
names, ' Shear-jashub ' = ' a remnant shall
turn' and 'Maher-shalal-hash-baz'='the spoil
speedeth, the prey hasteth ' (vii. 3 ; viii. 3).
The name of the elder son explains one of
his chief doctrines, that a devout ' remnant '
of Judah would turn from evil and be faithful
to Jahveh, out of whom he would build up a
glorious and abiding kingdom on earth
(i. 9 ; X. 21).
In his oracles Isaiah often gives the title
* The Holy One of Israel ' to Jahveh (v. 24 ;
Isaiah of Jerusalem 159
X. 20 ; xvii. 7), showing that though he
beheved Jahveh to be God of the universe
and other gods to be elilim=nonentities (ii.
18 ; X. 10), or idols, he was convinced that
Israel was his pecuHar people. So too he
believed in Jahveh's providence, which he
describes as ' work ' (v. 12 ; x. 12) no less
than that the Assyrian was a ' rod in his
hand ' to chastise his guilty nation (x. 5).
His first oracles were aimed at national sins,
not forgetting the luxury of its fashionable
women (i.-v. especially iii. 16-26). For
these Jahveh's day would come (ii. 12-22)
with terrible natural phenomena to destroy
the present, to prepare for a better order of
things.
In 735 B.C., Ahaz the king had made an
alliance with Ass5n:ia against Rezin, of
Damascus, and Pekah, of Israel. Isaiah
sought him out (vii.) to protest against this
policy, giving him that enigmatical sign,
which has foisted a dogma into Christianity,
though it has no reference direct, or implied
to Jesus of Nazareth (vii. 14-16). The pas-
sage should be rendered ' Behold a young
woman shall conceive and bear a son and
call his name Immanuel. Curds and honey
shall he eat when he knows how to refuse the
i6o The Literary Prophets
evil and choose the good. For before the
child shall know how to refuse the evil and
choose the good, those two kings whom thou
dreadest shall be forsaken.' The word
translated ' virgin ' by the Septuagint is
never so used in Hebrew : it means rather
the ' young bride,' or more generally ' young
woman ' and may have referred to some
particular lady of the royal harem known to
the king and the prophet. But the point of
the sign consists in its last words, which mean
' Before the child would be old enough to
tell right from wrong Rezin and Pekah
would be discomfited.' To that catastrophe
alone does the sign apply, nor has it any
reference to a coming Messianic king in the
prophet's mind.
Whatever its meaning the sign was re-
jected and Isaiah retired into seclusion for
a time. At the accession of Hezekiah, just
after the fall of Samaria (721 B.C.) he re-
turned to his prophetic task. When a
combination was formed against the Assy-
rians he vainly advised the king to keep out
of it. In 701 B.C. Sennacherib came south-
ward taking many strong towns of Judah
(2 Kings xviii. 13-16). Hezekiah sub-
mitted, but the commander-in-chief (Rab-
Isaiah of Jerusalem i6i
shakeh) of the Assyrians beleaguered Jeru-
salem. At last the king consulted the great
prophet, determined to follow his advice.
Isaiah succeeded in so heartening the citizens
that they stood firm until the siege was
raised on account of an outbreak of pestilence
in the invading army (Isaiah xxxvii. 36-38).
Little more is henceforward heard of the
prophet, who is said to have perished during
the reactionary reign of Manasseh. He had
done his work ; disappointed that Judah had
not seen Jahveh's hand in its deliverance he
turned to the future for consolation, and
pictured his ideal king of the house of David
whose reign would be a season of national
righteousness and great prosperity. If we
retain the Messianic passages (ii. 1-5 ; ix.
1-7 ; xi. 1-9) ; Isaiah was the first prophet
to look forward in this way to the advent of
an ideal king. One school of critics has
declared against their authenticity in Isaiah
and the other pre-exilic prophets. But a
careful study of their arguments does not
inspire a sense of conviction. The habit of
framing a theory of what must be post-exilic
and of fitting into it many passages, which
may just as well have been pre-exilic, is
dangerous and occasionally misleading. The
M
i62 The Literary Prophets
passages in question seem to have the true
Isaianic ring about them, and they may well
be left with him as embodying his last
thoughts and shaping the future hopes of
his people.
Such was the work of Isaiah, who believed
that Jerusalem would be inviolable, that the
Assyrian would himself be punished after he
had done his task and punished its guilty
citizens (x. 5-19). He was sternly ethical
like Amos, never teaching Jahveh's love for
his people with the gentler Hosea. His
contributions to religious thought are these.
There is the perfect moral holiness of Jahveh
the universal God requiring corresponding
holiness in his peculiar people. There is
the doctrine that a ' remnant ' would be
saved by its righteousness, out of which a
great nation would be born in Jerusalem.
There is his conception of an ' ideal king '
to be born of the house of David who would
restore the glory of the whole of Israel. If
he built on the foundation of Amos and
Hosea, all succeeding prophets have built
upon his foundation.
The splendour of his language, his high
genius, the constant faithfulness of his life,
and his political sagacity have left him a
MiCAH THE MORASHTITE 163
unique place amongst the prophets of the
Old Testament. He is said to have moved
Hezekiah to undertake a reformation in the
worship of Judah (2 Kings xviii. 4), though
more probably that was due to Micah
(Jeremiah xxvi. 18, 19). When he passed
away he left a band of disciples, who carried
on his work in so far as their more limited
gifts permitted them to do (Isaiah viii. 16).
Of Micah, the native of Moresheth-gath,
little is known save that by his preaching,
as has just been recorded, he stirred Heze-
kiah to repentance, and the contents of his
little book. He was born of the farming
stock : hence most of his undisputed oracles
denounce the cruel oppression of the poor
(iii. 1-4, especially), the false prophets who
uttered messages for hire (iii. 5-8), and the
national sins (i.-iii.). He was essentially
ethical, though he may have uttered the
Messianic oracle which appears also in Isaiah
(cf. Isaiah ii. 2-4 and Micah iv. 2-4) ; or
both prophets may have quoted it from a
common source, since it is highly improbable
that any editor would have added the
same passage to the works of two different
prophets.
The modern critics have robbed Micah of
164 The Literary Prophets
most of the last chapters accredited to him
(iv.-vii.). In spite of their arguments it
seems probable that the greater part of
these oracles (vi., vii. 1-12) really is Micah's.
Hence the noble summary of Jahveh's
requirements is due to the countryside
preacher : — ' He hath shewed thee, O man,
what is good ; and what doth Jahveh
require of thee but to do justly, to love
kindness, and to walk humbly with thy
God ? ' (vi. 8). It may be urged that the
sacrifice of the first-born of the previous verse
was hardly known till the days of Manasseh.
But Micah's prophetic activity may well
have continued into that evil time. So until
more convincing evidence be produced we
are content to leave this noble pronounce-
ment with Micah the Morashtite.
Hezekiah was succeeded by his son
Manasseh, under whose long and reactionary
reign a fierce persecution raged against all
who were faithful to Jahveh (2 Kings xxi.
1-18). He returned to the combination of
the worship of other gods alongside of that
of Jahveh, and it seemed as if true religion
would die during his lifetime. Probably
during the late years of this dark period the
prophets and priests joined together in
Deuteronomy 165
Jerusalem to compile a ' book of the Torah,'
which they hid in the Temple in a place
where it might easily escape notice and yet
not be difficult to find. Its compilers were
animated by the prophetic spirit, so that
their code differed alike in style and con-
tents from the later Levitical law-book. It
was based upon the ' Shorter Code ' (Exodus
xx.-xxiii.) and contained many precepts of
priestly Torah which had gathered around
the Temple. How long it took to compile
the Code is unknown ; but it was found in
the eighteenth year of king Josiah (621 B.C.)
and formed the basis of his reformation of
the cultus (2 Kings xxii., xxiii. 1-30). It
is comprised in Deuteronomy v.-xxvi.,
xxviii., xxix. i. When the book was read
to him the young king was deeply moved
and set about his reforms as speedily as
possible. The curses denounced upon dis-
obedience (xxviii.) were enough to alarm any
pious soul of that period and Josiah was
sincerely pious.
Of Deuteronomy itself only a few of the
salient principles can be noted. It was
strictly monotheistic, forbidding absolutely
worship at the high places, and centralizing
all worship and sacrifices at Solomon's
i66 The Literary Prophets
Temple. Even the great national festivals
were to be held in the capital alone ; thus
their character was largely altered, though
they were still to be celebrated joyously with
kindly thought of the slave, the Levite, the
stranger, the widow and the orphan (xvi.
II, 12). The whole code is marked by the
prophetic note of complete love to Jahveh
(vi. 5) and kindness to neighbours. It is
a cheerful note, very different from that
sounded by the later priestly code, which
was the sorrowful fruit of affliction and exile.
The regulations cover the whole of the
Hebrew's life, and are carefully drawn,
though some of them are Utopian. Though
they had a strong practical vein, the pro-
phets were very truly idealists who wished
to impress their ideals upon their people.
The moral law is embodied in the deca-
logue with the insertion of a few inter-
pretative clauses. But the whole of the
code is based upon love to Jahveh and con-
siderate kindness to the neighbour. It has
well been called ' the prophetic law-book,'
because it embodies into a series of legal
enactments the teaching of more than one
generation of great prophets. Not content
with their achievement the Deuteronomists
Deuteronomy 167
and their successors set about rewriting the
national history in the same spirit. As they
had issued their code in name and as coming
from Moses, they added long passages to
JE, which they probably found already
united. It was their object to emphasize
their moral teaching by historical examples,
and they did not shrink from addition and
alteration. It is uncertain when Deuter-
onomy was finally completed by the addition
of chapters i-iv., xxvii., xxix., 2-xxxiv.
Its theory of rewards and punishments
confined their administration to this life,
giving prosperity to the good and adversity
to the evil (e.g., v. 16). The issue of
Deuteronomy was an event of great national
importance ; though not entirely successful
it laid the foundation of the strict mono-
theism of the later Hebrews, no less than of
the more elaborate priestly code.
Somewhere about 626 B.C. in the reign of
Josiah the great and sorely tried Jeremiah
received his call (i. 4-19). A member of a
priestly family of Anathoth, a little town
lying about four miles north-east of Jeru-
salem, he may have been a lineal descendant
of David's priest Abiathar. From ex-
perience he knew the jealousy of the hier-
1 68 The Literary Prophets
archy in Jerusalem, which excluded the
priest of the country shrines from sharing
in their office in spite of Deuteronomy
(xviii. 6-8). When he began to prophesy,
Judah was threatened by a marauding host
of Scythians (iv. 11-13 ; v. 15-17), whom
he regarded as Jahveh's instrument for the
punishment of his guilty people. Deeply
influenced by Hosea, he constantly reproved
Judah as the faithless wife of Jahveh.
But he made one striking contribution to
the development of Hebrew religion. The
prophets before him had spoken of national
rather than of individual sin and punishment;
he was the first to individualize sin. Faint
traces of this important conception are to
be found in his earlier oracles (iv. 3, 4). But
as his conviction of the ruin of his country
deepened, his doctrine of sin grew more
definite, until he was able to utter the
notable words, ' In those days they shall
say no more. The fathers have eaten sour
grapes, and the children's teeth are set on
edge. But every one shall die for his own
iniquity : every man that eateth the sour
grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge ' (xxxi.
29, 30). Though Jeremiah seems to be
speaking mainly for the future, his concep-
Jeremiah of Anathoth 169
tion marks a great advance upon the older
idea of the concrete unity of the nation.
It was born of his deep sense of justice ;
though he does not seem to maintain it
throughout his teaching, to discover it was
a token of his piercing insight into moral
truth.
Of a poetic and sensitive temperament,
Jeremiah felt keenly the failure of some of
his oracles and the rejection of his warnings.
Throughout his career he reasons passion-
ately with Jahveh as having sent him upon
a mocking errand (i. 4-19 ; xii. 1-6 ; xv.
10-21 ; XX. 14-18). Yet he felt so strongly
the divine message in his heart, that he
could not refuse to deliver it continually to
unheeding ears. Josiah's reforming zeal
had destroyed the pagan altars which had
gathered around and within the Temple.
When Deuteronomy was issued Jeremiah
seems to have remained silent for a time,
perhaps till the death of Josiah in 608 B.C.,
who was succeeded by his worthless son
Jehoiakim.
Moved by the failure of the reformation
he appeared in the Temple (vii. i-viii. 3) to
utter a powerful oracle denouncing the
worship of Molech in the ' Tophet ' of the
170 The Literary Prophets
Valley of Hinnom, even daring to threaten
the Temple itself with destruction (vii.
12-15), while he condemned severely the
moral guilt of his nation. On this account
he was attacked by the authorities and
narrowly escaped with his life. The false
prophets of the Temple who proclaimed its
eternity, leagued themselves with the priests
to silence the brave speaker for ever (xxvi.
10-24) ; ^i^t some of the elders cited the case
of Micah (iii. 12), who had uttered a similar
threat against the Temple, been left un-
punished, and had moved Hezekiah and his
ministers to sincere but short-lived repent-
ance. Uriah his fellow prophet and sup-
porter was put to death. But Jeremiah
remained true to the divine message and
faced persecution, noisome imprisonment,
exile in Egypt (xliii. 1-7), it may be murder
there, in its utterance.
Though no man who ever lived could have
longed more keenly for the peace of home-
life, he never married (xvi. 1-4). He advised
one king after another to avoid alliance with
Egypt, to remain true to their allegiance
to Babylon (ii. 18, 36 ; xxvii. 12-22 ; xxviii.
12-14). Thus, like Isaiah, he was a states-
man as well as a prophet. As he had seen
Jeremiah of Anathoth 171
the deportation of Jehoiachin with the
flower of Judah (597-6 B.C.), he foresaw the
end of Zedekiah's rebelhon in the Exile of
586 B.C. He hngered in the ruined city
with the remnant until the murder of
Gedaliah the governor, when he was hurried
off into Egypt against his will. Through this
period of trial he continued to preach the
gracious doctrine of pardon upon repent-
ance (xviii. 8 ; xxvi. 13), of the final res-
toration of his people through the piety of a
remnant, when his hope of the national
repentance faded from his mind.
Stern as were the penalties with which he
threatened Judah and its leaders, with deep
spiritual insight he was able to proclaim the
' new covenant of Jahveh ' with his people in
simple and touching words. ' But this is
the covenant that I will make with the house
of Israel after those days, saith Jahveh ; I
will put my law in their inward parts and
in their heart will I write it ; and I will be
their God, and they shall be my people : and
they shall no more teach every man his
neighbour, and every man his brother,
saying, Know Jahveh : for they shall all
know me from the least to the greatest of
them, saith Jahveh : for I will forgive their
172 The Literary Prophets
iniquity, and their sin will I remember no
more ' (xxxi. 33, 34).
This is Jeremiah's greatest contribution to
universal religious thought. He saw plainly
that true religion consisted in the intimate
knowledge of God, that such knowledge
could only come to sinners from a changed
heart and mind. This teaching of his lies
at the root of the thought of Jesus as
expressed in the single word ' repent,' or
' change your heart and mind,' and taught
with exquisite detail in the parable of ' The
Prodigal Son.' So this strong, heroic, sensi-
tive, sorely troubled man left a priceless
heritage to his race, through them to the
world, in the deep truths which God had
breathed into his spirit. He had the added
grief of seeing the fulfilment of many of his
words of warning. Yet he could remain
confident of the restoration of his race with
a changed heart and mind, though his actual
prediction of a return from exile after
' seventy years ' (xxv. 11) was unfulfilled.
He was a lonely soul in an unheeding world :
hence arose his true greatness ; for earth's
great ones are usually lonely souls drawing
their inspiration from solitary communion
with God.
EZEKIEL THE ExiLE 173
In the first deportation to Babylon (597
B.C.) was a prophet of another order, also
a priest of the line of Zadok, deeply interested
in the future of his people, but equally
devoted to the exact observance of pious
ritual. Ezekiel is a teacher of great im-
portance, because he supplies the link be-
tween the older Hebrew religion and the
later Judaism. He dwelt with the exiles in
comparative comfort near Tel-abib by one of
the canals of Babylon, which he calls the
' river Chebar ' (i. i). With them he had
much influence, though his teaching had
little lasting effect upon them. He appears
to have experienced a series of trances in
which he saw visions which he afterwards
wrote down and elaborated (i. ; ii. 8-iii. 3 ;
xxxvii. 1-14, 15-23).
The vision of the wonderful chariot with
the ' four living creatures ' and the ' firma-
ment ' whereon Jahveh was enthroned (i.)
was the occasion of his call. His book was
clearly edited and arranged by himself ;
hence it has a unity not common in the
prophetic writings. It is written in a rich
and sonorous prose and contains passages
both of great imaginative power and tremb-
ling with suppressed passion. Here only the
174 The Literary Prophets
barest outline of his prophetic activity is
possible. His book is divided into three
sections. The iirst section (i.-xxxii.) is
divided into two subsections, one denouncing
punishment upon Israel and Judah (ii.-xxiv.),
the other containing oracles against the
surrounding nations (xxv.-xxxii.) which were
destined to be judged before the restoration
of the united Israel. The second division
(xxxiii.-xxxix.) treats of the purification and
restoration of Jahveh's people. The third
describes the ideal theocratic commonwealth
with a sort of president in the person of the
prince by the side of the high priest. The
first section resembles the thought of the
older prophets. In it Ezekiel denounces
the guilty priests and false prophets with
the fervour of Jeremiah (xiii. 2-16). But
he has a different conception of Jahveh's
motive in willing the exile of Zedekiah and
in ultimately bringing back his people from
Babylon (xvii. 11-21 ; xxxvi. 32-36). In
either case Jahveh sought to vindicate his
own honour rather than to show special anger
or special mercy to Israel.
His conception of Jahveh is remarkable
for its harshness and severity. Learning
from Isaiah to regard him as the ' Holy One
EZEKIEL THE ExiLE I75
of Israel,' he invests his God with a dazzhng
hohness, which has been offended by the
want of hohness in his people. His intense
desire to secure cleanness, moral and cere-
monial, leads him to stress ritual no less than
ethical holiness. It was to fulfil his promise
to his people that Jahveh would ultimately
restore them with a changed heart which
would sin no more. In other words he
desired to vindicate his holy name and his
promises in the sight of the nations of earth.
For a similar reason he takes no pleasure in
the death of the wicked (xxxiii. ii), but
wishes solely to assert his hohness and the
need of human holiness in his servant.
So the prophet elaborates the story of
Israel's past to exhibit the justice of its
severe punishment (xx.). He has little
tenderness : he had seen the elders guilty
of idol-worship, heard the women wailing
for ' Tammuz ' or ' Adonis ' (viii.), hence he
realizes that an unclean ritual means an un-
clean heart. Hence his judgment upon his
guilty nation is pitiless and severe. But he
learned two things from Jeremiah, the virtue
of individual repentance (xviii. ; xxxiii.
