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OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
I KINTKD BY
.MOUK1SON AND GILiii LIMITED,
FOE
T. & T. CLARK, EDINBURGH.
LONDON: SIMTKIN, MAKSHALI., HAMILTON, KENT, AND co. LIMITED.
NKW YORK: CHARLES SCKIBNKK S SONS.
TORONTO: TJIK WILLAKL> TRACT DEPOSITORY.
Cfdtamntt
THE RELIGION OF REVELATION
IN ITS
PRE-CHRISTIAN STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT.
DR. HERMANN SCHULTZ,
PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF GUTTING
&ranslateti from tfje jfourtl) (Smman
BY THE
REV. J. A. PATERSON, M.A., D.D.,
PROFESSOR OF HEBREW AND OT-D TESTAMENT LITERATURE IN THE
UNITED PRESBYTERIAN COLLEGE, EDINBURGH.
(SECOND ENGLISH EDITION.)
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. II.
EDINBUEGH:
T. & T. CLAKX, 38 OEOKGE STEEET.
1898.
[The Translation is Copyright by arrangement with Uw Author.]
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
SECOND MAIN DIVISION.
ISRAEL S CONSCIOUSNESS OF SALTATION AND RELIGIOUS VIEW OF THE WORLD,
THE PRODUCT OF THE RELIGIOUS HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE.
A. THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF SALVATION.
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE COVENANT, ...... 1-21
II. THE CHARACTER OF ISRAEL S CONSCIOUSNESS OF SALVA
TION : Righteousness, Grace, Faith, Law, . . 21-46
III. THE HOLINESS OF THE PEOPLE IN REGARD TO RELIGIOUS
AND MORAL ACTS : Decalogue, Motives of Morality,
Growth of Morality, . 46-05
IV. THE HOLINESS OF THE PEOPLE IN REGARD TO THE OUTWARD
FOHM OF EXISTENCE : Origin and Development of the
Ceremonial Law, ..... 65-78
V. THE RELIGIOUS BLESSEDNESS OF THE ISRAELITES : Blessed
ness and Wisdom, ..... 79-86
VI. THE OLD TESTAMENT DOCTRIXE OF ATONEMENT: Possi
bility, Means, and Conditions of Atonement, . . 87-100
B, THE RELIGIOUS VIEW OF THE WORLD.
(a) God and the World.
VII. THE SPIRITUAL PERSONAL GOD OF ISRAEL, . . . 100-116
VIII. REVELATION AND NAMES OF GOD, . . . .116-141
IX. THE BEING AND ATTRIBUTES OF GOD, . . . 1 12 -179
X. CREATION AND PROVIDENCE : Creation and Preservation,
Miracles, Free- Will. Doubts, Theodicy, . . 180-213
XI. THE ANGELS: History of the Idea, Elohim, Malach, Classes
of Angels, Cherubim, Seraphim, . . . 214 241
vi TABLE OF CONTENTS.
(b) Doctrine of Man and of Sin.
riTAITFU PAOF
XII. MAN: Man as a Natural Being, Special Dignity of Man,
Original Condition, Everlasting Life, . . . 241-269
XIII. KVII. OUTSIDE OF HUMANITY: Origin, Development, and
Completion of the Doctrine anent Evil Spirits, . . 269-280
XIV. MANIFESTATION AND NAMES OF SIN IN ISRAEL: Develop
ment of the Doctrine of Sin ; Stages, Climax, and
Essence of Sin, ...... 281-291
XV. THE UNIVERSALITY OF SIN AND ITS ORIGIN, . . 292-30(1
XVI. ttiriLT AND DEATH, 306320
XVII. THE CONDITION AFTER DEATH, .... 320332
(c) The Hope of Israel.
XVIII. THE OUTLOOK OF THE MOSAIC AGE FOR A COMPLETE SALVA
TION : Blessing of Jacob, Davidic Hopes, Prophecies
in B 3 C, Actual Prophecies, .... 333-353
THE HOPE OF THE PROPHETIC PERIOD.
(a) Future Salvation as an Act of God.
XIX. THE DIVINE ADVENT AND THE DAY OF THE LOUD : The
Day of the Lord, Judgment, Deliverance, . . 354-364
XX. THE LAST AGE AND ITS BLESSINGS, .... 364-373
XXI. THE HEATHKN NATIONS IN THE LAST DAYS : The Heathen
as the Enemies of Israel, the Heathen as Non-Israelites, 373-382
XXII. THE RESURRECTION, ...... 382-398
(&) The Human Instruments for Establishing the
Kingdom of God.
XXIII. Tin: DAVIDIC KINGDOM IN THE LAST AGE, . . . 399-424
XXIV. SUPPLEMENTARY FEATURES OF THE MESSIANIC PICTURE:
Prophet, Priest, Suffering Servant of Jehovah, . 424-437
XXV. MESSIANIC PROPHECY AS DEVELOPED BY THE SCUIBES,
APOCALYPSES : Double Sense of Scripture, . . 437-450
INDEX OF SUBJECTS, ....... 451-456
INDEX OF HKCISEW WORDS AND PHRASES, . . . 457-465
INDEX OF TF.XTS, ....... 466-470
SECOND MAIN DIVISION.
ISRAEL S CONSCIOUSNESS OF SALVATION AND RELIGIOUS
VIEW OF THE WORLD, THE PRODUCT OF THE RELI
GIOUS HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE.
A.THJE CONSCIOUSNESS OF SALVATION.
CHAPTEE I.
THE COVENANT.
LITERATURE. J. L. Saalschiitz, Das mosaiscke Recht nebst den
vervollstdndigenden talmudisch-rabbinischen Bestimmungen, 2nd
ed. 1853, 1, 2. J. E. Cellerier, Esprit de la legislation
mosa ique, Gen. Par. 1837, 1, 2. For the idea of the
theocracy, see the works of Spencer, Blechschmid, Deyling,
Goodwin, Hulsius, Darmhauer, Conring in Bias. Ugolinus,
Thesaurus antiquitatum sacrarum, vol. xxiv. Hermannus
Guthe, De foederis notione Jeremiania, Lipsiae 1877.
1. In every healthy period of their existence since Moses
made them a nation, the Israelites enjoyed a consciousness of
salvation so vivid and strong as to render them certain of their
national vocation, and give them the instinct and the power
to mould their religious and moral inheritance into ever new
and higher forms. This consciousness, to which the prophets
gave a purely spiritual form, may be best and most clearly
described, in the phraseology generally used since the eighth
century, as an assurance of being in covenant relation-
VOL. II. A
2 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
ship with the living God. A true fellowship with God
which is not merely to hover before the eyes of men as an
ideal picture, sketched by a hopeful fancy, but is to be an
actual possession, can be experienced only when God Him
self enters into fellowship with men, qualifies them properly
for His service, awakens in them the sense of divine favour
and of a worthy existence, and moulds their lives into
forms which can, at least in idea, embody the divine life.
That this has happened in the case of the Israelitish people
the piety of Israel takes for granted, and the relationship thus
produced is described as a covenant between God and the
people. 1
The expression is in strict accordance with the ordinary
idiom. The making, 2 establishing, 3 or concluding 4 of a cove
nant, is, in the simple circumstances of the ancient East, the
foundation of all legal relations. Even yet among the inde
pendent tribes of the Syro - Arabian deserts every legal
arrangement rests on a special voluntary agreement or
covenant ; and we must picture to ourselves the circum
stances of Israel s early age as precisely the same. When
two tribes are anxious to remain at peace and to respect each
other s possessions, and desire intermarriage and commercial
intercourse, they conclude a covenant. 5 The election of a
king is a covenant between the person chosen and the people. 6
Heads of clans bind themselves to certain duties by enter-
1 rv-Q. 2 rv-a jru-
:! JTnU D^pn, which means not merely to hold upright, but also to set
upright, to set up. Both expressions are found in A (Gen. vi. 18, ix. 9, 11,
xvii. 2, 19, 21).
4 rVH3 n"O> V x/flt T^/, from the custom, to be described immediately, of
cutting the victims into pieces (in B, Gen. xv. 18), usually with DJ? or JIN, in
the time of the Exile with ^, by which, perhaps, the efficiency of God s work is
more strongly emphasised than the reciprocal character of the contract (Jer.
xxxii. 40 ; Ezek. xxxiv. 25 ; B. J. Iv. 3, Ixi. 8).
B Gen. xxi. 32, xxxiv. 15 f. ; Josh. ix. 6, 7, 11, 16 (15); 1 Sam. xi. 1 ; cf.
Judg. iii. 6, iv. 17. Thus in Ex. xxiii. 32, xxxiv. 12, they are forbidden tc
make a covenant with Canaan and its idols.
6 2 Sam. iii. 12, 21, v. 3.
THE IDEA OF THE COVENANT. 3
ing into a covenant. 1 Special friends swear to treat each
other as brothers. 2 Those who have taken an oath to
rebel are under a covenant. 3 Thus the word can be naturally
used as a metaphor far beyond its original limits. Religious
poetry speaks of a covenant with one s own eyes, 4 with the
stones and the beasts of the field, with leviathan. 5 By A,
who takes a special delight in living in this circle of thought,
the revenue of the priests, like every individual duty as well
as every privilege included within the great covenant, is
described as an " everlasting covenant of salt." 6 Even the
law of God in nature is called, in the language of the prophets,
a covenant with her. 7
Such covenant contracts were undoubtedly accompanied since
the earliest days by certain solemn acts, as, for example, by a
common sacrificial meal, 8 at which some of the victim s blood
was sprinkled on those entering into the covenant as a sacred
means of consecration and union, 9 or by the eating of salt,
which is used even in our own day to ratify a covenant. 10
The most detailed description of such a solemnity is given
by Jeremiah, 11 when he tells how the people solemnly pledged
themselves in the temple of God to let their Hebrew slaves
go free. This passage at once illustrates and explains
Gen. xv. 8 ff. The central feature of the ceremony is a
symbolical oath. The animals sacrificed are divided, and the
two halves placed opposite to each other. Then the parties
to the covenant walk between them, and call down on their
own heads the fate of these victims, should they ever violate
their covenant obligations. The two halves cannot by any
possibility represent the two parties entering into the cove-
1 Gen. xiv. 13,
2 1 Sam. xviii. 3ff., xx. 8, 16, 42, xxiii. 16 ff.
:! 2 Kings xi. 4. 4 Job xxxi. 1. 5 Jol> v. 23, xl. 28.
t; Num. xviii. 19, xxv. 12 ; Lev. xxiv. 8. 7 Jer. xxxiii. i!0, i2f>.
8 Gen. xxxi. 46, 54. 9 Ex. xxiv. 8, JYnarTDT
10 Num. xviii. 19 ; 2 Chron. xiii. 5, nfe~nn3 ; ci . Lev. ii. 13, "Neither shall
the salt of the covenant of thy God "be lacking from thy meat-offering."
11 Jer. xxxiv. 8. 18.
4 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
nant, whom God, the real maker of the covenant, by passing
between them as a flame, unites. In Gen. xv. God is
Himself one of the contracting parties, and in the passage
in Jeremiah no flame passes along between the two halves
of the sacrifice. It is simply a form of oath, like the
symbolical sending out of dismembered bodies or animals
sacrificed, by which the curse of a like destruction was called
down upon the heads of the laggards. 1 In fact, a covenant
and an oath are not in origin essentially different. Even
that old form of oath, the sacrificing of seven victims as
witnesses to the oath, from which the word JJ3BO is derived, is
quite akin. 2
A covenant is concluded on the basis of certain conditions,
these being termed " the words of the covenant." 3 In so far
as these are written down, they are called the tables, or
book of the covenant. 4 And in many cases the covenant
had probably also a definite outward token the sign of the
covenant. At least we shall find instances of this in the course
of our investigation.
The idea that even God s relationship to Israel rested on
a covenant was so deeply rooted that Josiah the king,
grounding his action on Deuteronomy, entered anew into a
covenant with Jehovah ; 5 and Jeremiah the prophet also
regards the complete attainment of salvation as a new cove
nant which God wishes to make, though in a new way,
with His people. 6 Wellhausen is right in looking at the
sacrificial feast itself as a " covenant " between God and
man. 7
2. To a relationship of mutual agreement between God
and the people is also referred whatever present and future
1 Judg. xix. 29 ; 1 Sam. xi. 7 ; Iliad, iii. 298.
2 Gen. xxi. 28, cf. 23 f., 27, 32 (31 JDE 3). xxvi. 28, where rf?$ and
are interchangeable. Cf. also Judg. ii. 15 ; Ps. Ixxxix. 4.
3 Ex. xxiv. 7 f., xxxiv. 27.
4 Ex. xxiv. 7, xxxi. 18, xxxiv. 29 ; Deut. ix. 9.
6 2 Kings xxiii. 3. 6 Jer. xxxi. 31 ff. L.c. p. 72 f.
THE COVENANT WITH ISRAEL. 5
salvation Israel possesses. Certainly the older representa
tions lay greater stress on the idea of " the people of His
inheritance." But already in C and its sources the thought of
a covenant is both clear and significant. Now this involves
the weighty presupposition that, for man as a personal being,
there can be no salvation which is not freely received,
and which does not also imply certain moral obligations on
his part. Man in relation to God is not a being without
rights, or one to be treated in an arbitrary way, or merely
with lenity. He stands to God in a relation of personal
and moral fellowship. Israel as the covenant people is per
fectly certain that God will not give free play to His anger,
but will punish in accordance with fixed principles of right
and equity. Hence, also, this religion can work out that
conception of righteousness which we shall have to describe
at a later stage. 1 This is in no sense a claim on the part
of man to be really equal with God. Even the victor makes
with the vanquished a covenant to spare him. 2 The term
can also be applied where the position of the two parties is
utterly unequal, where pure mercy and love is on the one side
the condition of the relationship. But, as soon as a cove
nant is formed, there comes into existence a certain relation
of equality, a mutual obligation. Thus, according to the
narrative of B, on account of His covenant relation with
Abraham, God is unwilling to hide from him important
decisions, such as the judgment against Sodom. 3 To put it more
generally, the covenant-relation makes prophecy a necessity.
In the view of a pious Israelite, the real covenant on
which Israel s relationship to salvation depends, the great
covenant which created something absolutely new, is the
Covenant of Sinai. 4 God having redeemed Israel, and brought
him up out of Egypt by mighty deeds, 5 offered to enter into
1 Jer. x. 24, xxx. 10 f., xlvi. 28. 2 Josh. ix. 6 (Ex. xxiii. 32, xxxiv. 15).
3 Gen. xviii. 17. 4 Ex. xix. 5 f. ; cf. Deut. v. 1, 3.
5 Ex. xv. 13, 16, xix. 4.
6 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
covenant with him, 1 on the ground of this right of His, and
of His having proved Himself the God of Salvation ; and
the people accepted the offer with joyful faith. 2 And not
withstanding the sins of the people, it is renewed, and forms
henceforth the permanent basis of all salvation in Israel. 8
Hence even the legislation of Deuteronomy is not meant to
he anything else than a renewal of this covenant. 4
But it is Israel s firm conviction that this relation of God
to His holy people did not begin at that time, but had been
entered into from the first with the fathers of the race. The
last great history of patriarchal times has, indeed, developed
this idea of set purpose and according to a fixed plan. The
whole history of the world is treated by A, in his grand and
comprehensive scheme, as a history of the rise of salvation in
Israel. In fact, creation itself is the establishment of a
covenant. The Sabbath, the sign of the covenant between
Israel and God, is traced back directly to the act of creation. 5
Next we are told more plainly still of a covenant being
entered into with the new race of men that came out of the
ark. 6 A covenant is made with them, as confirmation of the
blessing at creation, 7 by which, in view of the terrible appre
hension of a new flood that might destroy everything, they
are guaranteed an uninterrupted existence. The condition of
this covenant is to abstain from blood, and to regard human
life as sacred. 8 The sign of it is the rainbow, which will
remind God of His covenant, and be to men a pledge thereof
always new. 9 For the shining of the everlasting light through
the waters of heaven is a sign that these waters will never
again become an unrestrained flood of judgment, but will
give place to a new era of light and mercy. This covenant
with mankind is then narrowed down to a special covenant
with Abraham, and is thus raised from a natural relation to a
1 Ex. xix. 3 ff. 2 Ex. xix. 8. s Ex. xxxiv. 27 f.
4 Deut. iv. 1 ff. 6 Ex. xxxi. 13, 16, 17. 6 Gen. vi. 18, ix. 1 ff., 9 ff.
7 Gen. ix. 1 ff., 7 (i. 27 ff.). 8 Gen ix. 4-7. 9 Gen. ix. 12-17.
MAIN THOUGHT OF MOSAIC COVENANT. 7
moral and religious one. 1 The life of the chosen people is
to develop out of the family life of Abraham, as the State
grows out of the family. Hence this covenant has a definite
national and religious promise. 2 In accordance with A s whole
cast of thought, it is true, the moral and religious element
is thrown into the background by the Levitical and national
Theocratic elements. The inheritance of the land of Canaan
and the coming of kings of Abraham s seed are the main
points of it. The sign of the covenant is circumcision ; 3 the
condition of it, pious and moral conduct. 4 This covenant with
the patriarchs is then enlarged, by solemn ceremonial, into the
covenant of Sinai, into a covenant of God with the people. 5
But, in point of fact, this view of the connection of Israel s
salvation with the patriarchal age is common to all the pre
sentations we have of primitive history. Even B thinks of a
relationship of love existing between God and Israel from the
very first. He gives the religious and moral import of this
relation very great prominence, and in the grandest pro
phetic style he sketches for it a brilliant future. It is enough
to refer to the passages 6 bearing on this. That there is
among mankind a family, and later a people, " of whom is
salvation," is the direct consequence of God s free love for the
ancestors of Israel.
3. By the covenant made at Sinai between Himself and
Israel, God brought the people as a whole into a special rela
tionship to Himself, of a religious and moral character. It
was just because all the peoples of the world were under His
control that God was free to choose a people for special
service. 7 He chose the people whose ancestors were already
in communion with Him. 8 Thus the God of the whole world
became the God of this people. 9 He wills to be their king.
1 Gen. xviii. 1 ff. ; cf. Ex. ii. 24, vi. 4-8. 2 Gen. xvii. 5-9.
3 Gen. xvii. 10 ff. (indeed it is itself called JVU in ver. 10).
4 Gen. xviii. 1. 5 Ex. xxxiv.
8 Gen. ix. 26, xii. 2ff., xv. 7ff., xxii. 15 ff., etc. 7 Ex. xix. 5 (13).
8 Ex. vi. 4. 9 Ex. xv. 16, vi. 7, cf. vii. 16, viii. 27, iii. 10.
8 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
We hear this special relationship alluded to in numerous
turns of thought, in almost every age of Old Testament reli
gion. The consciousness of it, though very elementary, was a
bond of union even in Israel s times of greatest confusion.
By the men of the Exile this people is afterwards called the
assembly, the congregation of God, 1 over which He sits enthroned
as prince. But, in the older language, the land of Israel is
called God s holy dwelling-place, the mountain of His inherit
ance, 2 the defiling of which by deeds of wickedness He will
Himself avenge, just as He punishes, for example, conjugal
infidelity with childlessness. To dwell within it is to be in
God s house, " The place, Lord, which Thou hast made to
dwell in ; the sanctuary, Lord, which Thy hands have
established." 3 On the other hand, Israel itself is called God s
inheritance, 4 His peculiar treasure from among all peoples. 5
The wars of the people against foreign enemies are God s
wars. 6 A sin or an injury in Israel gives occasion to the
enemies of God to blaspheme. 7 It is God for whose help
"among the mighty" the war signal is sent through Israel." 8
It is He who is greeted with the cry that befits a king, " Let
Jehovah reign for ever and ever." 9 A curse against Him is
high treason. 10 The secular kingdom in Israel appears to the
piety of later ages a " rejecting " of God. 11 Every oath in Israel
1 rnjJ and ^np, Judg. xx. 2; Num. xxvii. 17, xvi. 3, xx. 4 (for the expres
sions Lev. viii. 3, 5, ix. 5, xvi. 5, 33 ; Num. x. 7, xiv. 5 ; cf. Lev. viii. 4 ;
Num. viii. 9, xvi. 3, xx. 2). Prior to the monarchy the term used will have
been "tribes," afterwards "people," and in the Exile "congregation" of
Jehovah.
2 Ex. xv. 17; 1 Sam. xxvi. 19 (Ps. cvi. 38; Num. xxxv. 33; Lev. xx. 5 if.).
3 Ex. xv. 18 (Ps. ii. 4 f.).
4 God s house, Num. xii. 7 ; His inheritance, 2 Sam. xiv. 16, xx. 19, xxi. 3 ;
1 Sam. x. 1 ; especially the expression Ex. xxxiv. 9 (urferO).
5 Ex. xix. 5, 6.
6 1 Sam. xxv. 28. Even a Joab wages his wars in this religious spirit (2 Sam.
x. 11, 12).
7 2 Sam. 12, 14. 8 Judg. v. 23.
9 Ex. xv. 18; cf. Ps. xviii. 47.
10 Ex. xx. 7 ; Lev. xxiv. 11 ff. ; 1 Kings xxi. 10.
11 1 Sam. viii. 6 ff. ; Judg. viii. 23.
MAIN THOUGHT OF MOSAIC COVENANT. 9
is an oatli by God. 1 Yea, God Himself will in the judgment
bring to light what is hidden. 2 Faith in God as the king of
Israel is, in the earlier times, connected with a rather material
conception of His local presence. Thus the people ask,
obviously in reference to the sacred ark, " Is Jehovah in the
midst of us or not." 3 In like manner Moses goes up to God
and reports to Him as to a sovereign who cannot be approached. 4
But the more consciously developed faith knows only of
Israel s special relationship to God, and of his special dignity,
just as it knows that God, for Israel s sake, blesses Israel s
earthly king. 5 The most beautiful expression for this rela
tionship is the title of son, which God bestows on Israel. 6
Closely akin is the thought of a marriage covenant, of which,
both as an explicit metaphor and by way of allusion, the
prophets are exceedingly fond. 7
Thus between God and His people there exists a relation of
tenderest love and care, and also of exclusive proprietorship.
In every outward distress and inward difficulty God wishes
to guide His people by His almighty hand to what is truly
best for them. He wishes to make His will known, to give
them laws in His wisdom in a word, to treat them as
His peculiar people among the nations of the world. On
the other hand, it follows that this whole people dedicates
itself, and everything that makes up its national life, to the
service of this God. Here a whole people is to be 8 what
the priests, who are consecrated to God s service, are else
where a holy people, that is, a people used as God s exclusive
property ; a people which God sanctifies, 9 that is, prepares for
1 Ex. xxii. 11 ; Josh. ii. 12. 2 Num. v. 18 fl 1 . ; Lev. xvii. 10.
3 Josh. xxii. 31. 4 Ex. xix. 3, 8, ef. xix. 20, 21, xx. 19.
5 2 Sam. vii. 231 ., cf. v. 12.
6 In B, Ex. iv. 22 f., Israel is merely called God s first-born son. The expres
sion is more exclusive in Deut. i. 31, viii. 5, xxxii. 18 ; Hos. xi. 1.
7 Hos. i.-iii. ; Jer. ii. 20, iii. 1, 13, xiii. 27 ; Ezck. xvi. ; cf. Ex. xxxiv. 15 f.;
Num. xv. 39 (PI3T).
8 Ex. xix. 6 ; Lev, xi. 44 f., xix. 2 ; Num. xv. 40.
9 Lev. xx. 8, 24, xxii. 9, 16, 32 ; Ex. xv. 16.
10 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
His own special use, and which accordingly must be such as
to do honour to its God outwardly as well as inwardly a king
dom of priests. Among this people there must be no priest
hood, such as would exclude, from this relationship to God,
the rest of the nation as profane. The office of priest merely
embodies the honour which belongs to the whole nation as a
covenant people. The prophetic period understood it in this
way. But certainly in A, in accordance with his priestly
tendency, the people s renunciation of priestly holiness and
the necessity for a priestly class are emphasised in quite
a different manner. This is seen, for example, in the obliga
tion to pay half a shekel apiece as " covering " l by way of
acknowledging and expiating the unfitness of the people for
the service of God, and in the sharp rebuff given to the
people when they aspired to equality with the Levites,
and to the Levites when they claimed to equal the sons of
Aaron. 2
In its whole national life Israel has to show itself a holy
people. That is insisted on with ever-growing definiteness in
the various legislative codes. In the two sacraments of
the covenant Circumcision and the Passover every son of
this people is dedicated to God. Life as well as property is
regarded as belonging to God. The arrestment of the life on
behalf of God is represented in the redemption or sacrifice of
the first-born, which A, in his usual style, connects with the
substitutionary offering of the tribe of Levi. 3 The dedication
of property finds expression in tithes, 4 firstlings, 5 thank-
offerings, and votive sacrifices. In like manner, even time,
as being God s property, is restored to His service in the
Sabbaths and the feast days. On such days the people have
1 Ex. xxx. 11-16. 2 Num. xvi. xvii.
3 Ex. xiii. 1, cf. 12 ff., xxii. 29, xxxiv. 19f.; Num. xviii. 15 ff.; Lev. xxvii. 26;
cf. Num. iii. 11, 41, 44, viii. 16 f. ; Deut. xv. 19 ff.
4 Lev. xxvii. 30 ; Deut. xxvi.
5 Lev. xxiii. 10, 15 18; Num. xv. 20 f.; cf. Ex. xxiii. 19, xxxiv. 26 (Num.
xviii. 12).
MAIN THOUGHT OF MOSAIC COVENANT. 11
to draw near to their king with presents. 1 For this reason
there must be no Hebrew slave in Israel. For the Israelites
are God s ransomed servants. 2 None of them has at his
disposal his own freedom, for that is already God s property.
Every seventh year he is to regain the right to dispose of
his person. In fact, even money debts are to become invalid
on this seventh year. 3 Land cannot be sold in perpetuity. It
is only a loan, not a possession. Nothing but its usufruct is
transferable by sale. 4 In a word, the Israelites are strangers,
sojourners with God.
The individual is primarily regarded as a mere member of
his nation. That is quite the ordinary view of antiquity.
But in Israel it stands out in special prominence. The law
is given to Israel as a people, 5 and even the second law is
addressed to Israel. 6 The position and duty of each individual
is determined as a matter of course by the character and call
ing of his people. It is only after Jeremiah and Ezekiel that
the moral and religious personality of the individual becomes
more prominent. One has just to remain in the surroundings
into which one is born. Birth according to the flesh makes a
man righteous. That is certainly an imperfect and transi
tional condition, compared with the religion in which the new
birth, according to the Spirit, imparts righteousness ; but it is
the necessary foundation and preparation for this higher stage.
1 Ex. xxxiv. 21 if.
2 Lev. xxv. 42, 50.
3 Lev. xxv. 39, 46 (42, 55); Ex. xxi. 2 f.; Dent. xv. 12 ff. (1 ff., PIBEBO. ( sti11
he can bind himself to constant service.) That an attempt was actually made,
in accordance with the Deuteronomic code, to carry out this grand idea, is
shown by Jer. xxxiv. 8 ff., and it is at the same time shown that in this form it
was then new, and was frustrated by the selfishness of the rich. (2 Kings iv. 1 ff.
points to a pretty relentless enforcement of creditors rights in the olden times.)
4 Lev. xxv. 13 ff., 23. The jubilee year regulation. How deeply rooted in
the national consciousness Avas the sacred character ot a family estate is also
shown by Naboth s refusal to sell his family estate (1 Kings xxi. 3 ff.).
5 Ex. xx. 12.
6 E.g. Deut. vi. 4, xx. 3. Wellhausen is probably right in supposing that the
use of the plural of address is always a proof of a later editing of the laws.
12 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
Hence the first virtue of a true Israelite is unconditional,
reverential, and devoted love to the God to whom his
people belongs. 1 In the earlier days this devotion was rather
conceived of as a resolute surrender of the whole personality
to the God of Israel and to the national peculiarities, as
zeal for Jehovah and His people and conscientious adherence
to Israel s modes of life. The later ages, especially the post-
Deuteronomic, regarded it as something much more inward. 2
The people s most grievous sin, the real violation of the
covenant, is committed when they give themselves over to
another God. In that case, even though pardon is obtained,
the covenant, having been broken, must be renewed. 3 Then
God in His wrath gives His people up to punishment, and
strengthens other peoples against them. 4 The idolater must
die. 5 Every temptation to idolatry must be remorselessly
got rid of. 6 Idolatry is whoredom 7 ; it is that which is evil
in the sight of God. 8 The watchword of the true Israelite
is, " For Jehovah." 9
But the people must not merely hold aloof from other gods.
They must feel heartily opposed to the peoples around, and
to their usages and customs. Even ancient custom evidently
expected this of a true Israelite. 10 The prophets, too, upheld
Israel s own customs. 11 Still it was only through A that these
became a perfectly organised system. 12 By him Israel s
whole worship is given definite and unchangeable forms.