10-20), and the new covenant of the changed
heart in the regenerated race (xxxvi.
176 The Literary Prophets
22-36), though he does not actually use this
word. Hence he kindles a gleam of hope in
the dark places of guilt and sin. He con-
demns the false ruler of Jerusalem, but
assures the exiles that Jahveh himself will
be their shepherd (xxxiv. 1-19) with David
as his deputy (xxxiv. 23-25). In spite
of this reference to David there is little
Messianic hope in Ezekiel, who looks forward
rather to a holy people under Jahveh's
kingship than to a great nation under a
mighty earthly monarch.
With this conception before his mind he
depicts his ideal theocracy with its shadowy
figure of the ' prince ' (xl.-xlviii.) for the
guidance of the restored nation. Though
well acquainted with Deuteronomy, he is
obviously ignorant of the ' priestly code.'
He will admit only descendants of Zadok to
be full priests in his rebuilt Temple (xliv.
15-31) instead of the ' sons of Aaron' of P.
The Levites he condemns to take the place
of former heathen servitors for their sin in
ministering at the ' high places ' (xliv.
9-14). There are many minute differences
between the speculations of Ezekiel and his
priestly successors. He gives no hint of
such a high priest with his peculiar breast-
EZEKIEL THE ExiLE 177
plate and gorgeous robes as appears in the
later code (Exodus xxxix. 8-26), nor of the
great ' day of Atonement ' (Leviticus xvi.).
Had he had such a code before him, he would
never have ventured to draw up a constitu-
tion of his own. Hence his book had no
small difficulty in gaining recognition in the
Hebrew canon. It represents an inter-
mediate stage between Deuteronomy and
the subsequent legislation. That is its
supreme value to the historical student.
But in setting forth his Utopia he felt the
urgent need of correct ceremonial no less
than of correct moral conduct. He was a
priest, though endowed with great pro-
phetic capacity ; hence the background of
his thought was the priest's orderly method
of worship. For this purpose he not only
portrayed the rebuilt Temple, around which
his thoughts moved always, but drew up a
careful ritual for the guidance of the future.
The last of his visions was unfulfilled ; but
it remains a landmark on the pathway to-
wards that rigid theocracy, which was finally
developed after the return of Israel.
Towards the close of the Exile Cyrus the
Persian gradually conquered the nations
around Babylon, until the great city fell into
178 The Literary Prophets
his hands without a serious struggle in 538
B.C. At this time an unknown prophet
of mingled majesty and tenderness arose
amongst the exiles, who saw in the victorious
march and policy of Cyrus the assurance of
the restoration of some at least of the
Hebrews. His oracles have been attached
to those of Isaiah ; the words of at least two
prophets occur in that place (Isaiah xl.-lv.,
Ivi.-lxvi.), the first writing during the last
years of the Exile, the second a few years
later when the building of the Temple was
delayed, until Haggai and Zechariah stirred
up the builders to greater faithfulness. The
heart of the first prophet was overflowing
with the joyful anticipation of an immediate
fulfilment to his oracles (xl.-xlviii.). He
believed that C5n"us would be their dehverer,
and even represents him as Jahveh's ' Mes-
siah ' = ' anointed one ' (xlv. i), as the
' righteous man from the east ' (xli. 2),
and as Jahveh's ' shepherd ' (xliv. 28) who
will ' perform all his pleasure.' He must
have followed the policy of C5n-us with close
attention to forecast his purpose with so
much accuracy.
To him Jahveh was the universal God as
opposed to those stocks and stones known
The Second Isaiah 179
as idols (xl. 18-20). He represents Jahveh
as summoning the false gods to a grand
assize, wherein they are put to confusion
(xli. 21-24). Jahveh had summoned Cyrus
from the north and the east to deliver Judah
(xli. 25-28). He is Israel's ' Vindicator,'
who by setting his people in their own land
will vindicate his plighted word. Jahveh is
' righteous,' which implies both ethical per-
fection and faithfulness to his promises
(xlvi. 13). Thus with his righteousness. his
saving power is blended. Such terms as
' redeemer ' or ' salvation ' must be avoided
for ' vindicator ' or ' deliverance,' which have
long acquired a theological meaning un-
known to the prophet himself. Similarly
the word ' Saviour ' must be rendered
' Deliverer.' It implies simply that Jahveh
will deliver his people from oppression and
restore them to their own land. Though
Lord of the whole earth he is the ' Holy One
of Israel ' (xlv. 11) caring for his people and
resolved upon deliverance (li. 6-8). So
Israel is his ' servant,' not the crushed slave
of an oriental house, but the trusted servant
of a generous master. This important attri-
bute had two different meanings. First it is
applied to all of the Exiles (xlii. 19 ; xliii.
i8o The Literary Prophets
10 ; xliv. i) as being Jahveh's people, whom
he had chosen from the nations of the earth.
But in four passages (xHi. 1-4 ; xHx.
1-6 ; 1, 4-9 ; Hi. 13-Uii.) the word servant
is restricted to the oppressed minority, who
remained faithful to Jahveh, and were per-
secuted as rebels by the Babylonians and
regarded as fools by their more compliant
fellow countrymen. This limitation is so
natural to the prophet's thought, that these
oracles must be assigned to him, since they
are couched in his style. In the first he
proclaims a mission to the Gentiles after
the restoration of the nation (xlii. 1-4) to
win them to the worship of Jahveh. In the
second (xlix. 1-6) this thought is emphasized,
the faithful being described as ' a light to the
Gentiles,' and God's ' deliverance to the ends
of the earth.' The third oracle speaks of the
fidehty of this httle band (1. 4-9), whose
justification is close at hand.
His message would seem to have fallen
largely upon unheeding ears. Hence he
penned his sublime picture of the deliverance
of the faithless ones by the sufferings of the
faithful (Hi. 13-liii. 12). Thus he makes his
greatest contribution to reHgious thought in
his doctrine of vicarious suffering for the sake
The Second Isaiah i8i
of the guilty. Then he ends his oracles with
an outburst of triumphant song (liv., Iv.).
So to this deep thinker it was manifest that
Jahveh had his divine purpose in permitting
the suffering of the righteous, which was a
sure means of moving the unrighteous to
righteousness. This fourth oracle has no
reference to Jesus of Nazareth, nor to any
later doctrine of the atonement in the mind
of the prophet. The figure of the ' leper '
(hi. 14, 15) does not accord with him, while
many of the characteristics of the ' suffering
servant ' do not correspond with his life
and teaching. What the prophet means is
simply this : the suffering of the faithful
Israelites would turn to repentance those
who mocked them, so that they might be
fitted to receive deliverance.
What then was the message of the literary
prophets ? First and foremost one and all
of them preached Jahveh as the sole God of
the earth. They taught that he was a God
of perfect holiness, righteous himself and
demanding righteousness from his wor-
shippers. Save Ezekiel they had little in-
terest in ritual. Though they held Jahveh
to be universal God, they still conceived of
him as especially favouring Israel, which he
i82 The Literary Prophets
destined one day to be a missionary to the
other nations. Hosea and Jeremiah saw
more deeply than the rest into the loving
heart of God, in which they were followed
with piercing insight by the ' Second Isaiah.'
Furthermore in spite of much anthropo-
morphic language all of them conceived of
Jahveh as a spiritual being needing no out-
ward symbol for his worship. Thus though
they were especially interested in their own
people, they conferred a priceless blessing
upon the human race. They guided man-
kind towards a more intimate knowledge of
God. They were the preachers and teachers
who prepared the way for the teacher and
preacher of the ages, Jesus of Nazareth,
though not one of them had the slightest
prevision of his coming. He was their
lineal successor, destined to reveal the new
heavens for which they sighed to an earth
which is gradually becoming new. Thus
they proved the glory of their ancient race,
they shed the first beams of the Light of the
World.
Chapter VI
THE RELIGION OF A BOOK
Priest and Cultus. The growth of the Torah. The
Return from the Exile. Ezra-Nehemiah. The People
of a Book. The Chronicler. The Theocracy.
IN order to understand the reformation
under Ezra and Nehemiah it will be
needful to retrace the gradual growth in the
power of the priest and the development of
the ' book of the Law,' even at the risk of
repetition. In the earliest tradition of the
race no priests are found save the mysterious
figure of Melchizedek, to whom Abraham is
said to have paid tithes (Genesis xiv. 17-20).
Even he is not called the priest of Jahveh,
while the date of the tradition in which he
appears is quite uncertain. The patriarchs
themselves sacrificed when and where they
would. P alone deprives them of all such
occasions for sacrifice, in accordance with
his theory that this was the province of the
priest exclusively.
184 The Religion of a Book
Though there were many hallowed spots
in Canaan, there were no fixed temples in
the story of the earliest time. It is quite
uncertain if the Israelites in Egypt offered
burnt offerings, though the excuse made to
the Pharaoh just before the Exodus implies
such a habit of worship (Exodus x. 1-7).
The rite of the Passover, which does not fall
under this head, was probably in existence
at that time. Amos roundly asserts that no
sacrifices were offered to Jahveh during the
wanderings (Amos v. 26, 27). Doubtless in
the period of the patriarchs we are in the
land of legend ; but the keenest critics must
admit that the legends are most ancient,
that many old-world customs can be traced
in the web of ancient legend. In / the oldest
collection of national stories Aaron so far
from being a priest hardly appears or at most
takes no part in the preparation for the
Exodus. At the same time sacrifice forms
an integral part of most ancient religions,
though that fact does not carry the priest
back to their beginning in all cases. If
sacrifices were offered, there can be little
doubt that they would be offered by Moses
himself.
In the book of Judges the priest plays
Priest and Cultus 185
quite an insignificant part. Not one of the
national heroes hesitated to offer sacrifices
when the occasion required (Judges xi. 39).
During this period of the slow conquest of
Canaan certain men seem to have made
private shrines of their own, and to have
appointed their own priest either from their
own family or as a salaried official (Judges
xvii.). Micah's paid priest, whom he conse-
crated himself, is described as a ' Levite,'
which cannot mean a member of the tribe
of Levi, which with that of Simeon had dis-
appeared at this stage of the history. Hence
the later view that they were a consecrated
tribe destined from the beginning for the
service of the ' Tabernacle ' cannot be main-
tained (Numbers i. 47-54). There is no
trace of any such hallowed separation until
the post-exihc literature. Thus Samuel, who
was not of the tribe of Levi, according
to one of the traditions of his life, was con-
secrated a priest and wore the ' linen ephod '
in EH's shrine at Shiloh, where the priesthood
would seem to have been hereditary (i
Samuel i. 24-28, ii. 18, ii. 12-17).
Similarly the kings of the united kingdom
and of the two kingdoms after their separa-
tion had no scruple in offering sacrifice, just
i86 The Religion of a Book
as they appointed their own priests. In early
days it appears certain that the priest was
the custodian of the ' Ephod,' ' Urim,' and
' Thummim ' (i Samuel xxiii. 9), who helped
to inquire from Jahveh by their means.
David appointed Abiathar to be his priest,
while Solomon deposed him on account of
his fidelity to Adonijah the real heir and set
up Zadok in his place (i Kings ii. 26, 27, 35).
Clearly, then, the priest of the sanctuary in
Jerusalem was dependent upon the king for
his appointment and his maintenance. That
sanctuary was the private chapel of the king,
for the upkeep of which he was responsible.
Solomon too not only offered many sacrifices
at the ' great high place ' in Gibeon (i Kings
iii. 4) and later at the Temple, at the dedica-
tion of which he himself prayed before the
altar and gave tlie priestly benediction (i
Kings viii. 22, 55).
But the magnificence of the Temple caused
a great number of priests to gather round it,
who regarded themselves to the time of the
Exile as ' sons of Zadok,' thus tending to
make the priesthood hereditary. A notable
instance of the complete subservience of the
priest is seen in the case of Ahaz (2 Kings
xvi. 10-16), who saw an altar in Damascus,
Priest and Cultus 187
which caught his fancy. On his return he
ordered Urijah tlie priest to make one like
it, which was to be set side by side with the
brazen altar and used for sacrifices ; nor did
Urijah show the faintest scruple in obeying
his command. Thus it is manifest, that so
long as the royal power lasted, the king was
supreme over the priest.
When the origin of the multitude of Levites
is sought, it will be found in Deuteronomy,
which plainly implies that they were the
dispossessed priests of the local sanctuaries
(xviii. 6-8) overthrown by Josiah (cf. Ezekiel
xliv. 10-14). The Deuteronomists strove in
vain to give them an equal share with their
fellow priests in Jerusalem, who finally
succeeded in making them servants. Until
the Exile there is no distinction between
priests and Levites, though the latter gradu-
ally fell into the position of the Carites and
foreign mercenaries, who had formed a
Temple-guard and ministered to the priests.
Upon these Carites Jehoiada relied when he
set Joash on the throne in place of Athaliah
(2 Kings xi. 4-16). So the ' Nethinim '
were almost certainly foreigners, who served
the same purpose. Nor did the kings and
priests of those days deem the Temple
i88 The Religion of a Book
desecrated by the presence of these aHens in
its precincts. How contrary this was to P's
principle is plain, as he assigns these offices
always to Levites alone, whom he transfers
to an impossible place at the beginning of
the ordered worship established by Moses at
Sinai (Numbers i. 47-54).
Ezekiel, himself a priest, took with him
into the Exile the separation between the
priests and the Levites, which had already
become established in practice though it had
had an accidental origin. Moreover he gave
a definite reason for the subordinate position
of the Levites (Ezekiel xliv. 9-14). From
his day the two orders remained separate
until the fall of Jerusalem in a.d. 70. He
did not contemplate a high priest of the later
pontifical kind. In his ideal commonwealth
the ' prince ' had his part to play in maintain-
ing the Temple-worship out of the revenues
of the estate granted to him for that purpose
(Ezekiel xlv. 16-25). The idea of the ' high
priest ' in its final form was the product
of many centuries of religious growth. In-
deed the culmination of his powers as
described by P could only exist when Israel
had become a ' Covenant-people,' a Church
rather than a nation. His consecration was
Priest and Cultus 189
regal, his official robe was of royal purple,
save when he assumed the priestly ' ephod '
for the purpose of sacrificing. To him
priests and people looked up as they had
formerly looked up to the king. But that
thought and custom date no further back
than to the time following the Exile.
As the influence of the priest grew the
number of sacrifices increased and their
meaning was changed. Originally the whole
burnt offering was made every morning in
Jerusalem, and the meal offering in the even-
ing. The first consisted of a whole bullock,
of which the priest took the hide ; the second
w^as usually a handful of meal, while the re-
mainder of the portion fell to the priest.
Until Deuteronomy most of the offerings of
the people were made at the ' high places,'
and were ' thank-offerings.' Even the three
great national feasts were held at the local
sanctuaries until the reformation of Josiah
(621 B.C.). When the worship was cen-
tralized at Jerusalem, the free-will offerings
had to be made there. Thus they became
fewer and less joyous than in an older time.
As with the general sacrifices, so it was with
the great feasts. The heart was taken out
of them, fewer people were able to attend
igo The Religion of a Book
them, and their character slowly but surely
changed. Moreover, Deuteronomy began to
connect with historical events what with the
exception of the Passover had been up to its
date farming festivals of spontaneous thank-
fulness to Jahveh as Lord of the Soil for
making it fruitful. What is more, they were
movable feasts until P confined them to a defi-
nite date (Numbers xxviii. 16-25), whereby
they were rendered more formal and less j oyf ul.
From an early time the priests of the greater
temples and of the local shrines gave to those
who consulted them a ' Torah ' = ' instruc-
tion ' not only in correct ritual, but also in
moral duties. Hosea rebuked them sternly
for their neglect of ethical teaching (v. 1-7).
The most important early collection of Torah,
though not the only one (Exodus xxxiv.
10-28), was the ' Shorter Code ' (Exodus xx.-
xxiii.), which held good till 621 B.C. In
addition to the moral principles of the ' Ten
Words ' it contains rules for the ordering of
the common relations of life and the simple
ritual of an older day. Upon its foundation
and with the additions which had been
gradually made to it by priest and prophet
Deuteronomy was built up, which contains
much more ethical than ritual Torah.
The Growth of the Torah 191
This noble Code marks a great advance
upon its predecessor. It lays no especial
stress upon ritual, though much on the place
where it was to be performed. It embodies
the teaching of the prophets, and makes no
distinction between the priests and Levites,
though that distinction arose from one of its
main enactments. Side by side with it there
was a great mass of ritual Torah preserved
either orally or in writing in the Temple,
which served as the basis of the later priestly
code. To this class the so-called ' Law of
Holiness ' (Leviticus xvii.-xxvi.) may very
well belong, though it can hardly have been
compiled until Deuteronomy had been
issued. Filled as it is with ritual enactments
it contains many ethical principles of high
spiritual worth such as ' Thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself ' (Leviticus xix. 18),
which Jesus universalized in his parable of
' The Good Samaritan.' Indeed its object
was to keep Israel morally and spiritually
clean, the holy people of a holy God.
Wliat has already been said of the meaning
of the word ' clean ' requires amplification at
this point. To the Hebrew it implied the
transgression both of ritual and moral law.
As from some primitive totemism the dis-
192 The Religion of a Book
tinction between ' clean ' and ' unclean '
animals had arisen, so much of ceremonial
cleanness meant the abstention from well-
defined acts and things, which during many
ages came to be looked upon as taboo.
These objects of taboo were gradually multi-
plied by the priests who found their advan-
tage in the consequent ' sin-offerings,' which
were at first paid to them in money for
purification. Ezekiel was especially im-
pressed with a horror of uncleanness, cere-
monial and moral. The two are hardly
separated in his mind, and he assigns an
almost equal importance to both. Hence he
helped to extend and enforce the regulations
which are to be seen in their fullness in
the ' priestly code.' The compilers of this
elaborate document did not, however, invent
the huge body of laws which they put to-
gether. Some may well have been new : but
a large proportion must have been the growth
of centuries. As ceremonial uncleanness
became more stringent, the need of atone-
ment for it grew ever greater. Thus the
' sin ' and ' trespass offerings ' increased in
number. Nor is it easy to distinguish be-
tween them, though the former included un-
intentional breaches of certain ritual and
Priest and Cultus 193
moral precepts, and required such satisfac-
tion as the purification of women after child-
birth (Leviticus xii. 6, xv. 14, 15 ; Numbers
XV. 22-31).
Once more it must be noted carefully that
from the first the hlood as meaning the life
of the victim was not burnt with its portion
of flesh. Later it was esteemed to have an
atoning power, when men ceased to regard
Jahveh as sharing in the sacrificial meal.