I Josh. iv. 24, xxii. 25, 5. Most strongly in Deut. vi. 5, x. 12, xi. 1, 13, 22,
xiii. 4, xix. 9, xxx. 16, 20.
8 Josh, xxiii. 11, xxiv. 14 f., 19-29.
3 Ex. xxxiv. 10 ff. ; cf. 2 Kings xxiii. 3.
4 Judg. ii. 14, 20, iii. 8, 12, iv. 2, vi. 1 ; Ezek. vi. 13 f.
5 Ex. xxii. 20, xxiii. 13 ; Lev. xvii. 7. 6 Ex. xxiii. 24, etc.
7 Ex. xxxiv. 15 ; Lev. xvii. 7, xx. 5 ; Num. xiv. 33 ; Judg. ii. 17 ; 2 Kings
ix. 22.
8 Judg. ii. 11, iv. 1, vi. 1, x. 6, xiii. 1. 9 Judg. vii. 18.
10 E.g. Judg. xix. 12 ; 1 Sam. xxvi. 19.
II Isa. ii. 6ff., viii. 19; Hos. v. 7, 11 ff. ; Jer. xxxv. ; Ezek. viii. ; Deut.
xviii.
12 Lev. xviii. 1 ff., xx. 26 ; Ex. xxiii. 32, xxxiv. 11 ff. (Deut. vii. 2).
PAKTICULARISM. 1 3
Aaron s sons die when they offer to the true God uncon-
secrated incense. 1 In his legislation civil, moral, and cere
monial laws are interlaced in a wonderfully unique fashion.
Even what is least is not little, and what is greatest is
nothing special. Everything is fixed, peculiar, and cast in a
mould of its own. Israel s joys and sorrows, likings and aver
sions, all receive a peculiar colouring, different from the life of
strangers. The Israelite must have the vocation of his people
always imprinted on his heart; indeed, he must even have
it constantly before his eyes in visible form. 2 Blessedness
depends on this holding fast to God ; for the righteous see the
face of God. 3
4. This characteristic of Israel s consciousness of salvation
causes it to be closely interwoven with its consciousness of
nationality, and constitutes what is called the Particularism of
salvation. It needs no proof that in the olden time exalted
religious feeling expressed itself in open antagonism to other
peoples, and was thus most closely connected with the warlike
spirit of the nation. It is enough to refer to the tone of
Deborah s song and to the religious view of the wars of Jehovah.
This feature of the religion is by no means lost in later days ;
and indeed it could not be, for it is closely connected with
its historical character. Prophecy is never tired of dwelling
on it, and the popular songs of every age keep echoing the
thought that Israel possesses unique good fortune in the con
nection, assigned to it by history, with God s mighty deeds of
deliverance. Not with the patriarchs but with the people of
Moses did God establish this perfect relationship of salvation,
speaking with him face to face, and doing what had never
been done since the creation of the world giving statutes
and judgments, in which every one who keeps them finds life. 4
1 Lev. x. 1 ff. 2 Num. xv. 37 ff. 3 Ps. xi. 7.
4 Deut. iv. 7, 21, 32 ff., v. 2-4, vi. 22, vii. 6, 13, 19, 23 ; Jer. ii. 3, 6, xi.
15 f., xii. 7, 9, xiii. 11, 17 ; Ezek. xvi. 1 ff., xx. 5 ff., 11, 13, 21 ; Ps. xix. 8 ff.,
Ixxxix.. etc.
14 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
Upon this connection of the salvation of the individual
with that of the people emphasis is laid with such force that,
as has been already said, the individual is taken into con
sideration by the prophetic Law only as being within the
people ; in the " Hear thou " of the Deuteronomist all Israel
is addressed. 1 The tendency to exaggerate the importance
of the individual personality, which is so characteristic of
this modern age, is foreign to the whole tone of the Old Testa
ment. The latter never regards the individual as independent
of his surroundings, which are not merely the springs of his
being but determine its whole direction.
This appears to have been the popular idea of salvation in
pre-exilic times. But it does not mean that Israel, considered
merely as a mass of human beings and nothing more, was ever
regarded by the prophets as an object of divine love. In view
of their moral tendency that would be perfectly inconceivable.
When it is said, " God is good to Israel," the psalmist adds
by way of explanation, " to such as are pure in heart," and he
describes a particular moral tendency in Israel as that of the
children of God. 2 The pious are God s beloved, " who have
made a covenant with Him by sacrifice." 3 It is Israel, the
servant of God, who alone is concerned with what is said
about God s relation with Israel. But Israel is undoubtedly
represented as being in quite a unique and exclusive
position of favour with God. And in general this means
the whole people. God is the Father of the people, " though
Abraham knoweth us not, and Israel doth not acknowledge
us." 4 He reserved this people for Himself when He assigned to
the other nations the host of heaven. 6 For Israel s sake God
arranged and guided these peoples. And His honour is closely
1 Deut. vi. 4, ix. 1, xx. 3, xxvii. 9. In like manner, as Guthe admirably
insists, Jeremiah lays special emphasis on the conception of the covenant.
Censure and favour are given primarily to the congregation of the people as the
party responsible for the covenant.
2 Ps. Ixxiii. 1, 15. 3 Ps. 1. 5 (cxvi. 15). 4 B. J. Ixiii. 16.
5 Deut. iv. 7, 19, 20, vii. 6 (a holy people) ; Ps. cxlvii. 19 f.
PARTICULARISM. 15
bound up with Israel l who is a stranger and sojourner with
Him. 2 God loved Israel but slighted Esau. 3 The heathen who
are at war with the people are God s enemies. Their land is a
polluted land. 4 In a word there is no salvation except by
means of the fellowship with God which has been bestowed
on Israel, in virtue of which He encompasses His people
with the same covenant love with which in the days of old He
brought them out of Egypt. 5
It is certainly right, therefore, to ascribe to the pre-exilic
period, and especially to the prophetic, a restriction of salva
tion to Israel in other words, Particularism. If we here
leave out of consideration, as is only fair, philosophical or
purely moral development, then in point of fact we must
restrict to Israel whatever real religious fellowship there was
before the time of Christ with Jehovah, the God who was
seeking to found the kingdom of God. JSTo Old Testament saint
could, without being false to his own faith, conceive of religious
fellowship with Jehovah being possible or even practicable
in heathen religions. That this restriction could not last, the
prophets were well aware. But that salvation would develop
into Universalism remained, in the first instance, a hope for
the future. Of course it never occurred to any prophet or
saint in Israel to consider all the heathen as individually
irreligious and doomed to eternal punishment. A saint before
Ezra s time would not even have understood the question
involved in such statements.
5. It was only in post-exilic times that national pride made
Israel take up a really stiff and arrogant attitude towards the
" godless " heathen world. Then, in consequence of the
1 B. J. xlv. 4, 13 ; Deut. ix. 28 (Num. xiv. 13). 2 Ps. xxxix. 13.
3 Certainly first in Malachi, and so out of an age which emphasises these
relations in a more one-sided fashion (i. 2, ii. 5, cf. Deut. xxi. 15, xxiv. 3).
Elsewhere the positive side at least is expressed just in this way, e.g. Ps.
xlvii. 5.
4 Amos vii. 17 ; Hos. ix. 3 ; Ps. Ixviii. 2f. (Ixvi. 3, 7, Ixxiv. 4, 23, Ixxxiii. 3).
5 Deut. xxx. 15 f., xxxiii. 29 ; Jer. xxi. 8, xxxi. 3 ; B. J. xl. 10, 27, xli. 8,
xliii. 4, 22, xliv. 1, xlv. 4 f., 13, etc.
16 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
national hauteur which the keenness of their religious con
sciousness fostered, and of the energy with which they kept
off a hostile world, there grew up a genuine hatred of the
foreigner. In the times of living religious progress there
were many barriers in the way of an exaggerated national
sentiment. Pre-exilic Israel was never very anxious to
cut itself off from intercourse with foreign nations. The
prophets directed their eloquence much more against the
world within Israel than against the world without. And
although in the ideal which it hoped for, Israel clung resolutely
enough to the thought of becoming a ruling nation, neverthe
less it admitted all mankind, in a tolerably large-hearted
fashion, to communion with God, and never dreamed of
bringing them by force within the pale of Jewish nationality.
It was otherwise in the second Jerusalem. 1 A community
had returned home which, so far at least as creed and loyalty
to law were concerned, was practically perfect. And although
a new purification was soon enough seen to be necessary, 2
still this Israel, at any rate in comparison with the heathen,
was quite fit to represent a nation of righteous men. Even
on the historical side the incomparable dignity of the people
becomes more and more manifest. " Touch not mine anointed,
and do my prophets no harm," is the motto of Israel s history. 3
Israel is God s turtle-dove. 4 Israel s land is " the glorious
land." 5 The Israelites are the saints of God, 6 and are com
pared with the host of heaven. 7 For their deliverance the
most unheard-of wonders must take place. 8 Their sufferings
are simply to try them. 9 To dress up in legendary fashion
1 Duhm, p. 146. " One must of course distinguish between the natural
Particularism of Zachariah and the abstract Particularism of Judaism ; for the
former is capable of opening out into a higher development, the latter is pur
posely closed against every new element, and once it has taken up a position it
consciously persists in keeping it.
2 E.g. Mai. iii. 1 ff. s Ps. cv. 15 (37) ; 1 Chron. xvi. 22.
4 Ps. Ixxiv. 1-3, 19. 5 Dan. viii. 9, xi. 16, 41.
(i Dan. vii. 18, 21, 25, 27, viii. 24, xii. 7. 7 Dan. viii. 10.
8 Dan. i. 16 if., ii. 25 It . 9 Dan. xi. 35, xii. 10 f.
PARTICULARISM. 17
the marvellous success of the Jews among the heathen is a
favourite subject of the books of narrative, 1 and with this is con
nected the endeavour to get the God of Israel acknowledged
and glorified even by heathen kings as the Most High
God. 2
Now what the people had suffered from the heathen, and
what during the course of this period they suffered anew,
developed their antagonism to the Gentiles into a bitter
passion, such as had at least till then been witnessed only
on rare occasions. National pride, and contempt for foreigners
fanned this national hatred, this animosity against every
thing foreign. Non-Israelite began to be synonymous with
anti-Israelite. The heathen are God s enemies, a foolish
people. 3 God is entreated to pour out His wrath upon the
peoples that do not know Him, and to render unto them
sevenfold. 4 The land of the heathen is " the strange land
where God s song cannot be sung." 5 In all such stories the
adversaries of the Jews are brought to ignominy and
ruin. 6
This tendency begins to manifest itself in the age
immediately after Ezra. The exaggeration of the national
idea led to the Samaritans being refused permission to help
in rebuilding the temple. 7 This made the rejected Samaritans
" a sect " eager to injure to the utmost the rising community, 8
and objects of such bitter hatred that even the gentle son of
Sirach lets it master him. 9 This circumstance has a very marked
effect upon the whole tone of Chronicles. Of the northern
tribes, under their own national monarchy, it has nothing to
relate. For a king of Judah to ally himself with a king of
Ephraim is to commit a heinous sin, sure to be immediately
1 Dan. iv. 5, 6, 15, v. 11, 14, 29, ii. 46, 48 ; Esth. ix. 1 ff. (2 Mace. ix. 17).
2 Dan. ii. 47, iii. 26, 28-33, iv. 31-34, 1 ff., vi. 21, 27 ff.
3 Ps. Ixxiv. 10, 18, 22. 4 Ps. Ixxix. 6, 12. Ps. cxxxvii. 4.
6 Dan. iii. 22, vi. 24 ; Esth. viii. 11 ff., ix. Iff., 19 ff.
7 Ezra iv. 2 ; Neh. ii. 20. 8 Ezra iv. 2ff.; Neh. iv. 4f., ii. 19.
9 Jes. Sir. 1. 26.
VOL. II. B
18 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
followed by misfortune. 1 Amaziah has to disband the
hundred thousand men of war whom he had hired out of
the northern kingdom, because God has not chosen Ephraim.
Elijah writes a threatening letter to Joram because he is acting
like the royal house of Israel. 2 This book takes for granted
that all Israel proper was again subject to the later kings
of Judah, so that the captivity in Babylon included all the
twelve tribes. 3 This exaggerated feeling of nationality was
also the cause of the foreign women being expelled, which
is again historically connected with the growing strength of
Samaritanism. 4 While the book of Euth speaks 5 quite frankly
and with admirable affection of the Moabite ancestress of
David, in the eyes of Ezra and Nehemiah marriage with
women belonging to the neighbouring peoples, the Moabites
being expressly included, was like union with the daughters
of a strange god, 6 like a pollution of the holy seed. The
congregation gets terribly anxious, and dreads the very sorest
punishment on account of this heinous sin.
There may well have been at the bottom of both these
rules a historical necessity, and the proper enough feeling
that a perfectly pure people and perfectly pure religious
customs had to be established in Israel. All the same it
was a decisive step towards the complete separation of
Israel as a nation ; and the final reason of it was their
own fickleness and poverty of spirit which made them
1 2 Chron. xx. 35 ff., xxv. 8, xix. 2 ; cf. 1 Kings xxii. 49 ff.
2 2 Chron. xxv. 7 ff., xxi. 11 ff.
8 2 Chron. xxx 5, 11, 18, xxxiv. 6, xix. 4 ; cf. Wellhausen, p. 195 ff.
4 Ezra ix. Iff., x. Iff.; Neh. xiii. 23 ff.; cf. Neh. ix. 2, x. 28, 30, xiii.
28-30.
5 Ruth i. 4, 16, 22, ii. 2, 6, 21, iv. 5, 10, 18-22. Perhaps in the books of
Jonah and Ruth we have actually a trace of opposition to the spirit which
carried through the reforms of Ezra. For Kuenen is certainly right in thinking
that all the elements in Israel cannot have concurred willingly in this new line
of action. (In the older legislative code only Canaanitish women are forbidden,
not all foreign women without exception, Ex. xxxiv. 11, 16 ; Deut. vii. 3,
xxi. 11 ff.; cf. Num. xii. 1.)
6 Cf. Mai. ii. 11, 15.
PARTICULARISM. 19
unable longer to admit, in calm self-reliance, any foreign
element.
In such songs as Ps. cxxxvii. we see how exaggerated was
their hatred of the hostile heathen world, especially of Babylon,
of Edom whom God has hated, 1 and later of Syria. In these
psalms, doubtless, justifiable indignation against the enemies
of God is strongly blended with the glow of human passion. 2
The clearest monument of this disposition is the book of
Esther, which is certainly meant to express before everything
else the religious conviction that God will protect His own,
and bring to nought the wiles of man ; but at the same time
it shows a depth of revengeful feeling against the enemies
of the Jews and " such as sought their hurt," 3 and against
tho Amalekite Haman, 4 which is only to be explained by an
increasingly one-sided consciousness of national and religious
antagonism. Malachi himself lays far stronger emphasis
than did former ages, on Edom s permanent rejection, and on
God s hatred of this people, and its " border of wickedness." 5
In later times the brunt of indignation naturally falls on the
party in Israel itself that is friendly to the heathen, the
robbers, those who forget the covenant. 6
We are thus clearly on the road to " the Judaism that
hates humanity." But running alongside of it there is also
another road that leads to a world-religion. Many circles
show a marked indifference to everything national. This
is the case with the Preacher, and especially with the " Greek
party " in the wars of Independence. Jesus, the son of
1 Mai. i. 3.
2 Vers. 7, 8, 9 ; cf. cxxxix. 21 f. ; Ezra iv. 2 ; Neb, xiii. 1, iv. 4ff.
8 Esth. viii. 11, 13, ix. 1-15 (19-32 ; cf. Dan. vi. 24).
4 Esth. viii. 3, 5, iv. 24.
6 Mai. i. 2-4. His condemnation of marriage with foreign women (ii. 11 if.)
is also striking in view of his admirable tenderness towards the women of Israel
(vers. 14ff. ). It is also to be noticed how the kindly attitude of the Deuteronomist
to Edom and Moab (ii. 29) gives place in the later historical accounts to quite
different views. (Num. xxi. ff.)
6 Dan. xi. 14, 30, 32 ; cf. 1 Mace. i. 11-34, ii. 44, iii. 5, 8.
20 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
Sirach too, and the book of Wisdom, although neither of them
is wanting in vivid expressions of national feeling and
pride, 1 are nevertheless, on the whole, getting nearer to the
humane views of Universalism. The distinguishing mark
of the children of God is not so much descent from
Abraham as the being filled with wisdom from above, and
with uprightness. And although Philo still holds firmly to
the idea that revelation in Israel is the real centre around
which salvation develops, and although he hopes for a final
glorification of his own people, 2 nevertheless, on the whole,
his moral standpoint is of such a character that what is
specially Jewish has scarcely any importance attached
to it.
But the real strength of the religious development obviously
lay in the other direction, viz. in a one-sided emphasising of
the national spirit and its antagonism to other nations, and
especially to hostile neighbours. In Baruch 3 and the book
of Tobit 4 this feeling is strongly marked, but it is still
expressed in an Old Testament spirit. The books of the
Maccabees give expression throughout to the fierce zeal of a
desperate religious war in which, as a matter of course, these
feelings of antagonism are intensified. 6 According to the
Greek Ezra, the Edomites are already represented as the
real destroyers of the temple. 6 According to Enoch, Israel
is the best part of mankind, 7 and the children of Israel are
spoken of as "the elect." 8 But, above all, the book of
Judith shows how relentlessly the hatred of strangers was
fostered. The bloody deed at Shechem, 9 though censured
in the Old Testament, is for Judith a praiseworthy act
against strangers. Simeon and Levi are God s well-beloved
1 Jes. Sir. xvii. 14 ff., xxxvi. 1. 26 ; Wisdom of Solomon, xvii.-xix.
2 Philo, 727, A, B ; 824, D ; 825, B ; 836, C j 910 ff., 930 ff., 937, A.
8 Bar. iii. 36, iv. 1 ff. 4 Tob. i. 1 ff., xiii. 6, xiv. 7.
5 2 Mace. viii. 32, xi. ; 3 Mace. vi. 3 f. 6 Ezra gr. iv. 35.
7 Enoch xx. 5 (Michael is set over them).
8 Enoch xxxviii. 5, xxxix. 6ff., Ixi. 4, etc. 9 Gen. xxxiv.
PARTICULARISM. 21
sons, zealous for the honour of Jehovah. 1 The heathen, who
withstand the race of Israel, are given over to a curse ; and
indeed it is only from this point of view that the conduct
of Judith can be regarded as moral. 2 Achior, the pious
heathen, who appears in the book, gets himself circumcised
as a proselyte, and is then adopted as one of the chosen
people. 3
This tendency, fostered by the mysterious books, Daniel,
Enoch, and Ezra, 4 and embodied most distinctly in Pharisaism,
became more and more a national passion, a feeling of
contemptuous hatred for all strangers as " godless." The
people assumed more and more the rdle of a nation
hostile to humanity. The wild enthusiasm displayed in
the wars against Eome, and the mad fanaticism of the
"zealots," are the strongest outbursts of this disposition.
What had been in the rude ages of antiquity the natural
though rough expression of theocratic feeling became, in these
days of high culture, a sentiment artificially fostered, and
running directly counter to all the other currents of human
development.
CHAPTER II.
THE CHARACTER OF ISRAEL S CONSCIOUSNESS OF SALVATION.
LITERATURE. Diestel, " Die Idee der Gerechtigkeit im Alten
Testamente" (Jahrb. /. deutsche Theologie, 1860, ii. 176 ff.).
Hermann Schultz, " Ueber die Gerechtigkeit aus dem Glauben
im Alten und Neuen Testamente " (Jahrb. /. deutsche Theologw,
1862, 510 ff.). Hofmann, Schriftleweis, i. 581 ff. ; A.
1 Judith ix. 2 ff. 2 Judith xvi. 17. 3 Judith xiv. 6.
4 In the Psalms of Solomon this sentiment is particularly prominent (vii. 8 f.,
viii. 41, ix. 16, xii. 7, xiv. 3, xviii. Iff. 4). In the Fourth Book of Ezra the
passages vi. 55-58, xiii. 39, are to be noted as expressions of a growing anxiety
for Israel s purity.
22 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
Ortloph, "Ueber den Begriff von PTO und den wurzelver-
wandten Wortern im 2. Th. d. Propheten Jesaiah " (Zeitsch.
f. luth. Theol 1860, 401 if.). Emil Kautzsch, "Ueber die
Derivate des Stammes pi im alttestamentlichen Sprachge-
brauche." Tubingen 1881 (Festschrift, 6 Marz).
1. In the earlier writings of the Old Testament no one,
who takes into account the general character of the piety
described in them, will expect to find any theory as to an
Israelite s real relation to God in regard to salvation, that is
based either on philosophical self-examination or on theo
logical reflection. The Israelite, who lived according to the
ordinances and customs of his people, certainly believed
without further doubt in his own " righteousness." But even
the prophetic period offers us nothing which in any way
reminds us of the terminology of Paul in regard to the
righteousness of man before God, or even of that of the
scribes in Israel contemporary with him. Peace of con
science is quite frankly based on direct consciousness of
fellowship with God. Where human righteousness is spoken
of, the word either declares, in regard to a particular case, that
the person is in the right, that he has given no reasonable
ground for hostility being displayed towards him ; 1 or else
it is intended to assert that he occupies the right moral
and religious standpoint, that he carefully abstains from
wickedly transgressing the great ordinances of human and
divine justice, and in a word that he is not one of " the evil
doers." 2 In this way the writers of the prophetic period
speak of " the righteous " as a class of men distinct from the
ungodly. They even describe the people of Israel itself by
1 Gen. xxxviii. 26 ; 1 Sam. xxiv. 18 ; 2 Sam. xix. 29, iv. 11 ; 1 Kings ii. 32 ;
ct. 2 Kings x. 9 ; Ps. lix. 4f, cvi. 31. (The idiom in 2 Sam. xix. 29, "What
right have I more, i.e. wherewith can I justify myself further ? ")
2 The opposite of D s JJKh, e.g. Gen. xviii. 23, 24, 28, xx. 4, cf. vi. 9, vii. 1 ;
Ps. vii. (4 f.) 9, xviii. 21, 25, xi. 3, 5 ; 2 Sam. iv. 11. Thus, even in reference
to God, it is said quite frankly, Ex. ix. 27, " Jehovah is the pi^V, and I and my
people are the D^KH," that is, He is right, and we are wrong.
RIGHTEOUSNESS. 23
this word, in opposition to the Gentile world and its hostility
to the kingdom of God. 1 But generally they contrast the
righteous in Israel itself with the wicked. In their mouth the
word refers less to a definite relation to particular statutes,
than to " goodness and truth/ and loyal obedience to God.
In the language of the prophets, those Israelites are called
righteous who take up a right position to God s revealed will ;
who, from an honest regard for God and their neighbour, obey,
alike in their willing and doing, the divine commandments.
Accordingly, during all the time before Ezra, the phrase, a
" righteous " man, continued to mean in Israel pretty much
the same thing ; 2 although of course in the earliest times more
value was attached to a blameless following of popular reli
gious customs, while the prophets, on the other hand, are never
tired of insisting that the grand principles of morality are
the chief condition of righteousness. Hence the use of a
great variety of words in practically the same sense, e.g.
upright, perfect, with clean hands, pious, pure, prudent. 3 Of
course, in all cases in which it is a question of divine or
human judgment, " to justify " means " to give a formal
verdict that the person is innocent, is in the right," never
" to effect in him a moral reformation." He is righteous before
God who is found to act in conformity with His will. 4 Hence
it may also be said that a certain kind of conduct, e.g. the
1 Hab. i. 4, 13 ; Ezek. vii. 21 ; Ps. cxviii. 15, 20.
2 This is proved by passages like Prov. x. 2, 3, 6, 11, 20, 24 f. 28, xi. 4, 5, 8,
9f., xii. 5, 13, 21, 26, 28, xiii. 5, 6, 9, 21 f., xiv. 32, 34, xv. 9, xviii. 10, xxi.
12, 26 ; Ps. vii. 4.
3 -|KJ\ Ps. vii. 11, xi. 2, 7 ; Prov. xi. 6, xiv. 11. D^DH, Ps. xviii. 24, 26 ;
Prov. xi. 5. D^T""!!}, P. xviii. 25. TDH, the meaning of which certainly
seems to have oscillated between "he who possesses the attribute TDFI,
pins," and "he who experiences the 1DH of God towards himself, thu
beloved of God" (Ps. xviii. 26, xxxii. 6, cf. iv. 4, xvi. 10, xxx. 5). ~QJ,
Ps. xviii. 27. JUJ, Frov. xvi. 21 (Ps. xxxi. 20, 24, xxxvi. 11, xli. 13, Ixiv.
5, 11, xcvii. 11, cxi. 1, cxxv. 4, cxl. 14, cxlix. 1 ; Prov. ii. 20 f.) ; cf. Lev.
xix. 36 f., where pTi denotes the right measure in all forms of business.
4 Kx. xxii. 8, xxiii. 7 f . ; 2 Sam. xv. 4 ; Prov. xvii. 15. Specially characteristic
are Isa. v. 23 ; Job ix. 20, 29, x. 2, 15, xi. 2, xiii. 18, xv. 6, xxvii. 5, xxxii. 3,
24 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
faith of Abraham in the divine promise, was accounted unto
him for righteousness. 1
2. Such being the meaning of the word " righteous " it is
easily understood that righteousness and sinlessness, in the
strict sense, have nothing to do with each other. 2 The
Israelite is in a position in which forgiveness of sins and
mercy are combined, in which therefore every one who does
not give up that position may be called righteous in spite of
the sin which springs from human weakness. The same Job
whom God calls righteous, and who maintains with the utmost
resolution his own righteousness, admits youthful sins. 3 All
call themselves, without the slightest hesitation, righteous,
who are in earnest in keeping God s commandments, who
strive after righteousness, seek God, hold aloof from idolatry,
unchastity, oppression, robbery, usury, in a word from every
thing which is folly in Israel. Consequently, the men whom
the Old Testament terms righteous, and who, in fact, call
themselves so in relation to God, 4 are not on that account
thought of as free from human weakness or even from
heinous sin. The singer of Ps. xxxii. has no hesitation in
classing himself with the righteous and godly, and yet a
grievous sin had long lain heavy upon him. 6 David is by no
means represented as sinless ; but he speaks with the utmost
confidence of his righteousness, of the cleanness of his
xxxiv. 5, 29 ; Deut. xxv. 1, B. J. 1. 8 ; 1 Kings viii. 32 ; 2 Chron. vi. 23 ; Ps.
xxxvii. 33, xciv. 21 (Ps. v. 11 D* 1 ^!"!). The purely forensic meaning of
p*nn and ytjnn is for the whole of the Old Testament beyond question.
Only in B. J. liii. 11 is the word (construed with ? instead of the Ace.) to be
understood as meaning "to make just by reforming" (Dan. xii. 3).
1 Gen. xv. 6 (2Tl). 3 Not till Eccl. vii. 20 is the word so used.
3 Job i. 1, 8, 22, ii. 3, vi. 10, 29, x. 6, xii. 5, xiii. 23, xvi. 11, 17, xvii. 2, xxiii.
10 ff., xxvii. 2, xlii. 7, cf. vii. 21, x. 14, xiii. 26, xiv. 4 (2 Sam. xiii. 12, 13).
4 Gen. vi. 9, vii. 1 ; Ps. vii. 9, xviii. 21, 25 (xvii. 3 f.). For the later period,
cf. Deut. vi. 25, xxiv. 13.
5 This is evident from ver. 6, where from what has happened to himself he
draws an inference as to TDPrio, cf. Ps. xxxi. 2, 11, xii. 5, 13, xxxviii. 4,
16, 19, xl. 9, 13. The confession in Ps. Ixix. 6, 8, might be intended as
ironical.
RIGHTEOUSNESS. 25
hands. 1 The forgiveness of sin honestly repented of, and
expiated according to the divine ordinances, is one of the main
principles of the religious consciousness of Israel. Hence, as
soon as a sin has been atoned for by repentance, it does not pre
vent the person being reckoned among the righteous. In their
relations with God, such saints trust to this righteousness of
theirs, and expect Him to recompense them according to their
righteousness, according to the cleanness of their hands ; 2 to
deliver them in conformity with His righteousness, and not
for His mercy s sake. They emphasise their righteousness
in a fashion which often pains a Christian, and as to which
Lutz says, not without reason, that it is " an impure expres
sion of the consciousness of life by grace." 3 The mercy and
the righteousness of God are not represented as at variance with
each other. On the contrary, it is impossible to conceive of
God being righteous to men without being merciful. Now
where there is a covenant, forgiveness of failings not due
to an evil will is a constituent part of righteousness. His
covenant pledges God to defend those who are true to Him
from the assaults of His enemies. 4 But certainly there
was wanting in ancient Israel the anxious and unsettling-
apprehension of personal sin, characteristic of the Levitical
period, no less than that deep consciousness of personal guilt
and unworthiness which the ideal of true humanity, realised
and manifested in Christ, awakens in a Christian. And
although in the later period, especially in the last century
before the Exile, the mood of joyous self-satisfaction gave
place among the better portion of the people to a
decidedly penitential frame of mind, nevertheless the con
sciousness was never altogether lost that, by honest loyalty to
1 Ps. vii. 9, xviii. 21, 25 (1 Sam. xxvi. 23).
2 Ps. xviii. 21 ff., 25, cf. 26, 31 ; Ps. vii. 9, cf. 10 ; 1 Sam. xxvi. 23 ; Ps,
Ixxi. 2, Ixxiv. 20 ; Isa. xxxviii. 3.
3 Ps. xxvi. 1, 2, 6, 11, xxxv. 24, xli. 13, xliv. 18, 21, cxix. 121 ; 2 Kings
xx. 2 f. ; Job xvi. 17.
4 Ps. liv. 7, Ivii, 4.
26 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
the divine will, every Israelite can be righteous. 1 Only in
the congregation of the second temple does the mood alter
nate between an over-strained repentance, which is meant,
as such, to secure God s favour, and a self-righteousness which
is founded on obedience to a purely external form of the
divine will.
Thus the Old Testament knows of an actually present
righteousness. Even in the darkest periods of the national
life " a race," a homogeneous society of " righteous " men, is
found in contrast with " the wicked " and " the apostate." 2
But, of course, any one who belongs to this society may fall,
by his own sin, into the company of evil-doers ; and it
is befitting the humility of man to pray that God will
preserve him from such temptation as would be too strong
for human power and might hurry him into positive wicked
ness. 3 When the God who directs the world justifies a man,
He does so by giving him success in life. Consequently,
in many of the prophets, especially in the exilic Isaiah,
the righteousness which God bestows on men is so spoken of
that the word is quite synonymous with " salvation," " help." 4
3. When we turn to the Old Testament with the grand
fundamental question of every religion, " Wherewith is man
to obtain the favour of God ? " we must expect to get an
answer, not so much from particular statements in connection
with the word " righteous " as from the general view of the
main principles on which the Old Testament salvation is based.
Unquestionably every view of salvation that can be con-
1 Even in Ps. xviii. 22, we must take "the ways of Jehovah" and "His
statutes" in this sense, viz. " to be perfect in relation to Him."
- Ps. i. 511 ., v. 13, xxxi. 19, xxxiii. 1, xxxiv. 16, xxxvii. 16 f., 21, 25, 29,
39, lii. 8, Iv. 23, Iviii. 11 f., Ixiv. 11, Ixviii. 4, Ixxii. 7, xciv. 21, xcvii. 11,
cxxv. 3, cxl. 14, cxlii. 8, exlvi. 8 ; Prov. xxv. 26, xxviii. 1, xxix. 7 (Ps.
cxix. 63).
3 Ps. xix. 14, cxxv. 3 (in both cases an entreaty to be preserved from the
rule of evil-doers, which brings with it terrible temptation, not from "pre
sumption"), cxli. 3, cxliii. 2 ; cf. Ezek. iii. 20 f., xviii. 24, 26, xxxiii. 12 f.
4 B. J. xli. 1, 10, xlii. 21, xlv. 8, li. 5f., Ivi. 1, liv. 14, 17, Ivii. 12, lix. 9,
11, Ixi. 3, 10, Ixii. 1 ; cf. Micah vi. 5, vii. 9 ; Ps. Ixxi. 15, xxii. 32.
GRACE AND SALVATION 27
ceived of in Israel must be traced back to the free grace and
goodness of God. According to the old book of the covenant,
it is God who chooses the people as His people. He has no
need of Israel. All the earth is His. Hence, exercising the
right of an absolute ruler, He can, of His own free will,
choose for Himself His own peculiar people. 1 By His
mighty deeds He first ransomed, redeemed, and rescued 2 this
people for Himself. He became their Physician. 3 On this
mighty act of deliverance the whole relationship of salvation
is based. 4 And all who narrate the history of Moses
proceed on the conviction that the people in itself was not
worthy of such preference. 5 Accordingly, there is no mention
anywhere of a salvation due to the merits of the people, to
a " righteousness of their own." The proverb still holds,
By strength shall no man prevail." 6 The religious tone of
B s narrative gives this conviction the utmost prominence.
After the fall Adam, though condemned, is shown mercy both
by word and deed. 7 The first mother, in the hour of her
sorrow, knows of God the helper. 8 Noah finds grace in the
eyes of God. 9 Abraham is called away from his father s
house and guided onwards by God. He receives ever higher
and higher promises, and hands down the divine favour to
his descendants. 10 At last, in Moses, this favour is experienced
by the people as the people of God.
Of this mercy of God all the writers speak gladly and
1 Ex. xix. 5. fjJO, njp, ma, Ex. xv. 13, 16 (xix. 4).
3 Ex. xv. 26.
4 It is in fact to make the people a chosen people (Ex. xx. 2).
5 E.g. Num. xi., xii., xvi., xx., etc. 6 1 Sam. ii. 9.
7 Gen. iii. 15, 21.
8 Gen. iv. 1. (The sentence nin^TlS tJ^N TTOp cannot mean, "I have got
a man, Jehovah," as if the mother recognised God in her first-born, or even
the Fulfiller of Gen. iii. 15. As little can it mean, "I have got him for
Jehovah," as if she had thereby obtained, as it were, a pledge of His favour.
It simply means, on the analogy of Micah iii. 8, I have got a man (i.e.. a man-
child, on which fact the mother s joy lays special emphasis) Avith Jehovah, i.e.
by the help of Jehovah.
<J Gen. vi. 8. 10 Gen. xii., xv., xviii., xxii., xxvi., xxviii.
28 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
emphatically. " To humble myself before the God who
chose me is all too little for me," says David ; and
in his prayer he extols the exceeding goodness of God. 1
That it was not the might of man but the mercy of God
that did the deeds of salvation is often stated with emphasis
in the historical narratives. The great mass of the army
must be sent home by Gideon, that Israel may not ascribe
to its own martial prowess what the wonderful mercy of God
achieves. 2 So it is said in the song of Deborah : " Since the
rulers rule in Israel, and the people offer themselves willingly,
praise ye the Lord ; " and " There was neither shield nor sword
among forty thousand in Israel." 8 And the royal anthem
runs : " Some trust in chariots, and some in horses, but we
will make mention of the name of Jehovah our God." 4 God s
grace is perfectly free and depends solely on His own being.
He has mercy on whomsoever He will, 5 and whosoever is to
live, him He writes in His book. 6 Hence, with all the joy
which the consciousness of being righteous causes, humility is
the key-note of Israel s piety. " I am not worthy of the
least of all the mercies, and of all the truth which thou hast
showed unto Thy servant." 7
This humble consciousness of God s mercy meets us equally
in all the prophets, from Amos to Zechariah, becoming always
clearer and deeper. God chose the people freely, for the
fathers sake, as it runs in Deuteronomy. 8 It pleased Him,
for His righteousness sake, that is, in order to reveal those
statutes of His that bring salvation, 9 to magnify the law and
make it honourable. It was not any special virtue, goodness,
or wisdom, in Israel that influenced Him. On the contrary,
the people was a sinful people. 10 This is everywhere the
1 2 Sam. vi. 21 ff., vii. 18f., 27. 2 Judg. vii. 2ff.
3 Judg. v. 2, 8 ; 1 Sam. ii. 9. 4 Ps. xx. 8.
5 Ex. xxxiii. 19. 6 Ex. xxxii. 33. 7 Gen. xxxii. 10.
8 Ps. cv. 8ff.; Deut. vii. 8, ix. 5, 27, iv. 37, x. 14 f., xxxiii. 3.
8 B. J. xlii. 21.
10 Deut. vii. 7f., viii. 14, 17, ix. 4f., x. 14 f.; cf. ix. 6, 13.
GRACE AND SALVATION. 29
utterance of the truly pious : " Not unto us, Lord ; not unto
us, but unto thy name give the glory." l And the watchword
is : " Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit." 2
God found Israel like a deserted child, given over to
death. 3 He redeemed him ; * nay, He was the first to create,
that is, form him into a people. 5 He found Israel like
grapes in the wilderness. He drew him to Himself like a
son with the cords of love. 6 He begat him as His son, so
that even the individual members of the people are His
children. 7 He chose him as His inheritance, 8 His peculiar
treasure, 9 His spouse, 10 His priest, and His anointed, 11 His
Jeshurun. 12 He carried him from the womb, 13 drew him with
bands of love, 14 wrote out for him laws innumerable, 15 put His
Holy Spirit within him, 16 led him into Canaan, 17 the land of
rest, planted him there as a noble vine 18 of the right sort,
that is, one that will not belie expectation, bore him aloft on
His wings as an eagle its young. 19 " They are My people,"
saith God, " children that will not lie." " In all their
affliction, He was afflicted." 20
And this relation did not change. God s love did not
forsake Israel ; nor did Israel ever find God fail to keep
His part of the covenant. He was always ready to help,
and was only prevented by Israel s faithlessness. Even
I Ps. cxv. 1. Zech. iv. 6 ; Ps. cxlvii. 10.
3 Ezek. xvi. Iff. 4 B. J. xxxv. 10 (Is. xxix. 22).
5 B. J. xliii. 1, 15, 21, xliv. 2, 21, liv. 5 (Hos. viii. 14).
6 Deut. i. 31, viii. 5 ; Hos. viii. 14, xi. 1 ; Isa. i. 2 ; Jer. iii. 4, 19,
xxxi. 9, 20 f. (Ps. Ixxx. 16, Ixxiii. 15).
7 E.g. Hos. ii. 1 ; B. J. xlv. 11, xliii. 6.
8 Deut. iv. 20, ix. 29, xiv. 21 ; 1 Kings viii. 51, 53 ; Jer. xii. 7 ; B. J.
xlvii. 6 ; Ps. xxviii. 9, xxxiii. 12, Ixxviii. 71, xciv. 5, 14.
9 Ps. cxxxv. 4. 10 Hos. i.-iii. ; Ezek. xvi. 8ff., xxiii. 4.
II Hos. iv. 6 ; Hab. iii. 13.
12 rn^S a P e t name formed from i^ (Deut. xxxii. 15, xxxiii. 5, 26 ; Isa. xliv. 2).
13 B. J. xivi 3. 14 Hos. xi. 3ff. 15 Hos. viii. 12.
10 B. J. Ixiii. 11. w Hos. ii. 18 f.; Deut. xii. 9).
18 Jer. ii. 21 (Isa. v. Iff.). 19 Deut. xxxii. 10 f. (Hab. iii. 19).
20 B. J. Ixiii. 8, 16 (for $b read >) ; cf. Amos ii. 9 f. ; Jer. xiv. 8 ; Zech.
ii. 12 (Jer. ii. 3 ; Ps. cxxiv. 1).
30 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
when He punished, it was a father s loving hand that
smote. He is always a Fountain of living waters to His
people. 1 Such love does not fail. Even to hoary old age
will God bear His once-loved people. They are still His
well-beloved, His anointed, His servant whom He has
chosen. 2 Israel dare not complain that his way is hid
from God. 3 This enduring love of God, on which all
hope for the future is built, is like the earlier love out of
which arose the people s estate of salvation free, unmerited
grace. God saves Israel, not because the people had honoured
Him, but in spite of their having grieved Him with their
sins. 4 He saves them for His own sake, for His own name s
sake, that is, because His revelation and His purposes of
salvation are bound up with this people. 5
This belief that God s covenant love for Israel will out
live all His wrath is the key-note of the prophetic method
of writing history. Such history is not the product of a
definitely thought out pragmatism like that of the Levitical
age. But just as little is its highest aim the ascertainment
of facts. It is the expression of the belief that God is the
life of His people, and His love the immovable foundation-
stone both of their present and their future ; that the people
may have deserved nothing but wrath and punishment, but
that God s mercy is greater than Israel s sin.
Consequently, in Israel, righteousness depends wholly on
God s free grace? This free grace has laid the foundations of
holiness with its treasures of redemption and reconciliation,
1 Hos. vii. 13 ; Deut. viii. 5 ; Micah vi. 3ff.; Jer. ii. 5, 13 f., 31.
2 B. J. xliii. 4, xlvi. 4, Ixii. 5, Ixiii. 16; cf. xli. 8f., xlii. 18, xliii. 8, 10,
xlv. 4ff., xlvi. 3; Jer. xxx. 10, etc.
3 B. J. xl. 27 f., 1. 2, xlix. 14, lix. 1.
4 B. J. xlviii. 8, xliii. 22 ff.
6 B. J. xliii. 21, 25 ff., xlviii. 9, 11 ; Ezek. xxxvi. 22. (That God s honour
is bound up with Israel s destiny appears iivJeed as the main argument in the
prayer of Moses, Num. xiv. 13 ff.).
6 ini Deut. vii. 7 f., yT in the sense of "choose" (Gen. xviii. 19); Amos
iii. 2; Hos. xiii. 5.
FAITH. 3 1
with all the good things, the enjoyment of which makes every
son of Israel happy. The individual Israelite is, according to
the view of the whole Old Testament, the object of divine love
simply and solely as a member of this community, because of
the love which God cherishes towards Israel, His first-born
son. Hence his estate of salvation depends entirely on the
gracious acts by which God has called this community into
being. Nor is it due to any merit of his that he is
personally a member of this community, that being, in no
sense, the result of a definite moral act. He is simply born
into it, and receives the covenant -mark of circumcision
without any co-operation of his own. There is thus no act
of a moral kind, such as would have been possible, had he
been among another people and of another religion. The
first commandment runs : " Thou shalt have no other God
but the One who brought Israel out of Egypt." Hence
Israel has no righteousness of his own, but only a righteous
ness bestowed by God and due to His free grace. 1
4. The divine life communicated by grace can be received
by faith alone. Hence, in the Old as in the New Testament,
faith is the subjective condition of salvation. Nowhere in
the Old Testament, it is true, is there found any doctrine of
justification by faith. The idiom is everywhere perfectly
elastic. As one may speak of " trusting a man " 2 or " trust
ing in a man," 3 so one may speak of trusting God, " waiting
upon Him," 4 " putting one s trust in Him," 5 " seeking refuge
in Him." 6 But not one of these phrases is used in anything
1 Even A does not overlook this grand fundamental pre - supposition,
although he unquestionably connects "righteousness" much more closely with
moral and ceremonial acts (Gen. vi. xvii.).
2 ^ pOKH, Gen. xlv. 26 ; Ex. iv. 8, 9 (the root-idea being that of holding
"firm and sure") ; Deut. i. 32, ix. 23 ; cf. Ex. xiv. 31, xix. 9.
3 3 pDNn, Ex. xix. 9 (in regard to God ; cf. e.g. Num. xiv. 11, xx. 10,
12 f.; Gen. xv. 6; 2 Kings xvii. 14; Ps. cvi. 12; Ex. iv. 5; Num. xiv. 11),
4 mp. 6 , 3 rm, Ps. iv. 7, xxi. 8.
6 3 non, Ps. vii. 2, xviii. 3, 31, ii. 12, xvi. 1.
32 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
like the Pauline sense of the word "faith." And in the
ages when religious diction is more highly developed, it is
not essentially different from what it was at first. " To put
one s trust in God," a " to seek refuge in Him," and " to
trust in His word," 2 stand parallel to each other. Immov
able constancy and peace of mind, 8 or the cleaving of the
soul to God, 4 is also emphasised. Other expressions give
greater prominence to the hopeful side of faith, e.g. hoping
in God, 5 waiting for His salvation, 6 hoping in His word, 7
trembling in joyous hope and expectation at the word of
His promise. 8 In these words, assuredly, the essence of
evangelical faith is described ; not indeed in a theological
setting, but by a simple emphasising of its most essential
characteristics. The essence of faith on its subjective side is
most comprehensively stated in the word " trust," taken quite
absolutely. 9
That this faith alone is decisive of salvation is not expressly
stated by most of the writers. And even those who think so
rather leave it to be inferred from the facts than state it as a
do^ma. This is the case with B and C. The first rise of
O
Adam and Eve, after the fall, is really an act of faith. 10 Noah
1 Ps. xxv. 1-3, xxvi. 1, xxxvii. 3, 5 (^Jj), Hi. 10, Ixii. 9, Ixxxiv. 13,
Ixxxvi. 2, xci. 2, cxii. 7, cxv. 9, cxxv. 1 ; 2 Kings xviii. 5 ; Prov. iii. 5, etc.
2 Ps. v. 12, xxxiv. 23, xxv. 20, Ivii. 2, Ixxi. 1, cxviii. 8 f. ; Prov. xxx. 5 ;
Zepli. iii. 12 ; Nah. i. 7.
3 TIED, Ps. cxii. 8 ; B. J. xxvi. 3, fO3, Ps. Ivii. 8. Here belongs also
the H31DN of Hab. ii. 4 (2 Kings xii. 16, xxii. 7, "loyalty and faith").
4 2 pm, 2 Kings xviii. 6 ; cf. 3 pETl, Ps. xci. 14.
5 ^, ta nip (also Q^lp with ace. B. J. xl. 31) ; Ps. xxv. 21, xxvii. 14,
xxxvii. 34, xl. 2, cxxx. 5 ; cf. xxxvii. 9, Ixix. 7 ; Hos. xii. 7 ; Lam. iii. 25 ;
Isa. viii. 17.
6 ^n" 1 and binin, Ps. xxxiii. 18, xxxix. 8, xlii. 6, cxix. 74, cxxx. 5, 7,
cxxxi. 3.
7 nan, Zeph. iii. 8 ; Ps. xxxiii. 20 ; Isa. viii. 17, xxx. 18 ; B. J. Ixiv. 3
(Dan. xii. 12).
8 Tin, Hos - xi - n > B - J - lxyi 2 > 5 ( Deut * 36 > mn * nr| N NTO
9 Isa. vii. 9, fJDtfn (Ex. iv. 31) ; Jer. ii. 10 f. is interesting, because there
an honest loyalty, even to false gods, is reckoned to the Gentiles as a virtue.
10 Gen. iii. 20, iv. 1.
FAITH. 33
is saved because he accepts in faith the warning given him by
God, incredible though it was to the bodily senses. 1 Abraham
is from the first the hero of faith. By faith he quits his home
to journey to a land that has not been so much as named,
but to which God is to guide him. 2 By faith he accepts the
promise of what appeared impossible to the senses. " He be
lieved in Jehovah, and He counted it to him for righteousness." 3
Sarah alone ventures to laugh, and to disbelieve the unprece
dented promise ; and even she wishes to deny this want of
faith. 4 Lot s rescue out of Sodom is due to faith. His relatives
mock and perish. His wife looks behind her, and becomes a
lifeless pillar. 5 By faith Abraham is ready to give up the one
visible pledge of God s promise, the son whom he had miracu
lously obtained. 6 In short, his religious pre-eminence is due
to faith. He is in very truth the " father of the faithful." Then,
in spite of all his moral weakness, Jacob-Israel is in a very
special degree a man of faith ; Esau being, in comparison with
him, the sensualist who gladly surrenders the unseen salvation
of the future for the lentil-pottage of the present. 7 No other
theory gives us the key to the two characters as sketched in
B, C. By faith Moses has first a personal experience of
salvation ; then by faith the people accept him, and by faith
they become the people of God. 8 Thus faith is everywhere
the foundation of salvation. 9
Now as the salvation of the whole people rests upon this
faith, so likewise no individual can embrace and retain this
1 Gen. vii. 5.
2 Gen. xii. 1-4. In B, Canaan is not named as in A. It is merely "the
land that I will show thee." In B the journey to Canaan is not, as in A,
really a mere continuance of the journey already begun by Terah. The crisis
of faith is purposely put in the very foreground.
3 Gen. xv. 6, C. 4 Gen. xviii. 12-15. 5 Gen. xix. 14, 17, 19, 26.
6 Gen. xxii. 1, 12, 18. 7 E.<j. Gen. xxv. 32 ff. 8 Ex. iii. 11 ff.
9 Ex. iv. 1, 8 f . 31, xxiv. 3, 7 (xix. 8). How far this point of view is lost in
A may be learned, e.g. by comparing the history of Abraham in A with that in
B. But even A, of course, acknowledged faith as the principle that saves,
and unbelief as the principle that destroys (cf. on the one hand, Ex. vii. 5,
xiv. 31, and on the other, Num. xi. 4, xiv. 11, xx. 10).
VOL. II. C
34 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
salvation except by faith. The Israelite finds himself placed
by birth and circumcision, in a circle well-pleasing to God.
He has not to win for himself, by a sinlessness which the law
nowhere requires of him, a relation to God void of reproach, or
to merit salvation by earnest efforts of self-denial and deeds
of high endeavour. Of asceticism this religion knows nothing.
Even in the law, fasting occurs only as a preparation for the
great day of atonement, or as a voluntary expression of peni
tence. 1 All that is required, and all that the " righteous "
among this people ever show, is in truth an active faith. To
surrender himself wholly and unreservedly to the Eedeemer
of Israel as his God, to accept the salvation embodied in the
covenant as his salvation, to acknowledge and love the ordin
ances of life revealed in it as the ordinances of redemption ; in
short, to acknowledge all the habits of life developed by the
influence of the revelation and the sacred customs of Israel as
those that should influence and govern his own life, to be
convinced that thus only are true life, happiness, and salvation
to be found, all this is what makes a true Israelite. Without
this faith there is no morality ; since faith in this God as the
only God of salvation is the first commandment. Without
this faith, moreover, there is no atonement ; for all atonement
is effected, not by human acts, but by ordinances and
arrangements of divine grace. This fact is so fundamental
that its influence is everywhere felt, even in the sacrificial
ritual of A. Nay more, the smallest sin, if it be of the
nature of rebellion, by which a person puts himself, through
unbelief, beyond the pale of salvation, and declines to acknow
ledge Israel s salvation as his, is unpardonable. This is to
despise God. So long as a person remains estranged from the
will of God, he cannot obtain forgiveness.
5. Accordingly, an Israelite s righteousness depends, not
on his own merits, but on God s grace. And it is obtained,
not by " works " or acts good in themselves, but by faith, the
1 Lev. xvi. 29, 31 ; Num. xxix. 7 xxx. 14.
FAITH. 35
only source from which good works can spring. But not till
Israel s religion and nationality were in the utmost jeopardy,
and the visible blessings of salvation were disappearing and
perishing day by day, was a, clear consciousness of the neces
sity of faith attained. In such times the personal relation of
the people and of the individual to faith had necessarily to
come to the front in quite a different fashion from what it did
in the days when the national religion was being quietly devel
oped. In such times the saints had to turn with greater
resolution from the visible blessings of salvation to the
eternal invisible reality, or else to apprehend them as future
blessings. Faith became the assurance of things hoped for,
the evidence of things not seen. Accordingly, it is not till
the eighth century that we find justification by faith definitely
taught by the poets and prophets.
Faith is what the prophets require of the people as the
necessary condition of salvation. " If ye will not believe,
surely ye shall not be established." l In face of the world,
with its power and glory, in face of vain self-confidence, the
true Israel puts its trust in God, and lives by means of this
steady, constant loyalty to Him. 2 " Cursed be the man that
trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm ; blessed be the
man that trusteth in God." 3 Deuteronomy specially censures
the unbelief of the people, 4 and insists that the aim of divine
revelation is to awaken a faith which even signs and won
ders will not shake. 5 Canaan is given to the people just
because it is a land of faith, the prosperity of which remains
continually dependent on the goodness of God in sending
rain. 6 And the exilic Isaiah especially demands of the people
1 Isa. vii. 9, viii. 17, xxviii. 16 ; 2 Chron. xx. 20.
2 Hab. ii. 4 ; Jer. v. 3 ; B. J. xxv. 9, xxvi. 2, 3, 8 ; Ps. Ixii. 2, 6 (cf. Jer.
xxxix. 18 ; B. J. 1. 10 ; Isa. xxx. 15).
3 Jer. xvii. 5, 7 ; Nab. i. 7 ; B. J. xlix. 23 ; Zqvh. iii. 8, 12.
4 Deut. i. 32, ix. 23 (2 Kings xvii. 14).
5 Deut. vii. 17 ff., viii. 3, xiii. 2 f., xxxii. 11, 39.
G Deut. xi. 10-17. This passage is of great interest, as showing us the author s
view of the laws of nature, and his idea of miracles.
36 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
a firm conviction of God s irresistible might, as well as of His
inexhaustible covenant love. 1 Hence the true Israel is the
people of the poor and needy, who have their faith centred, not in
themselves, but in God. 2 And as the psalms of the prophetic
period testify to the blessedness of faith, the book of Job shows
us that the inmost secret thereof is to keep hold of God, even
where reason and human insight can no longer recognise Him.
For the prophets faith throws itself, in the nature of things,
more and more upon hope, upon the salvation of the future,
rather than on that of the present, which is daily crumbling
into ruins. The piety of the prophetic age, with the excep
tion of the last century before the destruction of Jerusalem
and the Exile, was certainly never what Christian people
often imagine Old Testament piety to have been, a piety
that was absolutely dissatisfied with the present life, and
concerned solely with the corning salvation. It is, however,
the watchword and the mark of the saints "to wait upon the
Lord, who has for the present hidden His face from both houses
of Israel " 3 that is, in spite of God s apparent displeasure, to
cling to His mercy in the future. God acts for him who
waits upon Him, delivers him who calls upon His name, and
never puts to shame such as hope in Him. 4 Hence faith is
the way of life ; he that putteth his trust in God shall inherit
His holy mountain. 6
As faith is the cause of salvation, so unbelief is the cause of
all Israel s misery. 6 It allows his convictions to be determined
by what is material, by the power of the world, external mis
fortune, and a sense of his own strength ; it is faint-hearted
doubt as to the power of God, or haughty defiance of His will.
6. It in no way conflicts with the fundamental idea of
Old Testament salvation, as we have just explained it, that
1 B. J. xl. 28 if., 1. 2, lix. 1 ; cf. xlix. 14 f., 1. 1 ff.
2 B. J. Ixvi. 2 f.; cf. Ps. xxii., Ixix., etc.
3 Isa. viii. 17 (even heathen lands "wait upon Him," B. J. li. 5).
4 B. J. xlix. 23, Ixiv. 3 f.; Joel ii. 17 ; Nah. i. 7. 5 B. J. Ivii. 13.
6 Deut. i. 32, ix. 23 ; 2 Kings xvii. 14 ; Ps. Ixxviii. 8, 19, 22, 32, etc.
FAITH AND LAW. 3*7
in the book of the covenant, and also in Deuteronomy and
the prophets, God lays moral injunctions on His people, and
makes " life " contingent on obedience to them. For that does
not mean that the Israelite attains to an estate of salvation
by his work. It is only on the ground of being already in an
estate of salvation that such work is possible, and gets a real
value. And, on the other hand, since the divine life is revealed
in the human as determining the aim of the latter, it cannot
be received in faith without at the same time binding the will ;
that is, unless one honestly intends to take this revealed life
as the rule of one s own life. No one can honestly enter into
a covenant without intending to keep its conditions to the letter.
Hence in Israel the law is certainly not, in the first instance,
a mere demand of a moral kind, given to man as man. It
is the unfolding of the divine life for this people and for
this age. It is, in the first instance, a gift of grace. It
shows the people a way of life which embraces and defines all
the circumstances of their natural life. A non-Israelite or an
unbeliever cannot fulfil it at all ; but a believer will not feel its
restrictions irksome. In so far as he is a believing child of
his people, he cannot for a single moment refuse to obey it. 1
We have here undoubtedly one of the main limitations of
Mosaism. The individual demands for material holiness
that were a living force among the people, and were after
wards codified in the law, did not in themselves stand in any
direct relation to the fundamental thoughts which spring
spontaneously out of faith. Many single commandments are,
at least when looked at from the outside, quite independent of
faith. Faith, it is true, necessarily inclined a man to obey the law
as a whole. But in many individual acts this inclination could
1 Such, is the relation, as expounded even iu A. The covenant with Noah
includes the hallowing of human life, and the prohibition of blood ; the covenant,
with Abraham includes circumcision and walking " before God " (one is to think
of God s eye being fixed upon one s path in life) (Gen. ix. 4 ff., xvii. 1). And the
covenant with Israel pledges the people to obey the principles of national holi
ness (Ex. xv. 26, xix. 5, xx. 1 ff.).
38 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
not work directly, but only indirectly, because such acts were
habitual in Israel. In a perfect morality, however, every act
must be directly due to heartfelt conviction. In this respect
the prophetic period, in so far as it is influenced by the prophets
themselves, shows us a decidedly higher stage. Inasmuch as
morality is mainly traced back to the disposition as its centre, to
goodness and truth, and the outward forms of it thrown quite
into the background, it becomes a direct and necessary expres
sion of faith in the covenant God and in His goodness and truth.
Works which are of any value at all become fruits of faith. 1
The limitation just mentioned did not become an actual
danger to the progress of religion, until the labours of the
priestly lawgivers became national laws, and thus introduced
an undue amount of Levitical ceremonial into the ordinary
lite of Israel. Then the hitherto natural externality of
righteousness became conscious Pharisaism. In former
days the prophets, from Amos to Jeremiah, had defended
the religious and moral conception of Israel s calling
against the external view held by the people, and afterwards
against the exaggerated value which the priestly circles were
beginning to attacli to salvation by works. Isa. Iviii. still
speaks quite in the tone of the great prophets. But after
Ezra the centre of gravity becomes more and more displaced.