After Deuteronomy, when the priest alone
could sacrifice, it became necessary to permit
ordinary slaughter of animals for food at
home : hence all the old sacred associations
bound up with it vanished. Thus sacrifice,
which had once been simply a ' thank-
offering ' of the ' firstfruits ' of the cattle
and field, grew to have a propitiatory mean-
ing. That meaning is found throughout P :
so the priest rose to the full height of his
power as the mediator of communion be-
tween God and man. He alone could sacri-
fice, he alone could approach Jahveh's altar
with this purpose. Finally only the High
Priest could enter the ' Holy of Holies,' and
that but once a year.
A.S sacrifice gradually assumed this piacular
character, it was felt that some unintentional
194 The Religion of a Book
breaches of moral and ceremonial law might
have escaped atonement ; hence once a year
P set apart a special day for that purpose.
It was known as the ' Day of Atonement,'
and still retains its peculiar sanctity, though
much of its ritual can be practised no longer.
Two goats were chosen and lots cast to
decide which should be for Jahveh, which for
Azazel, who was probably some demon de-
rived from Babylonian thought. Jahveh's
goat was sacrificed, that of Azazel let loose
into the wilderness, symbolically bearing
with him the whole of the national sins for
the year (Leviticus xvi. 1-28). This atoning
ceremony took place after the morning burnt
offering ; during its procedure the high priest
entered the ' Holy of Holies,' and the day
itself was to be a complete fast-day for all
time. There is no trace of the ' Day of
Atonement ' in the earlier codes or history
of the Hebrews. Clearly, then, it is a growth
of the Torah, which was reached during the
Exile or shortly after the return.
It is now possible to come back to the first
home-coming of a body of the exiles under
Zerubbabel and Joshua the priest. These
two leaders did not take the ' priestly code '
with them, possibly because its compilation
Ezra-Nehemiah 195
was not finished in their time. Their first
object was to restore the fallen altar, their
second to rebuild the ruined Temple and
perhaps the battered walls of Jerusalem.
In 538 B.C. by a decree of Cyrus, which has
not survived in its original form (Ezra i. 2-4),
the first band of exiles reached Jerusalem,
set up the altar, and laid the foundations of
the Temple. But the opposition to their
efforts was so great, that they ceased build-
ing until moved to continue by the pro-
phets Haggai and Zechariah, who ascribed all
their misfortunes to this cessation (Haggai i.
3-11, ii. ; Zechariah iv. 6-14, etc.). By their
inspiration the second Temple was completed
in 516 B.C.
From that time the little nation, if so it
may be called, lived amid great hardships
and continual fears. Then the Samaritans
became bitter enemies of the Jews, because
from their mixed race they were not allowed
to take a share in the sacred building (Ezra
iv. 1-6). It is just possible that Zerubbabel
and his company may have rebuilt the walls
of the city, which were again thrown down
owing to a revolt of the Jews against Darius.
But this suggestion is merely conjectural :
of the period of nearly sixty years (516-458
196 The Religion of a Book
B.C.) between the completion of the Temple
and the first recorded arrival of Ezra there
is practically no information, though the
book of Ezra-Nehemiah has survived.
The two parts of this interesting book are
in fact one, though their contents have
probably been disarranged. They have come
down to us from the pen of the ' Chronicler,'
who may have compiled his work about 300
B.C., as he mentions Jaddua the high priest
in the time of Alexander the Great (Nehe-
miah xii. 10, 11 ; cf. Josephus, Antiquities,
xi. 84 seqq.). It was intended to be the
sequel to the book of Chronicles (cf. 2
Chronicles xxxvi. 22, 23 with Ezra i. 1-3).
It contains fragments of the autobiographies
of Ezra and Nehemiah, an Aramaean part
with a supposed decree of Cyrus, a later edict
of Artaxerxes which may or may not be
genuine, and sundry Temple-traditions. The
autobiography of Nehemiah (i.-vii.) is of
priceless value as information about his
period.
Of Ezra it has been concluded on purely
presumptive evidence that he was a mere
creation of the Chronicler's brain. He may
not have come to Jerusalem until the time
of Nehemiah, as nothing is known of him
Ezra-Nehemiah 197
from 458 to 445 B.C. But this is not con-
clusive : if his reforming zeal brought him
into collision with the chiefs of his nation,
he may well have disappeared from public
view until he had the strong support of the
later leader, especially if the insistence upon
the putting away of alien wives were due to
him. It may be noted that about this time
the beautiful little idyll of Ruth was written
to protest against this harsh measure
enacted to secure a purely Jewish nation-
ality. No doubt Ezra is omitted in the
' Praise of Famous Men ' (Ecclesiasticus
xliv. i), while Nehemiah does find a place
therein (xlix. 13). But that omission in
itself is not sufficient evidence to set against
what appears to be a genuine piece of auto-
biography (Ezra viii., ix.), while some other
chapters resemble the abbreviation of such
a work.
In 445 B.C. Nehemiah came to Jerusalem,
and within a short time the walls were re-
built, so that the neighbouring nations
could no longer disturb the people (Nehe-
miah ii.-iii.). After the completion of that
important task a solemn ' Feast of Taber-
nacles ' was held at which Ezra the Scribe
read ' the words of the Torah ' (Nehemiah
198 The Religion of a Book
viii. 13-18). Whether he read the whole of
the Pentateuch or only the ' priestly code '
to the people during the seven days of the
feast, is quite uncertain. It is highly im-
probable that Ezra was the compiler of the
former, as may be seen from the fact that
the poll-tax was only one-third of a shekel in
Nehemiah's time (x. 32), whereas in the
priestly code one-half a shekel was required
of all alike (Exodus xxx. 13). But whatever
book was read, it was entirely of the school
of P. The people pledged themselves to
obey it, thus the religion of Israel became
Judaism. Soon afterwards Nehemiah re-
turned to the Persian king in Susa, to come
back in 432 B.C. to complete his work.
Two years later the Samaritans established
their worship and temple on Mount Gerizim
(Josephus, Antiquities, xi. 7, 8) and the
Hebrews were left to endure their hard lot
unmolested at least by them. Probably at
this time the noble little book of Jonah was
written in the form of a sacred romance to
protest against the rigour of this reformation
and to plead for missionary enterprise on the
part of the Jewish nation.
From the reading of the Torah by Ezra and
Nehemiah's accompanying reforms the He-
The People of a Book 199
brews became the ' people of a book.' From
henceforth or at least from the following
century they became known as Jews to
all outside of themselves. Natural spon-
taneity all but died out of their public
worship. The sacrifices were gradually re-
stored and multipHed at the Temple, while
the whole community paid for their main-
tenance. Each of them was deiinitely
prescribed and no longer regulated by choice
or custom. The civil governor was usually
an alien set in his place by some conquering
monarch, while the high priest was the
religious ruler of his race. He was held
to be Jahveh's earthly representative, who
exercised his divine office with the help of a
council afterwards called the Sanhedrim and
made up of ' the Levites and the priests, and
the heads of the fathers of Israel ' (2 Chroni-
cles xix. 4-1 i).
It is true that the Chronicler finds a
previous origin for a contemporary institu-
tion in the time of Jehoshaphat, simply
because his name means ' Jahveh is Judge.'
The office of the priests, the daily and special
sacrifices, the Temple-service, the guilds of
singers, the Levites, even the functions of
the high priest himself are all defined in the
200 The Religion of a Book
priestly code. It was the business of Jahveh's
great vicar to take care that the people as a
whole, and as individuals obeyed the Torah
exactly, brought the required offerings, paid
the commanded dues. Hence the joyous if
rather sensuous worship of the early Hebrews
became hardened into a severe ritual : the
voice of the prophet all but ceased, the word
of the priest prevailed.
Before developing the subject further,
something must be said of the reliableness of
the Chronicler as an historian. Steeped in
the thought of the ' priestly code,' he could
not understand the freedom and comparative
truth of the original story. He imagined
that from the beginning of Solomon's Temple
only the priest could sacrifice with a large
band of Levites as his attendants. Not
finding them in the earlier narratives he
conceived of them as omitted. It was his
task to introduce them, and introduce them
he did with much besides (2 Chronicles v.
2-14). Similarly when David brought up the
' Ark ' to Mount Zion, the king is represented
as needing a host of Levites in addition
to the priests to help him (i Chronicles xiii.).
His whole story stands in marked contrast
to the older account. It was because the
The Chronicler 201
* Levites ' had not carried the ' Ark ' that
the ' breach of Uzzah ' occurred, while the
lifehke story of David's dancing before the
' Ark,' of Michal's scorn at his exhibition
of himself, of his severe reproof of her,
is discreetly omitted as detracting from
the dignity of the great king (2 Samuel
vi. 4-23).
The Chronicler's omissions are as remark-
able as his additions. He has nothing to say
of the disgraceful episode of Bath-sheba and
Uriah (2 Samuel xi,, xii.), nor of the no less
disgraceful court intrigue by which Solomon
became king (i Kings i.). With similar
motives he altered events to suit his purpose :
shocked by the early story which plainly
asserted that Jahveh in anger prompted
David to number the people, and punished
them with a pestilence, he ascribed the
suggestion to a ' Satan from Jahveh ' (cf.
2 Samuel xxiv. i with i Chronicles xxi. i).
A large number of similar illustrations of his
method might be cited ; but a careful study
of his work will reveal the fact that though
honest in intention he was so obsessed by the
imagined early origin of the ritual of his day,
that he could not write history as events
occurred. For his own time his evidence is
202 The Religion of a Book
invaluable ; for the previous centuries it is
practically worthless.
The Chronicler therefore had before his
mind a theocracy or government by God
through his priests and the Sanhedrim ; the
people of warriors and prophets had become
the people of a church ; it can be called
nothing else. Its institutions were divine,
its laws were divine, it was the ' holy people
of a holy God.' But the very term ' holiness'
in its later sense comprehended far more than
its meaning in the mouth of the vast majority
of the prophets. With their deep spiritual
insight they had perceived the vanity of
worship without ethical and spiritual holi-
ness. They had denounced the pompous
ceremonial of their day as positively dis-
pleasing to Jahveh, as destined to bring the
Exile upon their people. To them, rites,
however useful in themselves, mattered little
or nothing in the sight of Jahveh. Hence
their holiness was a plainer, simpler, more
ideal quality than lay at the root of the later
theocracy.
This profounder conception of spiritual
holiness was by no means absent from the
subsequent Judaism': but in the minds of
the people as a whole it was apt to be choked
The Theocracy 203
by an overgrowth of ritual. Each successive
sacrifice was apt to take the place of the idea
which it symbolized. Hence when a man
made a ' sin ' or ' trespass offering ' he was
likely to forget that the sacrifice itself was
only symbolical, that the temper of soul
with which it was offered was all important.
Not even the great ' Day of Atonement '
always impressed the positive need of peni-
tence : the ordinary Israelite was prone to
imagine that the scapegoat in actual fact
bore away the sins of the nation, of course
including his own, into the wilderness.
Thus were born two classes destined to great
influence amongst the later Jews. There
were the Sadducees, tenacious of outward
ritual, but often at heart deeply influenced
by Greek thought. There were the Pharisees
or separatist zealots, who were no less faithful
to the ritual, while they drew deep spiritual
lessons from the ethical Torah. Of these two
classes are few if any traces in the Old Testa-
ment ; but they were the natural fruit of a
religion hemmed in with ritual prescribed in
a sacred book.
To the faithful Jew his religion was essen-
tially the ' religion of a book.' Just as the
Protestant reformers cast down an infallible
204 The Religion of a Book
Pope to set up in its place an infallible Bible,
the priests of Judaism made their people no
less confident of the eternal verity and ever-
lasting authority of the Torah. Parts of it
were taught in every school, some of its
simpler passages in many a home of Israel.
Where there is so much ritual, the ' weightier
matters of the law ' are apt to pass into the
background. Thus when the religion became
the ' religion of a book,' there was scarcely
room for a prophet within it. The prophet
must have freedom of utterance, if he is to
proclaim his message to the people. Under
the more stereotyped religion of the Torah
such freedom was out of the question. The
worshipper no longer asked what is the will
of God, but what is the will of God as set
forth in the Torah ? Henceforth the priest
and the scribe ruled ; by the priest's media-
tion alone man was able to make his peace
with Jahveh, Of the synagogue worship
nothing can be said here, since it finds no
place as such in the Old Testament, though
it may well have begun at a comparatively
early date after the return from the Exile,
while some would set its beginnings during
the sojourn in the land of Babylon.
The rigour of ritual is one side of the
The Theocracy 205
theocracy ; but it is by no means the only
or the more important side. By it the Jews
were kept faithful to the one true God
through all their trials and sufferings. Each
individual Israelite believed himself to be a
member of the ' congregation of Jahveh,'
thus standing in a special relation to his God
shared by no other nation. Hence any lapse
into idolatry was impossible, though it might
have saved his property, to say nothing of
his life. Furthermore the Israelites as a
whole derived much inspiration from their
worship, however burdensome its legal exac-
tions may have seemed to others. In ful-
filling them they considered themselves to be
fulfilling their part of a covenant, in which
Jahveh would undoubtedly fulfil his. If
they went to Jerusalem to one or other of
the national feasts, they went to the holy
city with glad hearts (Psalms cxxi., cxxii.),
though the solemn character of their celebra-
tion had the inevitable tendency to rob them
of their brightness.
Though their Sabbath-day became a day
rather of rigour than of rest, to them it was
truly blest by its lofty and divine symbolism.
It is quite true that the priest was elevated in
the eyes of the people as the one means of
2o6 The Religion of a Book
making their offerings to Jahveh. But though
he may have seemed further off in the past,
the thought of God became ahke subhmer and
more reverent, so that his love for his people
became more precious to them. Hence, as
will be seen later, the Psalter or ' hymn-book
of the second Temple,' largely the offspring
of that great outburst of sacred song which
took place after the Exile, contains some of
the world's noblest religious poems, and it is
abundantly clear that the spiritual faculty of
' resting in Jahveh ' in quiet communion was
a dominating influence at least in some deeper
souls.
At or about this time the ' Scribes ' or
' students of the Torah ' began to attain a
fixed position outside of the recognized
priesthood. It was their task to make
copies of the Torah and other sacred books
such as the rolls of the various prophets.
But they spent much time upon studying the
Torah with minute care, interpreting its
darker sayings and defining more strictly its
requirements. Regarding it as the pledge
that Jahveh had made an everlasting
covenant with his people which was de-
scribed in his Torah, the Scribes and Phari-
sees studied it with loving care. The people
The Theocracy 207
for the most part were not able to enter upon
such studies ; but in their turn they looked
up to those who could and did engage in
them with a high and affectionate reverence.
Still, in spite of this beneficent side of its
influence, the ' religion of a book ' is usually
lacking in perfect spontaneity and freedom,
while it is apt to breed theological pedants.
When all thought upon sacred matters is
fixed in a rigid orthodoxy, spiritual progress
becomes wellnigh impossible. That was the
inherent defect of the Jewish theocracy, as
it is of all orthodoxies. The dispersion of
the Jews amongst all nations, while it did
not alter the fundamentals of their religion,
yet by depriving them of the power of cele-
brating its ritual made it once more a living
and universal religion. When their faith
ceased to be centred upon one sacred place,
it was seen to be possible to worship Jahveh
in any part of the world.
Of the ethical side of the Torah little re-
mains to be said. Though to them Jahveh
was the universal God, the Jews believed
him to be in an especial sense the God of
Israel. Hence passages in the Old Testa-
ment which seem to have a universal bearing
to the Jew in Palestine referred distinctly
2o8 The Religion of a Book
to himself and to his fellow Israelites. The
commandment already cited, 'Thou shalt love
thy neighbour as thyself ' (Leviticus xix. i8)
refers strictly to the Jewish neighbour and
could not have included the Samaritans.
Deuteronomy forbids the Israelite to lend
upon usury to his brother Israelite (xxiii.
19, 20), while the same is permitted in the case
of an alien. The word used means ' to bite
like a serpent,' so that usurious interest is
clearly implied. When we read the noble
passages of the Old Testament we must
never forget that Jewish particularism which
lies at the root of all the national history.
No Jew in Palestine after Nehemiah's time
would have dreamed that the Torah was an
international moral code bidding him to
treat a Samaritan as he would treat a Jewish
neighbour. That is the difference between
the thought of Israel and the universal teach-
ing of Jesus and the Apostle Paul.
The Torah contains no intimation of in-
dividual personal immortality. The rewards
of a good life and the punishments of an evil
life are to be received from Jahveh on earth.
When they returned from Babylonia the
Jews expected great national prosperity for
their faithfulness to Jahveh, who had made
The Theocracy 209
his covenant with them and restored them
to their land. The non-fulfilment of their
expectation has nothing to do with the
expectation itself, though it led the deeper
thinkers amongst them to inquire into the
suffering of the good and the prosperity of
the bad. In Isaiah liii. a beginning is found
so far-reaching that it is not possible to go
far beyond it to-day. But the noble oracles
of the great prophet of the Exile had little
influence upon the popular thought, especi-
ally in those passages which describe the
vicarious suffering of ' Jahveh's faithful
servant.'
To the ordinary man ' Jahveh's Torah
was complete, restoring the life ' (Psalm xix.
7). Beyond it he could not go ; happy in-
deed was he if he could fulfil it exactly.
Hence he had no theory of future rewards
and punishments to disturb his serenity
or to cheer his despondency. To the
Israelite of this period life on earth counted
supremely and alone was real existence.
Yet for all that the absence of any image in
his worship helped him to conceive of Jahveh
as a ' spirit ' brooding over the abysses of
primeval chaos (Genesis i, 2). In his own
mind he may have pictured Jahveh as a man,
210 The Religion of a Book
as most of us do in the human limitations
of our thought. But though man might
have been made in his image, man was per-
mitted to make no image of him. Hence
the general Jewish conception of God was in
the main spiritual.
Though the theocracy has its unlovely
side, it has nursed a race of strong men
faithful unto death for the Torah of Jahveh.
The Jewish nation bore a multitude of un-
selfish heroes of real and fervent piety, who
were born into the Torah, lived by the Torah,
were ready to die for the Torah. In it they
found, as they believed, the full revelation
of Jahveh to their people, the token of his
special grace to Israel, the assurance of the
future greatness of their race. Though it
was and is hampered by its limitations,
though it contains many contradictions, to
the Israelite it was a unity vouchsafed to
his nation alone. The stages of the tradi-
tions which make it up, have been traced :
it has been shown to contain the rehgious
conceptions of many centuries set together
without any definite order.
But to the Hebrew student of the days of
its first completion that made no difference :
in his own way he could reconcile the con-
The Theocracy 211
tradictions by treating them as allegory or
in some similar manner. It has sufficed to
give all of the Jews a national religion, which
has endured unimpaired to the present day.
Furthermore it was in part the teaching upon
which John the Baptist and Jesus were
reared. In any estimate of the Jewish
theocracy that great fact must never be
forgotten. Though these two were em-
phatically prophets and not priests, they
had learned what the Torah had to teach,
so that Jesus was able to correct deliberately
its cruder enactments and to universalize its
teaching. That he had learned it thoroughly
may be seen from the ' Sermon on the Mount,'
the use that he made of it has been for the
lasting blessing of the human race.