The law had undergone a long and varied process of develop
ment, and every Israelite of the later period thought it a
divine, Mosaic unity. Everything had been worked into its
great fundamental thoughts, and made organic, in order to
express the one self-revealing life of the holy God. The taking
out of a single stone made the whole temple totter. Everything
was combined into a magnificent unity, that gathered the whole
life of the people, its pettiest details as well as its greatest,
around the one centre. And since, according to the main idea
of the covenant, Israel was to be a holy people, that is, God s
peculiar treasure, the whole law was regarded as a revelation
1 1 Sam. xv. 22 ; Jer. vii. 22.
THE WOIIKS OF THE LAW. 39
of what befits such a people and is in keeping with the true
character of its God. But this was in principle the transition
from a religion of faith to a religion of legality, however cer
tain it may be, as numerous psalms prove, that the piety of
many individual Israelites preserved them from it.
7. From this time onwards, this became more and more
the ruling tendency. It was to the outward forms, ordinances,
and objects of worship, by which Israel was distinguished
from the other peoples, that the religious community which
inhabited the second Jerusalem attached the greatest interest
and importance; and the law, of which A is now the centre,
is represented as practically identical with God s whole revela
tion to Israel. In the holy Jerusalem, as the city is called
on Maccabean coins, the objects of highest honour are the
temple and its priesthood. The servants of God who stand
by night in the house of God, 1 the priests, who were already
beginning to be described as angels of God, 2 if indeed they
were not thought of as being, at least relatively, exempt from
human sin, stand before every one else. 3 And in direct oppo
sition to the noble spirit in which the prophets subordinate
the sacred form to the spiritual meaning, such forms now
begin to be placed in the foreground. Even Malachi, who
otherwise still preaches pure prophetic morality, charity,
fidelity, and godly fear, 4 and who, indeed, insists that the
hard-hearted men who put away their wives cannot possibly
offer to God acceptable sacrifices, 5 nevertheless denounces, in the
strongest terms, the insufficiency of the offerings ; 6 and he is
particularly severe on the priests for their careless and arbitrary
performance of the sacred ritual. 7 The chief anxiety of these
1 Ts. cxxxiv. 1. 2 Mai. ii. 7 ; Kcclcs. v. 5.
3 Dan. ix. G, according to Hitzig ; to mo the interpretation seems hazardous.
4 Mai. i. 6, ii. 10, 15, iii. 4. 5 Mai. ii. 131 .
G Mai. i. 7-14, iii. 91 . This emphasising of "public worship," the cessation
of which would be the heaviest misfortune that could befall the country, is
one of the features which point to the conclusion that the book of Joel should
be assigned to this period (i. 9).
7 Ezra ii. 36 ff., iii. 3 ff., vii. 7, viii. 15 if., x. 18 ; Neh. viii. 1 ff., 14 If., ix. 4.
13 If., x. 31 ff., xiii. 15 ff.
40 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
men is about singers, doorkeepers, Levites, the proper observ
ance of feast days and Sabbaths, and the providing of abund
ant means for carrying on public worship. 1 The division of
time is regulated by the morning and the evening sacrifice. 2
There are men regularly appointed to conduct the prayers of
the congregation. 3 In like manner, according to Daniel, the
desecration of the golden vessels of the temple brings down
judgment upon the Chaldean king. 4 The consecration of the
Holy of holies, and the offering of the daily sacrifice, form the
turning point of the prophecy. 5 The unpardonable sin of
Antiochus is the altering of times and statutes. 6
In times of religious persecution, when the faithful
observance of outward forms is at once a bold confession of
one s own religion and an expression of fidelity to it, such
emphasising of sacred form may be perfectly lawful and
praiseworthy. For this reason even the Exilic Isaiah gives
prominence to the Sabbath and to commandments as to
food. And in the heroic age of the Maccabees, the pro
minence given to such things is required by loyalty to
the true faith. But with the return of quieter times, any
such tendency is a great danger to the inner truth of
religion.
This point of view is most strongly illustrated by the
way in which the history of Israel is set before us in
Chronicles. This book can find no more important matters
to describe than minute details about public worship, 7 and
priestly rights. 8 It never tires of showing that the divine
1 Neh. ix. 4, xi. 20 ff., xiii. 15 ff. 2 Ezra ix. 4 (Dan. ix. 21).
3 Neli. xi. 17 ; 1 Chron. xxiii. 30. 4 Dan. v. 1 ff.
5 Dan. ix. 24, xii. 11, 6 Dan. vii. 25, viii. 11 ff., ix. 27.
7 1 Chron. ix. 19ff., xiii., xv., xvi., xxii., xxviii., xxix. ; cf. vi. 16ff., 24,
29, ix. 33, xv. 16ff., xvi. 4ff., 37 ff., xxiii. 5, xxv.; 2 Chron. ii., iii., iv.,
xxix. 25 ff., xxx., xxxi., xxxv.; cf. viii. 14 f.
8 1 Chron. vi. 33 ff., ix. 26 ff., xiii. 2, xv. 2ff., xvi. 4ff., 37 ff., xxiii.-xxvi.;
2 Chron. v. 12, vii. 6, viii. 12 ff., xvii. 8, xx. 21, xxiii. 18, xxix. 11 ff., 34,
xxx. 15-21, xxxi. 2ff., 11 ff., xxxv. 2-19. (Exaggeration of their political
influence, 2 Chron. vi. 41, xix 8ff., xxiii. 2, 4-9, xxiv. 2f., xxvi. 17 ff.)
THE WORKS OF THE LAW. 41
blessing or curse depends on the greater or less purity of
the worship. 1 Uzziah s attack on the privileges of the
Levites is the cause of his leprosy. 2 That king Asa, when
sick, consulted physicians, is represented as a sign of un
belief. 3 David, the man of God, is represented as scarcely
busying himself during the last years of his life about any
thing but the building of the temple, and the ceremonial
arrangements of the Levites. 4 Indeed, he must have got,
like Moses, a plan of God s house from God Himself.
Solomon gets a pulpit made for him as if he had been
a real " Sopher." 6 The daughter of Pharaoh has a palace of
her own, because the ark of the covenant has made the
city of David too holy for her. 6 The Levites and the priests
leave the idolatrous Northern kingdom and betake themselves
to Judah. Athaliah is deposed, not by the soldiers, but by
the Levites. 7 The Chronicler tells us nothing about David s
adultery, his flight from Absalom, or Solomon s idolatry;
he knows nothing about Sennacherib compelling Hezekiah to
pay tribute. On the other hand, Josiah s death has to be
attributed to his refusal to believe the word of God from
the mouth of Necho. 8 Jehoshaphat s victory is won by
prayer and by the singing of the Levites. 9 In the history
of Manasseh we get quite a little sermon on idolatry,
punishment, penitence, deliverance, and thankful joy. 10
When the outward forms of religion are so much emphasised,
1 E.g. 2 Chron. xii. 1, 7, 12, xiii. 10, 12, 14, xiv. 2-end, xv. 8, 15, xvii. 4ff.,
xix. 3, xx. 3, xxi. 10 f., 16, 18, xxii. 5ff, xxiii. 17, xxiv. 18, 24, xxv. 10, 11,
14, 20, 22, 27, xxvi. 4ff., 17 ff., xxvii. 2, 4ff., xxviii. 1, 5ff., 19, xxix. 2-end,
xxx. 1, xxxiii. 2 if., 11 ff., 22 ff., xxxiv. 2ff, 27, xxxvi. 9 IF.
2 2 Chron. xxvi. 16 IF. (cf. 2 Kings xv. 4ff.).
3 2 Chron. xvi. 12 (cf. on the other hand Jes. Sir. xxxviii. 1 ff.).
4 1 Chron. xxii., xxviii., xxix. (2 Chron. viii. 14). The headings in the
Psalter presuppose as an axiom the "clerical " character of " the sweet singer"
of Israel.
5 1 Chron. xxviii. 19 ; cf. Ex. xxv. 40 (2 Chron. vi. 13).
8 2 Chron. viii. 11. 7 2 Chron. xi. 13 ff., xiii. 9-12 (xxiii.).
8 2 Chron. xxxv. 22. 9 2 Chron. xx. 21 f., 3, 13.
10 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11 ff.
42 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
it is quite impossible to retain, in its purity, the grand
prophetic conception that the moral law has to do only with
the disposition. Despite the fulness of moral knowledge by
which even these ages are characterised, undue prominence
is given to the details of ceremonial purity, and thus the
connection between conduct and faith is loosened. Religion
becomes more and more legal. Morality comes to mean
doing " the works of the law." There can be no question
that this is the theory which determines the Chronicler s
view of morality. 1 The morality of the book of Esther is
of exactly the same stamp. 2 In all Ezra s efforts at reform,
festivals and Sabbaths, Levitical statutes, and avoidance of
what is foreign are always put in the forefront. 3 The
chief means of securing one s wishes, whether special or
general, appear to be fasting, long prayers, and mourning. 4
Such is the meaning that echoes through the didactic
Psalm cxix., with its emphasising of prayer seven times
a day, and loyalty to the law. 5 And even in Daniel
true piety demands, not merely an unflinching heroic con
fession of one s own religion, 6 but strict abstinence from
unclean foods, 7 and regular prayer with the face duly turned
towards Jerusalem. 8 As means of atonement alms, 9 fasting,
and prayer in sackcloth and ashes are recommended. 10
Thus, in opposition to the Old Testament idea of salvation,
there is here in process of formation that Si/caioavwrj ef
epycov against which Jesus, and afterwards Paul, had to
struggle. The ideal of righteousness is no longer integrity
sustained by piety, but obedience to God s statutes and
judgments, as shown in exemplary fulfilment of prescribed
1 1 Chron. v. 25, x. 13f., cf. xiii. 10, xxviii. 7f., xxix. 19; cf. Keli.
ix. 29.
2 Estli. iv. 3, 16, ix. 19-32 (31).
;l Ezra x. 1, 9 ; Neh. ix. 34, 38, x. 29 f., i. 5, 7, 9.
4 Ezra viii. 21, 23, ix. 6ff.; Neh. i. 4 (Joel ii. 16).
5 Ps. cxix. 30, 38, 76, 82, 103, 130, 154, 162, 164 ; cf. Ps. cxli. 2.
6 Dan. iii. 18, vi. 6, 11 (m). 7 Dan. i. 8-16. 8 Dan. ii. 19, vi. 10.
9 Dau. iv. 24. 10 Dan. ix. 3, x. 3, 12.
THE WORKS OF THE LAW. 43
religious and ceremonial forms. Beyond a doubt, the Preacher
has already in view such " righteousness " as this when he gives
the recommendation, " Be not righteous over much." x For
moral indolence is not at all in his line of thought, and he
evidently means by this righteousness, sacrifices, refusal to
swear, etc. 2 Besides, his warning against babbling in prayer,
and against hasty vows, 3 presupposes such degeneration.
The sense of sin is of a similar kind. It is very deep
and humbling. In many books of this period, indeed,
there is almost too great an inclination to self-accusation, 4
though in such a way that this penitential confession appears
quite meritorious in itself, 5 is mainly directed to sacred
form, 6 and frankly alternates with a very decided prominence
being given to the person s own righteousness and merits. 7
A national life, knit together by the bonds of a thousand
laws, the keeping of which is a condition of its " holiness,"
must necessarily be weighed down with a consciousness of
" impurity." This, in its turn, produces an atonement of an
external kind based on positive statutes, and then easily
changes into a proud consciousness of " purity."
Even in the centuries immediately before Christ, the after
effects of prophetic morality are still felt. In the books of the
Hellenistic school we find no endeavour after " the righteous
ness of the law " properly so called ; in Jesus the son of
Sirach, at least, there is only a trace of it here and there.
But in Baruch who, in other respects, follows the prophets
closely, special importance is given, not merely to Jerusalem
itself, 8 but also to weeping, fasting, prayer, sacrifices, and
1 Eccles. vii. 16. 2 Eccles. ix. 2. 3 Eecles. v. 1, 3, 4.
4 Ezra ix. G, 7, 15, x. 1, 9; Neh. i. 7, ix. 1 f., 10, 20, xiii. 15ft .; Dan. ix.
4-20; Ps. Ixxix. 81 ., <:.vi. G.
5 Ezra x. 1 ff. ; Neh. i. 7, ix. L II .
6 Cf. the passages from Ezra and Nchemiah in Note 4.
7 Xeh. v. 19, xiii. 14, 22, 31. In Ecclcsiastcs sin is regarded more as a
necessary evil (vii. 18, 21), but God is declared free of all Llame in connection
with it (ver. 29).
8 Bar. iv. 8 ff.
44 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
feasts. 1 Though the book of Tobit has, on the whole, a
thoroughly moral tendency, it attaches undue importance to
almsgiving, 2 prayer, weeping and fasting, 3 and to going up to
the temple in Jerusalem to offer tithes and partake of the
joyous sacrificial meal. 4 These things, as well as the horror
of eating heathen bread, 5 and the stress laid upon burying
fellow-countrymen, 6 show us what a pious man, in the time
of the second temple, regarded as the lean-ideal of righteous
ness. 7 The first book of the Maccabees shows us that
the Hasidseans, who seek righteousness and judgment, 8 are
specially indignant at any desecration of the temple service,
or breach of the commandments regarding food, 9 and are
zealous for circumcision, the Sabbath, and the Sabbatical
year. 10 The resolution to defend themselves on the Sabbath
day appears just to be a reaction in favour of its healthy
observance. 11 The second book of Maccabees is specially
fond of glorifying the temple itself by legends, 12 insists on
circumcision, and on the commandments regarding food, as well
as on the Levitical arrangements 13 in general, the Sabbaths 14
arid the other feast days. 15 Prominence is given to weeping
and fasting. 16 The doctrine of retribution is understood in
a very external fashion so that, for example, all the Jews
who fell in a certain luckless battle were afterwards made out
to be men who had defiled themselves with idolatry. 17 The
1 Bar. i. 5, 10, 14.
2 Tob. i. 3, 16 ff., ii. 15, iv. 7ff., cf. 16, xii. 8f., xiv. 4, 9, 10, 14.
3 Tob. xii. 9. 4 Tob. i. 6, 7 (ii. 1).
5 Tob. i. 12. 6 Tob. i. 17 f., ii. 4.
7 Tob. i. 3, ii. 14, iv. 7, xii. 9. 8 1 Mace. vii. 17, ii. 29 ; cf. 2 Mace. xiv. 6.
9 1 Mace. i. 43, 45 ff., 54, 62 f., iii. 47 ff., iv. 42 ff., vi. 7.
10 1 Mace. i. 15 f., 60, ii. 46 (against the Gymnasia i. 15; cf. 2 Mace. iv.
12 if.) ; cf. 1 Mace. i. 43, ii. 32-38, vi. 49, 53.
11 1 Mace. ii. 41.
12 2 Mace. i. Sff., v. 15, xiii. 23, xv. 18, vi. 2 (iii. 18 ff., a prayer for the
preservation of the temple-treasures).
13 2 Mace. vi. 10, 18, vii. i.; cf. i. 8.
14 2 Mace. vi. 6, viii. 26, xii. 38, xv. 1 ff.
15 2 Mace. xii. 31. 1G 2 Mace. xiii. 12.
17 2 Mace. xii. 40 ff.; cf. v. 17, xiii. 8.
THE WORKS OF THE LAW. 45
intercession of Onias restores Heliodorus to health ; and two
thousand drachmae are sent to Jerusalem as a sin-offering for
the slain, that it may be well with them in the resurrection. 1
These and other instances of a piety becoming more and
more external 2 are found alongside of a truly admirable
spirit of penitence. 3
The third book of the Maccabees turns mainly on the
inviolable sanctity of the temple. 4 Prayer in appropriate atti
tudes is given an extraordinary importance. 5 But the book
of Judith, in particular, has a tone quite in accordance with
Pharisaism proper. In it the high priest, even in Nebu
chadnezzar s time, is, along with the elders, the civil head of
the people. 6 When the heroine of the book is to be repre
sented as extremely pious, the greatest emphasis is laid on
sacrifices and incense-offering, on lifelong widowhood, on much
fasting, which is interrupted only during the festivals, on
lustrations, clean meats, long prayers, and mourning in sack
cloth and ashes. 7 It is for the holy vessels which have been
consecrated anew that the greatest apprehension is felt. 8 And
if there is no lawlessness in Israel, that is, if the people refrain
from idolatry and unclean meats, then they are looked upon
as invincible, because in that case they are "upright before
God." 9 These are clearly traces of the teaching which com
pelled Paul to oppose Judaism, the religion of the law, by
Christianity, the religion of faith. With the righteousness of
1 2 Mace. iii. 32 ff., xii. 43 ff.
2 Along with these, e.g., the view of suicide so thoroughly characteristic of
antiquity (2 Mace. xiv. 42 ff. ).
3 2 Mace. vii. 18, 32, 38. 4 3 Mace. i. 29.
5 3 Mace. i. 16, ii. 1. 6 Jud. iv. 6, xv. 10.
7 Jud. iv. 7ff., vi. 15 ff., viii. 6, 7, ix. 1, 13, x. 1 ff., 5, xii. 7, 9, 20, xvi. 18,
19, 27.
8 Jud. iv. 2 f.
9 Jud. v. 21 ; cf. viii. 18, 21, xi. 11 f. The fourth book of Ezra keeps prac
tically within Daniel s circle of thought ; cf. e.g. viii. 32, 36, ix. 7, and v, 13.
20, vi. 31, 35, etc. The ideal of righteousness in the Solomonic Psalms is
simply that of the better Pharisaism, cf. c.(j. P.s. iii. 8ff., ix. 7ff; indeed, the
Pharisaic antagonism to the Sadducee aristocracy shows itself all through (e.g.
Ps. iv.).
46 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
the prophets, from Amos to Jeremiah, Christianity might at
once have joined hands. Face to face with this religion, it
had to create something altogether new. Here, also, we are
shown how in the kingdom of God great advances are rendered
possible by apparent retrogression and decay.
CHAPTER III.
THE HOLINESS OF THE PEOPLE IN REGARD TO RELIGIOUS
AND MORAL ACTS. THE MORAL LAW.
LITERATURE. Bertheau, Die sielcn Gruppen mosaiscJter G-e-
setze in den drei mittleren Buchern des Pentateuch, Gb tt. 1840.
Kwald, GesMMe des Volkes Israel, ii. 205-217. Geffken,
Ueber die verscJiiedenen Eintheilungen des Decalogus und den
Einfluss derselben auf den Cultus, Hamb. 1838. E. Meier,
Ueber den Decalog, 1846. Sonntag und Ziillig, "Ueber die
Eintheilung des Decalogs" (Theol Stud. u. Krit., 1836, 1;
1837, 1, 2). Lemme, Die religionsgescJiichtliche Bedeutung
des Deccdogs, 1880. Otto, Deccdogisclie UntersucJiungen, Halle
1857. Bruno Bauer, "Die Principien der mosaischen Rechts-
und Religionsverfassung " (Zeitsch. f. speculative Theologie,
Bd. ii. 2, p. 297ff., 1838). Oehler, "Decalog, Blutrache"
(in Herzog, 2nd ed., Fr. Delitzsch). G. M. Eedslob, Die
Leviratsehe bei den Hebrdern vom archaologischen u. praktischen
Standpunkte untersucht, 1836. Benary, De ffebrceorum
leviratu, Berlin 1835. "Die Eintheilung des Decalogs"
(Erlanger Zeitschrift fur Protestantismus und Kir die, Nov
ember 1858). Mielziner, Die Verhdltnisse der Sclaven lei
den alien Helraern nach biblischen und talmudischen Quellen
dargestellt, Copenhagen 1859.
1. The fundamental condition of righteousness in Israel is,
of course, reverence for the civil, religious, and moral statutes
in force among the people. In the first place, these were
THE DECALOGUE. 47
briefly summarised in the law of Moses as " the ten command-
merits." In the next place, they were given, by the moral
preaching of the prophets, more and more inward depth, and
were set firmly on their everlasting foundations. Finally, in
the later legal writings, since Deuteronomy, they were more
and more worked out into details.
If one wished to divide the moral law into the two tables
on which the narrative supposes it to have been originally
written, so that they might be equal in contents and size, one
would be tempted to distinguish between laws regarding God
and laws regarding one s neighbour. At first sight, indeed,
this appears quite a happy division when one thinks of
Gen. xvii. 1, "Walk before Me" and "be tliou perfect." But
there, as here, morality as a whole is looked at as a duty
toward God, as a result of His declaration, " I am holy." It is
better, therefore, as Geffken rightly sees, to divide the com
mandments, as Philo and Josephus already did, 1 into five of
piety and five of probity. As a refutation of false surmises
regarding the inner plan of the Decalogue, such as are still
made by Ztillig and especially by Sonntag, the work of
Geffken is perfectly conclusive, and is, in fact, a model work.
It is not right, after a fashion early known and still in vogue
among the later Jews, to regard as the first commandment
only the sentence, " I am the Lord thy God," and then to take
as the second commandment the prescription, " Thou shalt have
none other gods before Me, and thou shalt not make unto
thee any graven image." For the first is not a command
ment but a doctrine ; and the second unites two quite distinct
things. Nor is it permissible to stretch the first command
ment, according to the Lutheran-Roman custom, so as to
include the prohibition of idolatry and image-worship ; and to
divide the last commandment against covetousness into two.
For in the one case two separate things are combined ; and
in the other a commandment is divided, the unity of which,
1 Philo, Ed. My. i. 496, ii. 188. Joseph. Ant. iii. 5. 5.
48 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
though clear enough from its contents, is made still clearer
by the fact that the object of covetousness, put first in
Deuteronomy, is different from the one put first in Exodus ; so
that by this method of division the ninth commandment would
have to be different in the two recensions. 1 Of the view based
on Deuteronomy, that in the ninth commandment one is for
bidden to covet one s neighbour s wife, and in the tenth to covet
his goods, as well as cf the numbering adopted by Hesychius, 2
who leaves out the commandment regarding the Sabbath and
then makes the first two into three (I) I am the Lord thy
God, (2) Thou shalt have no other gods before Me, (3) Thou
shalt not make any graven image there can be no real defence.
The only right way is to take the old Hebrew plan, which the
lleformed Church has followed, and make five commandments
of piety (1) No other gods, (2) No image, (3) No dishonour
ing of God s name, (4) No desecrating of His holy time, (5)
Honouring of parents as opyava <yevvr)(ieu><; 3 ; and five com
mandments of probity (1) Sacredness of life, (2) Of marriage,
(3) Of property, (4) No false witness, (5) No covetousness.
The fundamental demand of the law is that the people
regard their covenant God as the one only God, the one only
source of salvation, and remain faithful to Him, conditions on
the observance of which the very existence of the covenant
depends. This being settled, it also follows that one must
honour this God in accordance with His true nature, and not
insult Him by doing anything unworthy of Him. In the
first place, therefore, He must not be dishonoured by any one
making a material likeness of Him, dragging Him down, as
it were, into fellowship with the created, the material, like the
heathen nature-gods. This alone can be the meaning of the
commandment, not the exclusion of the images of strange gods. 4
1 In Exodus, "the house;" in Deuteronomy, "the wife."
2 On Lev. vii. 3 Philo, i. 497.
4 Unquestionably, it is not every image that is meant but only every image
made to be worshipped.
THE DECALOGUE. 49
By means of this commandment the religion of Israel shook
itself clear of the similarity to the nature-religions which
originally clung to it, as well as of its own more imperfect
elements, and kept rising to a more and more perfect concep
tion of God, and to a higher spiritual realisation of its own
religious principle.
Since the name of God is no empty echo, but the holy
expression of His self-revealing essence, it must not be dis
honoured by being brought into connection with anything
untrue or vain l which would lower its majesty. Finally,
the Sabbath the time set apart for the honour of this God
and sacred to Him must be kept undesecrated. It would
be sacrilege, a desecration of what is a holy thing, to
turn this day to any common use for one s own profit or
pleasure. This is the point of view which regulates every
thing. It is a question of touching what is dedicated to God.
With these commandments to honour the covenant, God
has associated the commandment to honour parents. 2 Only
on this foundation can a family be reared with a due sense
of filial piety and godly fear. This commandment is then
widened so as to inculcate respect to old age in general and
to the Elohim of the people, that is, to the magistrates. 3
In the Old Testament, as among all the better peoples of
antiquity, the laws both of the family and of the State have
a religious character and are regarded with holy awe.
The main requirement of Israelitish probity is the keeping
sacred the life and property of others. On these command
ments all human society worthy of the name is securely
based. They treat of what Israel must not do that is, of
what cannot be permitted in the national life of Israel. In
justice to history, however, it must be maintained that these
commandments do not by any means contain all that may,
" Ci . Ex. xxi. 15 ; Lev. xix. 3, xx. 9 ; Dent, xxvii. 16.
* Lev. xix. 32, xx. 9 ; of. e.g. Ex. xxii. 28.
VOL. II. D
50 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
from a higher point of view, he put into them ; what Jesus
for example, in the Sermon on the Mount, has put into
His law, or what is included in them in the incomparable
exposition given in Luther s Shorter Catechism. They are
simply prohibitions intended to make the life and property
of one s neighbour inviolable aud secure against force and
craft.
In the first place, life itself is made safe. In accordance
with the general plan of his work, A has introduced at the
very commencement of human history the divine arrangement
which establishes the sanctity of human life, and protects
it by the commandment as to the avenging of blood. 1 As
a matter of fact, this practice is certainly one of the very
first which men would adopt on beginning to live together in
an orderly way, and one which goes back far beyond any
historical period known to us. But it is important to notice
that, in the Law, injury to human life is no longer looked at
from the standpoint of private rights, as an injury to the
relatives, for which they may exact either vengeance or
blood-money, but from the religious and ethical standpoint,
as a dishonouring of the holy land and the holy people that
have been dedicated to God. In Israel intentional murder is
absolutely unpardonable ; no ransom can be taken for " blood." 2
Next to life comes marriage, the most tender of property
relationships. The holy sanctity of this relationship depends,
according to B s narrative, on God s own arrangements at
creation. The marriage of one man and one woman is to form
the fundamental indissoluble relationship before which all
other ties, even the most sacred, must give way. The woman
is created as an help meet for man ; not to be an idle plaything
of the moment, but to share his labours and his joys. She is
created to be a suitable mate, and therefore endowed with the
1 Gen. ix. 4 if.
2 E.g. Num. xxxv. 16 if., 31 if. ; Ex. xxi. 12 ff. ; Ps. ix. 13 God an avenger of
blood.
THE DECALOGUE. 51
same rights of moral personality as the man ; she is not created
to satisfy brutal lust or pine away in slavish toil. 1 Thus
marriage is thought of ideally as " monogamy," which it mani
festly was to all intents and purposes in Israel, although the
liberty of the man was not restricted by law. 2 The violation
of marriage rights is always regarded as an injury to property
and honour. The husband who, during his marriage, has
intercourse with an unmarried woman does not commit
adultery. Adultery means only the violation of another
man s wife ; and this, according to strict law, includes his
betrothed. 3 The commandment against adultery is certainly
not meant to forbid all sexual licence. That is, indeed,
condemned by the general voice of the people, but it is
never directly forbidden in the Old Testament. Even the
passages which might be so interpreted 4 refer to the dishon
ouring of a free-born maiden, for which her family is entitled
to demand compensation and redress. Sexual intercourse
with a slave or with a loose woman is represented as
quite within the sphere of personal liberty. 5 The command
ment in the Decalogue consequently forbids the touching of
another s wife, which was regarded in Israel from the earliest
times as a deadly sin. 6
With this is closely connected sacredness of property in
general. Now as one must not injure a neighbour by actual
violence, so one must not do it by false witness, which would
endanger life and property. 7 For even in the ninth command-
W> a help, as standing face to face with him ; that is, corresponding
to him, suitable, equal ; cf. in general Gen. ii. 18, 23, 24. The later curse of
sin does not disannul this divine idea of marriage.
2 So Abraham, Jacob (Gen. xvi. 3, xxix. 24, 28 ; cf. xxx. 4, 9).
3 Lev. xx. 10 ff. ; Deut. xxii. 23 if.
4 E.g. Gen. xxxiv. 7-14.; Ex. xxii. 16 ff.; Deut. xxii. 28.
c So Gen. xxxiv. 31 (nbjT n31T3H). In Lev. xix. 20 intercourse with a
female slave is made punishable only because she is the property of another
man.
6 Gen. xx. 9 ; cf. Lev. xx. 10 ff. Even in the beautiful parable in 2 Sam. xii.,
adultery is looked upon as a violation of the rights of property.
Cf. Lev. xix. 16.
52 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
ment it is a question not so much as to the duty of truthful
ness as to bearing such witness against one s neighbour before
the congregation as might make him lose life or property.
Finally, one must not busy one s self with plans and under
takings the result of which would be to get possession of the
property of one s neighbour with an appearance of right.
This is, I think, the meaning of " coveting." For the word
generally includes the intention of getting actual possession
of the things wished for. 1 The history of Naboth s vineyard
is an example of such " coveting." The other explanation,
which considers it a prohibition of evil desires as such, is
in itself hardly suitable to the character of a commandment
which must be directed against something that admits of
outward proof, and must have something tangible to punish
with its " let him be accursed." Thus the Decalogue includes
within its beautifully simple circle the chief duties of religion
and morality in Israel, the violation of which is worthy of
death.
2. The motives which impelled an Israelite to the practice
of what we call "morality" were without doubt originally the
same as have proved effective among all peoples on a similar
plane of civilisation. It is family feeling, 2 a feeling which
was so strong in early times that people did not hesitate
even to commit incest in order to obtain the blessing of a
family; and which displays its fairest moral side in the
honour shown to parents. 4 It likewise implies respect for
the great fundamental conditions of social life, which is
1 Cf. Ex. xxxiv. 24 ; Micah ii. 2. Although it is said in Prov. vi. 25
"pnbs, it must not be forgotten that ^ in the Old Testament is not so much
the seat of the feelings as of the thoughts and plans. Deuteronomy v. 18, by
using "JE>n and rnsnn alternately, may perhaps, in accordance with its general
teaching of an inward morality, actually forbid the lusting after one s neigh
bour s property in the sense of mere desire.
2 Gen. xxvii. 41, xxix. 10, xxviii. 6, xx.xvii. 18 IF., xxxiv. 25, 1. 15; 2 Sam,
xiii. 28, etc.
3 Gen. xix. 32 ft 1 ., xxxviii. 14ft*., 26 if.
4 1 Kings ii. 19 ; Gen. ix. 23 ; (Lain. iv. 16).
MOTIVES OF OLD TESTAMENT MORALITY. 53
incompatible with dishonesty, deceit, breach of faith, lawless
ness, and violence. 1 On the one hand, it is strengthened
by clan feeling ; 2 on the other, under the name of
hospitality, it lias to do with foreigners, and as sympathy
and charity, it treats defenceless strangers kindly. 3 Hence in
Israel, from the earliest days, " kindly " conduct was looked
upon quite as a matter of course. 4 And although an ideal
conception of true morality, without reference to definite
divine commandments or divine rewards, such as is found in
Proverbs xxxi., and especially in Job xxix. 12 ff., and xxxi.,
cannot be presupposed in ancient Israel, nevertheless it is a
fact that, in order to lead a respectable life among this
people, and be, as regards religion, a worthy citizen, a man
had to be scrupulously faithful, honest, and honourable. 5 For
it is the peculiarity of this religion that a proper relation to
Jehovah was considered to depend absolutely on moral
integrity. The will of this God was expressed in the grand
fundamental requirements of morality.
Side by side with these main features of the morality
which the Israelite knew that his religion made obligatory on
him, the people in the olden times attached very great
importance to a number of popular customs of a religious
kind, such as purifications, festivals, sacrifices, the Sabbath,
circumcision, and special rules as to food. Both kinds of
conduct were regarded as equally binding on every one who
wished to prove himself a true son of Israel.
Now this combination involves a risk. Most people are
only too prone to confine themselves to matters of outward
legality, and to overlook, in the affairs of daily life, the
1 Gen. xx. 9; 2 Snm. xii. 5; 1 Sam. xxv. 31, xxviii. 10; cf. Gen. xvi. 6;
Deut. xvi. 18 ff.; Ps. x. 7, xii. 3, xv. xxiv. 3ff., Ixxxii. xciv. 6; Prov. iii.
27-30, xxii. 22.
2 Gen. xiii. 8tl ., xiv. 14.
3 Gen. xix. 6ff. ; .Tudg. xix. 23 (the honour of virgins was of less account),
4 Lev. xxiii. 22 ; Deut. x. 18, xiv. 28 ; Num. xv. 16 f.
6 Gen. xxix. 26, Kxxiv. 7, cf. xxxi. 32 ; Josh. ix. 17-21, etc.
54 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
troublesome barriers of morality. Hence the prophets could
not remain content with preaching such easy-going doctrine.
They had to insist that the outward legality that finds
expression in religious customs is not in itself true morality
at all ; and that in fact, if kept up in this one-sided fashion, it
might actually result in a deterioration of the moral life, and
become an insult to God. They had to show that for God s
people the true centre of the divine will was loyalty to
religion, and the maintenance in daily life of justice, good
ness, and truth ; and that, in the eyes of God, sacred forms
have absolutely no value, except as expressions of faith,
humility, and obedience. Such is the burden of the prophetic
messages from Amos and Hosea down to the Exile.
Hence prophecy leads away from the form to the moral
significance of the act, away from the multiplicity of out
ward works to the unity of the inward disposition. Con
duct is presented in a new light, as the necessary expression of
a disposition truly loyal to the covenant, of believing submis
sion to the God of goodness and truth. Even in those days
there was certainly a tendency to give somewhat greater pro
minence to sacred form in the priestly sense, a tendency which
finds classic expression in Ezekiel and A, and gets the upper
hand after the time of Ezra the inclination to exalt the out
ward act above the inward disposition, and that no longer with
the naive externality in vogue with the people, but in the con
scious style of learned Pharisaism. In the prophetic and poetic
monuments of the eighth and seventh centuries, however,
this feature is thrown quite into the shade by the grand
spirit of true morality. And even in many passages of the
Thorah, especially in the laws contained in Exodus xxi.-xxiii.
and in the " laws of holiness " in Leviticus, this spirit of
genuine morality is revealed in a surprisingly beautiful fashion.
The true morality of an act depends on the religious disposi
tion out of which it springs. Certainly mere theoretical
knowledge of God, the crying " Lord, Lord," has nothing
DEVELOPMENT OF OLD TESTAMENT MORALITY. 55
to do with it, any more than " the fearing of God for hire." l
But the truly religious disposition is the source of genuine
morality. " To love the Lord thy God with all thine heart
and with all thy soul, and with all thy might," is the funda
mental commandment. 2 To be devoted to God, to trust
Him, 3 look up to Him as a servant looks up to his master, 4
to fear Him, 5 to receive with humility His exhortations and
warnings, 6 to be grateful to Him, 7 obedient and humble, 8 for
whosoever humbles himself need fear no humiliation, such is
the frame of mind which alone gives conduct its real value.
This is in truth " to walk with God," 9 " to live before Him." 10
Every one ought to glory in knowing God. 11 And whoever
wishes to walk before God must " circumcise the foreskin of
his heart," 12 must dedicate his heart to God and keep it clean.
He must write the law of God on his heart, and let it at the
same time permeate his whole outer life. 13 Such a disposi
tion will prevent Israel from overstepping the barriers of
propriety, especially in sexual matters. God Himself takes
vengeance on uncleanness, incest, and unchastity. The holy
land is desecrated, for example, if by the divorcing of a wife
and the taking of her back again after she has been married to
another, the moral worth of marriage is destroyed ; 14 if the
blood of one who bears the "image of God" has been
1 Hos. viii. 2 ; Job i. 9 ff.
2 Deut. vi. 5f., x. 12, xi. 1, 13, 22, xix. 9, xxx. 16, 20, xiii. 4 f . ; Josh. xxii.
5, xxiii. 11 ; 1 Sam. xii. 24 ; 1 Kings viii. 23, xix. 10, 14 ; 2 Kings xxiii. 3 ;
Ps. xcvii. 10, cxlv. 18ff.
3 B. J. xlii. 19 (D^b) ; Ps. xxxvii. 3. 4 Ps. cxxiii. 1 f.
5 Deut. iv. 10, vi. 2, 13, 24, v. 26, viii. 6, x. 12, xiv. 23, xxviii. 58, xxxi. 13 ;
Ps. v. 8 ; Prov. iii. 7, etc. (Ps. xix. 10 ; xxxiv. 12 ; 2 Kings, xvii. 28. J16TP
rrtrT 1 is much the same as religion. )
6 Isa. xxix. 15, Iff., 12 ff.
7 Deut. i. 31, iv. 32, vi. 22, vii. 19, viii. 5, etc.
8 Deut. x. 13, xi. 1, 32, xxvi. 16 ; Ps. cxix. 1, 2, 7, 8, 10, 176 ; of. Deut
xviii. 17, ix. 4; B. J. xlii. 1 f.; Zeph. ii. 3, iii. 12 (^y).
9 Prov. xxv. 6ff., xxvii. 1, 2 (cf. Luke xiv. 8). 10 Jer. ix. 23.
11 Gen. v. 22, vi. 9, xvii. 1. 12 Deut. x. 16.
13 Deut. vi. 6ff., xi. 18 ff.
14 Jer. iii. 1, v. 9, ix. 9 ; Lev. xx.
56 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
unjustly shed, or if dishonesty and deceit defile the national
life. 1
This love to God has to manifest itself not in sacrifices,
feasts, and outward acts, but by causing men in all their
dealings with their fellows to act kindly and honourably, in
harmony with the mind of God. To know God means
nothing else than to practise justice and mercy. 2 At the
exodus, when God laid down the conditions of the covenant,
He did not speak of sacrifices, but of obedience and faithful
ness. 3 True fasting means sympathy, almsgiving, and a bold,
unflinching sense of justice. 4 Instead of festive assemblies,
during which evil thoughts are indulged, God desires a
humble and contrite heart, a mind full of joyful gratitude,
charity to the poor and helpless, strict impartiality. 5 We
may quote, in preference to everything else, the beautiful
words of Micah : " He hath showed thee, man, what is
good ; and what doth the Lord require of thee, hut to do
justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy
God ? " 6 What the prophets in their sermons censure most,
is harshness and cruelty, conduct which calls down God s
wrath even on heathen peoples, 7 female wantonness and
immorality, 8 debauchery and extravagance among the great, 9
misuse of the power of wealth, 10 commercial frauds on a
1 Num. xxxv. 29-34 ; Juilg. xx. 6, xxi. 1 ; Lev. xix. 15ff., 35 ; Gen. ix. 4 ff .
2 Jer. xxii. 16 ; Ezek. xviii. 5 ff. ; Hos. iv. 1, vi. 6.
3 Jer. v. 3, vii. 2 f., 21 (1 Sam. xv. 22). It is remarkable that in Ezekid xx.
25 ff., a distinction is drawn between tlie good law, which God gave them at the
very iirst when he entered into covenant with them (obviously the Decalogue),
and a law that was not good, which He gave them as a punishment for breaking
that good commandment. From Ezekiel s whole cast of thought lie cannot
well be thinking here of the ceremonial law. but of the bloody human sacrifices
into which God allowed His people to fall by way of punishment.
4 B. J. Iviii. 6, 10 ; Prov. xxi. 3.
5 Isa. i. 14 ff., xxxviii. 3 ; Ps. xl. 7, xli. 2, li. 19.
(! Micah vi. 8 ; Hos. xii. 7 ; Deut. x. 12 ff. ; Zech. vii. 6, viii. 16.
7 Amos i. 3, 13, ii. 1. 8 Amos iv. 1 ; Isa. iii. 16 ff.
9 Amos iii. 10 f.; Isa. v. llff.
10 Isa. v. 8ff., 21 ff., iii. 14, x. 1 ff. ; Micah ii. 7 If. ; Jer. v. 26 ff.; Amos
viii. fi ; Deut. xxvii. 19.
DEVELOPMENT OF OLD TESTAMENT MORALITY. 57
confiding public, 1 and violence of every kind, especially in
the administration of justice. 2 And they are never weary of
insisting that the outward observance of religious form is
absolutely valueless without the moral and religious spirit. 3
3. Accordingly, so early as in Ex. xx.-xxiii., then in
Deuteronomy, and in the admirable code of laws inserted
by A in Lev. xix. ff., the Law itself places in the foreground,
not individual claims and commandments, but the grand
fundamental principles of morality, which make outward
conduct depend directly on the inner life of the heart. The
foundations of morality are the strictest integrity and faith
fulness in every relation of life, especially in regard to marriage
and in the administration of justice, and filial reverence for
parents. 4 The verdict of an earthly judge is regarded as a
sentence pronounced by the divine sovereign. All partiality in
judging arouses the wrath of God. 5 The wantonness of false
witness is restrained by an inexorable jus talionis. G False
weights and the removing of landmarks are sternly punished. 7
But on this basis of justice we find also kindliness, sympathy
for the poor, because Israel, too, was once poor and miserable, 8
humane treatment even of animals, 9 friendliness even towards
strangers, 10 self-restraint even towards an enemy, 11 and love
which covereth all transgressions. 12 The law of the middle
books of the Thorah, like that of Deuteronomy, is altogether
superior to the laws of other nations in high-toned humanity,
fairness, and purity, and in abhorrence of dishonour, violence,
1 Dent. xxv. 13 ; Amos viii. 5 ; Micah vi. 10 ff.
2 Lsa. v. 7 ff., 21 ff. ; Micah ii. 1 ; Amos iii. 10, v. 7fF., vi. 12 ; Dent, xxvii.
1 7 ; Hos. vii. 1 If.
:! Isa. i. 14 ff.; B. J. Iviii. 1 ff. ; Jcr. xi. 15 ; Zccli. vii. 4 if ., etc,
4 K.ij. Deut. i. 16 f., xvi. 1811 ., xix. 14 f., 18 f., xxi. 15 ff., xxiii. 20 ff.,
xxiv. Iff., xxv. 5ff., 13-1(3, xxii. 13-cud ; cf. Prov. xx. 20, xxx. 17.
; > Deut. i. 16 f., xvi. 18. 6 Dcut. xix. 15 ff. 7 Deut. xxv. 13, xxvii. 17.
8 Deut. xv. 7ff., x. 18, xiv. 29, xxii. 1-5, 8, xxiv. 14, 17, 19 fl ., xxvi. 12 IF.
:\ii. 12, 18, xvi. 11, 14). A right also of the stranger (Deut. i. 16).
b Deut. xxiv. 5-13, xxv. 3, 4, xxvi. 11, xxii. 6.
10 Deut. x. 18, xii. 12, 18, xiv. 28 f., xvi. 11, 14 ; cf. Job xxxi. 15.
11 Dcut. xx. 10 ff., 19. J - Prov. x. 12.
58 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
and roughness. Even the obligations of military service
are limited by the right to certain enjoyments of life. 1
All needless cruelty is carefully avoided. As a punish
ment, death by torture is quite unknown. 2 Every species
of fraud in trade and commerce is most rigorously forbidden, 3
especially usury, or the taking advantage to the utmost of
the power over the poor which wealth gives, and, in general,
all oppression of the defenceless. 4 Escaped slaves are not
to be given up. 5 Every attempt to pervert justice is for
bidden with special sternness, and even a gift to a judge "for
a present blindeth the wise." 6 Even the well-known saying,
" Eye for eye, tooth for tooth," contains a demand for nothing
more than the strictest rectitude in the courts of law. 7 In
marriage legislation, due care is taken to prevent polygamy
causing any unjust preferences. 8 Backbiting is forbidden,
and all secret malice against a neighbour. A man is to be
told his fault to his face. 9 The greatest attention is shown to
the poor. In reality there should be no poor in Israel. But
since there will always be some, they are commended to the care
" of the charitable." Above all, widows and orphans are, in
the most express terms, recommended as objects of charity, and
secured against want by definite provisions as, for example,
those in regard to gleaning and the harvest of the Sabbatical
year. 10 There are many stipulations indicative of humanity and
piety. 11 The vineyard is not to be gleaned to the last grape, but
1 Deut. xx. 5, xxiv. 5 ff.
2 Ex. xxii. 2 ; Deut. xxv. 3. (Burning and impalement were practised only
on the dead).
3 Lev. xix. 11 f. 35.
4 Ex. xxii. 25 ; Lev. xxv. 36 ("J0, JVZTID) ; Deut. xv. 4, xxiv. 6, 18 ff.,
xxiii. 20, 25.
5 Lev. xix. 15 ; Deut. xxiii. 15.
6 Ex. xxiii. 2, 3, 6. (1 Sam. viii. 3, in^O 7 Ex. xxi. 24 f.
8 Deut. xxi. 15, xxii. 13 ff. 9 Lev. xix. 16 f.
10 Ex. xxiii. 10 ff.; Lev. xxv. 6; cf. Ex. xxii. 21 ff. ; Deut. xxiv. 10 ff.,
14 ff., xv. 4.
11 Ex. xxi. 17, xxii. 27 ; cf. xx. 12 ; Lev. xviii. 18, xix. 13, 14, 32, xx. 9 ;
Deut. xxvii. 18.
DEVELOPMENT OF OLD TESTAMENT MORALITY. 50
some are to be left for the poor and the stranger. 1 The
wages of the labourer are not to be kept overnight. 2 A
pledge is to lie restored before nightfall, and nothing is to be
taken as a pawn that is necessary for a livelihood. 3 It is
a scandal to injure the defenceless and to lead the helpless
astray. 4 There is to be no respect of persons ; the poor
are not to be placed at a disadvantage. 5 Eespect is to be
shown to age and station. 6 Even in the case of animals and
plants a feeling of delicacy forbids any obliteration of natural
divisions and of divinely ordained peculiarities. 7 Just as one
is forbidden to build the roof of a house without a protecting
parapet, one is also forbidden to disturb a brooding bird. 8 A
desire for vengeance is to be repressed. 9 Carelessness that
might endanger the life of a neighbour is sharply punished. 10
The possibility of a frivolous condemnation on the testimony
of a single witness is carefully guarded against. 11 A slave is
protected against his master s cruelty and sudden rage by very
far-reaching regulations, although he certainly did not cease
to be property, a live chattel. 12 Parental authority is most
strongly emphasised. 13 Manstealing is punished with death. 14
A murderer is not protected even by the altar ; but the cities
of refuge prevent " the manslayer without evil intent " from
falling a victim to the blood-avenger. 15 Slaves who receive a
serious bodily injury must be set free. 16 And a slave, at least
if a Hebrew, is presented with his freedom after serving a
certain number of years. 17 In short, the sum of all these com
mandments is mercy and truth toward one s neighbour, one s
1 Deut. xxiv. 19 ; Lev. xix. 9, xxiii. 22. 2 Lev. xix. 13.
3 Ex. xxii. 25 ; Deut. xxiv. 6, 12 f.
4 Deut. xxvii. 18 f.; Lev. xix. 14.
5 Ex. xxiii. 6 ; Lev. xix. 14.
6 Ex. xxii. 27 ; Lev. xix. 32.
7 Ex. xxiii. 19 ; Lev. xix. 14, xxii. 27 ; Deut. xx. 6.
8 Deut. xxii. 6ff. 9 Lev. xix. 18.
10 Ex. xxi. 28 f., 33 f., xxii. 5; Deut. xxii. 8. :| Num. xxxv. 30.
12 Ex. xxi. 20 f. 13 Deut. xxi. 18 f. M Ex. xxi. 16.
13 Ex. xxi. 13. 10 Ex. xxi. 26. J < Deut. xv. 12 ff.
60 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
brother. 1 This is summed up in the sentence " Thou shalt
love thy neighbour as thyself." 2 In fact, Exodus xxiii. 4 f.
rises to the thought that even in the case of a feud the
simple duties of honesty and good-will are still binding.
One must take back a strayed beast even to an enemy, and
that, too, at the loss of one s time. And Proverbs xxv. 2 1 f.
runs, " If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat ; and
if he be thirsty, give him water to drink : for thou shalt heap
coals of fire upon his head, and the Lord shall reward thee."
All this refers primarily to fellow-countrymen, " the ser
vants of the God of thy father," 3 to brethren, neighbours.
But how is a stranger treated ? A difference is always made.
One Israelite stands to another in a closer relationship.
Many things illegal as regards a fellow-Israelite are legal in
the case of a stranger as, for example, usury, slavery, etc. 4
But even as regards strangers, the spirit of the law is a highly
magnanimous one. The stranger, in so far as he has become
resident in Israel and has conformed to the national customs, 6
acquires certain rights, although, it is true, not equal rights.
For instance, he cannot legally purchase landed property.
But just because he is without property, he is commended all
the more strongly to the charitable. There must be but one
law and one ordinance for the stranger and for him that is born
in the land. The people are commanded again and again to
show kindness and charity to strangers. The gleanings and
the fruits of the Sabbatical year belong to them as well as to
the Levites and the poor. 7 The Sabbath commandment itself
is referred back to the need which slaves and strangers have of
rest, to the memory of their own slavery in Egypt. 8 Indeed,
1 JV13JJ, Lev. v. 21, xix. 15, xxv. 17 ; PIN, e.g. Lev. xxv. 35, 39.
2 Lev. xix. 17 f.; cf. Gen. xviii. 2311 . 3 Gen. 1. 17.
* Kx. xxii. 25 ; Lev. xxv. 35 ; Dent. xv. 3, xxiii. 20 ; Ex. xxi. 1-11.
5 -|J. (The stranger within thy gates. )
6 Num. ix. 14, xv. 15 f. ; Lev. xxiv. 22.
7 Ex. xxii. 21 f., xxiii. P, 11; Lev. xix. 9, 10, 33, xxiii. 22; Dent. x. 19
(arm).
8 Ex. xxiii. 12 ; Dent. v. 14.
DEVELOPMENT OF OLD TESTAMENT MORALITY". 61
Lev. xix. 34 orders the people to love the stranger as they love
themselves. Hence in many respects the morality of the Old
Testament is a near approach to that of Christianity ; and,
in fact, it is to such passages from the law that both Jesus
and His disciples are specially fond of attaching their ex
hortations. The kindness, humanity, and tenderness, shown
alike to the children of Israel and to the strangers sojourning
among them, and the conception of morality as the necessary
expression of the frame of mind which results from piety,
remind us of the New Testament. Nevertheless, " the
principle of love is still confined to one people " (Ewald).
Just as religion has its national limits, so morality does not
yet deal with men as men without regard to their nationality.
For the foreigner proper, who is for Israel, as for the other
nations of antiquity, essentially a " hostis," there exists another
code of morality. Against Arnalek and the enemies of the
people the ban is relentlessly launched. And even the age
of the prophets did not beat down these barriers. There are
several peoples whose good they are commanded not to seek. 1
With the growing misery of Israel, and the increasing
hostility of the neighbour peoples, the desire gets intensified
to see in their own enemies the enemies of God. Hence A
represents the aboriginal inhabitants of Canaan as all alike
doomed by God to utter extermination. The desire of the
congregation for revenge, for the damnation of their enemies,
is due partly to the intensity of their zeal for the kingdom of
God, and partly to natural passion. "Do not I hate them,
Lord, that hate Thee ? Yea, I hate them with perfect
hatred." 2
Still it must not be forgotten that, on the whole, previous
to the Exile, hatred of foreigners and the particularistic view ot
morality never prevailed to anything like the same extent as
1 Dent, xxiii. 4, 7, xxv. 17.
2 Ps. xxviii. 4, xxxv. 1, Iviii. 11 f., lix. 6, Ixiii. 10 f., Ixix. 22 I ., Ixx. 3, Ixxi.
13, 21, civ. 35, cix. 6-15, 19 f., cxxix. 4f., cxxxix. 21 f.
62 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
in the Levitical period. Although in B, as well as in A, great
stress is laid on not marrying Canaanitish women, 1 it is
frankly stated that Judah, Joseph, and Moses married wives
belonging to other nations. The book of Euth lets a
Moabitess appear as a worthy ancestress of David. 2 Early
legend represents certain heathen personages as so worthy
and honourable, that they come very close to the patriarchs
of Israel. 3 And in the same way the indignation of Amos
at the cruelty practised on the king of Edom, 4 the large-
hearted sympathy of the Deuteronomist for Edom and Egypt, 5
the inclusion too of other nations in Solomon s beautiful
intercessory prayer, 6 and the universalistic hopes of the future
expressed by Isaiah 7 and others, show that the seeds of a
really humane disposition were by no means lacking in Israel.
In the book of Job, the pious hero is a foreigner belonging
to the land of Uz, although his portrait is bright with all the
colours of patriarchal piety. And in the patriarchal legend
the figures of Melchizedek and Abimelech show an unmis
takable superiority to purely national limitations. In fact,
when Israel is called the first-born of God, 8 the phrase is,
indeed, primarily meant to express His preference for this
people ; but it is also an acknowledgment of the importance
which the other peoples have in the eyes of God.
Such are the main points in the Law which are of
religious importance. The Law always does its best to bring
popular customs into conformity with the principles of
equity, generosity, and truth. Even the avenging of blood is
robbed of its most terrible features, and placed under definite
regulations. 9 The relations of the sexes are purified and
1 Gen. xxiv. 3, xxvi. 34, xxvii. 46, xxviii. 1.
2 Gen. xxxviii. 2, 6, xli. 45, 50 ; Ex. ii. 20 ; Num. xii. 1 ; Luth i. 4, 22, ii.
2, 6, 10, 21, iv. 5, 10, 17.
3 E.g. Gen. xiv., xx., xlvi. 1 ff. (narratives such as xix. 30 ff. are perhaps of a
later date).
4 Amos ii. 1. 6 Deut. ii. 5, 8 ff., xxiii. 8. 8 1 Kings viii. 41.
7 Isa. xix. 23. 8 Ex. iv. 22 ; Jer. xxxi. 7 ff.
8 Ex. xxi. 12 f.; Num. xxxv. 16 ff.; Deut. xix. 2 ff.; Josh. xx. 1.
DEVELOPMENT OF OLD TESTAMENT MORALITY. 63
softened by the stern prohibition of incest and all unnatural
abominations, and by the strict protection of female honour and
marriage rights. 1 Old national customs are modified when
they no longer accord with the gentler spirit of the age,
as, for instance, marriage with a deceased husband s brother,
which was probably a right originally fixed by custom, and
which brought in its train many objectionable consequences,
such as incest. 2 It is legally binding only on an unmarried
brother, 3 more distant relatives being, at the most, under
nothing more than a moral obligation. 4 It thus becomes
a kindly method of providing, as far as possible, for a widow
who has no son to support her. In the emphasising of the
duty and importance of religious instruction which is so often
sharply insisted on ; 5 in the strengthening of the marriage tie
by the prohibition of marriage with near relatives, a prohibi
tion of which it is clear that Hebrew antiquity knew nothing ; 6
in transferring the duty of punishing a murderer from the family
to the people, as the executor of the holy will of God, who cannot
allow the land to be polluted ; 7 and in securing the position of a
wife in so far as that could be done consistently with the already
existing right of divorce, 8 in all this we see an earnest
endeavour to establish, on a religious basis, a society that
would be strictly moral in its relations. And in the joyful
1 Uncliastity is looked on as shame and pollution, Lev. xviii. 22, 23, 27 f., xx.
10 ff. (Lev. xix. 29). Naturally all the abominations of Hamite unchastity are
forbidden as contrary to " the holiness of God."
2 The D^ is, according to Gen. xxxviii. 12 if., a right which is stronger than
the prohibition against incest, just as we catch a glimpse in xix. 30 ff. of the
view that a family is to be kept up at all hazards.
3 So Deut. xxv. 5-7 (living together, in which case, therefore, the younger
brother is unmarried).
4 So Ruth iii. 9, iv. 5 ff. (to take off the shoe, originally, perhaps, "to give
up one s right," in Deut. xxv. 9, meant as an insult).
5 Gen. xviii. 19; Ex. xii. 20, xiii. 14; Deut. vi. 20 (Prov. x. 1, xvii. 21,
xix. 13, xxiii. 13 f., 24).
R Gen. xx. 12 ; 2 Sam. xiii. 13 (cf. also Gen. xxix. 23, 30, with Lev. xviii. 18).
7 Gen. ix. 5f.; Num. xxxv. 33 ; cf. Ps. ix. 13 ; Gen. iv. 10 ; Job xix. 25 ; cf.
also Ex. xxi. 16 ; Deut. xxiv. 7 (man-stealing).
8 Deut. xxii. 19, 29, xxiv. 1 ff.
64 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
attachment to the national life and its institutions, 1 in the
healthy natural regard for wife and children, as well as for
true friends, 2 we see the favourable aspects of that close
relationship between religion and national life for which the
Old Testament is distinguished.
4. In the morality of the Old Testament, it is true, we
soon observe the interpretation against which the true pro
phets struggled, and which Christianity overcame. Since the
days of the Deuteronomist the chief requirements of morality
are no longer regarded as the outflow of the divine will, to
which every pious person submits as a matter of course, but
become, to a greater and greater degree, " statutes, judgments,
and commandments " of God which one lias to obey in the
anxious spirit of a servant. 3 ISTor is it only the general favour
of God that is, in an increasing measure, thought of as depending
on obedience to His ordinances, as, for example in Isa. iii. 10 ;
but divine recompense is made, in a fashion more and more
external, the ruling motive of moral conduct. 4 Finally, after
the Exile the place of morality, as the main requirement of
God, is usurped more and more by external acts of worship.