Chapter VII
THE RELIGION OF SACRED SONG
The Psalter. Conceptions of God. Strict mono-
theism. His goodness and loving -kindness. His
righteousness. His justice. His faithfulness. Man's
relation to God. Thankfulness. Love. Trust. Obe-
dience. Penitence. Life, death, Sheol. The Mes-
sianic Psalms. Summary of Conclusions.
THE Psalter extends over a period of
more than eight centuries (1000-145
B.C.), though the larger number of its poems
is probably post-exilic. Its final division
into five books each closed by a doxology,
dates from a comparatively late time, and
is possibly based upon the fivefold division
of the Torah. It is made up of a number of
smaller collections, the oldest of which is
ascribed to David, though it contains many
poems which he could not have written.
The earliest guild of sacred poets was called
by the general name of ' David ' or ' sons of
The Psalter 213
David,' who was famed as the great national
poet. It may undoubtedly contain some of
his songs, but none perhaps as he actually
wrote them. When the Psalter became the
' second Temple hymn-book,' its oldest poems
would need modernizing, so that the wor-
shippers could understand them. That hap-
pens to most modern hymn-books, whose
editors without scruple alter the words, even
the doctrines, of hymns to suit the needs of
their denomination.
It is quite possible that some of the Psalms
assigned to David may be his, though
modified at least in language. The titles
came not from the original authors of the
poems, but from one or other of the editors
of the smaller collections. The ascription
' David's ' does not of necessity imply
David's authorship, but may mean either
' from the guild David,' or ' after David's
manner.' The events of the hero-king's
adventurous life may well have suggested
illustration to the later poets of the lessons
which they desired to teach. The earliest
guild of Levitical singers in the ' second
Temple ' was called the ' sons of Korah '
(e.g., xlii.). Finally, three such guilds were
formed and known as the ' sons of Ethan,
214 The Religion of Sacred Song
Asaph, and Heman,' where Heman takes the
place of Korah (i Chronicles xv. 17-22 ;
Psalm Ixxxviii.). Hence a Psalm assigned
to one of these names must be understood to
have come from or been written for one of
the respective guilds of Levitical singers (e.g.
Ixxvii., where Ethan appears as Jeduthun ;
Ixxiii. ; Ixxxviii.).
It will be interesting to note the various
kinds of Psalms. One (xxx.) is styled a
' Shir,' which was the general Hebrew name
for any kind of song. A common title is
'Mizmor'='a so7tg set to music* (e.g.,
xxxi.). A small class is known by the name
of 'Michtam'^=:' a golden' or 'chosen poem'
(e.g., xvi. ; Ivi. ; Ix.). Another kind is the
' Maschil ' = ' reflective poem,' which closely
resembles such a hymn as that beginning,
' O blessed life, the heart at rest ' (e.g., xlii. ;
xlv. ; Ixxviii. ; Ixxxviii.). A number of
Psalms beginning ' Hallelujah ' = ' praise ye
Jahveh ' is named the ' greater ' or ' lesser
Hallel ' (cxi. ; cxvii. ; cxlvi,-cl.) and used
at the national feasts. Another little collec-
tion is called 'songs of ascents ' = probably
'pilgrim-songs,' to be sung by faithful
Israelites on their way to special worship in
Jerusalem. The whole body of the Psalter
The Psalter 215
is known as 'Tehillim'=' praises,' though
its devotional character may be seen from
a note, 'The TephilHm (prayers) of David the
son of Jesse are ended ' (Ixxii. 20).
Sometimes musical directions are added
such as Selah which may mean an interval
of instrumental music. At other times the
names of popular melodies are found in the
title indicating that the Psalm was to be
sung to the tune named. One such is the
name 'Shoshannim' = ' /j7z>s ' (xlv.). Again
a musical note ' set to Alamoth ' is given,
which may correspond to our ' soprano
voices,' but probably refers to the type of
musical instruments to be used in the accom-
paniment. These were the ' Jebel ' = ' psal-
tery ' or larger harp, which sometimes had
ten strings ; the ' Kinnor ' ^ilyre or smaller
stringed instrument ; the trumpet or horn ;
the flute ; the cymbals which were of two
kinds, and the tambourine.
In the earliest times at least the wor-
shippers used dancing as part of their ritual
in joyful thanksgiving (cl. 4).
Gradually the Psalter became the ' second
Temple hymn-book,' to which additions were
made probably as late as 145 B.C. during the
times of the Maccabees. The fall of Jeru-
2i6 The Religion of Sacred Song
salem, its restoration under Nehemiah, and
the victories of Simon and his family, each
inspired the poets of Israel to burst forth into
sacred song. However ancient in thought
the oldest hymns may have been, with a new
setting they took largely a new form. The
last editors were strict monotheists and may
well have modified the cruder ideas of a more
primitive time, though traces of these sur-
vive in some of the Psalms.
To judge the date of each is wellnigh
impossible. The tendency of modern critics
is to assign too many of them to the age of
the Maccabees. That glorious period does
not afford the only suitable occasions for
the composition of poems throbbing with a
triumphant military spirit. To say nothing
of David himself, the victories of Jeroboam II
in the northern, and of Josiah in the southern
kingdom give quite as possible a source for
these as the triumphs of a later date. Even
if Aramaean words be found in them, it does
not follow that they were composed during
or after the Persian rule. The trading with
Syria in the time of Solomon may well have
given many Aramaean loan-words to the
Hebrew tongue. Similarly modern critics
are apt to make the pronoun I stand for the
vStrict Monotheism 217
whole nation too often in what are more
simply taken as individual Psalms. Each
poem must be judged by its own internal
evidence, since no reliance is to be placed on
the titles. If the Temple be mentioned in
one of them, it can hardly be David's ;
the phrase ' Jahveh's house ' on the contrary
does not imply so much, as it could be used
of the original tent. The poems, as they
left the last editors, differ in rhythm, in-
spiration, and power : but in the funda-
mental thought, though it shows signs of
progress, there is a striking unanimity.
What, then, were the basal ideas of the
being and nature of Jahveh underlying the
poems of the Psalter ? With one voice the
poets sing of him as the only God, a concep-
tion doubtless derived from the teaching of
the great prophets. Whenever the impo-
tence of idols is compared with the might of
Jahveh, it is pointed with a contempt
withering as that of Isaiah. This scornful
abhorrence reaches its greatest height in a
Psalm of the early Greek period (cxv. 4-7),
where the poet contrasts the powerlessness
of these lifeless blocks with the living might
of Jahveh : —
2i8 The Religion of Sacred Song
Their idols are silver and gold,
The work of men's hands.
They have mouths, but they speak not ;
Eyes have they, but they see not ;
They have ears, but they hear not ;
Noses have they, but they smell not ;
They have hands, but they handle not ;
Feet have they, but they walk not.
On the other hand with supreme confidence
he sings : —
But our God is in the heavens :
He hath done whatever he pleased.
Examples of this rigid monotheism need
not be multiphed. To one and all of the
Psalmists Jahveh was the only God : his
power was limitless ; he alone was to be
worshipped by ' all kindreds of the peoples '
with solemn pomp (xxii. 27 ; xcvi. 9) ;
to him alone were sacrifices to be offered ;
his mighty voice rang through the thunder-
storm (xxix.) ; to him the floods swelled
tumultuous praise (xciii.) ; his creative and
sustaining might was to be seen in the world
of nature (civ.) ; he could create, he could
destroy (xcv. 4, 5 ; xlvi. 8) ; he could bring
the lofty low and lift them up according to
his good pleasure (cvii.).
Jahveh is always a spiritual being having
Strict Monotheism 219
no image, in spite of the distinctly anthro-
pomorphic expressions used concerning him.
To the poets the dome of the sky was a soHd
vault or firmament spread over a circular
flat earth (xix. i ; cl. i), across which moved
the sun, moon, and stars. There were
waters above the firmament, beneath and
around the earth, under which lay a vast
abyss (xxiv. 2 ; xxix. 10). When the
windows of heaven were opened, rain fell to
renew the face of the earth. Above all was
the pavilion of Jahveh high over the heavens,
where he dwelt with the angelic hosts (ciii.
21). By his creative word he executed his
will (xxxiii. 6), as he sustained heaven and
earth by the majesty of his might. From
heaven he heard and answered the king's
prayer (xx. 6). But in all alike he was the
one Jahveh, the creator, controller, sus-
tainer of the living creatures and especially
of his people Israel.
In estimating the general conception of
his character it must be remembered that
with few exceptions the Psalmists were
particularistic in their thought, looking little
beyond the bounds of their own people.
To Israel he showed his goodness and loving-
kindness ; he was ' Israel's shepherd ' (xxiii.,
220 The Religion of Sacred Song
Ixxx. i), he ' brought back the exile of Jacob '
(Ixxxv. i), he established ' a testimony in
Jacob,' which was to be handed down from
father to son (Ixxviii. 5-7), he was the
' keeper of Israel ' (cxxi. 4), while Israel
was ' his people ' (cxliv. 12-15). There are
many more examples confining Jahveh's
goodness to his own nation.
On the other hand are what may be called
' missionary Psalms,' in which Israel is re-
garded as a missionary to all the earth and
Jahveh's providence to be over all nations.
In a beautiful song of praise (viii.) man is
said to have been ' made a little lower than
God,' to be always under God's mindful
care, where clearly man is meant to be man-
kind. Another poet represents Jahveh as
' King of all the earth,' as so reigning over
all nations that they shall become ' the people
of the God of Abraham ' (xlvii. 7-9), that is
to be ranked with the real descendants of
Abraham. Another Psalm is quite universal
in tone, wherein it is said, ' All the kings of
the earth shall give thee thanks, O Jahveh '
(cxxxviii. 4). Others might be cited to
show that the highest conception of their
authors in respect of Jahveh was to make
their people missionaries to bring other
Jahveh's Goodness and Love 221
nations to be his worshippers. Hence when
a Psalm speaks of ' Jahveh's loving-kindness,'
it may be either national or universal in the
mind of its author ; but in each case the
fundamental thought is the same and the
national Psalm can easily be universalized.
Jahveh's goodness and loving-kindness
show themselves in many ways. There is
his gift of an abundant harvest and increase
in cattle (Ixv. 9-13 ; cxliv. 13-15) in regard
for man's piety and care ; there is his pro-
tection in the time of trouble (xxvii. 1-6) ;
there is his watchfulness over his faithful
worshipper (xxiii.), there is his continual
providence manifested in safety from sick-
ness, danger, foes in battle, in the gift of a
long and peaceful life (xci.). There is his
readiness to rescue his people singly or as
a whole from bitter enemies (iii. 5-8) ; there
is that wonderful call to praise, which
describes ' his goodness to the children of
men ' (cvii.) ; there is that tender portrayal
of his fatherly goodness to ' them that fear
him,' which shines softly through one of
the most beautiful of the Psalms (ciii.) ;
there is that great triumph-song, which
begins by hymning the creation of heaven
and earth, and ends by narrating the early
222 The Religion of Sacred Song
victories of Israel, for which the nation is
exhorted to ' give thanks unto Jahveh, for
his loving-kindness is for ever ' (cxxxvi,).
Some of the Psalms mentioned are early,
some are late ; but the note of Jahveh's
loving-kindness rings through all of them.
It may be sounded to commemorate this
quality as displayed to Israel as shown in its
long and eventful history, in the beneficent
intention of making it the ' foundation-
stone ' of a new earth (cxviii. 22, 23), or in
his omniscience and intimate relations with
man (cxxxix.). But everywhere and under
all circumstances the Psalmists believed
heart and soul in the goodness and loving-
kindness of their God, which would deliver
them from all their afflictions.
The Psalms considered have been mostly
expressions of a conviction of Jahveh's
goodness uttered after the Exile. A few
poems survive, telling of his affectionate
regard for his anointed king, who by the
sacred oil was supposed to be possessed by
the divine spirit. First a royal marriage-ode
(xlv.) has been preserved, which may have
been intended to grace the wedding of Jehu,
In it Jahveh's loving-kindness is described
in majestic language applied rather to the
Jahveh's Goodness and Love 223
kingly office than to the individual king,
while a high tribute is paid to the royal
bride. Another Psalm (xx.) prays for the
victory of the king in some unknown battle
soon to be fought, and thrills with sure con-
fidence in Jahveh's goodness. It is followed
by a song of glad gratitude (xxi.) which may
have been sung to commemorate the victory
prayed for in its predecessor. Here again
the ode throbs with deep thankfulness to
Jahveh for his goodness to ' his anointed.'
Several other Psalms tell of Jahveh's care
for the king, and one speaks of his severe
punishment of an unfaithful ruler (Ixxxix.
38-45), which may refer to the weakling
Zedekiah. While the kingdom lasted, the
king was Jahveh's vicegerent over his people;
on him heavenly blessings would be poured ;
he had and exercised the right to sacrifice.
In his blessing the people were blessed, in
his prosperity they saw sure proof of the
divine favour.
But Jahveh's loving-kindness was not
wasted upon the evil-doer. He must suffer
adversity, as the righteous would receive
prosperity. Thus the primitive theory held
the thought of most of the Psalmists, though
some were inclined to question its truth
224 The Religion of Sacred Song
(Ixxiii.). In many poems the faithful wor-
shipper, possibly representing the nation,
regarded his foes as Jahveh's enemies, upon
whom he was expected to take stern ven-
geance (xxxvi. 10-12), though to all outward
appearance they had prospered exceedingly
(xxxiv. ; xxxvii.). If Jahveh were good, he
could also be stern, cruel as it seems to us,
in his treatment of the wicked. In one
terrible passage (Ixviii. 21-23) he is depicted
as ' smiting through the head of his enemies,'
as suffering his righteous people to bathe
their feet in the blood of their foes.
In the tender phrase ' Like as a father
pitieth his children ' (ciii. 13) Jahveh's pity
does not reach the wicked. Indeed such a
conception as the Fatherhood of God, as
Jesus taught, is not to be found in the Old
Testament. Still, according to the thought
of the Psalmists as a whole, Jahveh showed
himself good to the good Israelite, as he had
always done in the past to his chosen people.
In spite of the afflictions of Israel he was
still believed to care for its well-being ; nay,
those very afflictions were held in most cases
to be directly due to the national wrong-
doing whether by idolatry or any other sin
(xcv. 10, 11).
Jahveh's Righteousness 225
Another outstanding quality of Jahveh in
the mind of all of these poets is his perfect
righteousness, which can only be served by
corresponding righteousness. Doubtless the
standards of ethics may have differed in
the thought of the various Psalmists ; but
the idea itself is persistent in all of them.
Scarcely a Psalm is without some allusion to
Jahveh's righteousness either in set terms
or imphcitly. Now it is said, ' The heavens
shall declare his righteousness ' (1. 6) ;
now that ' He will judge the world with
righteousness ' (xcviii. 9). One poet prays
for deliverance from his troubles ' by
Jahveh's righteousness ' (xxxi. i) ; another
seeks to be judged by the same divine
quality (xxxv. 24). In a single sentence
' Jahveh is righteous in all his ways ' (cxlv.
17), and punishes the unrighteous with utter
destruction (i. 4-6 ; iii. 7), while because he
is righteous he ' loves righteousness ' (xi. 7).
Though the Psalmists might be perplexed
by the obvious prosperity of the wicked,
they never failed to realize that Jahveh him-
self was righteous, never completely lost
their confidence that righteousness would
prevail in the end, though that end might
be long delayed.
Q
226 The Religion of Sacred Song
By his righteousness Jahveh is ' judge of
all the earth ' who rewards men according to
their deeds (xcvi. 13). His judgments are
based upon the conduct of life ; his blessings or
punishments are meted out in life in requital
of conduct alone. He executes judgment
upon the oppressor, whether a nation or an
individual (xciv. 2), or lays his command-
ments upon the national judges (Ixxxii.).
He has set his throne for judgment and will
judge the world with righteousness (ix. 7, 8).
Over and over again with passionate fervour
the Psalmists appeal to him to pass sentence
upon the unjust and oppressive. They
had learned from sad experience to suffer
cruel injustice from barbarous tyrants. But
they are prepared to ' rest in Jahveh, to
wait patiently for him,' confident that in
the end he will act as a just judge and
do the right (xxxvii. 7). Poring over the
Torah some found therein recorded ' the
excellent judgments of Jahveh ' (xix. 7-14 ;
cxix.). They loved the Torah with deep
affection, found comfort in it, amid all their
affliction. Hence they could cheer their
people by their sure conviction of the eternal
justice of their God, which one day he would
manifest to all the earth.
Jahveh's Faithfulness 227
Side by side with his justice is his faithful-
ness to his people and to his faithful servants.
He had plighted his word to Abraham and
kept his promise righteously (cv. 42-45).
Israel's forefathers had trusted in him and
' were not put to confusion ' (xxii. 4, 5). He
would never forsake his people even in their
darkest hours. Hence he is often called the
rock or fortress (xxxi. 2, 3 ; xlii. 9 ; Ixii. 2)
because of his eternal constancy. Such a
truth must have comforted the Jews be-
yond measure both during and after the
Exile. It fills the thought of the Psalmists
and inspires them to sing. They sang of the
everlasting might, of the boundless love,
of the unsullied righteousness, of the un-
ceasing faithfulness, of the unflinching justice
of Jahveh, and the music of their song has
awakened echoes in the human heart along
the changing course of the centuries.
Another reason for the abiding influence
of the Psalter is its intense humanity. It
touches the whole gamut of human experi-
ence in man's relation to God, in much of
man's relation to man. Thankfulness, love,
trust, obedience to Jahveh, penitence, hatred
of enemies, longing for revenge, delight in
its satisfaction are freely manifested in its
228 The Religion of Sacred Song
hallowed pages. Thankfulness and praise
are the twin key-notes of most of the poems.
Now one poet would praise Jahveh for his
beneficent rule in nature and over mankind
(viii. ; ix.; civ.) ; now another would recall
Israel's past with glowing gratitude to his
God for his watchful care (cvi. ; cxiv.).
Now an individual poet would thank Jahveh
for his deliverance from sickness, from death
itself (xviii. ; xxx.) ; now some great national
victory stirred an outburst of thanksgiving
(Ixxvi. ; cxxiv.) ; now one who had tasted
the joy of worship after a long absence poured
forth his gratitude in exquisite words (Ixxxiv.).
Whenever these pious poets received some
great deliverance, they tuned harps and
voices to the gracious note of grateful praise.
It was their joy to ' walk in the light of his
countenance ' (iv. 6), that is with Jahveh's
radiant face turned towards them, a sure
sign of his favour, as the ' hiding of his face
from them ' proclaimed his anger (xiii. i ;
xxvii. 9 ; xxx. 7). To share communion
with him was to find at ' his right hand
pleasures for evermore ' (xvi. 11). So these
old poets rejoiced and sang, or suffered and
sang, finding everlasting consolation in
Jahveh's goodness.
Israel's Love and Trust 229
Similarly one after another of the Psalmists
conscious of Jahveh's love to his people,
repaid him in kind (xviii. i). When they
were all but sinking into despair, their love
to Jahveh did not cease. Amongst the
latest of them were the saints =^Chasidim
especially devoted to God and his Torah.
It is difficult to decide whether the word
saints refers to a section of Israel or to Israel
itself as a covenant-race. Sometimes at least
it seems to point to the separate class, whose
members were the spiritual ancestors of the
Pharisees (xxxi. 23). Some of the Psalms
seem to have been written by them to express
their own feeling towards Jahveh and to
impart it to their disciples.
The same feeling throbbed in the hearts of
all of the Psalmists, though its expression
varied considerably. One and all they were
vividty conscious of the presence of Jahveh
alike by ' the quiet pools amid the green
pastures,' or through the darkness of ' the
gloomy glade.' Their love to him went forth
artlessly as that of a little child ; they were
rarely troubled by those heart-searching ques-
tions born of the scientific spirit. Though
they often imagined his face to be turned
away from them, they never doubted that
230 The Religion of Sacred Song
it would be turned towards them in due time.
They hoped in him still and found him to be
' the health of their countenance and their
God ' (xlii. ii).
Closely akin to this love of Jahveh was un-
faltering trust in him. One poet old and
suffering from sore persecution, could yet
begin his hymn (Ixxi. i), ' In thee do I put
my trust, O Jahveh,' could assert confidently
that Jahveh had been ' his trust from his
youth.' Another writing for the whole
people lying at the mercy of bitter foes
shortly after the completion of the second
Temple (xxii.) could sing of the trust of his
fathers and its fulfilment by Jahveh. An-
other perhaps a little earlier, begins to sing
amid deep desolation (xiii.) ; but his sense
of affliction steals away and he ends in
rapturous confidence in ' Jahveh's loving-
kindness.' Once more, two Psalms of dif-
ferent dates are joined together (xxvii.
1-6 ; 7-14), each thrilling with sturdy trust.
The first sings of a faith fulfilled in a signal
victory, and may well have come from David
himself after the defeat of some of his enemies.
The second vibrates with the note of present
danger, such as befits the last days of the
kingdom of Judah. Yet the poet's trust is
Israel's Obedience to Jahveh 231
so unshaken, that he can sing of Jahveh's
protecting care though his ' father and
mother forsake him.' These examples of
whole-hearted trust will serve to illustrate
the universal thought of the Psalter in this
important attribute of man's relation to
God. It is an eternal attitude of soul sorely
needed by men alike in prosperity and in
affliction.
Much as Jahveh loved his people, he re-
quired obedience from them. This teaching
of the Psalmists is admirably summed up in
a Psalm (xv.) dating probably from the first
days of the second Temple. It describes the
tnie characteristics of ' Jahveh's guest ' as
Che3nie with fine insight calls him. Such
a one must be righteous, speak the truth
sincerely, abstain from slander, do no wrong
to his friends, take up no calumnious report
against his neighbour, despise the reprobate,
honour Jahveh's true worshipper, keep his
oath even to his hurt, take no usury, no
bribe against the innocent. It will be seen
that all of Jahveh's requirements from ' his
guest ' are forms of ethical obedience, which
according to the Psalter is the doing of
his will.
Some of the later Psalmists are known
232 The Religion of Sacred Song
as ' the wise,' who studied the Torah and
found the ' beginning of wisdom in the fear
of Jahveh ' (xxxiv. 11-22 ; xxxvii. ; cxix.).
Their wisdom showed itself in righteous
living (cxix. 3) ; to them it was folly to do
evil (cvii. 17, 18). In righteousness, obedi-
ence to Jahveh consisted, in sin against him
disobedience. Most of the sins condemned
in the Psalter are breaches of the moral
law, while most of the appeals to righteous-
ness are directed to the leading of a healthy
moral life.
If, however, he sinned, the Israelite had
one sure means of making his peace with his
God. If he repented and amended his ways,
Jahveh ' would put away the remembrance
of his wrongdoing.' One of the pro-
foundest of the Psalms paints a vivid picture
of a true penitent (li.). Its author had com-
mitted some terrible crime, for which he
prayed for forgiveness. It need not be
imagined that the blood-guiltiness of verse
14 must be taken in its literal sense, but
rather in the meaning of mortal sin of some
kind unspecified. If the writer had in mind
David's evil way of getting rid of Uriah in
the battle, the expression would be natural
and merely imply that his sin was as great
Penitence 233
as David's. His poem is both a confession
and a prayer. Hence he begged for a ' clean
mind ' and the renewal of ' right spirit within
him,' so that he might be able to live truly
once more. He felt that his sin had cast him
away from Jahveh's presence, so that all
was dark around him. If verses 18 and 19
be omitted as unsuitable to their context, we
find that the poet had discovered what was
hidden from the priests in Jerusalem, that
Jahveh needed no atoning offerings on the
altar, but ' a broken spirit, a broken and
contrite heart.' In this way he anticipated
the New Testament teaching, and laid the
foundation of that wonderful story ' The
Prodigal Son.' He never doubted that
Jahveh would forgive his sincere penitence,
but trusted that once more the face of his
God would shine upon him.
Something now remains to be said of man's
relation to man as depicted in the Psalter.
In this important point the thinking of the
Israelitish poets is in the main confined to
their own nation, though a few of the Psalms
consciously proclaim the obligation of uni-
versal morality. The Hebrew religion had
so long been national, that it was not easy
for the Psalmists to look outside of the
234 The Religion of Sacred Song
national boundary. Thus manyof theirpoems
are black with bitter hatred of enemies.
Of course these were not always foreign foes ;
many of the poets suffered much from the
sinners of their own race. But none of them
felt bound to forgive their enemies ; nay,
frequently they prayed to Jahveh to help
them to vengeance.
This fierce emotion is seen at its intensest
in the ' imprecatory Psalms,' which hurl
ferocious curses at the head of those who had
wronged their author or the nation as a
whole. In one every line throbs with savage
satisfaction at the sight of the punishment
of the wicked as following on most terrible
curses (Iviii. 6-11). Another (cix. 6-15)
imprecates a most bitter curse possibly upon
the faithless high priests Menelaus and Jason,
evidently believing that the curse would cling
to the persons cursed to their mortal hurt.
Passages such as these, however seriously
provoked by cruel wrong, should be taken
out of the Psalter, before it is used as a whole
for common worship. They belong to an
older and more barbarous time : though
they may and do express the feelings of
many professing Christians, these know very
well that they are contrary to the teaching
Life, Death, Sheol 235
of Jesus. But war and oppression take the
kindness out of the heart of man, and call
into being his most vindictive passions.
There is no need to dwell upon such expres-
sions of undying hate as are left. It is wiser
to turn to the nobler Psalmists to learn from
them their eternal lessons of trust, hope,
loving-kindness, lowly righteousness lived
out in God's abiding presence.
What then did these old poets think of
the future life ? It is extremely question-
able if any real conviction of immortality
formed part of Hebrew thought until late
in the Greek period. Because quotations
from the Old Testament are sometimes
loosely made in the New to enforce the
teaching of this doctrine, it does not follow
that their authors had any conception of it,
as it is understood to-day. With most of
the thinkers of Israel to die was to pass from
the bright sphere of God's activity into the
gloom of ' Sheol,' which lay somewhere in
the heart of the earth. Probably their
belief in this dark shadow-land was a sur-
vival from Canaanite thought ; but it
played no part in their system of ethics,
which had relation to this life alone. In the
Psalter are many allusions to Sheol ; in all it
236 The Religion of Sacred Song
is described in much the same way. One
sorrowful poet in danger of death either from
sickness or his foes, prays to Jahveh to
dehver him from the dark land : —
For in death there is no remembrance of thee :
In Sfiedl who shall give thee thanks ? (vi. 5).
This pathetic Psalm may be national, not
individual : but in either case the state of
unconsciousness in She 61 is clearly depicted.
Hence this ' gloomy pit ' was often used as
a synonym for destruction and death (ix. 17).
A Psalm using She 61 to express death has
been both misinterpreted and mistranslated
to prove its author's belief in immortality.
The verses quoted in the New Testament
(Acts xiii. 35-37 ; cf. Psalm xvi. 9, 10) to
impress the resurrection of Jesus upon the
hearers, in the mind of their original author
meant simply a prayer to be preserved from
death, as may be seen in the truer rendering
of Dr. Foster Kent in his ' Student's Old
Testament,' which runs : —
So my mind and my heart rejoice,
My flesh also abideth in peace ;
For thou wilt not forsake me unto Sheol
Nor suffer thy faithful one to see the grave.
Life, Death, Sheol 237
In simpler language the Psalmist expresses
his confidence that Jahveh would not leave
him to sink into Sheol and thus to die. No
doubt St. Luke quotes these lines to illus-
trate a definite doctrine of his master, St.
Paul. In this he resembles most users of
poetical quotations, who employ them fre-
quently to illustrate something quite outside
of their author's thought.
Another prayer for recovery from severe
sickness involves a similar thought of
Sheol (xxx. 9) : —
^^^lat profit is there then in my blood, when I go down
to Sheol?
Shall the dust praise thee ? shall it declare thy faith-
fulness ?
In other words the Psalmist's blood, that is his
life, would avail him nothing in Sheol.
That and his body would be left on earth to
turn gradually into dust. His empty shade
would be plunged into the land of darkness,
where it would be unable to praise Jahveh
any more than the dust mouldering in the
grave. It is a peculiarly hopeless concep-
tion, which seems to have been held by no
civilized race save the Hebrews.
To be confined in Sheol was to dwell in
perpetual silence (xciv. 17). The place was
238 The Religion of Sacred Song
described as the ' dark regions ' and the
' depths,' in which Jahveh would not show
his wonders and the dead consequently-
remained mute (Ixxxviii. 6-11). Hence all
of the Psalmists longed to ' walk before
Jahveh in the land of the living ' (cxvi. 3-9).
At the ' mouth of Sheol ' the very bones were
scattered as the earth by the plough (cxli.
7, 8). In spite of the pious pleading of the
commentators there appears to be no belief
in personal immortality throughout the
Psalter. The end of life was Sheol alone.
The word comes from a root meaning to dig ;
hence it is often translated pit to the con-
fusion of many readers of the Old Testament.
It is not the grave itself, but follows the
grave ; nor has it anything in common with
the word hell, which frequently misrepresents
it in the Authorized Version.
It has not the slightest connexion with
reward or punishment : it was simply a
gloomy, silent realm, where the king and
the beggar were alike impotent. The only
exception to this idea in the Old Testament is
an oracle against the great king of Babylon
(Isaiah xiv. 3-23), where he is pictured as
meeting with scorn from the shades on his
arrival in Sheol. But even there no belief
Messianic Psalms 239
in personal immortality is implied. The
prophet only seeks to express his contempt
for the mighty but fallen monarch by putting
it into the mouth of the empty shades.
Well then might the troubled Israelite pray ^
to Jahveh to spare his life that he might
praise his God in happy fortune. He be-
lieved that he would receive his reward or
punishment on earth ; hence came his
horror at the dismal thought of death with
its inevitable consequence of sinking down
into the dark silence and nothingness of Sheol.
Before summarizing our conclusions on
the Psalter, it will be necessary to discuss
briefly the so-called ' Messianic Psalms.'
Because these Psalms have been interpreted
by the Rabbis or quoted in the New Testa-
ment as appljdng to the Messiah it does not
follow that their original authors con-
sidered them in any such light. Many of
the prophets had dreamed of an ideal
Davidic king, who would restore the united
sceptre to Judah and Israel. Amongst
these the finest picture is that of Isaiah (xi.),
to whom the oracle is most naturally
ascribed. Micah too (iv.-v. i ; vii. 14-19,
if the passages be his) had imagined a time
of wondrous plenty on earth, when all
240 The Religion of Sacred Song
nations would come to Jerusalem to learn
the worship of Jahveh.
The exilic and post-exilic prophets took
up the tale, notably the earnest Zechariah
(ix. 9-17). None of them uses the word
Messiah to express the ideal king. He would
be the anointed one, who was to receive the
spirit of Jahveh, to combine the attributes
of a mighty ruler and a religious reformer,
under whose sovereignty his people would
enjoy wondrous prosperity on a miraculously
fruitful earth. With every fresh persecu-
tion, though set further in the future, this
hope grew steadier and more fervent. In
the days of the Maccabees under Simon,
who was both religious and secular ruler, to
some the golden age seemed to have come.
But this period of prosperity was short and
followed by troubled days.
In the eyes of the later Jews the deliverer
was expected to be a great warrior, half-
priest and half king, who would defeat all
enemies and reign, as some believed, for a
thousand years when the end of the world
would come. Hence the scribes searching
their prophets and the Psalter found many
oracles, which could be applied to the
Messiah whom they expected. Thus the
The Messianic Psalms 241
ideals of the past were changed into positive
prophecies by them no less than by the New
Testament writers. Hence passages were
held to predict Jesus, which had not the
slightest relation to him. Isaiah had
naturally no idea of the domination of the
Romans or the life and teaching of Jesus,
when he wrote his Messianic oracles. Neither
did Zechariah anticipate the riding into Jeru-
salem upon an ass by Jesus (St. Matthew
xxi. 1-5 ; cf. Zechariah ix. 9). All that he
would impress was the lowliness of the
Messianic king whom he expected. It is
certain that St. Paul and the writers of the
Gospels never hesitated from their reverence
for the sacredness of the Old Testament to
apply in this way such passages which have
no reference whatever to Jesus, though they
may have influenced his own thought. They
quoted from their only Scripture, just as the
modern preacher quotes from the Bible, to
enforce important points in his doctrine.
The ' Messianic Psalms ' are at most five
in number. One of the most striking is em-
bedded in Psalm Ixxxix. (17-21, 3, 4, 22-52),
which may have some reference to Jehoiachin
and Zedekiah. Contrasting the present mis-
fortunes of his people with the glowing
242 The Religion of Sacred Song
promises to David, the pious poet felt con-
fident that they would be fulfilled in the
future under a Davidic king. Psalm ii. con-
templates the confusion which had arisen
amongst the great empires of the world after
the fall of the Persian monarchy, all of which
in his behef would be brought under the sway
of the Messiah, who in honour of his office is
styled ' Jahveh's son ' (7). A later poet has
composed Psalm ex., which may actually
have in mind Simon the Maccabee (4). It
was cited by Jesus to indicate that in his
thought the Messiah need not be of the house
of David (St. Matthew xxii. 41-45). Another
late Psalm (cxxxii.) repeats Jahveh's promise
to David and Zion, which, the later thinkers
were convinced, would be fulfilled under the
Messiah. Thus a few of the Psalmists took
up the oracles of their ancient prophets and
set them forth in their own way to be used
as second Temple hymns. Thus they kept
their own faith in the future alive, and helped
to fan the flame of expectation burning in
the hearts of their countrymen both in their
own time and long after they were laid
to rest.
Here the foregoing inadequate examina-
tion of the theology and ethics of the Psalter
Summary of Conclusions 243
must come to an end. Some principal points
of doctrine stand out conspicuously, which
may in part be due to final editing, though
this must always remain doubtful. With-
out exception the Psalmists were convinced
of the absolute unity of God, of his sovereign
power over all the earth, of his creative and
sustaining omnipotence, of the utter impo-
tence of idols, of the supreme folly of their
worship. Though some of them with deep
insight looked upon their own nation as
destined to be missionaries to the various
nations, the large majority held that Jahveh's
providence was chiefly confined to Israel
itself, while some confined it to the righteous
in Israel.
His righteousness was perfect and de-
manded righteousness in his worshippers.
He would reward the good and punish the
bad on earth. Though there are many
references to Sheol, none of them positively
implies any belief in personal immortality.
Certain ethical characteristics are clearly
marked in most of the poems. They touch
upon all of the experiences of their writers
whether singing in a national or individual
sense. By these they were taught to pour
forth thanksgiving to Jahveh, to pray to
244 The Religion of Sacred Song
him in need, to trust him in the darkest
circumstances, to love him with the whole
heart, to wait patiently for the fulfilment
of his gracious promises, to expect him to
take vengeance upon their enemies national or
personal, to rest assured that he would
punish the wicked severely. Though in the
main the Israelite expected Jahveh to pour
out these mercies upon himself, the experi-
ences of the various poets are life-experiences
which are common to the human race. In
that supreme fact is the source of the mighty
influence which the Psalter has always exer-
cised and will continue to exercise upon
Christian peoples.
Chapter VIII
JOB, THE WISDOM LITERATURE,
AND DANIEL
The Problem of Suffering and Job. Religious and
Practical Wisdom. The Proverbs. Koheleth, or
the Reflections of a weary spirit. Daniel, and the be-
ginning of Apocalyptic Literature.
TWO great events in Hebrew history
aroused a questioning spirit in more
thoughtful minds with regard to the old
doctrine of Jahveh's system of rewards and
punishments as applying to this world alone.
The first was the death of the righteous king
Josiah at Megiddo in 608 B.C., the second
was the prevailingly miserable state after the
return from the Exile, in which the righteous
were to be found. During the Exile the
Second Isaiah had given his solution of the
problem of the suffering of the righteous to
serve and bless the unrighteous. But he
had influenced few of his nation till Jesus
246 Job, Solomon, and Daniel
was born and understood the truth of his
message, which profoundly moved his pure
spirit. Old beliefs die hard even amid
miseries which give them rude shocks.
Somewhere about 400-350 B.C. a poet of
marvellous genius attacked the popular
orthodoxy and put forth his solution of the
problem of the suffering of the righteous.
Using an old tradition or legend of a certain
righteous man named Job (Ezekiel xiv. 14,
20), who though sorely tried remained patient
under his tribulation, he composed a poem
unique in religious literature. Kuenen would
date it soon after the death of Josiah, a
suitable time if the thought of the poem
itself would accord with it. The book of
Job never treats of the conflict with idol-
worship, which would seem to have been a
thing of the past, though Job does assert
that he repressed a momentary temptation
to adore the sun and moon (xxxi. 26-28).
In the Prologue the introduction of ' the
Satan ' amongst the angels of Jahveh de-
mands a date succeeding the Exile. But
whenever the poem was written, its problem
is the same : it is simply this, why should
the good suffer material evil, while the
wicked enjoy long life and prosperity ?
The Problem of Suffering 247
The Prologue and Epilogue are both
necessary to the understanding of the poem.