This is so even with the Isaiah of the Exile, as compared
with the earlier prophets. 5 And the contrast is still stronger
in Daniel, Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah. 6 And Ecclesi-
astes, too, although in another way, is purely eudaiinonis-
tic in thought, and inquires only after what gives " true
1 E.g. Prov. xvi. 12-15, xx. S-26, xxv. 5, xxix. 4, 8, xiv. 34.
2 Prov. ii. 17, the covenant of God, xix. 14, xii. 4, xviii. 22, xxxi. lOff. ;
Cant. vi. 81 ., viii. 6; Ps. cxxvii., cxxviii. (1 Sain. xx. 23).
3 Gen. xxvi. 5 ; Ex. xvi. 28, xviii. 16, 20 ; Lev. xviii. 1-3 ; Num. xv. 39 ff.;
Dent. iv. 1, v. 26, vi. 1 ; Josh. i. 7, xxii. 4, xxiii. 6, xxv., xxvi.; 1 Kings ii. 1,
iii. 14, xxiii. 3 ; Isa. xxiv. 5, xlii. 24 ; Ps. cv. 26, cvi. 3.
4 E.g. Gen. xix. 19, xxvi. 28, xxx. 27, xxxix. 3 ; Lev. xxvi. 3 if. ; Deut. iv. 1,
vi. 8, vii. 11, viii. 1, 19, xxvi. 16 ft ., xxviii. Iff.; 1 Sam. xii. 14 ff., xxvi. 23
(cf. Ps. i. ; 1 Kings ii. 1, iii. 14, etc.).
6 H. ,T. xlii. 24, xliii. 22, xliv. 1, 14, 22, xlvi. 12, xlvii. 6, xlviii. 1, S, Ixv. 21,
Ixvi. 9, Ii. 1, 7 (on the other hand, Ivi. 1, Ivii. 1, Iviii. 1 11 ., lix. 1).
6 Dan. i. 8, iii. 16-18, 29, vi. 11 ff. 26 (cf. iv. 24, ix. 511 ., x. 12) ; 1 Chroii.
x. 13, xiii. 7, 21, xxii. 13 ; 2 Chron. xv. 8, xxv. 14, xxvi. 16 ; cf. xvii. 4 If., 9 ff.,
xxxi. 21 ; Ezra i., ii., viii. 21, ix. 3, 6, 23 ; Neh. xiii. 14, 18 ff.
THE GENESIS OF THE CEREMONIAL LAW. 65
happiness." In this way the Old Testament points the way
to Pharisaism and Eudaemonism.
CHAPTEK IV.
THE HOLINESS OF THE PEOPLE IN RELATION TO THE OUTER
FORM OF EXISTENCE. THE CEREMONIAL LAW.
LITERATURE. Sommer, Biblische Abhandlungen, i. 183 ff.
Knobel (Dillmann), Commentar zum Exodus und Leviticus.
Spencer, I.e., 35-188, 241-268, 483-545. Lisco, Das
Ceremonialgeselz des Alien Testamentes. Darstellung desselben
und Nacliweis seiner Erfullung im Neuen Testamente, Berlin
1842. Hengstenberg, "Das Ceremonialgesetz " (Beitrdge zur
Einleitung in das Alte Testament, Bd. iii., 1839). For
the Greeks, cf. Hermann, I.e., 125. Schomann, I.e., ii. 192,
349, 409. For the Ssabians, cf. Chwolsohn, ii. 10, 445,
483. On the laws regarding food, Saalschiitz, I.e., i. 251 ff.
Bruno Bauer, I.e., 255. Ewald, AltertMmer, 194 ff.
1. The ceremonial law of Israel lies before us as a
harmonious, organically connected form of life. How many
centuries contributed to its formation, when the last and
most delicate touches were given, how long an interval
elapsed between the laying down of the simplest command
ments, abstinence from blood, and circumcision, and the com
pletion of the details as to clean and unclean meats all this
is hid from our view by an impenetrable veil. But we
shall certainly not be wrong in regarding the material out
of which this whole masterpiece has been wrought that is,
the most of the habits and customs as very old, far older
than the Old Testament religion. No other theory will
explain a mass of details, for which it would be vain to seek
a true reason in the religion of Moses himself. And it is
VOL. II. E
66 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
natural to suppose that in Israel, as among the other nations
of the ancient East, such customs would not alter even before
a new religion, but would at the most accommodate themselves
to it as plastic material, though, in many cases, cross-grained
and hard to assimilate.
If we take this peculiarity of the material for granted, the
idea which the spirit of religion has embodied in it, stands out
before us in grander proportions than ever, and more logically
consistent. In all the surroundings of the life of this divinely-
consecrated holy people, the divine life has to find expression.
Hence, everything brings us back again to the inmost essence
of this God Himself, to His holiness. 1 Whatever is out of
harmony with the dignity of the people dedicated to such
a God must be absolutely excluded. Hence the ceremonial
law, even in its smallest details, presents itself with the
same religious claims as the moral law. Disobedience to it
entails death. Israel is the holy people, the people which
God hallows, which He has chosen from the womb and
called, and in which He is Himself hallowed before other
nations. 2 Hence it becomes this people to have a special
mode of life, and also, in regard to its outward national
life, a sacred purity such as is not imposed on other peoples ;
just as in the camp, in which the divine presence abides,
nothing filthy or unclean can have a place. 3 Hence " the
statutes and the judgments of God," which regulate this
outward life of the people, are the conditions on which He
is well pleased with His people, the holy garment, as it were,
of the people s life in which Israel alone can draw near to
this God of his in a becoming manner.
1 Lev. xi. 45, xix. 2ff., xx. 7, 26, xxi. 8 ; cf. Lev. xviii. 24-28. It is pre
cisely these chapters, dating probably from the early years of the Exile, which
are pre- eminently distinguished, not only for grandeur of meaning, but for
creative power as well.
2 Deut. vii. 6, xiv. 2, 21, xxvi. 18, xxvii. 9, xxviii. 9f., xxix. 12, xxxii. 9;
Ezek. xx. 12, 41, xxviii. 22, 25, xxxvii. 28, xxxviii. 23, xxxix. 27 ; Hos. xi. 1 ;
cf. Deut. iv. 1, 14, v. 28, etc. (God is Israel s PHpJD, Lev. xxii. 32).
3 Deut. xxiii. 15.
THE GENESIS OF THE CEREMONIAL LAW. 67
Hence it is easily understood that on the one hand the
Old Testament ceremonial law has, in many points, a great
affinity with similar customs among other peoples, especially
with those of the Greeks and the Eomans, and partly also
with those of the Zend race and the Egyptians. This is
explained, not only from its being founded on popular
customs which are naturally akin to those of other nations,
but also from the fact that certain views of holiness, unclean-
ness, life, and death are found among many of the higher
peoples of antiquity. But it is likewise easily understood
how, on the other hand, this same law, as a whole and taken
as an ideal, is absolutely unique, and how it should develop
a specially sharp antagonism to the worship of nature
practised by the neighbouring Hamite peoples. It must, in
fact, be hostile to such worship, just as the religion of the
holy, living God is hostile to the orgiastic worship of the
powers of nature. The worship of nature draws the divine
down into the processes of nature and interweaves it
with them. This law seeks to hallow and purify these
processes of nature, in order to draw them up to God. The
worship of nature seeks to honour the Deity by absolute
submission to nature with its instincts, forces, sufferings,
and movements. Death and procreation are for it the
mysterious centres of religious contemplation. This law
wishes to honour the Creator of life, who is exalted high
o
above nature, by making everything natural surrender itself
unreservedly to Him ; while whatever cannot accommodate
itself to Him, and cannot enter into His life, is excluded
and annihilated.
In giving this explanation of the ceremonial law, it is
not denied that there may also have been subordinate motives
at work. Thus, considerations of health may lie at the
foundation of many of the commandments as to food ; for
sickness is considered, from the stand-point of religion, a viola
tion of an Israelite s holiness, and the prophetic and priestly
68 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
calling was in Israel as frequently combined with the
medical as among other ancient peoples. 1 But still that
is only one side of the religious conception, and certainly
not a very important one. In the same way the numerous
restrictive regulations may have been intended to exclude
Israel from intercourse with the neighbouring peoples. In
deed, it is said by God in so many words : " I have
separated you from among the peoples." 2 But, on the one
hand, these words express only the feeling of a late age ; and,
on the other, it must not be forgotten that such barriers
were not the result of deliberate State policy, but a natural
consequence of the religious thought of Israel s election by
God, and its separation from the rest of the profane race
of man. God separates His people from the other peoples,
because in serving strange gods these others give themselves
up to abominable immoralities. Besides, it is not to be over
looked that other ancient peoples too, as for example the
Egyptians, 3 had a definite mode of life, quite peculiar to them
selves, which grew up out of their religion, and consequently
kept them apart from strangers. The principles at the
foundation of the ceremonial law are thoroughly religious.
The prominence given to this side of Israel s holiness
was very different at different periods of the Old Testament.
In the earliest age, Israel, like all religiously inclined peoples
of antiquity, attached very great importance to such holiness,
not in obedience to a written law, but in accordance with
the religious consciousness of the people, who regarded it as
1 E.g. Lev. xiv. 2ff., 33 ff. There are also police regulations connected
with it, as in Deut. xxiii. 14. But even these are referred to the fundamental
thought that this people belongs to God, and that God is present in the midst
of it.
2 b^lH, Lev. xviii. Iff., xx. 26.
3 Tertullian s utterance in Praescr. Haer. xl. is interesting. "Si Numae
Pompilii superstitiones revolvamus, si sacerdotalia officia et insignia et privilegia,
si sacrificalia ministeria et instrumenta et vasa ipsorum sacrificiorum et
piaculoram et votorum curiositates consideremus, nonne manifesto diabolus
morositatem illam judaicae legis imitatus est ? "
THE GROWTH OF THE CEREMONIAL LAW. 69
indicating their consecration as a people to Jehovah. Even
for Amos a heathen country is an unclean land. 1
The great prophets, however, attached very little importance
to this whole aspect of holiness. Of course they never meant
to encourage any disloyalty to the sacred customs of Israel.
Amos, for example, censures the covetousness which would
willingly turn the feast days into working days. Hosea
considers that food different from Israel s is unclean. 2 But,
on the whole, it is true morality and the piety of the heart
which these men keep mainly in view. And although
Deuteronomy also defines and insists on 3 these holy forms,
it nevertheless pays most attention to the moral side of the
law. We may put it thus : From Amos till the Exile the
men of God emphasise sacred forms only incidentally, and
especially in cases where their violation might be regarded as
showing a tendency to the worship of strange gods, or as
culpable selfishness and indifference. 4
After Deuteronomy those inclined, from priestly habit and
natural temperament, to follow out this line of things find
themselves more and more strongly impelled to emphasise and
elaborate the external holiness of Israel. This is specially
the case with Ezekiel. He busies himself with the ritual of
the new Jerusalem. Even in a vision he cannot reconcile
himself to the thought of unclean meat. 5 It is the same with
the great priestly law-giver, A. And, during the Exile, faithful
observance of the sacred forms which it was possible to
observe beyond the confines of Palestine, especially in regard
to food and the Sabbath, became the mark of that true Israel
1 Amos vii. 17.
2 Amos iv. 5, viii. 5 ; Hos. ix. 3 f.
3 Dent. x. 5, xii., xiv. 1-23, xv. 1 flf., xvi. 1-18, xvii. 1, xix., xxii. 5-11, xxiii.
Jf., 10-18.
4 Prov. iii. 9 (I . ; Isa. viii. 19 ; Jer. xvii. 19, 21 ; 2 Kings xx. 3. Also in Job i. 5
it is represented as a specially praiseworthy feature that the pious man him
self oilers sacrifices to atone for sins which it is just possible his children may
have committed.
5 Ezek. iv. 14, xx. 12, 21, xxii. 8, 26, xliv. 31, etc.
70 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
which was determined not to be absorbed into the heathen
world, but to survive, as a faithful covenant people, the death
of Israel. Hence even the great exilic prophet lays stress on
such things as acknowledged marks of the servant of Jehovah, 1
though in other respects his attention is strenuously directed
to the inward character of the religious life. Those who
returned home naturally shared in this loyalty to sacred form,
and even in the tendency to exaggerate its importance,
which the superabundance of priestly elements was already
causing, and in the desire to increase the people s claims
to holiness, as for instance in the case of an oath. 2 Since
Ezra, the predominance of this tendency is very marked.
2. The natural course of human life, as known by actual
experience, appears to the completed law as not sufficiently
healthy, pure, and honourable, to enter into fellowship with
the divine life of " holiness." In comparison with the latter,
all material created life is faulty and defective. The flesh is
not worthy of God. Washing and purification are, therefore,
necessary preliminaries to every holy act. Circumcision is
meant to give symbolical expression to the thought that the
source of life must be consecrated before a pure people of God
can arise. A mother must be purified after childbirth. Her
illness and uncleanness are looked at from the standpoint
of a divine curse. 3 In fact, she remains twice as long
unclean after bearing a female child as after bearing a son ;
and that, I should say, not merely from " the idea of a longer
illness after the birth of a girl," but especially because the
female nature and everything connected therewith is to be
thought of as still less worthy of approaching God than is the
male. 4 Generation itself is regarded as something which
1 B. J. Ivi. 3-6, Iviii. 13, Ixv. 4 f., Ixvi. 17 ; Ts. 11. 20 f. ; Lam. i. 4, ii. 6.
- In Hog. iv. 15 it is only in the mouth of idolaters that the oath is repre
sented as an insult to God. On the other hand, in Ezek. v. 3, Eccles. ix. 2, an
oath is regarded as in itself objectionable.
3 Gen. iii. 16 ; cf. Lev. xii. 1-8.
4 This is implied in the fact that Eve is seduced first ; cf. later Eccles. vii. 29.
THE COMPLETED FORM OF THE CEREMONIAL LAW. 71
entails purification. Somnier, it is true, has questioned this.
He wishes to take the passages where JHJ rQ3P is spoken of,
as referring to involuntary seminal pollution, such as would
come under the category of discharge, purulent matter, self-
pollution. 1 But even if that were possible in the passages
quoted, which in my opinion is not the case, especially
because of 22 with the accusative in Lev. xv. 18, and also
because of the parallel passages, still 1 Sam. xxi. 57 and
Ex. xix. 15 show plainly enough that even conjugal inter
course was thought to render a person unfit to enjoy the
higher privileges of the sanctuary ; and 2 Sam. xi. 4 is a
remarkable proof that this view, being deeply rooted in the
popular imagination, was deferred to, even where heinous sin
was not avoided. Accordingly, natural life in its most critical
moments is held to be unconsecrated, that is, incapable of
entering without purification into fellowship with holiness.
Whosoever looks on God must die. 2
But everything is specially unholy which suggests
decomposition, dissolution, and decay, and above all what
ever has any connection with death. This may indeed be
partly due to the invariably loathsome accompaniments of
decomposition. But the main point is the antagonism
between this God and death. 3 God is life, absolutely inde
pendent, inviolable life. It is not seemly that persons, con
secrated to this " living " God, should come into contact with
death. Everything, even in inanimate nature, that furthers
putrefaction, such as honey and leaven, is excluded from
strictly sacred uses. These may doubtless he offered as
products of nature, as first-fruits, because they are in thern-
1 Lev. xv. 16-18, 24, xxii. 4 ; cf. for the idiom Lev. xx. 18, 20. Irregular or
unnatural sexual acts are of course represented as direct violations of holiness
(Deut. xxiii. 1, 18, xxvii. 20 f.).
2 Ex. xxxiii. 20 ; Judg. vi. 13 ; Isa. vi.
3 Perhaps this accounts also for the uuholiness of iron, as being that which
cuts and kills. No iron is to be used at the building of an altar, or of the temple
(Ex. xx. 25 ; 1 Kings vi. 7).
72 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
selves, like all other products of the earth, gifts of divine
goodness. 1 But from sacrifice proper they are absolutely
excluded ; whereas in every sacrifice there must be salt as a
preventive of putrefaction. 2 In regard to animals, the
unholiness of the dead is emphasised still more strongly.
Every beast that dies of itself, or is torn in pieces, is unclean. 3
No one may use it as food except a stranger who is not a
member of the holy congregation. 4 Nay more, everything
which such a carcase has touched becomes unclean, except of
course what is excluded by the nature of the case. 6 It is
easily understood that the carcases of unclean beasts should
be doubly unclean. But even the carcase of a clean beast
bears this character. 6
A human corpse is more unclean than anything else.
The higher the development of life rises, the more prominent
does everything abnormal become. Contact with a corpse
makes every Israelite incapable of sharing in the rights and
duties of the holy people until he has been purified, as the
law prescribes. 7 Now the priest, being in a special sense
consecrated to God, must not profane his holiness by taking
part in a burial, except in a very few cases of pressing emerg
ency. 8 The high priest dare not do so, even in the case of
his father or mother. 9 The vow of a Nazirite is null and void
as soon as he comes into contact with a dead body. 10 A corpse
pollutes a holy place. 11 Hence the prophet Ezekiel regards it
as a grievous desecration of the temple that the kings of
Judah are allowed to be buried in it. 12 The corpses of the
1 Lev. ii. 12, xxxiii. 27 ; cf. vii. 12.
2 Ex. xxiii. 18, xxxiv. 25 ; Lev. ii. 4-8, 11 (Salt, Lev. ii. 13, but perhaps as a
symbol of the covenant).
3 ilDID i"6l}3, Ex. xxii. 30 ; Lev. xxvii. 15, xxii. 8. 4 Deut. xiv. 21,
6 The laws in Lev. xi. 36 f. (e.g. seed is an exception).
6 Lev. xi. 8, 24, 27, 31; cf. 39 ; Deut. xiv. 8, 21.
7 Num. v. 2, vi. 6, ix. 6, 10, xix. 13 ff., xxxi. 19.
8 Lev. xxi. 2 ff. (where there is no other natural guardian).
9 Lev. xxi. 11. 10 Num. vi. 7. u 2 Kings xxiii. 13, 14
12 Ezek. xliii. 7-9.
THE COMPLETED FORM OF THE CEREMONIAL LAW. 73
impaled are considered to pollute the land in quite an excep
tional manner. 1
If death is the complete dissolution of the individual life
into its atoms, the decomposition of the body, then sickness is
the same for separate parts of this life. Hence every kind of
sickness is unclean. The ailments of the female nature are
connected with sin and death. 2 The ailments of sexual life
in general, the ordinary 3 as well as the extraordinary, 4 cause
uncleanness, and make the person unholy. Hence the priest
must be without blemish, without any sign of sickness. 5 A
sacrificial victim must be the same, at least when the festive
meal is not the chief thing. 6 And since uncleanness and the
curse inherent in sickness are nowhere manifested in such a
visible and terrible form as in leprosy in all its varieties, this
disease is the one that makes a person utterly unclean. As a
sign of the curse it drives the sufferer out of the congregation-
Only after solemn purification and re-consecration does he
become fit to take part in the services of the sanctuary. 7
1 Dent. xxi. 23. (It is probably due to the same idea that no iron tool must
be used upon a sanctuary, Ex. xx. 25).
2 Gen. iii. 16 f. 3 Lev. xii. 1-7, xv. 16-25.
4 Lev. xv. 1 ff., 25 ff.; Num. v. 2 ff.
5 Lev. xxi. 17 ff. 6 Lev. i. 3, 10, iii. 1, iv. 3, ix. 2, etc.
7 Lev. xiii., xiv. ; cf. Job and B. J. liii. In the camp in which the holy God
dwells, no such sick person dare remain (Num. v. 2f.). It is certain that
in this whole view there is a sharp antagonism to the customs of the Hamite
religion, which were closely connected with necromancy, and perhaps even
with the worship of the dead. But even apart from the fact that this was
not an old Israelitish custom but a Canaanitish, Stade may be considered as
going beyond the limits of what can be proved when he regards almost the
whole of the domain with which we are now dealing as a reaction against the
worship of the dead and of ancestors. "Whatever has any connection with the
worship of the dead or of ancestors, the dead man s house, grave, corpse ; what
ever is affected with disease, or has to do with functions which are under the
guardianship of particular spirits ; all animals which certain tribes regarded
as their ancestors, all solemnities which have any connection with ancestral
worship, are unclean. Hence, too, a heathen land is unclean." There is
not a single passage in all the Old Testament which suggests that the up
holders of Jehovah s religion felt that they were struggling, not against the
worship of Baal and Ashtoreth, but against the worship of ancestors. In
every instance, necromancy is only a single feature of foreign customs (Lsa.
viii. ; 1 Sam. xxviii. ).
74 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
From this point of view, not a few processes of nature
are unclean. But, being natural, they are still the expression
of the divine will. Hence the uncleanness is increased
when this nature, which should develop in a healthy
way, is mutilated, misused, or perverted. This is specially
true of sexual relations. Castration, in the religion of nature
a consenting to the death of nature, is strictly forbidden, even
in the case of animals. 1 The abominable unnatural unions
with which the worship of nature likewise celebrates the
mysteries of natural growth and decay, compelled the land of
Canaan to spue out its inhabitants. 2 They are punished with
the utmost severity and firmness. 3 They would make even
Israel so unworthy of God s holy land as to be driven out.
The very symbols which usually accompanied such worship
are not tolerated. 4 Thus, in reference to what was then
customary among Asiatic peoples, Deuteronomy forbids men
to wear women s clothes, arid vice versa, because these were
the symbols behind which the initiated concealed their pro
fligacy at the festivals of nature-worship. 5 Akin to this is
the law against the intermarriage of blood relations, which
testifies to an abhorrence of an unseemly intermixture of two
moral relationships. 6
The general rule is that nothing is to be permitted which
is contrary to a delicate sense of the inviolable proprieties of
nature. To kill an animal too young, while still sucking, or
to kill it and its mother together, is against the finer instincts
of nature. 7 To sow different kinds of seed together, to yoke
different animals together, is an unnatural conjunction of
what nature has separated. 8 Man himself must not attempt
1 Lev. xxii. 24. 2 Lev. xviii. 21 ff., 28, xx. 23 ff.
3 Ex. xxii. 18 ; Lev. xviii. 22 ff., xx. 13, 15 (Ex. xxii. 15 ; Lev. xviii. 6ff.,
xix. 29 ; Num. xxv. Iff. ; 1 Kings xiv. 24, xv. 12).
4 Lev. xviii. 28 ; cf. xx. 23. 5 Deut. xiv. 1 ff., xxii. 5.
6 Lev. xviii. 6ff., xx. 11 ff. ; Dent, xxvii. 20 ff.
7 Ex. xxiii. 19, xxxiv. 26 ; Lev. xxii. 28.
8 Lev. xix. 19 ; Deut. xxii. 9-11.
THE COMPLETED FORM OF THE CEREMONIAL LAW. 75
any unnatural changes or improvements of his own person.
However freely wine is used, and however little is thought of
drinking to excess, still, at the moment of his holy dedication,
a priest must not excite himself by strong drink. 1 Artificial
marks, baldness, wounds, such as the priests of the nature-
goddess inflicted on themselves, are forbidden to members of
the holy congregation. 2 The people of the holy God are ex
pected to enjoy unarrested development, and, as far as possible,
perfect health and strength. Any bodily injury makes a man
still more unworthy of the great God than he already is in
himself, owing to his weak physical nature. The religion of
nature may also become the religion of decaying, dying nature,
and take part in the process of death. But the Old Testa
ment religion is the religion of absolutely perfect life, the
religion of the living God. 3
3. It is most difficult to understand the laws of Mosaism
about food, for they have come down to us in two not alto
gether consistent forms. 4 Even here, it is true, the ground
thought is easily recognisable. These laws are based at once
on the holiness of God and the holiness of the people. Hence
the animals that are not to be eaten must be regarded as in
some way unclean, and therefore as unsuitable for those who
are to be " the holy people " of the holy God, 5 But here,
just because the most of the arrangements rest, of course,
on primitive popular customs, it is difficult to say exactly
why the particular animals are looked upon as clean or
unclean.
The foundations of such dietetic customs are already laid,
according to the view of Genesis as we now have it, in very early
days. In Paradise, according to B, man has no food but the
fruit of trees. 6 After his expulsion, he is given the fruits of
1 Lev. x. 9.
2 Lev. xix. 28, xxi. 5, xxii. 24 ; Dent. xiv. 1, xxiii. 2.
3 The figure of the Nazirite was an expression of such thoughts in the
original exuberance of antiquity.
4 Lev. xi. ; Dent. xiv. 3-22. 5 Lev. xi. 43-45. 6 Gen. ii. 16.
76 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
the ground. 1 Henceforward, also, the use of flesh seems to
have been allowed. For, being a shepherd, Abel already
sacrifices the firstlings of his flock. 2 Later on, too, no men
tion is made, after the flood, of flesh being sanctioned as food ;
and yet " clean and unclean " beasts go into the ark. 3 As is
his wont, the narrator C puts primitive food customs into the
mythical legends of patriarchal times. 4 According to A, who
also does his best to make it appear that the sacred customs
of Israel originated very early indeed, the vegetable world
seems to have supplied antediluvian man with all his food. 5
Man is given the fruit of trees and vegetables, the animals are
given the green herbage ; no living thing is given as food
either to man or beast. Then after the flood, the animals
too are given as food to the new race of men. 6 But a strict
exception is made of the blood, the organ of the soul. 7 This
regulation is not so much directed against the barbarous
custom of using living animals as food, although, in another
place, the people require to be restrained from a barbarity
and greed going even as far as that. 8 It rather refers to the
fact that the blood, as God s property in nature, must not be
put to ordinary use as food, a view which also runs through
other parts of the law. 9
Thus the later laws about food spring in Israel s view and
no doubt also according to historical fact, from the very same
roots as the oldest popular customs. What then are the real
reasons for these customs ? To ascribe them to dietetic
reasons, to reaction against Egyptian habits, to psedagogic
objects (such as isolation), to allegorical views, etc., is only
to skim the surface of the phenomenon. To ascribe them
1 Gen. iv. 2, 3. 2 Gen. iv. 2, 4, 20.
3 Gen. vii. 2, 8. viii. 20. 4 Gen. xxxii. 33. 5 Gen. i. 29.
6 Gen. ix. 3. 7 Gen. ix. 4 f.
8 In 1 Sam. xiv. 32 ; it is the disgusting eagerness to eat the pieces of flesh
while still bloody which the king is just in time to prevent as sin against God
(ver. 33) ; cf. Odyss. xx. 348.
9 Lev. xvii. 10, xix. 26 ; cf. iii. 17, vii. 23, 25, 26 (the fat, because it is the
part sacrificed).
THE COMPLETED FORM OF THE CEREMONIAL LAW. 77
to foreign influences as, for instance, to Persian customs, is
right only thus far, that similar customs, springing from similar
thoughts and ideas, have grown up among many other peoples.
Besides, there is, as Sommer has already rightly seen, a dis
tinct difference between the idea of dividing animals into those
belonging to the good power, and those belonging to the bad,
a division which the Avesta presupposes, and which leads
to the religious command to hunt down the latter class,
and the Hebrew idea that all animals are created by God, 1
but are not all clean, and that the unclean are not to be
touched at all. The explanation from the position which
particular animals had in ancestral worship is at once con
tradicted by the fact that names like Each el (ewe) are just
those of clean beasts. 2
There can be no question about the accuracy of the general
principle which Ewald and Sommer lay down, viz. that popular
custom was the deciding factor. Everything vegetable was in
itself clean. But, of the animals, those that had been regularly
used as food in Israel from the days of old, were taken as
normal examples of " the clean." These suggested the marks
which were then transferred to what was merely analogous.
Animals that had not these were rejected. When the
marks changed, the law could change too. Thus in Deuter
onomy the locust is not reckoned among the animals that
are to be eaten, whereas A s legislation adds it to them. 3
These are certainly the ground ideas.
It is very easily understood that all animals are excluded
which live on blood and on carrion. To them is transferred
the uncleanness which attaches to the carcase, or which
results from feasting on blood. Thus there are animals for
which every properly constituted person has an instinctive
1 Gen. i. 21, 24
2 Cf. also animals, as in Lev. xi. 7, 10, 22, 29 f., which certainly had no con
nection with ancestral w r orship. (Robertson Smith, I.e., p. 98 if.).
:: Lev. xi. 21 if.
78 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
dislike and loathing. To repress such an instinctive feeling
is wrong and unholy. Man should obey the voice of nature
and abstain from loathsome food, which only barbarity or over-
civilisation finds enjoyable. 1 To this category belong, in my
opinion, the eight species of animals (mostly of the lizard
class) which are mentioned as specially unclean. 2 To the
same category belong serpents, worms, and such like creatures.
Then there are animals which a particular popular custom has
once excluded from use as food. Here of course it is impos
sible to discover any definite reasons. The camel, the chief
food of many nomad peoples, was forbidden in Israel, perhaps
for a reason similar to that which now prevents most civilised
nations from eating horse-flesh. Israel was a pastoral
people, and would probably at first eat no flesh except that of
oxen, sheep, and goats. But although in individual cases the
reasons for such national customs are arbitrary, a man
must not disregard the restrictions put upon him by the
customs of his nation. 8 Finally, there are animals which
do not show the usual marks of their species, animals which
appear though of course only to the eye of a superficial
observer to be as it were mutilated, defective, half-formed.
Or, to put it more exactly, there are animals which do not
possess all the marks of the animals which are like them
externally, and which popular custom has considered eatable
from the earliest days. Thus there are water animals without
scales and fins, ruminants without cloven hoofs, etc. 4 These
are therefore held to be defective and unclean.
mjnn, Lev. XL 20, 23, 41, 42.
Lev. xi. 29 ff. That considerations as to their being used in enchant
ments were the deciding cause here, as Sommer thinks, appears to me very
improbable.
3 The reader may be reminded of 1 Cor. xi. 14-16, where the ceremonial
commandment of Paul is supported alike by natural instinct and by the pre
vailing national custom.
4 E.g. Lev. xi. 3 ff., 9ff., 26 f.
THE RELIGIOUS BLESSEDNESS OF THE ISRAELITE. 79
CHAPTER V.
THE RELIGIOUS BLESSEDNESS OF THE ISRAELITE.
1. The main characteristic of a pious Israelite s frame of
mind, when this religion was in its zenith, was not a feeling
of fear and uncertainty, but a truly joyful consciousness
of divine mercy and favour. In the earlier Psalms this
generally takes the form of confidence in God s help and
protection and in His continued favour, and has a thoroughly
healthy religious tone. 1 A firm confidence in their security
and success, that agreed well with a humble reverence for
this holy God, must have been the chief religious trait of the
saints of that period. This feeling runs through all the ancient
stories of Israel s legendary history, which describe how the
divine blessing follows his ancestors step by step, how God
protects and guides them in a manner which ofttimes seems to
us like partiality, and how they, as God s covenant friends, can
by their intercession obtain His mercy, even for those who
stand further off from Him. 2
The prophets and poets subsequent to the eighth century,
and still more those subsequent to the Exile, have depicted
with the utmost clearness that inward religious happiness which
is quite independent of outward success and prosperity. The
more the outward glory of the people is shattered, the more do
its spiritual possessions, its wisdom, its law, its public worship,
become the true joy of every pious Israelite. In Israel the
righteous man, as such, is also blessed. For his portion is
God, the living God ; 3 and this God is the best of all posses
sions. He is more than father and mother. 4 The very
1 Ps. iii. 4, 7, iv. 8f., vii. 11, xi. 7, xviii. 2f., 15 if.
2 Gen. xii. 10 ff., xxvi. GIF., xx. 7, 11 ff., xxx. 30, xxxi. 3, 11, 35, xxxv.
5, xxxix. 3, 5, 6, 23 ; Ex. via. 4, 5, 24 IF., ix. 28, x. 17 f.
:i Lam. iii. 24 ; Ts. Ixxiii. 25 ; cxix. 57. * Ps. xxvii. 10.
80 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
thought of Him is dearer than all the fulness of earthly joy. 1
He is the fountain of living water, 2 the light which streams
upon the saint. 3 Like the light of the sun to the inhabitants
of earth, 4 the light of God s countenance shining graciously
upon him is, to the saint, the highest ideal of joy. There
is an endless variety of phrase for the thought that the pious
exult in God, delight in Him, rejoice before Him, as at a glad
some thanksgiving feast, and abide in His tabernacle. 5 In
a word, they enjoy, in living communion with God, the
highest and truest happiness man can enjoy a happiness
greater and more needful far than any that earth can give.
This is most beautifully expressed in Ps. xvi. and xvii. The
true Israel does not forget that " man doth not live by bread
alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth
of God." 6 The motto for a wise life is " Blessed is the man
who walketh in the ways of God." 7 Only in keeping the
statutes of God is there a true life of sound wisdom. 8
Thus to a genuine child of Israel the law is neither a heavy
burden nor a hated yoke. It is the most precious, the most
prized gift of God s grace. To fear God and to love Him with
the whole heart and soul are feelings indissolubly connected,
especially in Deuteronomy. 9 God gives Israel the law for an
inheritance, and in it the saint has a treasure more to be desired
than gold, 10 and sweeter than honey ; n it is the centre of his
thought, on which he meditates day and night ; 12 the delight
of his soul, towards which his love goes forth with a constant
1 Ps. Ixiii. 4, 6, Ixxiii. 26.
2 Jer. ii. 13, xvii. 13 ; Ps. xlvi. 5, xxxvi. 10.
3 Prov. iv. 18 ff., vi. 23. 4 Ps. v. 12 f., xxxvi. 10 (xvii. 15).
5 Isa. xxix. 19 ; Zech. x. 7 ; B. J. xxiv. 14, xxvi. 1, xli. 16 ; Ps. v. 12, xxviii.
7, xxxiii. 1, 21, xxxvi. 9, xl. 17, xliii. 4, Ixxxv. 7 Ixxxix. 16 ff., xcvii. 12, civ.
34, cv. 3 ; cf. Ixi. 5, xvi. 11.
6 Deut. viii. 3.
7 Ps. i. 1, Ixxxv. 10-14; Prov. x. 22 ; Isa. iii. 10 ; B. J. xlviii. 18f. ; Deut. xi. 26.
8 n s ^in, Prov. ii. 7, iii. 21, viii. 14 ; Job vi. 13.
9 Deut. x. 12, xi. 1, 13, xiii. 4, xix. 9, xxx. 6.
10 Deut. x. 13. n Ps. xix. 8ff., cxix. 105.
12 Ps. i. 3 ; Josh. i. 7, xxiii. 6.
THE RELIGIOUS BLESSEDNESS OF THE ISRAELITE. 81
yearning. 1 The wonderfully beautiful temple worship 2 is for
a staunch Israelite the perfection of earthly bliss. Beside the
altars of the great God he finds his true home. 3 A day in
God s courts is better than a thousand anywhere else. 4 And
though himself far away in a strange land, his longing soul
transports the pious minstrel in thought to those joyous
pilgrim bands in the midst of which he would so gladly be. 5
In God s house he feels himself God s guest, thrilled and
blessed by the holy awe of the divine presence. God s
revelations make a saint perfectly happy. If he has these,
he asks for nothing else in heaven or in earth 6 He can be
happy in the midst of suffering, though heart and flesh faint
and fail. 7 Yea, even in distress, he can joyously exclaim,
" When I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me."
The highest stage of this blessedness is " to see God," " to
satisfy oneself with gazing on His likeness," 8 an expression
which certainly does not include a future blessedness, but de
notes the highest fellowship with God, almost, as it were,
a fellowship of the senses, and also the enjoyment of this
gracious fellowship. 9 Hence, too, the saint knows no higher
prayer than that God may enlighten his path, 10 may give
glory unto His name, 11 and make it excellent in all the earth.
When conscious fellowship with God ceases, when the saint
is absent from the places of revelation, his soul pants after
them, as the hart panteth after the water brooks ; his
moisture is turned into the drought of summer. 12 Thus God
1 Ps. cxix. 14, 16, 20, 47, 54, 70, 77, 92, 97, 113, 127, 140, 143, 159, 167, 174.
2 Ps. xxvi. 8, xxvii. 4. 3 Ps. Ixxxiv. 4.
4 Ps. Ixxxiv. 11.
5 Ps. xlii. 5 (Ixxxiv. 3f., cxxxvii. 1, 5, 6). Certainly it is not to be over
looked that most of the singers of these Psalms probably belonged to the Levi-
tical choirs that were closely connected with the temple worship.
Ps. Ixxiii. 25 f. 7 Ps. Ixxxiv. 7 (xxxiv. 20).
8 Micah vii. 8 ; cf. Hab. iii. 18 (KKV^^K lv raTs fatytffiv, Rom. v. 3).
9 Ps. xvii. 15 (Sept. must have read pi lDD D^HHl), xvi. 11, etc. For the
meaning cf. Isa. xxxviii. 11 (Ps. xxv. 14, VNT^ ill if TID 5 Prov. iii. 32).
10 Ps. xxv. 4, 12. Ps. cxv. 1.
12 Ps. xxxii. 4, xlii. 2 f., ii. 2 (Jonah ii. 5).
VOL. II. F
82 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
is the highest good, and communion with Him the one thing
needful. This feeling echoes even more thrillingly from the
second Jerusalem than from the first. It shows us a fresh
religious life in the midst of a benumbing formalism, and
points to the hidden springs of the religion of Jesus.
Moreover, communion with God gives a restful sense of
security amid all the storms of human life. The godly may rest
assured of His help and protection. 1 God is a Eock for those
who trust in Him. 2 This security is emphasised as strongly
as possible when it is said that in communion with God the
godly have a sure pledge of life. Of course that does not
mean that the godly are secure against the death of the body.
Even when " eternal " life is spoken of, 3 the whole tone of the
context, and the alternation with " length of days," show
clearly that it is a mere rhetorical form of expression. Still
less does it denote a future life secure from Sheol. For one
always finds that such passages refer solely to security against
some special danger to life. Hence the expressions " to deliver
from the power of Sheol," " to deliver from death," must mean
not deliverance from the power of death in another world, but
rescue from the threatened danger of death here. 4 The thought
primarily refers to this world, but it is at the same time of a
mystical character, so that it has in itself the power of lead
ing the thinker further. For, as soon as the expressions
" communion with God " and " life " begin to be at all
synonymous, the foundation is already laid of a true religious
assurance of immortality, even although the doctrine itself
is not yet consciously held.
In this sense it is said that the godly are written in the
1 Ps. xxiii. 3 f., xxvii. 1 ff., Iv. 23, Ivi. 4, 12, cxxi. 5 f., xxxiv. 8 ff., xxii. 10 ff.,
1. 15 ; Prov. ii. 20 ff., iii. 6.
2 Ps. xlii. 10, xliii. 2, xlvi. 2, 12, xlviii. 4, Ixi. 4f., Ixii. 3, 7, Ixvi. 9, Ixxi.
3, 5, xci. Iff., 9, Ixxxiv. 12.
3 Ps. xxi. 7, xxii. 27, xxx. 4, xxxvii. 28, xli. 13 ; Neh. ii. 3 ; Bar. i. 11, Pa,
\xxii. 7 ; cf. Ps. xci. 16, xxi. 5.
4 Ps. xxxiii. 19, ciii. 4 ; Prov. x. 2, 16, 28 ; cf. Ps. xlix. 16, Ixxiii. 23-26.
THE WISDOM OF THE ISRAELITE. 83
book of life, 1 that for them the fountains and paths of life
are open. 2 God Himself is Israel s life ; 3 His word sets
before the people life or death. 4 He who chastises a child,
rescues his soul from the realm of the dead. The godly man
walks before God in the light of life. 5 Precious in the
si^ht cf the Lord is the death of His saints. 6 He delivers
the godly from death, from the jaws of hell. 7 Unto Him
belong the issues from death. 8 Therefore he who desires
life must draw near to God. 9 The righteous can look death
in the face calmly and hopefully. 10 Thus the feeling of safety
and blessedness in God rises to a complete triumph over the
fear of death.
2. To communion with God is due the only philosophy
which ever found expression among this people. 11 Israel s
philosophy does not depend, like secular philosophy, on the
metaphysical labours of the human intellect. The author of
Ecclesiastes is, it is true, the first to waive aside as idle and
useless man s subtle musings on the deepest problems of
existence. But even Job and Proverbs give us the same
purely religious conception of wisdom. The men who think
themselves wise, the clever, the scornful, are really fools ; and
in His own time God shows that their cleverness is folly. 12
The wisdom of the heathen is foolishness, compared with the
simplicity of the pious. 13 The " wise men " of the Old Testa
ment are not persons " to whom the popular religion no longer
I Ps. Ixix. 29 ; Dan. xii. 1. 2 Ps. xvi. 9, xxxvi. 9 f.
3 Deut. xxx. 20.
4 Deut. iv. 1, 4, 33, 40, v. 16, 23, 33, vi. 2, 24, viii. 1 (xxx. 15, 19, xxxii. 47) ;
Jer. xxi. 8fF. ; Prov. iii. 18, xxiii. 14.
5 Ps. Ivi. 13, cxix. 144, xci. 15. fi Ps. cxvi. 15.
7 Ps. xvi. 10, xvii. 14 ff., xlix. 16, Ixxiii. 23-26, xxvii. 13, xxiii. 6, xxx. 4,
xxxvii. 28, ciii. 4, xxxiii. 19, etc.
8 Ps. Ixviii. 21. 9 Ps. xxxiv. 13, xci. 15.
10 Ps. xvii., xlix., Ixxiii.; Prov. x. 2, xi. 4, 7, xii. 28, xiii. 14, xiv. 27, 32,
xix. 23.
II Cf. Oehler, DIP. Grundziige der alttestamentlichen Weitlieit, 1854 ; Bruch,
Wcisheilslehre der Ilebrcier, 1851.
12 Prov. iii. 34, xii. 15, xiv. 12, xvi. 25, xviii. 2 ; Ps. xiv. 1, liii. 2.
13 Ezek. xxviii. 3 IF.
84 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
gave satisfaction" (Bruch). In Israel they do not form a
separate class at all. Where they seem to do so, 1 they are
either identified with the men of experience, the old, or else
the term is simply applied to those who are godly, prudent,
and upright. What gives Hebrew wisdom, as distinguished
from prophecy, a resemblance to the philosophy of other
nations, is, as Oehler rightly insists, its endeavour, in
obedience to an inner necessity, to work up the ground
thoughts of the Hebrew religion into a complete theory of
life ; to defend it against the difficulties and doubts which
must necessarily arise from an empirical view of the world,
and to apply it to the various problems of practical life.
The wise in Israel relate the experience they have got
from their own life and thought, on the basis of that view of
life which God by His revelation has brought within His
people s reach ; an experience which was of course accessible
only to those who had the inclination and the capacity,
not merely to overcome by active practical work the diffi
culties involved in the problem of life, but also to ponder
over them till they became intelligible. Consequently, the
wise are in no sense prophets, but simply pious men in
possession of a consistent theory of moral and religious life.
This wisdom of Israel in which we must remember artistic
skill 2 and purely practical sagacity 3 are still inseparably bound
up with the higher moral wisdom is based on the revelation
of God, especially on that wonderful law 4 which distinguishes
Israel above all other nations. God giveth wisdom. 5 The
man to whom God speaks is wise. The commandment of
God is not far off from Israel, so that it has first to be brought
down from heaven, or from beyond the sea. It is nigh ; it is
1 Jer. xviii. 18 ; cf. Ezek. vii. 26 ; Prov. i. 6, xiii. 20 ; cf. xxiii. 24.
2 Ex. xxxv. 25, xxxvi. 1, 2, 4.
3 E.g. Prov. vi. Iff., 6 ff., 26, ix. 7ff., xvii. 18 (i. 5 ni^HH), xvi. 12 ff., etc.;
2 Sam. xiii. 3, xiv. 2, xx. 16.
4 Deut. iv. 6, 8 ; Josh. i. 8 ; Ps. xxxvii. 30 f.
5 PVov, ii. 6, xx. 27 ; Jer. ix. 12 ; 1 Kings iii. 12.
THE WISDOM OF THE ISRAELITE. 85
in Israel s mouth that he may do it. 1 Thus the revelation
of God makes it possible for this people to understand the
world in the light of God. Through the word of God the
psalmist has more understanding than his teachers, than the
wise. 2
Hence, wisdom can be attained only along one line : by
moral and religious experience of the truth that proceeds
from God. He who seeks wisdom must be willing to receive
instruction. 3 He must have humility towards God ; 4 he
must seek after God. Then he will understand all things,
O ^
will find even wisdom. 5 The fear of the Lord is the
beginning of wisdom. 6 For this phrase is no doubt in
tended to describe the true fear of God as the august and
holy Lord. 7 Now this is no longer the fear which, in the
Hebrew nature-religion, makes a man unhappy, but that
noble fear which includes love to God, 8 delight in His
commandments, 9 and hatred of evil. 10 It is, in a word,
"religion," which, being equally far removed from unbelief
and from bold assurance u has the promise of life. 12 It is, at
one and the same time, the result of true wisdom, and the
only foundation on which such wisdom can be based. 13
Accordingly, true wisdom is attainable only by one who
has the moral and religious temperament. Whosoever willeth
to do the will of God will learn also to understand His
secrets and His statutes. In the world, and its phenomena,
I Deut. xxx. 11-14. 2 Ps. cxix. 99 f.
3 Prov. i. 2, 5, iii. 11 f., xii. 1, xiii. 1, 24, xv. 5, xix. 20, iv. 1, 13, v. 12,
xxiii. 23.
4 Ps. xxv. 5, 8, li. 12f., cxix. 9f., 29, 33 ff., cxxxix. 23 ff.
5 Prov. viii. 17, xxviii. 5.
6 Prov. i. 7, ix. 10 ; Job xxviii. 28 ; Ps. cxi. 10 (Eccles. xii. 13), mrT -nK V.
7 Prov. xiii. 13, xiv. 16, xxviii. 14, VEfl HHSD ; Ps. xxii. 24, 26, xxv. 12,
xxxiii. 8, xc. 11.
8 Ps. Ix. 6 ; cf. 7. 9 Ps. cxii. 1. 10 Prov. viii. 13 ; Josh. xxiv. 14.
II Prov. x. 27, xiv. 26, xv. 16, xix. 23.
12 Deut. iv. 10, v. 29, vi. 2, 13, 24, viii. 6 ; Hos. x. 3 ; Isa. xxxiii. 6 ;
cf. xxix. 13 ; Micah vi. 9 ; Ps. xix. 10 ; Job xv. 4.
13 Prov. ii. 5 (i. 29).
86 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
there will be revealed to such an one an eternal world of
divine thoughts and purposes. 1 Assuredly no created being
can sound the real depths of the wisdom of God. Heaven
and earth cannot comprehend it. Destruction and death
say, We have heard a rumour thereof. Wisdom herself
created the world ; consequently no created thing can com
prehend her. 2 But true essential wisdom may be received
by the godly man, so far as a creature is capable of receiving
it. The pious Israelite has, in his inner world of thought,
that which is as eternal and inviolable as God s own
life ; because, in reality, it is not essentially distinct from
the divine life by which the world was made. 3 This is,
in contrast with the vanity of the fool s thoughts, the true
essence of life. 4 Hence, it is not surprising that this wisdom
is reckoned of priceless value, more precious than the rarest
jewels. 5 It guards against tempters. 6 It bestows security, 7
long life, 8 riches and power. 9 By true modesty 10 and noble
self-restraint, 11 it gains favour in the sight of God and man. 12
All they that hate it, love death. 13
1 Ps. xcii. 6, civ., cxxxix. 17, cxlvii. ; Job ix. 4ff., xxvi. 2ff., xxxviii. 4ff.
2 Jobxxviii. 13, 22 ; Prov. viii. 22 ff., xxx. 3f.
3 Prov. viii. 22 ff.; Job xxviii. 27 f . ; Jer. x. 12, li. 15 ff.
4 iWin, Prov. iii. 21, ii. 7, viii. 14 ; Job vi. 13.
5 Jobxxviii. 14 ff.; Prov. iii. 18, viii. 11, xiii. 14, xvi. 16, 22, xx. 15; cf.
Eccles. vii. 12, 19, ix. 16.
6 Prov. i. 10 ff., ii. 12 ff. 7 Prov. i. 32, ii. 7f., 12.
8 Prov, iii. 2, 16, iv. 10, ix. 11. 9 Prov. xxiv. 3ff.
10 Prov. xxv. 6 (Luke xiv. 8ff.). u Prov. xxv. 16.
12 Prov. iii. 4, viii, 35.
13 For nin 11 nST 1 there is simply nX"P, Job iv. 6, xv. 4, xxii. 4 for DT17K fijn
simply Djn Hos. iv. 6. The individual utterances of wisdom are called mCQrii
Prov. i. 20, ix. 1.
THE POSSIBILITY OF ATONEMENT. 87
CHAPTER VI.
THE OLD TESTAMENT DOCTRINE OF ATONEMENT.
1. God s covenant with Israel does not presuppose sinless-
ness from the first. If it did, it would really be a cruel
deception, mocking the frailty of men by holding up before
them a phantom salvation. On the contrary, in spite
of the sin which cleaves to every man, it claims to bring
about a real salvation. But, at the same time, according
to Israel s original view, every sin cannot be atoned for.
The oldest stories everywhere take for granted that any
flagrant act of wilful disobedience to God s express command,
any defiling of His holy land, any violation of His property
and His rights has, as its inevitable result, punishment by
" ban." Such sins cannot be expiated by sacrifice, whether
bloody or bloodless. 1 " If one man sin against another, then
men may intercede with God for him, but if he sin against
God (knowingly rebel against the statutes of the sanctuary),
who shall intercede for him ? " 2 In other cases, however,
ancient Israel, like other nations of antiquity, believed that it
could avert God s anger by sacrifices and feasts. That is proved
by the polemic of the earlier prophets against such confidence,
often purely outward, in the efficacy of sacrifice to blot out
sin. We also meet with a naive confidence that God
can be reconciled by works of asceticism, provided His ban
does not immediately sweep away the guilty, for example
in stories such as 2 Sam. xii. 1 5 ff. and 1 Kings xxi. 2 7.
The later law, on the other hand, knows of a recon
ciliation with God through sacrifices, only in the case of
a few comparatively trivial offences. The relationship is
conceived of as being the same as that of one man com
mitting a legal offence against another. Now in courts
1 1 Sam. iii. 14 ; Josh, vii., etc. 2 1 Sam. ii. 25 (Sept, Thenius),
88 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
of law there are crimes for which compensation is absolutely
out of the question, death being the inevitable punishment.
Such are intentional murder, adultery, man-stealing, showing
disrespect to parents, etc. 1 Others again may be redressed
by compensation, if the person injured is good enough not
to exact his rights to the uttermost. Examples of this are:
accidental manslaughter, sexual licence in cases where there
is no question of marriage rights, etc. 2 This comes out most
clearly in connection with manslaughter. Only a person who
has robbed another of life " inadvertently," without bearing
him a grudge, can escape the avenger of blood by fleeing to
a city of refuge. Such an asylum does not shelter a wilful
murderer. For murder no ransom can be accepted ; the
land would thereby be defiled as conniving at the crime ;
nothing but the blood of the murderer can cleanse it. 3
According to the Law, this is precisely the relation between
the sinner and God. In the case of one who, by his sin,
intentionally disowns the covenant itself, there can be no
question of sacrifice. He has himself cut away the ground
on which it would have been possible for him to obtain
reconciliation. For one who sins " with a high hand," that
is, with the intention of acting in defiance of God s com
mandment, there is no sin-offering. He refuses, in fact, to
enter the circle within which such a sacrifice has efficacy. 4
Hence that soul must be cut off from among the people,
whether God do it Himself by an act of judgment, or com
mission the authorities to do it. 5
1 Ex. xxi. 12-17; Lev. xx. 10, xxiv. 17; Num. xxxv. 16 ff., 30 ff.; Deut.
xxii. 24.
2 Ex. xxi. 13 f., xxii. 15 f.; Lev. xix. 20 ; Num. xxxv. 23 f.
3 Num. xxxv. 11, 15 ff., 19 f., 30 f.
4 riEH TO, Num. xv. 30, xxxiii. 3 ; Ex. xiv. 8 ; cf. HD HliT 1 "QT Num.
xv. 31.
5 Ex. xxii. 18 f., xxx. 33, xxxi. 14; Lev. vii. 20, 27, x. 2, xvii. 4, 10,
xviii. 22 f., 29, xx. 6, 11 ff ., 15 ff., 27, xxiv. 1C ; Num. iv. 20, xv. 32 f., etc.;
cf. Lev. xviii. 29, xix. 8, xx. 18, xxii. 3; Num. xv, 30; cf. Ex. xxii. 18, xxi.
15-17; cf. Lev. xx. 5f., xxiii. 30.
THE POSSIBILITY OF ATONEMENT. 89
But where there has been no evil intention to resist God,
but only an involuntary transgression of some divine
arrangement, 1 as, for example, where voluntary self-accusa
tion, 2 without the person concerned having been convicted,
plainly shows that he was willing to obey, and sinned only
" through inadvertence " 3 then we have a case where, with
the consent of the injured party, compensation may
suffice without the full strength of the law being brought
into play. Now in the case of God this goodwill always
exists. The individual member of the community in cove
nant with Him, He treats with love and mercy, just as
His righteousness towards the frail race must, in itself, mean
O * 7
tenderness and consideration. He is willing to be considerate
to their failings ; He is the merciful and the forgiving
One. 4
2. Thus, for a special class of offences, the Law presupposes
the possibility of a sinner being allowed to clear himself
of opposition to God, and remain within the covenant of
grace. But it is not from these arrangements that we can
learn what the true religion of the Old Testament believed
regarding the reconciliation of the sinner with God. For
the sins for which the sin-offering of the law has efficacy,
have no great importance either for the life of the people
or for the inner consciousness of the individual. To under
stand the real Old Testament doctrine of atonement, we
have to look away from the sacrifices, and study the thoughts
of the great prophets and psalmists. In their view, there
is no limit to God s willingness to be reconciled. If Israel
draws near to Him in penitence, he may be sure that he
will be welcomed with open arms. Eight in the heart of
1 JTP ti, 13E>2 Dltt> Lev. v. 2, 3, 17. 2 So Lev. v. 4 f., 21 f.
3 njjb, Lev. iv. 22, 27, v. 15, xxii. 14 ; Num. xv. 24 f., 27 f.
4 }iy NEOj h K^3, !? I"6D, Exod. xxxii. 32, xxxiv. 6, 7; Num. xiv. 18 f.
The civil aspect of such a transgression does not, of course, come into con
sideration here.
90 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
the sternest utterances of judgment and wrath, there is
always something about a willingness to forgive, at least in
the future. 1 Where human mercy could not and dared not
re-tie the broken bond, divine mercy is still ready to do
so. 2 This omnipotence of God s redeeming grace depends,
on the one hand, on God s own nature. He is the gracious
One who, even in wrath, remembers mercy, who takes away
sin and passes by transgression. 3 He swears by Himself
that He desires, not the death, but the conversion of the
sinner. 4 He does not deal with frail men after their sins,
but He forgives their iniquity. 5 Hence, it is an essential
attribute of the divine personality that its love should be
stronger than human sin, that it should overcome even the
resistance of sin. Even where God must break the existing
covenant on account of Israel s sins, He remains willing to
enter into a covenant out of which a new form of salvation
may spring. On this conviction is based the hope which
the prophets have of a new dispensation of grace after
judgment.
But it is not merely this general goodness of God
with which Israel is concerned. God loves Israel with a
peculiar covenant love for which earth cannot furnish a
metaphor of sufficient strength. 6 And this love of His
outlasts Israel s sin. His heart yearns to forgive. 7 He
will let Himself be found even by sinners. 8 He will cast
their sins into the depths of the sea. 9 Hence, as regards
Israel, God s forgiving mercy is more exactly defined as
1 Deut. xxx. Iff.; Jer. xviii. 8, xxvi. 19 f.; Ezek. xxxiii. 8-19; Hos. vi. 3,
11, vii. 1, xi. 8, xiv. 5 if.; Joel ii. 18 if., etc.
2 B. J. liv. 6 (already a near approach to the parable of the Prodigal Son.
The idea is different in Jer. iii. 1).
3 Cf. among other passages, Jonah iv. 10 ; Ps. Ixxvii. 10, Ixxxvi. 5, Ixxviii.
38 ; Micah vii. 18 ; cf. Ps. cxxx. 4, xcix. 8.
4 Ezek. xviii. 23, 32, xxxiii. 11 ; cf. Jer. iv. If., iii. 12, 22, vii. 3, xviii. 8.
5 Ps. ciii. 9-13 ; B. J. Ivii. 16.
6 Jer. li. 5 ; B. J. 1. 1, xlix. 15 f. (Jer. xvii. 14; Hos. xiv. 9 ; Ps. li. 3).
7 Hos. xi. 8f., xiii. 14, xiv. 4. 8 B. J. Iv. 6 Ixv. 1 f.
9 Micah vii. 19 (Isa. xxxviii. 17).
THE POSSIBILITY OF ATONEMENT. 91
covenant mercy. Because of the blood of His covenant Ho
bestows redemption ; He opens a fountain for sin and for
uncleanness. 1 For His own sake, for His own name s sake,
that is, because His own honour, the end of His salvation, is
bound up with the development of this people, He will not let
them be lost, but is ever ready to take them back again. 2 In
the love which God bears to the ideal Israel, His beloved son,
the Israel of history has the constant assurance that recon
ciliation is possible. And whatever represents to Him this
ideal Israel, becomes the channel of His mercy. Such is His
holy city, such His sanctuary, 3 such are the patriarchs, such
too are David and Moses His beloved, 4 and such the Servant
of Jehovah who, as a guilt - offering, gives His life for
Israel. 5
Thus God does not forsake His people. Individual
generations may reach such a stage of apostasy that judgment
cannot be averted, 6 but not the whole people. God will
wash away the filth and blood of Zion with the spirit of
judgment and of destruction, that it may again be called the
city of righteousness, the faithful city. 7 He does not
punish Israel, as He punishes the enemies of His people,
with an everlasting punishment. 8 He gives to its deliverer,
1 Zech. ix. 11 (in the New Testament, "on account of the blood of Christ
shed to establish the new covenant." "This cup is the new covenant in My
blood.") Lev. xxvi. 42 ; cf. Zech. xiii. 1.