In plain and nervous prose they set forth
the problem to be solved and the conse-
quences of its solution. In its course there
are direct allusions to the Epilogue (v. 26 ;
xi. 15-20 ; xix. 25-27), which clearly point
to the fact that the poet had it in view during
the composition of his poem. The story is
soon told in its artless pathos (i., ii.). In the
land of Uz lived a truly pious and prosperous
man named Job, who had seven sons and
three daughters. On a certain day the
angels came into Jahveh's presence to report
their doings. With them came ' the Satan '
= ' Adversary' whose task was to test the
lives of men for Jahveh. Asked if he had
seen the piety of Job the vSatan answered
that Job was only pious because it paid him
to be so. He was permitted to bring mis-
fortune upon the patriarch in the loss of
his wealth and his family : but his effort
was vain.
Next he sm^ote him with a terrible disease,
perhaps elephantiasis. Under this aggrava-
tion Job's wife bade him ' curse God and
die.' But he rebuked her and still ' sinned
not with his mouth.' From this point the
248 Job, Solomon, and Daniel
Satan disappears. As Job sat on the refuse-
heap, three wise men, his friends, came to
comfort him, namely Ehphaz the Temanite,
Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naama-
thite. At first they sat silent seven days
and seven nights in truest sympathy. Then
followed their colloquies with him, in which
they maintained the orthodox position of
sin as the only cause of physical suffering,
while he obstinately maintained his integrity
and dared to arraign God's government of
the world of men. When he had confuted
their stale arguments Jahveh appeared in a
whirlwind (xxxviii.-xlii.). The actual vision
of God rather than his answer reduced Job
to submission ; whereupon his children were
restored to him, his possessions doubled and
one hundred and forty years added to his
life. Accepting Dr. Peake's rearrangement
of some of the later chapters (Century Bible,
Job) it will be needful to examine the argu-
ments.
After suffering long in silence, Job's in-
tense agony burst forth into speech (iii.).
He cursed not only the day of his birth, but
the actual moment of his conception. Then
he asked why he did not die when the joyous
cry was heard, ' A man child is born.' Then
The Problem of Suffering 249
at least he would have entered the painless
realm of Sheol, of the tranquillity of which
he gives a picture of rare beauty : —
There the wicked cease from raging ;
And there the weary be at rest.
There the prisoners are at ease together ;
They hear not the voice of the taskmaster.
The small and the great are there ;
And the slave is free from his master.
Truly his anguish must have been great,
when he longed so passionately for death,
though the grave offered him no hope of
immortality or of looking upon Jahveh's face.
In Sheol there was no possibility of reward
for righteousness, neither was there any
punishment for sin. But there at least was
eternal rest faintly if at all stirred by the
movements of consciousness, far alike from
Jahveh's presence and the busy life of men.
Job's friends were shocked by his cursing
of the day of his birth, not realizing the
poignance of his anguish. They believed
him to have been righteous hitherto, but
were convinced that some great sin must
have caused his present calamity. Eliphaz
the eldest first took up in magnificent
language the old threadbare commonplaces
(iv., v.). He had had a vision of a spirit
250 Job, Solomon, and Daniel
revealing to him God's perfect righteousness,
before whom not even his angels were pure.
He punished the unrighteous by material
affliction to compel him to abandon his un-
righteousness. So Eliphaz proceeded with-
out bringing any comfort to the sufferer, and
ending with a promise of restitution to Job
upon his repentance. Were he in Job's case
he would seek God, who was mightier than
man ; whereupon he would find deliverance
from his tribulation and
Come to his grave in a full old age,
Like as a shock of com cometh in its season.
Thus the author paints a lovely picture of
the peaceful death of the righteous, while
he puts into the mouth of Eliphaz an un-
conscious prediction of what was to happen
to Job as portrayed in the Epilogue.
Reasonably irritated because his friend's
words did not give him what he sought with
his whole heart, an explanation of his suffer-
ing which would not destroy his faith in
God's righteousness, Job replied (vi., vii.)
somewhat scornfully acknowledging the
truth of the truisms thrust upon him. He
confessed God's almighty power, to which
he traced his troubles. He complained that
The Problem of Suffering 251
his would-be comforters could not under-
stand the severity of his provocation which
issued in fierce words. His friends were like
streams in the wilderness, which gave no
water when drought fell upon the caravans
seeking them to quench their thirst. He
could not even hope for speedy death or the
dull peace of Sheol, from which none re-
turned to the joys of home.
Even his sleep was vexed with hideous
dreams, so that he loathed his life and
prayed God to let him alone whose ' days
were but as an handbreadth.' Remembering
the words of Psalm viii. he parodied them
with biting force. He asked why God should
visit man and yet heap on him cruel torments,
why God did not pardon his sin, if he had
committed any, instead of afflicting him.
Yet even at this point his earlier thought of
God's love for him in former days did not
leave him. When he had vanished into
Sheol, he imagined God's love as returning
to him, when it would be too late. He would
be no longer on earth to receive blessings
from the Most High, who would ' seek
diligently for him, but he would be no more.'
During the earlier part of the poem this
thought recurs occasionally. But as the
252 Job, Solomon, and Daniel
force of his agony swept him along, Job
moved further and further away from his old
belief in the eternal righteousness of God.
Moved by Job's impiety, as he conceived
it, Bildad the gentlest of the three friends,
set about to answer him (viii.). He quietly
rebuked his friend for his wild and stormy
words. He could not admit that God could
be unrighteous : even if Job's children had
sinned and been punished, if Job himself
would turn to God, he would be blessed with
greater prosperity than before. Then he un-
folded his pedlar's stock of wise saws of the
ancients, not realizing how inapplicable they
were to his friend's case. All of them were
designed to prove just what Job denied, that
the wicked always suffered the just punish-
ment of God. On the other hand the
' blameless man ' would be restored to God's
favour : Job's mouth would yet be ' filled
with laughter,' his enemies would be put to
shame before him, and ' the tents of the
wicked be no more.'
The last words present the kernel of all
Bildad's contributions to the discussion, in
which he supported himself by the sayings of
ancient sages, which were ill-calculated to
comfort the tortured sufferer. They implied
The Problem of Suffering 253
that some sin of his had caused his deep
misery, which was just what he denied.
Proverbial wisdom however pungent was b}^
no means adapted to soothe him in his
adversity. It was the manifest injustice of
God's action as explained by the old ortho-
doxy, which was so appalling to Job. He
was conscious of his own blamelessness ; nor
would he suffer the suggestions of his friends
to filch away from him that conviction.
No wonder, then, his reply was not a
little impatient (ix., x.). He acknowledged
that he knew God's wisdom and might as
well as his friends. He complained that he
could not longer find him, though he was
close to him, to plead his cause before him.
Nay, even if he found him, he could not hope
to prove his righteousness in the face of God,
who would overwhelm him with the splen-
dour of his omnipotence. By that he would
be compelled to confess sins, which he had
not committed. God destroyed alike ' the
blameless and the wicked ' ; how then could
he be perfectly righteous, who condemned
one who had done no wrong ? God was not
a man to be answered with human argu-
ments ; nor was there anj^one who could act
as an arbitrator between the two.
254 Jo^> Solomon, and Daniel
Job then turned to express his weariness
of hfe, asking God why he had taken so much
trouble to fashion him, if he had all the time
designed to break him in pieces ? Why,
indeed, had he permitted him to be born,
why could he not suffer him to die at once,
or at least to enjoy a brief respite from his
misery ? He complained : —
Are not my days few ? Cease then,
And let me alone, that I may take comfort a little.
Before I go whence I shall not return.
To the land of darkness and desolate gloom ;
A land of thick darkness, as darkness itself.
Of desolate gloom without any order.
And where the light is darkness.
Job's days on earth must indeed have been
hopeless, when he could long for a dark-
ness so unspeakably desolate. On earth
God had left him save to torment him ; in
Sheol he would neither know God nor be
tortured by him. From that gloomy realm
there was no return in his view and that of
his author to life on earth or in heaven.
Job's outburst with its blasphemy kindled
the wrath of the youngest of them, Zophar,
who next took up the word (xi.). His fierce
nature reveals itself in the sternness of his
rebuke. But though he could reprove Job,
The Problem of Suffering 255
he had nothing to add to the discussion :
he only insisted upon the wisdom and might
of God which Job had never denied, bidding
Job repent and be pardoned. A harangue
so unfeehng moved his friend to plainer
speech, seasoned with lofty scorn of the
worn-out arguments of the three (xii.-xiv.).
He had deeply wounded their piety without
inducing them to give any sound reason for
his woeful phght. ' I am as wise as you,'
he cried, who seem to think that ' wisdom
will die with you.' He went on to show from
the testimony of the whole creation to the
wisdom and power of God as forcibly as any
of his friends, while he accused them of
attempting to curry favour with the Most
High (xiii. 7-11).
Therefore he bade them listen silently to
his indictment of God for unrighteousness.
He would order his cause against God him-
self and he would wait lor him, though he
was confident he would slay him (xiii. 15).
Yet even here Job swayed between his
former conviction of the righteousness of
God and his present sense of injustice. He
prayed that God would not appear to him
in his majesty of might, lest he should be
unable to plead his cause before him. What
256 Job, Solomon, and Daniel
wrong had he done ? Was it fair for the
Almighty God to assail a mortal frail as a
leaf ? Man's days at best were ' few and
full of trouble ' ; why could not God leave
him in peace ? Then he imagined a possi-
bility that God would hide him in Sheol,
until his wrath was over, and recall him to
earth when his love had returned (xiv.
13-15). This thought he put away from
him as an impossible dream. If a man could
die and live again, he would be content to
wait in patience till God was quite recon-
ciled to him. Thus for a moment the
memory of his former intimate relations
with God softened his heart : the next
moment the thought was gone, and he came
back to his conviction of the injustice of
God and the impossibility of any return from
that grim underworld whither all were
bound.
Thus ends the first series of Job's colloquies
with his friends. Neither side could seize the
position of the other : he could not realize
how blasphemous they thought him to be,
they could not understand how his utter-
ances were stirred by his bitter pain and the
consciousness of his own integrity. Eliphaz
opened the second series with an eloquent
The Problem of Suffering 257
oration describing the calamities of the
wicked (xv.). He sharply rebuked Job's
self-assertion, which would destroy all rever-
ence for God, and assumed that he was the
' primeval man,' who was by God's side
during the creation, and thus knew ' all the
counsel of God.' Were not his friends as
wise as he, was not Eliphaz older than Job's
father ? But when the Temanite unfolded
his argument, it was nothing more than a
series of nobl}^ expressed assertions of the
terrible calamities of the wicked. He did
not draw his pictures from Job's actual
suffering, but left him to draw the inevitable
inference.
The patriarch's reply was passionate and
contemptuous (xvi., xvii.). He had had
enough of the platitudes of such ' miserable
comforters,' to whom he too if they needed
it could give lip-consolation. Righteous
though he was, God pursued him with
pitiless hostility. Could he be just in this ?
Would that his blood might remain on earth
to cry out for vindication. Yet even then
the sufferer felt that his Vindicator was in
heaven (xvi. 18, 19), who would right him
after his death, so that he would not need to
seek the aid of his friends who scorned him.
258 Job, Solomon, and Daniel
He called upon God to be his surety to him-
self, when he had passed into the dark repose
of the underworld.
In gentler but no less firm tones Bildad
replied to the anguished complaint of his
friend (xviii.). He reproached him for
scorning those who wished him well. Could
he hope to change God's order in the uni-
verse by his impious words, by which the
light of the wicked would inevitably be put
out ? Job answered both with a complaint
and an appeal to his friends (xix.), who
plainly thought that he was guilty of some
hideous crime. He was a contempt to his
wife, even his slaves scorned him. He would
rest no more upon the comfort of man ; his
Vindicator was in heaven, who would right
him at the last, so that once again he might
live on earth in communion with God
(xix. 24-27).
In these words Job clearly looked forward
to an earthly restoration of his lost happiness.
Dr. Peake in spite of the Epilogue, towards
which the poet has been working throughout
the poem, imagines that Job would die before
his vindication, that for a moment he would
be permitted to look out of Sheol, to see God
face to face, to rejoice that he has been
The Problem of Suffering 259
righted at last, to return for ever into the
darkness of the underworld. That is an
acute and ably supported suggestion ; but
it hardly accords with the previous pictures
of the impossibility of return from Sheol
painted by Job himself. In any case no
hope of immortality is implied in this well-
known passage (xix. 23-27) ; it is simply a
momentary awakening of consciousness that
is conveyed. The text is very corrupt, and
the Christian misapplication of the words
' I know that my Vindicator liveth ' has
led many critics astray as to the character
and meaning of Job. The sufferer looked for-
ward to a vindication on earth, after which
he would be able as a living man to renew
that happy intimacy with God, which God
himself had unrighteously broken.
To Job's piteous appeal and his final con-
fidence that he would be righted Zophar had
no reply to make but a fierce tirade describing
the offences and speedy punishment of the
wicked (xx.). Clearly he implied that Job
was a sinner tortured for his sins, nor had
he a word of sympathy for his anguished
friend. Outside of pain himself, he could
not enter the agony of one whose faith in the
righteousness of God had vanished. Job
26o Job, Solomon, and Daniel
brushed aside Zophar's commonplaces and
went on to describe with singular beauty and
power the prosperity of the wicked (xxi.).
Though they had scorned God and put him
outside of their thought, they lived to a
peaceful old age, they had many children,
their herds increased and multiplied. What
was the use of their children suffering if they
did not suffer in person ? God was all-wise ;
yet he acted in this irresponsible way, in-
flicting death upon saint and sinner, but per-
mitting the wicked to live prosperously and
to die in peace. Travellers could tell his
friends that they had seen this in their
journeys. The wicked man was safe in the
day of calamity ; nor was he requited for
the evil which he had done. He was borne to
the grave at the end of his days, where his
body rested in the ' fragrant clods of the
valley.' Well then might Job end his
horror-stricken narrative of the fortune of
the wicked with the words,
How then comfort ye me in vain,
Seeing in your answers there remaineth only falsehood ?
So ends the second series of colloquies. In
it Job has not abandoned his belief in the
unrighteous government of the universe ;
The Problem of Suffering 261
but the memory of former blessedness led
him to the confident hope of his restora-
tion on earth. His final question implying
the impotence of his comforters was calcu-
lated to stir their wrath. Hence Eliphaz
made the first direct charge against him
(xxii.). After asserting that man's right-
eousness cannot afford advantage or pleasure
to the Almighty, he proceeded to infer that
Job had sinned, and specified some of the
particular sins which he might have com-
mitted. Once more he urged Job to repent,
when once more the light of prosperity would
return to him, and by his righteousness he
would be able to ' deliver even him that is
not innocent.'
Thus by a kind of Sophoclean irony
Eliphaz looked forward to what actually
happened according to the Epilogue. Herein
is a warning against so interpreting xix.
23-27 as to imply that Job's vindication
would only take place after his death.
Manifestly the author had the happy con-
clusion in his mind while he was writing his
poem, to which he was continually working.
It is therefore highly improbable that he
would make Job predict for himself a mo-
mentary flash of consciousness, after he had
262 Job, Solomon, and Daniel
gone down into the desolate darkness of
Sheol. It may be noted that Eliphaz has
hit upon a real fault in Job's character (xxii.
29) in his want of humility. He was un-
doubtedly righteous, he certainly was not
humble.
The direct charge of personal guilt did not
make Job less rebellious in his reply (xxiii.,
xxiv. 1-17, 22-25). His longing to find God
and plead his cause with him had not abated,
though his bitterness was less sharp. Once
more he reiterated his assurance of his own
righteousness, expressing his horror at the
misery inflicted upon him by God, whose
justice it compelled him to question. Why
had God no fixed times for his judgments,
that his worshippers might learn to under-
stand them ? In the world were to be seen
on the one hand successful oppressors, on
the other wretched outcasts who had to
fight a grim battle with want, and a gang of
murderers, adulterers, thieves, and the like.
These God suffered to exist : one end awaited
all alike. Nay, he would even raise up a sick
tyrant, that he might pursue his wicked ways.
At this point there is great confusion in
the arrangement of the text ; many words
being assigned to Job, which he would be
The Problem of Suffering 263
unlikely to have spoken (xxvi. 5-14), others
which he could not have uttered (xxiv.
18-21 ; xxvii. 7-23). These last treat of the
punishment of the wicked in a way which
would have rendered the ' Speeches of
Jahveh ' unnecessary. Here Dr. Peake's ar-
rangement is followed and his commentary
should be consulted. To Bildad may be
assigned xxv. 1-3 and xxvi. 5-14 ; to Job
may be given xxvi. 1-4 and xxvii. 1-6,
where the shortness of the speech may be
set down to the omission of some exception-
ally heretical doctrine. Zophar would then
follow with xxiv. 18-21 and xxvii. 7-23,
which in spite of some difficulties fit in with
his line of argument. At this point the noble
' Ode to Wisdom ' (xxviii.) has been in-
serted teaching that God alone can find it.
It may be from the original poet, or it may
be the insertion of a later poet and editor.
Accepting the foregoing arrangement of
this part of the poem Bildad replied to Job
by a striking description of the wisdom
and power of God (xxv. 1-3 ; xxvi. 5-14),
which includes the remarkable phrase,
'Sheol is naked before him, and Abaddon
hath no covering.' Routed from his position
of the uniform punishment of the wicked he
264 Job, Solomon, and Daniel
took refuge in a panegyric of God's wisdom
and might. Job answered with some sar-
casm (xxvi. 1-4 ; xxvii. 1-6) pointing out
how utterly he had failed to give him wise
counsel and ending with an assertion of his
integrity.
To him Zophar replied with a further
description of the awful fate of the wicked
(xxiv. 18-21 ; xxvii. 7-23), which added
nothing to the matter at issue. Then the
three comforters ceased to torment the
patriarch, who poured forth his sorrows at
the end as he had done at the beginning of
the colloquies (xxix.-xxxi.). Recalling the
days of his prosperity, when all reverenced
him and he looked forward to a long and
happy life, he contrasted them with his
present misery when he was the theme of
the scorn of thoughtless ballad-mongers.
Yet, he complained, he had not sinned, but
had been kind to all, hospitable to the
stranger, done nothing of which he needed
to be ashamed. He ended with a passionate
appeal to God his oppressor, to suffer him to
plead his cause before him and relieve him
of the reproach which he himself had cast
upon him.
At this point ought to come the ' Speeches
The Problem of Suffering 265
of Jahveh ' (xxxviii., xxxix. ; xl. 2, 8-14).
But some later editor has added the 'Speeches
of Ehhu ' (xxxii.-xxxvii.), which are written
finely but with less sublimity than the rest
of the poem. Their author may have been
shocked that the original poet had dared to
bring down Jahveh from heaven to answer
for himself. He deemed himself able to
answer Job without such impiety : yet he
had nothing new to add to the arguments of
the three friends save the idea of intercessory
angels (xxxiii. 23-28), who would plead with
Jahveh to heal a penitent sick man so that
he would be restored to health. Elihu need
not be followed in his repetitions of argu-
ments more strongly urged ; he is men-
tioned neither in Prologue nor Epilogue,
and he added nothing to refute Job's original
contention.
Turning to the appearance of Jahveh, it
may be noted that he did not answer Job's
prayer, but showed himself in all his terrors
amid a whirlwind. He did not trouble to
answer Job's accusations, but put him a series
of cutting questions designed to show him his
ignorance and impotence as compared with
his own wisdom and might. H Job could
not answer these how dare he impugn the
266 Job, Solomon, and Daniel
righteousness of God, whose ways were
wonderful and past finding out ? Just here
have been added rhetorical patches describ-
ing the hippopotamus and the crocodile
(xl. 15-22 ; xli.), which may have been from
the original author to give supreme illustra-
tions of Jahveh's wisdom and might, but
which are unlike any other part of the book
in their diffuseness of style. Job's answer
is found in two passages which ought to be
joined together (xl. 3-5 ; xlii. 2, 3, 5, 6), in
which he humbles himself before Jahveh ;
he has seen God, that is enough for him.
At this point follows the Epilogue with its
happy ending, when by his intercession his
three friends are saved from punishment for
their presumption in attempting to defend
God (xlii. 7-17).
The foregoing brief summary does scant
justice to the sublime poem of Job : but it
may serve to illustrate its main teaching.
It was written to protest against the old
doctrine of retribution, that Jahveh un-
failingly punished with material evil the
sinner, while he rewarded the righteous with
long life and prosperity. Against this Job
argues with consummate power, yet without
hope of immortality. In the end Jahveh
The Wisdom Literature 267
answers him with the wonderful description
of his wisdom and power. The abiding
lesson is not unHke that of Psalm Ixxiii. If
God's wisdom is unsearchable, how dare man
presume to argue with him, or condemn his
ways ? This truth is enforced with a variety
and majesty of illustration unsurpassed by
any work in religious literature. The ob-
vious corollary is that man should trust
implicitl}^ in God, both where he can under-
stand, and more intensely where God's
ways are hidden from his perception. The
author represents a growing scepticism with
regard to the orthodox views of his time,
which shows itself in another way in Koheleth
or Ecclesiastes. The two points attained by
the discussion are the truth that suffering
does not of necessity imply the punishment
of sin, that God's wisdom is inscrutable and
demands whole-hearted trust from man.
The ' Wisdom Literature,' to which Job
belongs, falls next under discussion. As
early as the time of Jeremiah (xviii. 18),
amongst the Hebrews was a class of students
named ' the wise,' whose object was to study
* wisdom,' and to express the results of their
labours in pithy epigrams. These are not so
much proverbs as aphorisms, such as Bacon
268 Job, Solomon, and Daniel
uses in his ' Essays,' composed sometimes in
antithetical couplets, sometimes in two
parallel sentences containing the same or a
similar thought. To this kind of writing
belong the book of Proverbs, Koheleth, and
many of the Psalms (e.g., xxxvii. ; cxix.).
Before the Torah was completed, ' the
wise ' formulated terse directions of conduct
and warnings against popular vices. Many
of these are most ancient and are found in
the earliest part of the book of Proverbs
(e.g., xvii.). In its final form the book can
hardly be dated earlier than 300 B.C. It
consists of several collections most of them
ascribed to Solomon himself, on no sounder
ground than that the wise king is credited with
a large number of proverbs. One is described
as having been ' copied out by the men of
Hezekiah ' (xxv.-xxix.), which was added to
what was believed to be the original collec-
tion of Solomon (x.-xxii. 1-16), which in its
turn had an appendix of ' sayings of the
wise ' (xxii. 17-xxiv.), while several smaller
collections were added to the end of the book.
To these the latest editor prefixed a preface
(i.-ix.) contrasting the beauty of Dame
Wisdom (ix. 1-6) with the vanity of Madam
Folly (ix. 13-18). In it wisdom is portrayed
The Proverbs 269
as standing by God as his instrument of
creation, as the teacher of mortal men lead-
ing them to ' riches and honour.' This con-
ception was the origin of the Logos-doctrine
of Philo, no less than of the thought em-
bodied in the proem to the Fourth Gospel,
as a careful comparison with both will show
beyond a doubt.
Certain fundamental principles lie at the
root of the book of Proverbs : it is absolutely
monotheistic ; the ' instruction of wisdom '
is the ' fear of Jahveh ' (xv. 33). By this
wisdom, that is the leading of a God-fearing
life, man found prosperity and escaped the
early death of the wicked (i. 12 ; vii. 27 ;
XV. 24). Sheol and Abaddon are used as a
synonym for death ; nor is there any idea of
immortality in the Proverbs. Jahveh is
once said to exercise authority over Sheol, a
thought only found elsewhere in Job (xxvi.6),
which marks a higher stage of thought than
is reached elsewhere in the Old Testament.
But no theory can be built upon a single
instance. All of the proverb- writers have
no mercy on fools, that is both simpletons
and sinners (cf. xiv. 3 with ix. 6). All
commend marriage to one wife (xii. 4 ;
xxxi. 10-31), while the virtuous wife receives
270 Job, Solomon, and Daniel
highest praise. Adultery and resorting to
harlots are severely condemned (vii. 4-27) ;
speedy death is said to be the end of such
vices.
Lies are an abomination to Jahveh (xii.
22) ; idleness leads to ruin, while thrifty
industry is a lofty virtue (vi. 6-11). Drunk-
enness is vigorously denounced (xxiii.
30-34) ; the ancient landmark is not to be
removed (xxiii. lo-ii), nor the land of
orphans to be robbed from them. To follow
out these and many similar moral truths in
life is a sure token of wisdom, as to put them
on one side is the certain mark of folly, such
as is shown by the scorner who despises God
himself (xix. 29). Deep sympathy is ex-
pressed to the poor (xix. 17), while wise
chastening of children is warmly advised
(xiii. 24 ; xix. 18, 13).
Mingled with the strongly ethical sayings
are others which embody the hypocritical
worldly wisdom learned from bitter ex-
perience. The king's wrath is to be avoided
(xix. 12) ; one who dines with a ruler must
be careful in his conduct (xxiii. 1-3) ; a bribe
is recommended to a patron to secure his
favour (xviii. 16). But the whole tenor of
the book is not to be judged by prudential
KOKELETH
271
maxims of this kind. Its ethical value is
very great ; it asserts that ' righteousness
exalts a nation ' (xiv. 34). It pleads for
self-control (xv. i, 17, 18), for the cultiva-
tion of cheerfulness (xv. 13, 15 ; xvii. 22),
for kindness to domestic animals (xii. 10),
for a willing submission to reproof when
deserved (xiii. 18). Above all else it
commends reverence and obedience to J ah
veh (xvi. 3), while it condemns the proud
with unsparing rigour (xvi. 5). It presents
a very favourable view as a whole of the
piety of the wise whose sayings it contains.
Their main purpose was to teach the eternal
truth that the only life offering any sure
promise of happiness is one led righteously
under the inspiration of faitliful piety to
God and man.
Next follows the strange book of ' Kohe-
leth ' usually called ' Ecclesiastes.' The
meaning of the title is quite uncertain ; it
is a Hebrew feminine participle, though con-
structed with a masculine verb. It may
mean the great orator, or simply the disputant
in an assembly. In spite of being put forth
under the name of Solomon, it had a struggle
to find its way into the Canon. Both from
its language and historical background it
272 Job, Solomon, and Daniel
cannot have been written before 250 B.C.,
while it seems better to date it during the
reign of Antiochus Epiphanes (175-164 B.C.).
Its author assumed the name of Solomon to
win a hearing for his work. Many critics
imagine it to show numerous traces of the
influence of Greek philosophy, notably of
the doctrines of Stoicism blended with those
of Epicurus. Such an inspiration must not
be exaggerated, as it may well have come
from the intellectual atmosphere in which
the author lived. He bases most of his
aphorisms upon experience, and where his
ideas have any kinship with Greek thought,
it is just in their commonplace truth that
the resemblance consists. Koheleth was no
disciple of any philosophic school, nor indeed
does he seem to have practised consecutive
thinking, while the background of his thought
is distinctly Hebrew. Indeed his book may
fitly be called the ' promiscuous reflections
of a weary spirit.'
Koheleth's inconsistencies are palpable to
the least careful reader, while his pessimism
sounds like the solemn note of a muflled peal.
Attempts have been made to reduce his
book to consistency by omitting sundry
passages as pious glosses. That is always a
KOHELETH 273
precarious method of explaining away diffi-
culties ; at the least it is a confession of
weakness. The book seems to be a series of
pungent sayings jotted down just as the
thought passed through the writer's mind.
Everywhere is heard the sorrowful burden,
' Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.' To the
author the search after either wisdom or
pleasure is a ' striving after wind ' (i. 17 ;
ii. 11). Nature and man move round in
one weary cycle, and ' there is nothing new
under the sun ' (i. 9, 10). The wise and
foolish at death alike sink down to be for-
gotten into Sheol (ii. 12-16). God has set
for everything a time, unalterable, inscrut-
able (iii. 1-15).
Therefore it is best to enjoy oneself
moderately, to live true to the beloved wife
(ii. 24, 25 ; iii. 12 ; ix. 7-9), though this
too is vanity. No future hope remains after
death ; man and beast alike die and there is
an end of them (iii. 17-22). Yet by a sudden
change of thought it is urged that life is
better than death because it has some con-
sciousness (viii. i6-ix. 9), that wisdom is
better than folly because it gives much
strength (vii. 19), that righteousness is more
profitable than its opposite (viii. 10-13).
274 JoB» Solomon, and Daniel
Amongst other matters Koheleth insists
upon the superiority of sorrow to joy, no less
than upon the pursuit of the ' golden mean '
though with no distinct reference to Greek
thought. He advises his reader to be
neither ' too righteous nor too wicked ' (vii.
15-18), possibly with a scornful eye to a
growing tendency to extreme ritual devotion.
He never doubts the existence of God, but
regards him as too far off to care greatly for
man (v. 2). So he utters his thoughts, just
as they occur to him, caring not a whit if
they be found self-contradictory. Yet now
and then flashes of phosphorescent light dart
across the dark waters. Occasionally he is
haunted by the thought of God's judgment
of wickedness, ff a few passages and the note
rounding off his work be really his (ii. 24,
26 ; xi. 9 ; xii. 14). More than once he
ascribes to the gift of God the cheerful enjoy-
ment of material pleasures (iii. 13 ; ii. 24),
which he regards as not entirely without
value (ix. 7-10). Indeed his main con-
clusion is to advise a young man to seek
pleasures in his youth while he is able to
enjoy them, before death falls upon him (xi.
9-xii. 8). Here his thoughts end with the
words of their beginning, ' Vanity of vanities.
KOHELETH 275
all is vanity,' which many critics believe to
be the end of his work.
Of the following note to the whole book,
verses 9-12 may well be from his pen ; they
are written in his style and form a not un-
natural end. Verses 13, 14 are more doubt-
ful, since they seem to contradict the hope-
lessness of his pessimism. But do they really
contradict his previous sayings ? It is quite
possible, that after showing the vanity of
all his studies and pursuits he could still
recommend his reader to ' fear God and keep
his commandments,' thus doing ' the whole
duty of man.' That at least was the best
thing to do even under the most depressing
daily experience, while God's judgments
could still be felt on earth. He was a Jew
who would not find it easy to sunder himself
entirely from the conceptions in which he had
been reared. His theism though of the palest
cast is real enough to keep him true to the
traditions of his race. Born of the oppres-
sive surroundings of his age his book reflects
the thoughts stirred by them with the vary-
ing patterns of a kaleidoscope, though with
every tiu"n the word vanity is to be read.
Koheleth represents a cycle of opinions in
part peculiar to himself in the Old Testament.
276 Job, Solomon, and Daniel
Hence it is of great interest as the work
of a pessimistic thinker, which remains a
memorial of terrible times and their effect
upon a thoughtful observer.
The same period saw the issue of an im-
portant work which had a lasting effect upon
Hebrew thought. Under the priestly dis-
pensation the prophet was heard no longer ;
only the Psalmist sang to cheer the failing
heart of Israel. Prophecy assumed a new
form in the shape of Apocalypses or revela-
tions of the future under the mask of allegory.
Failing in his second attempt upon Egypt
Antiochus Epiphanes (169 B.C.) resolved to
enforce Hellenic religion upon all his sub-
jects. In this he met with strongest opposi-
tion from the bulk of the Jewish nation.
Consequently he forbade their worship, and
during December, 168 B.C., set up 'the
abomination of desolation,' or a small pagan
altar upon the great altar of sacrifice in the
Temple at Jerusalem. After three years under
the Maccabees Jerusalem was recovered, the
Temple cleansed and rededicated, and the
Feast of Dedication established.
During those dark days persecution and
massacre ruled in the land, so that the heart
of the faithful amongst the people was sore
Apocalyptic Literature, Daniel 277
distressed and like to sink into utter despair.
The faithless were ready enough to yield to
Greek influence with its laxity and splendour;
only the little band under the family of
Mattathias carried war into the ranks of the
enemy. At this point the book of Daniel
made its appearance, and was set forth under
the name of an ancient worthy (Ezekiel
xxviii. 3). Though in its present form it is
written both in Aramaean and Hebrew, it is
undoubtedly the work of one author. The
second part consisting wholly of apocalyptic
visions is intimately bound up with a collec-
tion of moral tales in the first (cf. ii. with
vii.). No solution of the problem of the two
languages will be attempted, which at best
would be conjectural. It is enough for the
present purpose to recognize that the book
is one and from one and the same author.
The first story tells how Daniel and his
three companions, Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego, were captive Israelites given into
the hand of Nebuchadnezzar's chief of the
eunuchs to feed on morsels from the king's
table. Daniel realizing that by eating such
food he would violate the Torah, induced his
keeper to feed him and his companions upon
vegetable diet, on which they prospered alike
278 Job, Solomon, and Daniel
in outward appearance and inward wisdom
(i,). By this tale the author wished to
teach his people the importance of rigorous
care in food, lest they might be defiled by
eating blood or part of meat offered to idols.
That was a sore temptation to the Jews
during that woeful period : so the faithful-
ness of Daniel and his friends was a living
example to the people.
The next story has an allegorical bearing
(ii.). It exalts the glory of Daniel, who by
God's aid is able to surpass all the magicians
of Nebuchadnezzar by telling liim both his
dream and its meaning. The dream gives a
survey of the succession of world-empires
under the form of an image made of various
metals. The golden head was the Baby-
lonian, the silver breast and arms the Median,
the brass belly and thighs the Persian, the
iron legs the Greek, the toes part of iron and
part of clay, the divided realm under Alex-
ander's successors. The stone cut without
hands was the Messianic kingdom expected
by all faithful Jews, which would finally
take the place of all other empires. Thus
the author encouraged his people to wait in
patience for the full revelation of the power
of God on earth.
Apocalyptic Literature, Daniel 279
The next story (iii.) tells how Nebuchad-
nezzar set up a great image in the plain of
Dura, which he commanded his subjects to
worship to the sound of many musical in-
struments. This Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego refused to do, and were cast into
a burning fiery furnace. Here they were
found to be unharmed and with them an
angel ' hke a son of the gods.' Thus the
author taught his people upon no considera-
tion to worship any of the Greek gods, as
Antiochus had commanded them to do.
This story is followed by another (iv.), which
again represents the king as dreaming a
dream which Daniel alone could interpret,
portending the king's seven years' madness.
This was fulfilled, and little more is heard of
Nebuchadnezzar save his recovery and re-
pentance. Thus is symbolized the certain
downfall of the oppressor of their own day,
to cheer the people in their resistance to his
t5n:anny.
Next comes the popular story, in great part
legendary, of Belshazzar's feast, and the
profanation of the holy vessels of the Temple
(v.). A hand appeared on the wall writing
words which Daniel alone could interpret
into the prediction of the immediate sack
28o Job, Solomon, and Daniel
of Babylon, as the author sa^^s by ' Darius
the Mede,' though the real captor was Cyrus
the Persian. Daniel had scarcely spoken,
when the city was taken and Belshazzar
slain. Here again the author encouraged
his people by the picture of the fall of a
godless tyrant. It may be noted that Bel-
shazzar never was king of Babylon, while the
Median empire is misplaced both in this and
the succeeding chapter.
Again the mighty men of the new kingdom
conspired against Daniel to ruin him. They
induced Darius to forbid any request to be
made to god or man, to any save himself for
thirty days, a manifest invention of the
author (vi.). Daniel was found praying to
his God towards Jerusalem. Much against
the king's wishes he was cast into a den of
lions. He escaped unhurt while his enemies
were cast into the den and consumed before
they reached the bottom. Thus the author
wished to teach his people under all circum-
stances to pray to Israel's God alone. At
this point follow Daniel's visions, which are
all of the nature of apocalyptic prediction.
In the first (vii.) he saw four beasts sym-
bolizing the Babylonian, Median, Persian,
and Greek empires. The last had ten horns
Apocalyptic Literature, Daniel 281
meaning the ten successors of Alexander, of
which a httle horn, Antiochus Epiphanes,
boasted much destroying three and making
them tributary . During his rule he would
pollute the Temple for three and a half years,
after which he would perish. Then appeared
God like an ' Ancient of Days,' with the
heavenly host and an angel ' like a son of
man,' to set up the Messianic kingdom, which
was to rule over all nations for ever. Here
again the author by what he saw taking place
in his own time, and by looking forward to
the future sought to comfort his people in
their sore stress. He taught them to hope
for the coming days, when God would exert
his almighty power to punish the blasphemer,
to reward the faithful with an everlasting
kingdom.
Next Daniel saw a ram with two horns,
one larger than the other (viii.), which sym-
bolized the Medo-Persian empire. A he-
goat, by which Alexander was meant,
attacked and destroyed him, from whose
horns a little horn arose and grew great.
This was Antiochus Epiphanes, ' a king of
fierce countenance and understanding dark
sentences,' who would destroy ' the mighty
ones and the holy people.' Finally God
282 Job, Solomon, and Daniel
would break his power. Here accoiding to
the author an angel had charge of each of
the kingdoms, of whom Michael was patron
of the Jews (x. 12, 13). Here too is a vision
of encouragement to the Jews in the certain
fall of their tyrant.
Once more while Daniel is meditating over
the prediction of Jeremiah (xxv. 11 ; xxix.
10) that Israel would ' serve the king of
Babylon seventy years,^ he saw that it re-
mained unfulfilled. Hence it was revealed
to him that the period meant seventy weeks
of years (ix., x.), to be divided into seven
weeks till the time of Joshua the priest,
into sixty-two weeks or four hundred and
thirty-four years wherein the city would
be rebuilt. The final week of seven years
woidd see the persecution and deliverance of
the Jews (ix. i, 20-27). By his next vision
Daniel learned the fate of the empires of
earth (xi.), and of Antiochus Epiphanes,
whose oppressive reign is described in minute
detail. Finally Michael would stand up (xii.)
to deliver Israel from its time of trouble :
whereupon all those whose names were
written in the book of life would form part
of the Messianic kingdom, while many dead
would rise, the good to form part of the king-
Apocalyptic Literature, Daniel 283
dom, the wicked to ' shame and everlasting
contempt ' (xii. 2,3). Thus here is found the
first exphcit pronouncement of a beHef in
personal immortality such as was making its
way amongst one great section of the Jewish
people.
Even in the foregoing brief abstract of the
book of Daniel its priceless worth to the per-
secuted faithful ones may be clearly seen.
Its author was a noble-minded Jew, who
sought to keep others faithful to the pro-
hibited worship of God. Using noted names
of Hebrew tradition, first by a series of moral
tales illustrating the fidelity of himself and
his friends, secondly bj^' a series of apocalyp-
tic visions revealing the doom of the oppres-
sor, he uttered his message of courage and
cheer when it was most needed. The book
may have a traditional background ; but
its numerous historical errors and the lan-
guage of a great part of it preclude any
other date than that of the last four or five
years of the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes.
Relying upon traditions not always well
founded he has produced a book of lasting
value under the form of moral tales and
apocalyptic visions. His symbolism need
not concern the modern mind greatly ; but
284 Job, Solomon, and Daniel
his conviction of the final overthrow of evil
by God is of supreme importance. His
doctrine of immortality is little spiritual,
since it was to take place on this earth and
in mortal bodies in opposition to the Pauline
teaching (i Corinthians xv.). But it is
valuable as showing one form in which that
thought presented itself to the Jewish mind.
His work exercised enormous influence over
his people during their bitter anguish. Even
so he has written truths which will endure
to help all desolate souls, when stripped of
the imagery of their period and seen in the
full lustre of their universality.
EPILOGUE
THE present survey of Hebrew Religion
and Ethics has attained certain definite
conclusions, which are more than provisional,
and seem likely to stand secure. Revelation
has been shown to be no completed process,
but a gradual development along the cen-
turies. From crude beginnings Hebrew
thought soared slowly to lofty heights in the
conception of man's relation to God and to
his neighbour. First Jahveh was a family
or tribal, then a national God, whose power
was limited to his own land where his care
was bestowed upon his own people alone. By
the teaching of the prophets his universaHty
was made clear, though to the end he was
believed to watch over his chosen people
with especial providence. The events of
history conspired to exalt the power of the
priest, until the Torah became supreme, and
Israel was changed into the ' people of a
book.' Then there was no longer room for
286 Epilogue
prophets like those of the golden age of
prophecy, and the mass of the people looked
forward eagerly to the coming of a Messiah
or deliverer, who with combined secular and
sacred attributes would reign in glory over
the Hebrew nation. The steps of this
development are to be found in the Old
Testament hewn out by Moses, the prophets,
the psalmists, and the lawgivers. The con-
ception of Jahveh was more or less spiritual
from the beginning, since he was worshipped
by no image. But it broadened and deep-
ened, until the crude anthropomorphic ideas
of the earliest ages passed away to appear
no more.
Corresponding to this growth in the con-
ception of the nature and being of God was
a similar progress in ethical ideals. To this
the great prophets contributed in no small
measure, who realized that Jahveh was a
righteous God, who could only be truly
served by righteousness of life and character.
These profound thinkers prepared the way
for the coming of Jesus, who was to be the
last and greatest of their order, a prophet
not to Israel alone, but the founder of a
universal religion, best fitted to the needs of
mankind. Hence arises the importance of
Epilogue 287
the study of the Old Testament without
preconceptions or prejudices, but with the
same freedom as would be applied to the
study of any other ancient book.
Thus an attempt has been made wholly
inadequate, but with a serious purpose to
trace the growth of religious thought amongst
the Israelites from century to century, mark-
ing the points attained at every stage. From
the dim conception of unconscious life in
Sheol to the crude form of immortality taught
in Daniel the development has been followed,
the varying standards in ethics of each
generation have been set forth. Thus God's
method of gradually revealing himself
through man to man has been seen in the
story of one ancient race. It has nowhere
been suggested that any such revelation has
been confined to the Hebrews : but nowhere
outside of the Old Testament can it be traced
so faithfully or with so much advantage to
the student.
This brief study is left to go on its way in
the hope that others will be led to read and
understand the noble religious library of the
Hebrew race. In this way the fuller light
of the New Testament will shine with greater
radiance, and the true message of Jesus to
288 Epilogue
the world be seen with clearer perception
and in its deep significance. At the same
time it must be borne in mind that the book
of revelation is not yet closed, nor will ever
be closed so long as truths remain to be dis-
covered and thinking minds are left to dis-
cover them. The truths secured in the past
abide ; what will be in the future is entirely-
unknown. But whatever may come to pass
it is still certain that
The Lord hath yet more light and truth
To break forth from his word.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
General
Kuenen, Religion of Israel (3 Vols. Translated into
English) , Williams and Margate. Wellhausen, Pro- ■
legomena to the History of Israel (out of print), A. (S' C.
Black. Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible, T. & T.
Clark. EncyclopcBdia Biblica, A. & C. Black. Foster
Kent, Student's Old Testament (an excellent work to be
completed by Vol. vi.), Hodder (S- Stoughton. Carpenter
and Battersby, The Hexateuch, Oxford University.
Comill, Introduction to the Canonical Books of the Old
Testament (Translated into English, excellent, though
a little radical), Williams & Norgate. H. P. Smith,
Old Testament History (excellent ; but rather speculative) ,
T. & T. Clark. Driver, Introduction to the Literature of
the Old Testament (indispensable), T. & T. Clark.
Moore, Literature of the Old Testament (brief, but ex-
cellent and convenient).
Chapter I
Chapman, The Pentateuch, Cambridge Bible for
Colleges and Schools.
Chapter II
Bennett, Genesis and Exodus, Century Bible. T. &>
E. C. Jack. (Both volumes excellent and convenient).
Chapter III
Bennett, Exodus, as above. Robertson Smith,
Religion of the Semites and Old Testament in the Jewish
Church. A. & C. Black. (Both invaluable).
Chapter IV
Thatcher, Judges, Century Bible. Kennedy, Samuel
and Kings. Century Bible. Robertson Smith, The
Prophets of Israel. A. & C, Black.
U
290 Bibliography
Chapter V
Sir G. Adam Smith, Isaiah and The Book of the
Twelve Prophets. Expositor' s Bible. Hodder & Stough-
ton (both excellent). Skinner, Isaiah (useful and
suggestive). Driver, Joel and Amos. Cheyne, Hosea
and Micah. Davidson, Ezekiel. Cambridge Bible.
(AH in the same series, and all helpful). Peake,
Jeremiah. Century Bible. (An admirable edition).
Chapter VI
As under Chapter II, with the following : — Ryle,
Ezra-Nehemiah {e'x.cGYi.ent). Cambridge Bible. Harvey
Jellie's Chronicles. Kennedy, Leviticus and Numbers.
Wheeler Robinson, Deuteronomy and Joshua (the last
three in the Century Bible, and all useful).
Chapter VII
Chejme, Book of Psalms (useful and suggestive).
Kegan Paul. Davison, Psalms i.-lxxii. Witton Davies,
Psalms Ixxiii.-cl. (both moderate and useful). Century
Bible. Kirkpatrick, Psalms (conservative, but useful).
Cambridge Bible.
Chapter VIII
Davidson, Job (excellent). Cambridge Bible. Peake,
Job (the best modem short edition). Century Bible.
Currie Martin, Proverbs (useful). Century Bible.
Perowne, Proverbs. Cambridge Bible. Driver, Daniel
(excellent). Cambridge Bible. Charles, Dawie/ (useful).
Century Bible.
The above Bibliography is by no means exhaustive.
It has suggested in the General List many works useful
to the advanced student, while indicating some for the
more general inquirer.
INDEX
Aaron 73 Atonement, the day of 177,
Abel's Sacrifice 31 i94
Abiathar 130, 167, 186 Azazel 194
Abimelech 49, 55
Abimelech, son of Gideon 107 ^^^^ ^^^ baal-pillars 51. 106
Abner 128, 129 _jog_ 126-127, I37. M^.
Abominations 131 144 153
Abram or Abraham 21-22, g^^^j^ '^q^^; ^f ^^_^j
43-48,49.54.55 Babylon 170, 173, 174, 177-
Absalom 128 /-g ' ^ ^
Absence of molten images g^p^jg^^ j^j^ ^he 141
96-97 Bathsheba 125
Adonis=Tammuz 175 Beersheba 23, 51
Ahab 135, 137. 139-140. 151 Beth-el ^i, 116. 149
Ahaz and his sign 159-160 Beulah 107
Ahaziah 135 Bible, not infallible 12
Ahijah, theShilonite 132. 135 Blessing, the priestlv 186
Altar, kmds of 67-68 ^^^^^^ meaning of 193
Amaziah 1 1 6- 1 1 7 , 1 49 gook ^ the peopl eofai98-i99
Ammon 22, 131 -Q^^y, ^^^ religion of a 183-
Amos 74, 92, 98, 116, 121, 211
132, 144 148-152. 158 Bosheth=Baal 127
Anathoth 167 Burgon. Dean 1-2
Angel of Jahveh 44 ^^^^ the burning 75-76. 77
Angels, the two 44
Apocalyptic Literature 276-
284 Cain, two traditions of 31-33
Arabhah, the 71-72 Canaan and Canaan ites 21,
Ark, the 72-73, 82, 96-97, 31, 38, 76, 104, 105, 106,
124, 126 107, 109, 127. 147
Asherah 106. 108 Caphtor 148
Assyria and Assyrians 155, Carites and Nethinim 187
159. 161 Carmel, mount 137
292 Index
Chariot, Ezekiel's wonderful Early Hebrews, the 20-27
173 Early Historians S4-55
Chebar=:Tel-abib 173 Early theology and ethics 57-
Chemosh 74, 131 62
Chiun 92 Edom 56
Chozeh 116-117 Egypt 70, 75, 86, 87, 103, 155,
Chronicler, the 39, 199-203 156, 170, 171
Circumcision 86-87 Ehud and Eglon 114
Clan-history 22-23 El 63-65
Clean and unclean beasts 78- El-elyon 64
80, 191-193 Eli 185
Codex Ephraemi 1-2 Elijah 121, 136-144, 151
Corinth, Christians at 122 Ehlimziiidols 159
Covenant, book of the 88 Elisha 121, 138, 140, 142-144,
Covenant, the new 171, 172, 145, 146
175-176 Eloah 63
Creation, the 3-4, 27-31 Elohim 63-64
Criticism, historical 10-19 Elohists (E) 13-14, 48-53
Criticism, textual 8-9 El-shaddai 64-65
Cyrus 177-178, 195, 280 Endor, witch of 118
Enosh, son of Seth 25
Damascus 144, 150, 159 Ephod 107, 109-110, 125,
Dan and Danites no, 113 185-186
Daniel 276-284 Epilogue 285-288
David 56, 95, 96, 116, 120, Esau 56
124, 125, 128-129, 139, Ethan, the sons of 213-214
140, 151, 212, 213 Ethbaal, king of Tyre 137
Deborah, song of 72, 114 Ethics of sacrifice 67-69,193-
Decalogue and decalogues 82 194
-86 Euphrates 20-21, 41, 77
Delitzsch, Friedrich 25 Exile, the 178 and passim
Dervishes 119 Ezekiel 173-177
Deuteronomic Reformation Ezra-Nehemiah 183, 195-199
127, 131, 165
Deuteronomy (D) 14, 71, Flood, the 35-38
164-167, 169
Divination 11 7- 119 Gad 124, 125-126
Dodona and Zeus 118 Gaza, gates of 112
Gedaliah 171
Early genealogy 38-39 Gehazi 142
Early Hebrew ethics 55-57 Gibeon 132, 186
Early Hebrew Religion 20-62 Gideon 105, 108, 109-110, 113
Index 293
Gilboa, Mount 124 Jahveh, meaning of 65-67
Gilead 136 Jahvists (J) 13, 43-48
Gilgals 51 Jeduthun 214
Greeks and Persians 102 Jehoiachin, deportation of
171, 241
HaggaiandZechariah 178,19s jehonadlb^ii3
Hammurabi 22 Jehoram 135
Haran 20. 24 75. 87 jehu 121, 140, 143, 152
Hebrew legends 27-43 jephthah i7i
Hebron 23 Jeremiah 146. 167-172
Heman 214 Jeroboam 53, no
Hexateuch 12-15 Jeroboam II 69, 146-147,
Hezekiah 160, 163, 164 11:2 iq^
High Places 131, 132 Jerubaal 1 06
Hmnom, vaUey of 170 j^^^g 11, 141. 1^9, 172, 181,
Holmess 53, Tj , 158 208 211
Holiness, law of 191 je^ebel 135, 137. 138, 139
Holy53.89.97. 158. I74-I7S jezree]iS2 ^
Horeb 72, 138 joab 128
Hosea 107. 132, 152-157, IS8 joash 143, 187
Job and suffering 245-266
Immanuel 159-160 John the Baptist 141, 211
Inspiration and revelationi-8 Jonathan, grandson of Moses
Isaac 44-45 T ■"[? x o 1
Isaac, the Fear of 26, 5 1 Jonathan, son of Saul 127, 129
Isaiah 98, 144, 146, iqo, 157- Joshua 104
jg, -T-T -T . J, jQshua the priest 194
Isaiah, the Second 177-180 Jo^jah 127, 167, 169, 245
Ishi 107 Judah and Tamar 57
Israel, land of 128 J^^ah, the kingdom of 134,
Israel, the kingdom of 134, ^ }^'^~^^?' J^'^
145-147, 148, 149 JudgezzShophet 105
4i 4/, 40. My Judges, the 1 04-1 1 4, 184-185
Jacob 25, 26, 45-48, 57-58
Jaddua 196 Kadesh and Kadeshah 108
Jael 114 Kadesh Barnca 70, 71, 95
Jahveh, character of 5, 24-62, Kenites and Jethro -Ji, 76,114
127, 217-228 and passim Kir 148
— a family-god 46-47 Koheleth 271-276
— a sky-god 59 Korah, sons of 213-214
294 Index
Laban 45-46, 50, 57-58 Moses 70, 71-77, 80-88, 90,
Laish 113 94-103, no, 124
Lamech 32, 55 Musical instruments and
Leal love (Chesed) 154-156 terms 215
Levi, Levite and Levites 75,
iio-iii, 133. 185. 187- Nephilim 33
188, 213-214 Nethinim 187
Lo-ammi 153 Nimrod 38-39
Lo-ruhamah 153 Noah 36, 37-38
Lot 22, 44
Maher-shalal-hash-baz 158 ^^^^'.^'^^^ ^^1
Mamre, terebinths at 52 S^L^'?^ °* Bashan 71
Manasseh 161, 164 Ophrah 108, 113
Man of God 1 1 7
Man's relations to God 229- Palm, the sacred 115
233 Passover, the 89-91, 184
Man's relations to man 233- Patriarchs, their conceptions
235 43-57
Marduk 43 Pekah 159
Massebhah 106 Pentateuch 12-15
Melchizedek 64, 183 Pharisees and Sadducees 203
Merodach 38-39 Polytheism 23-27
Mesopotamia 23, 30, 57-58 Priest, the High 174, 176-177
Messiah 141, 178 Priest and Cultus 183-190
Messianic prophecy 151, 159- Priests and Levites 73, 130-
160, 161, 163, 175 132, 133-134, 176-177
Messianic Psalms 241-242 Prince, the 174, 176
Micah the Ephraimite 109- Prophecy, the birth of 104-
iio, 113, 185 144
Micah the Morashtitc 163- Prophet, prophetess 115, 117
164, 170 Prophetic guilds 1 19-122,
Micaiah 135 140, 142
Midian 105 Prophets, the literary 69, 145-
MizraimrzEgypt 70 182
Moab 22, 71, 131 — the professional 135, 163
Molech 131, 169 — the solitary 134-144
Monotheism in Psalms 217 sons of the 1 19-122
219 Proverbs, the 268-271
Mosaism and its ethics 81-86 Psalms, kinds of 214-215
Mosaism and the Hebrews — the Imprecatory 234
63-103 — the Messianic 241-242
Index
295
Psalms, Missionary 220-221
Psalter, the 212-217
Rachel 51
Rahab and Jahveh 34
Ramah 116
Rehoboam 132
Remnant, the 150, 158
Revelation, inspiration 1-8
Revelation, progressive 4-5,
18-19
Rezin 159
Roehrnseer 115
Ruth 197
Sabbath, the 91-94
Sacred Song, the religion of
212-244
Sacrifice, the ethics of 67-69,
193-194
Samaria 160
Samaritans 195
Samson 11 2-1 13, 114
Samuel 109, 116, 117, 120,
121, 122-124, 125, 126-
127, 185
Sanhedrim, the 199
Sarah 43, 55
Saul 120, 124, 129
Saviour and Salvation 179
Scribes 206-207
Scythians 168
Seer 11 5-1 16
Sennacherib 160
Septuagint, the 9, 160
Servant of Jahveh 1 79-1 8 I
Shear- jashub 158
Shechem, terebinth in 26, 52,
107, 118
Sheol, life and death 235-239
Shiloh 109, 113, 185
Sihon, king of the Amorites7i
Sin, individualization of 168-
169
Sin and trespass offerings 1 92
-193
Sinai 72, 95
Solomon and his temple 73,
125, 128, 129-132, 133,
134. i?'6
Solon 100
Song of Songs 3
Sons of God and daughters of
men 33-34
Spirit of Jahveh iii, 136
Spirit, a lying 1 36
Stone-worship 50-51, 52, 59
Study of the Old Testament
1-19
Syrians 148
Tabernacle 185
Tekoa 148, 151
Tent of meeting 72-73
Tent, the sacred 72, y^
Ten words, the 82-86
Terah 24, 25
Teraphim 51, 60, 90, 96, 107,
no
Terebinth 52, 107, 118
Textual Criticism 8-9
Theocracy 202-2 1 1
Tiamat 43
Tigris 20
Tophet 169-170
Torah, growth of the 1 90-1 91
— of Moses 80-81, 164-165,
190-191
— priestly 206-210
Trees, sacred 52
Tubal-Cain 32
Tyie and Tyrians 137
296
Index
Unification of Israel 95 Wilderness, the 72, tj, 92,108
Unleavened bread, feast of 91 Wisdom Literature, the 267-
Uriah the Hittite 125,139,1/10 276
Urim and Thummim 109, 186
Utopia, Ezekiel's 177
Uzzah 126 Zadok 130, 173, 186
Uzziah 146-147, 157 Zedekiah 171, 174, 241
Zerubbabel 194-195
Vindicator 179, 258 Zion, Mount 124, 130
Virgin 159-160 Zipporah 87
N.B. — The compiler on account of space has not been
able to make this Index as complete as would have been
desirable ; nor has he been able to add a list of references
already prepared.
Date Due
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