2 B. J. xliii. 25, xlviii. 9, Hi. 5 ; Joel ii. 17, 19 ; Ezek. xx. 9, 14. 22, 44,
xxxvi. 16 if., 22, 23, xxxix. 7, 25; Jer. xiv. 21; Dent. ix. 28, xxxii. 27; Ps.
Ixxix. 9, cxv. 1, 2.
3 B. J. Ixii. 1 ; cf. 1 Kings viii. 29 ff.
4 1 Kings xi. 13, 32, xiv. 21, xv. 4 ; 2 Kings viii. 19, xix. 34 ; Deut. ix. 27.
(We should remember in this connection the intercession of God s friends,
whether angels or men, Job xxii. 30, xxxiii. 23, xlii. 8-10 ; cf. also Ezek. xxii.
30 f.; Jer. v. 1).
5 B. J. liii. 10, 12, Ixv. 8.
6 2 Kings xxiii. 26, xxiv. 3, 20 ; Isa. vi.; Jer. xv. 1 ff., "even though Moses
and Samuel were to intercede for this people, that would no longer help
them."
7 Isa. i. 26 f., iv. 4, xxxiii. 5f., 24 ; Zech. xiii. 1 ; Jer. xxix. 11.
8 B. J. xxvii. 7 ; cf. Jer. xxx. 11, 18, xlvi. 28 ; Amos ix. 7ff.; Hos. xi. 8 B.
92 OLD TESTAMENT TffEOLOGY.
as ransom for His people, the most distant heathen lands. 1
He remembereth His covenant and showeth pity. 2 And
Satan, who would still gladly accuse " the brand plucked out
of the fire," he sternly repulses. 3 But in the exclusive
emphasising of the people, we do not find that this doctrine
is logically carried out to the Christian conclusion that there
is no limit to the possibility of the conversion of an
individual, so long as he is not hardened in sin. At the
most, there is only a hint of it in passages like Ezekiel,
chapters xviii. and xxxiii.
3. For the individual Israelite therefore, and for the
sinful community, reconciliation depends objectively on a con
nection being maintained with the true Israel which is
loved by God, and subjectively on the sin being negatived
as one not committed consciously or of set purpose, and
being repented of and made of none effect by a ransom.
These two conditions together complete the actual process
of reconciliation.
This true Israel, in connection with which the sinner can
find reconciliation, receives special embodiment in specially
ideal and prominent members of the people on whom God s
love is firmly fixed. Thus the thought of the fathers whom
God loved brings pardon to their descendants. 4 Thus Moses
by his personal intercession, is able to gain God s favour
for the people he will not sever himself from or forsake. 5
He gains it by reminding God of His purposes of salvation
for this people, and that His own honour is at stake. 6 Later
on, God is gracious, for David s sake, to his successors. 7
The real holiness of God s people is, for the Law, embodied
in its sacred forms. The consecration of the people to God
receives official expression in the priesthood, just as that, in
1 B. J. xliii. 3, 4, 14. 2 Ps. cvi. 45 f.; Amos v. 4.
3 Zech. iii. 2. 4 Ex. xxxii. 13, xxxiii. 1.
5 Ex. xxxii. 20, 31. 6 Num. xiv. 12 ff.; Josh. vii. 7ff.
7 2 Kings viii. 19.
THE CONDITIONS OF ATONEMENT. 9 3
turn, culminates in the high priesthood. The priest can "give
covering " to the sinner, so that he may draw near to God
with his prayer for pardon fy "isa). The presence of God
among this people, and His willingness to let Himself be
found, receive permanent expression in the holy place. Hence
these forms are the objective acts with which atonement is
associated. In the eyes of the ancient people, too, they
undoubtedly had this value, although the loftiest con
ception of the doctrine of atonement in the great prophets,
and in such Psalms as xxxii. and li., neither requires them
nor attaches any importance to them.
4. From the subjective standpoint a person must, as it
were, revoke his sin by declaring that it was not committed
by him of set purpose. Nothing, therefore, could be more
natural than the idea of effecting this atonement by the
bringing of a gift pure and simple that is, by obtaining
the favour of God by means of a material present accept
able to Him, or by a humility flattering to the pride of the
injured party. Such was the mould in which the ideas of
ancient Israel were cast, as we see clearly from ancient
proverbs and stories. The sinner brought God a gift
to appease Him. He bowed before Him fasting, in an
attitude of mourning and humiliation, and sought, in this
way, to make his prayer for pardon impressive and
effectual. 1
But we meet with a far higher conception when the
prophets and the psalmists of the prophetic period tell us
how the guilty people can obtain reconciliation with its
God, or when the process of reconciliation is presented to us,
in the writings of the prophetic period, without any reference
to those outward forms. The people can never, as the
prophets are well aware, deserve reconciliation by its own
1 Cf. 1 Sam. xxvi. 19 ; 2 Sam. xii. 16-22, xvi. 10 ; 1 Kings xxi. 27, etc.
The money for repentance and atonement belonged to the priests (2 Kings
xii. 17).
94 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
merits. It could never wash itself clean from its sin. 1
In fact it did not even make an effort to obtain reconciliation. 2
Nothing but the free grace, which depends on God s purposes
of love, brings salvation. For the gifts which have been
presented to Him from of old, the sacred rites of sacrifice
and self-mortification have, in themselves, no power to atone
for a nation of sinners. To seek God with sheep and oxen,
to torment themselves, in His honour, at feasts and new
moons, with prayers, fastings, and rending of clothes all
this the Israelites were always ready to do whenever the
blows of God fell heavily upon them 3 ; ready, if need be, to
offer up their own sons. Such sacrifices were continually
before God. 4 But for such conduct prophecy has nothing
but distinct condemnation, and thus it opens up the way
for a specially important development of this doctrine.
Naturally the sacred forms of atonement, as such, were
neither attacked nor questioned by the prophets, but certainly
their significance in relation to God was. 5 To that most impor
tant question, whether the covenant with all its promises,
even when broken externally, could be again renewed through
God s covenant mercy, these forms have no answer to give.
In fact, when great attention is given to them, they may
even have an injurious effect on the people in regard to
religion. For they regard sacrifice as an act; and it is only
natural for human ignorance and pride to imagine that
God is reconciled by the mere act itself that sacrifice is
not a means of grace bestowed upon the people by God,
but a gift, valuable in itself, to the receiver. The super
stitious mass of the members of the old covenant might
1 Jer. ii. 22. 2 B. J. xliii. 23 ff. ; Ezek. xxxvi. 22, 32.
3 Micah vi. 6, 7. 4 Ps. 1. 8 ff.
5 Cf. Jer. xvii. 21 ; B. J. Ivi. 2, Iviii. 12 f. ; Joel ii. 15 ff. ; Hagg. i. 7 ff. ;
Job xlii. 8 (Mai. i. 7f., 12 f.). Even in Ps. Ii. 18 ; according to the following
verses, which certainly belong to the original Psalm, sacrifice is only regarded
as not being desired by God until he should have again built up the walls of
Zion which, during the Exile, are lying in ruins.
THE CONDITIONS OF ATONEMENT. 95
well take this view at any rate, without showing such a
want of understanding as the mass of the members of the
new covenant who consider that the condition of recon
ciliation is the sacrament as an opus operatum, or pious
works, or the covenant death of Jesus, as such, without any
inward appropriation of it, or orthodox belief as an affair
of the intellect. But such a view necessarily destroyed in
the people the one condition of reconciliation a humble
and believing spirit.
Hence, in opposition to this pernicious idea, it is said that
God has absolutely no need of these sacrifices ; that He now
demands them as little as He formerly did at Sinai. " For
aught I care," says God by Jeremiah, 1 " ye may eat your burnt-
offerings with your sacrifices." God will have no sacrifices of
any kind. They are an abomination to Him. He regards
sacrificial assemblies as a mere treading of His courts. 2
Fasting and prayer avail nothing. 3 The wicked man, who
hates instruction, should not take God s name into his
mouth. 4 When the people, as if they had not forsaken
righteousness and order, betake themselves to fasting, and yet
never leave off practising covetousness and injustice, they
deceive themselves utterly. Sacrifice, in a wicked spirit, has
no value. 5 Hence when the wicked among exilic Israel
desire, in defiance of God s commandment, to have a temple
and a regular service in a foreign land, it has to be regarded
as an abomination and a crime. 6
This grand view of reconciliation, which put sacrifice and
the whole apparatus of human ritual into the background
as non-essential, is clearly seen in the general attitude which
most of the prophets take up toward the forms of worship.
Ezekiel, it is true, is once more heartily in love with them ;
1 Ps. 1. 10-13, xl. 7 ; Hos. v. 6, vi. 6 ; Jer. vi. 20, vii. 4, 21 f.; Amos v. 25 ;
Isa. i. 11 fi . ; Micah vi. 6 f.
- Isa. i. 12 IF. ; Lev. xxvi. 31. 8 Isa. i. 15; Jer. xiv. 12 ; Zecli. vii. 5.
4 Ps. 1. 16 f. Prov. xv. 8, xxi. 3, 27 ; 13. J. Iviii. 211 .
6 B. J. Ixvi. 1-3.
96 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
before his eye there stands a new temple in new symbolic
forms. 1 But even Jeremiah still warns against superstitious
inquiries regarding the outward belongings of the sanctuary,
the ark of the covenant, and the like. 2 Sacrifices are trans
figured by the prophets into spiritual thank-offerings. 3 The
congregation of the future will be filled with the Spirit, and
have direct relations with the covenant God of Israel. 4
Now, just as the outward forms of sacrifice begin to fade
away into shadows, the age is lighted up with the pregnant
thought of a nobler sacrifice about to come. The Servant of
God who represents Israel s calling, and who, uniting the
sinful people with its God, becomes Himself an atonement
for Israel, suffers and dies in His vocation in order to secure
this reconciliation. His death, freely endured for the people,
is a means of reconciliation of a new kind, an offering for sin
unlike the victims slain of old. 5 Thus, as the shadows dis
appear, prophecy grasps the substance.
5. This conception of the problem of reconciliation is the
ruling idea in the prophetic writings, and has found incom
parable expression in Ps. xxxii. and li. On God s covenant
love, and on the connection of His honour and His plan
of salvation with this people, depends the indestructible
possibility of reconciliation. Nothing is required save the
inclination of the heart which alone enables this possibility
of reconciliation to be grasped, and which displays itself in
true, infallible signs. According to the abundant testimonies
which we have from Amos to Zechariah, the actual process of
reconciliation is as follows :
The first requisite is earnest and unfeigned sorrow for sin,
whether combined with outward tokens of penitence or not. 6
At the preacher s call to repent, the Israelite must confess
1 Ezek. xl. ff. 2 Jer. iii. 16 f., vii. 4, xxxi. 33.
3 Ps. 1. 14, 23, li. 19, Ixix. 31 ff. 4 Jer. xxxi. 33 ; Joel iii. 1 ff.
5 DC>X, B. J. liii. 10.
* Dent. iv. 29 f.; Jer. iii. 21; Joel ii. 12-17.
THE CONDITIONS OF ATONEMENT. 97
that his punishment was just ; l must, with penitential tears,
acknowledge the chastisement of God and take words with
him, the calves of the lips, instead of outward offerings. 2 He
must yearn to be freed, not merely from punishment, which
makes him unhappy, but from sin itself, which keeps him at
variance with God s holy will. 3 A broken and a contrite
heart that loathes its sin finds reconciliation. 4 For " when I
would have kept silence, my bones waxed old through my
roaring all the day long." 6
But when this sorrow is genuine, and no mere " feigned con
version," 6 the whole tenor of the life must give proof of the
change. True repentance shows itself in sterling uprightness,
generosity, and mercy, and in the forsaking of idolatry. 7
" Break up your fallow ground," cries Jeremiah to his con
temporaries. 8 " Make you a new heart and a new spirit " 9 is
Ezekiel s advice. And many of the most beautiful passages
in the Prophets insist that deeds, not words, prove a conver
sion true. 10
God alone can replace the old antagonism to Himself by
this new disposition. He Himself effects conversion by chang
ing the stony heart into a heart of flesh. He teaches men
to bethink themselves of their latter end. His prophets have,
1 Ps. xxv. 7, xxxviii. 19, xli. 5, li. 1 ff., Ixv. 4, cxxx. Iff.; Jer. iii. 13, xiv.
20 ; Lam. iii. 39 ff. ; Lev. xxvi. 40 ; 1 Kings viii. 47 ; 2 Kings xxii. 19 ;
Prov. xxviii. 13 ; Job xlii. 6.
2 Hos. v. 15, xiv. 3 ; Jer. xxx. 14 f., xxxi. 9, 18 f., 1. 4ff., 19 ; Micah vii. 9 ;
Ps. li. 5 f. (God desires integrity, Ps. li. 8).
3 Hos. vii. 15 f. ; cf. Micah iii. 9.
4 Ezek. xviii. 30 ff., xx. 43 ; Ps. li. 19 ; B. J. Ivii. 15.
6 Ps. xxxii. 3 ff. This is also very beautifully described in Micah vii. 7 ff.
6 ")p&b DlfcJJ, Jer. iii. 10 ; "fleeting goodness," Hos. vi. 4 (it must be done
"with the whole heart," Jer. xxiv. 7).
7 Hos. xiv. 9 ; B. J. xxvii. 9 (Prov. x. 12, xvi. 6, xvii. 9, xxi. 13) ; Isa. i. 16ff. ;
Jer. iv. 4, 14, vii. 3, xxii. 3 ; Ezek. xviii. 27 ff.; Amos v. 15 ff, 23-25, etc.
8 Jer. iv. 3, 14 ; Hos. x. 12. 9 Ezek. xviii. 31, xxxiii. 11.
10 Hos. vi. 6, xii. 7, xiv. 2 ; Isa. i. 18 ; B. J. Ivi. 1 ff., Iviii. 8-14. Even the
emphasising of the Sabbath, and of the building of the temple, B. J. Ivi. 4,
Iviii. 13; Jer. xvii. 21 ff.; Hagg. i. 8, 10 ff., 13 if., is only an individual in
stance of the demand that goodness of disposition should manifest itself in
faithful and active work.
VOL. II. G
98 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
in fact, no higher office than to create this frame of mind. 1 But
fchere must be combined with it a firm and joyful belief that
God both can and will forgive and succour. 2 The poor, the sad,
the needy, who give God the glory and seek Him in prayer,
obtain a hearing. 3 This, then, is the process of reconciliation.
The divine word or act of punishment strikes home, produces
sorrow for, and a strong recoil from, sin ; and arouses a confi
dent hope that God will, in His covenant mercy, welcome the
prodigal. 4 This whole procedure, on man s part, is generally
spoken of as a return to God, 5 a seeking after Him, 6 or an
endeavour to appease Him." 7 And as soon as that occurs,
God thinks no more of former sin. 8
Whoever is reconciled feels he has a clean heart, a heart no
longer stained with the guilt of sin, a new spirit of assurance
which makes him no longer uncertain as to his position before
God. 9 This feeling finds vent in joyful thanksgiving to God, 10
in gladsome worship of Him, 11 and in eager zeal to show to
other sinners also the way of salvation, 12 but of course above all
in strictly moral conduct. 13 To this sense of the blessedness of
reconciliation which, in accordance with the whole conception
of the Old Testament, often co-exists with the conscious-
1 Hagg. i. 14; cf. 12 ; Ezek. xi. 19, xxxvi. 26 f.; Deut. xxx. 6; Ps. xc. 12 ;
Jer. xvii. 14, xxxi. 19, cf. vi. 8 ; Hos. xiv. 2 if.
2 Hos. vi. 1, xii. 7 ; B. J. Ixiii. 16 ; cf. Isa. x. 20, xii. 2, xvii. 7 ; B. J. xiv.
32, xxv. 1 ; Jer. xvii. 5 ff. , etc.
3 Jer. xiii. 16, xxix. 12 ff.; B. J. Iv. 1, Ixi. 1 ff., Ixiv. 4, Ixvi. 2.
4 E.g. Jonah iii. 5-10 (Job viii. 5, xi. 13 ff., xxii. 21 ff., the counsel of his
friends).
5 miT ^ 31$, e.g. Isa. i. 27, vi. 10 ; Jer. iii. 7, 14, iv. 1, v. 3, xviii. 8, 11,
xxiv. 7, xxv. 5, xxvi. 3 ; Deut. iv. 30, xxx. 1 ; Ezek. xiii. 22, xviii. 21, 23, 32 ;
Hos. xiv. 2, cf. also 5 (cf. JJ$a"3$ # J - lix - 20 )-
6 Writ* trn, e.g. Jer. 1. 4ff.; B. J. Iv. 6, Iviii. 2, etc. ^K IHD, ^N "W,
$p3, $j?3, e.g. Hos. iii. 5 ; Jer. xxix. 13 ; Deut. iv. 29 ; Zeph. ii. 3 ; Ps. Ixxviii. 34.
7 rbn Mai. i. 9. 8 Ezek. xxxiii. 15 f. 9 Ps. li. 12 (xc. 14).
10 Ps. li. 14, xc. 14, liv. 8 (Ivii. 9ff., Ixix. 31 ff., cxix. 108 ; Isa. xxxviii. 9ff.
11 As without any such reference, Deut. xii. 12, 18 ff., xvi. 11, 14. xxvi. 12 ff.,
xxvii. 7.
12 Ps. li. 15, xxxii. 8.
18 |ypJ, Hos. viii. 5. That follows, as a matter of course, from "the new
heart of circumcision, " which is a condition of reconciliation (Jer. iv. 4, xxxii.
39 ff.; Ezek. xviii. 31.)
THE CONDITIONS OF ATONEMENT. 99
ness of deliverance from sore trouble, we owe no inconsiderable
number of the most beautiful Psalms.
How great was the value attached by the prophetic age to
this consciousness of reconciliation is shown by the rich
variety of expressions for God s act of forgiveness. God takes
away guilt, 1 blots it out, 2 washes it away, 3 covers it up, 4
veils, 5 expiates, 6 cleanses, 7 heals it. 8 He does not remember
sin, 9 he removes it, 10 passes it by, 11 casts it behind his back, 12
forgives it, 13 lets it be made good. 14 All these expressions
take for granted that, in His exercise of omnipotent mercy,
God has the full right to forgive sin, absolutely without
regard to legal compensation and satisfaction, as soon as there
is no antagonism of will between Himself and man ; as soon
as man actually ceases his opposition to God, God remembers
no more his former sins. 15
6. The Law, in so far as it deals with the question of
atonement, naturally regards the sacred ritual as capable
of effecting reconciliation. In the two guilt-offerings the
thought of a gift as a renunciation of property is firmly
maintained. The person has to show his penitence, his
readiness to make good the error he has committed, not
merely in words but also in deeds. Now, on the one hand,
this meets the case only of a limited class of sins. On the
1 PV NKO, Hos. xiv. 3 ; Isa. xxxiii. 24 ; Ps. Ixxxv. 3.
2 nnO, Jer. xviii. 23 ; B. J. xliii. 25, xliv. 22; Ps. li. 3, 11.
3 pm, Isa. iv. 4 ; D3D, Ps. li. 3, 9.
4 HD3, Ps. Ixxxv. 3, xxii. 1.
5 123 (with 5? of the person), Dent. xxi. 8 ; Ps. Ixv. 4 ; Isa. vi. 7, xxii. 1 4 ;
B. J. xxvii. 9 ; Jer. xviii. 23 ; Ezek. xvi. 63.
6 KBPI, Ps. li. 9. 7 into, Ps. H. 4 ; Jer. xxxiii. 8.
8 KSTI, Jer. iii. 22.
9 "IDT &6 Jer. xxxi. 34; Ezek. xviii. 22, 28, 30, xxxiii. 16 ; B. J. xliii. 25 ;
Ps. li. 11.
10 TOP!, Isa. vi. 7 ; B. J. xxvii. 9.
11 TQyn, Job vii. 21 ; Zech. iii. 4. 12 Isa. xxxviii. 17.
13 ^ r&D, Jer, v. 1, xxxi. 34, xxxiii. 8, 1. 20 ; 1 Kings viii. 50.
14 rnna, B. J. xi. 2.
13 Ezek. xviii. 26 if., xxxiii. 15 ff.; Isa. i. 17, 18. jK&
100 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
other hand, the opposition to a superstitious over-estimate of
human acts of penitence is also at work. It is not the act,
the gift, which produces the result. No demand is anywhere
made for special activity in self-mortification and fasting.
The intrinsic value of the gifts may be small, may even sink
into absolute insignificance, provided the symbolical act of
surrender remain as a token of penitence. It is God Himself
who gives for this purpose the blood, the life of the animal,
which belongs exclusively to Himself. And it is of God s
mere good pleasure that this becomes a means of reconciliation ;
though certainly from its highly sacred associations blood is,
as a symbol of reconciliation, peculiarly appropriate. The
one really essential point in the whole ceremony of sacrifice
is the confession of sin, whether that is done through an
act or expressly in a solemn form of words. 1 The person
renounces his sin, confesses himself guilty in the sight of
God, and does what God requires in order to make good
whatever offences he has committed.
B. THE RELIGIOUS VIEW OF THE WORLD,
(a) God and the World.
CHAPTEE VII.
THE SPIRITUAL PERSONAL GOD OF ISRAEL.
1. The Old Testament nowhere felt the need of proving
the existence of God. In the time of Mosaism, such an
attempt would have been simply unintelligible. At that
time, even among the heathen, there was everywhere a per-
1 Lev. xvi. 21 ; Num. v. 7 (2 Sam. xii. 13).
THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. 101
fectly unhesitating conviction as to the existence of the Deity.
All the religious errors of the time were due to a confounding
of this Deity with the world of sense, with the life and
sorrows of external nature. Least of all, however, could the
religion of Israel, which claimed to be a revelation of the
living God, begin to discuss the existence of that God. Its own
existence was, in fact, a proof of it. Without that it would be
itself an empty deceit, having neither right nor title to exist.
Hence it could no more wish to prove the existence of God than
an ordinary man feels the need of proving that he himself exists.
Accordingly, it is not a proof of God s existence, but rather
an indication of how to obtain an inward conviction of His
majesty and omnipotence, when early psalms point out how
the vault of heaven testifies to the glory of its Creator ; how
day keeps preaching unto day, and night unto night, a sermon
that sends its echoes out through all the earth ; l how the
awful peal of the thunder proclaims to every creature the
majesty of the God whose voice it is ; 2 how the world it
self and, above all, man s position of favour and unmerited
honour bear witness to that Creator. 3 One might speak of
these as indications of the teleological argument for the
existence of God, which is always the first to occur to a
simple faith. It is, however, nearer the truth to say that
belief in God is made heartier and warmer by a contemplation
of the beauty and glory of nature. It was rather the later ages
that felt the need of having their belief in the existence of
God strengthened, partly because people were then beginning
to think and reason more about religion, but mainly because
when face to face with heathen gods, in times of national
misfortune, the Israelites might easily have lost the firm
conviction that their God was really the living and true
God. This, then, is the task which specially belongs to the
prophets and poets in the days of Israel s sore distress, when
the scoffer exclaims, " Where now is thy God ? "
1 Ps. xix. 1 ff. 8 Ps. xxix. * Ps. viii,
102 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
In this sense the author of Job points out how the power
and wisdom of the Creator are revealed in the glories of
nature ; x and other poets and prophets reiterate in splendid
fashion this " teleological " proof of the revelation of God in
His world. 2 Above all, the prophet of the Exile reminds his
unhappy people that their religion points them to " the
foundations of the earth," and that they ought, therefore, to
know how convincingly creation testifies of God. 3
But all this is not really meant by these men as a proof
of God s existence. Even in the most despairing passages of
Job there is nowhere even a moment of uncertainty about
the being of God. Indeed, even the scepticism of the Lev-
itical period does not touch this ground. For " the preacher "
Solomon everything rocks and sways ; but " the fear of God "
always remains for him the most certain of all things. Eight
well the Old Testament knows, and that in Psalms which are
certainly not among the latest, 4 of persons who say " There
is no God." But that does not mean theoretical atheists, for
whom the existence of God might and should be formally
proved. These " fools " say in their heart, " There is no God,"
that is, all their plans and calculations take this for granted.
In all their thoughts and acts they leave God wholly out of
account as One who is not present and need not be considered.
They are not essentially different from those who "forget
God," but who, nevertheless, have God s name constantly on
their lips. 5 They are, therefore, practical atheists, with whom
there can be no argument, because they do not theoretically
dispute the existence of God but simply do not allow the fact
to have any real influence over their lives. Indeed, they
would not understand a proof even if they got it. For though
they may be clever enough after the human standard, they
are quite inaccessible to true ivisdom, to the moral and
1 Job xii. 9, xxxvii.-xl. 2 Jer. xiv. 22 ; Ps. civ. (xciv. 9, 10),
3 B. J. xl. 21 ; cf. 28 ff., xlii. 5, xlv. 18.
4 Ps. x. 4, 11, xiv. 1 (liii. 2). 5 Ps. 1. 22 ; cf. 16.
ANTHROPOMOKPHISM. 103
religious meaning of life. They lack the faculty by which
to apprehend the reality of the eternal world, of which the
" natural " man, the fool in the Biblical sense of the word,
has no conception.
2. In the Old Testament conception of God, nothing stood
out from the first so strongly and unmistakably as the per
sonality of the God of Israel. There is nowhere even the
faintest inclination to the thought of a God without conscious
ness or will. It is the same in the Exile when, according to
A, the command or word of God that is, the expression of
His free, self-conscious will establishes the foundations of the
world, as it is among the earlier writers who speak of God as
legend does. The picture is always that of a God who sees
that the world of His creation is good, as well as that mankind
have subsequently wandered from the right way, who, there
fore, stands contrasted with the world as self - conscious
reason 1 of a God who talks with the saints, who gives
commandments which are to regulate Israel s life, who gives
instructions in accordance with which the great leader leads
His people to Palestine, etc., 2 of a God therefore who reveals
Himself as free will, and that, too, as wise and moral will.
lu the covenant, this God acts as a Person with other persons. 3
And when He swears by Himself, 4 He represents Himself, in
this free act of self-consciousness, as objective. In short, the
God of the old covenant is thoroughly self-conscious, in
dependent of the world, free, personal. He is regarded as
the independent Lord of the world, perfectly free from en
tanglement in the lifo of nature. Thus the writer C 5 takes
the very name of the covenant God, Jehovah, to mean
that He is unchangeable self-existence, absolute personality.
But there is no need of further proof of this. The tendency
1 Gen. i. 4, 10, 12, 18, 26, 31, vi. 12 f., etc.
2 Gen. vi. 13 ft ., xvii. 1 ff. ; Ex. xx.ll ., etc.
3 Gen. xvii. Iff.; Ex. xix. 4 Gen. xxii. 16 ; Ex. xiii. 5, 11 (B), etc.
5 Ex. iii. 14 (C) ; cf. Num. xiv. 21, 28 (A?).
104 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
in the newer theology, which inclines to a less definitely
personal conception of God, feels clearly enough its antagonism
to the Mosaic idea of God, and lets this be seen in its
depreciation of the Old Testament.
3. Much more naturally might it be asked whether this
idea of God s personality is not so strongly emphasised that
His spiritual life, His divinity, is thereby lost. It cannot be
denied that in the earlier books of the Old Testament there
certainly is an apparent humanisation of God. In fact, it
cannot be otherwise. For the human mind cannot apprehend
a personal, conscious, and independent life, save as human.
Where it is not the language of the schools that is spoken, but
the vivid and sensuous language of daily life, personal life can be
described only by expressions borrowed from human life, and
by speaking " the language of the children of men." l Hence
no one who understands the essence of popular speech, and
who is not perfectly incapable of appreciating the elevated
tone of poetic diction, can possibly take offence at such ex
pressions as God s hand, arm, mouth, eye, or at His speaking,
walking, laughing, etc. In such expressions the activity of
the living God is simply depicted after the manner of human
acts, in the naive style of popular poetic language. Nor will
any reasonable man imagine that such expressions make it
impossible for the writers who use them to have a perfect
idea of a spiritual God, although, of course, they occur only
where a personal and religious relationship to God is in
question, not a philosophical knowledge of the Absolute. This
style of speech runs quite freely through the whole of the
Old Testament. The prophets of the most different ages
represent God s acts by metaphors from human life. God
appears as a Warrior, as One treading a wine-press, as a
roaring Lion. He answers out of the whirlwind. He writes,
mocks, swears, cries aloud ; He calls like a keeper of bees ;
He musters His army of Medes, raises His banner, brandishes
i Maimon. fol. 1, in Baumgarten-Crusius, p. 179.
ANTHROPOMORPHISM. 105
His sword a sharp and powerful one and makes bare His
holy arm. His voice is the pealing thunder. 1 These metaphors
taken just at random, the like of which we can find in all the
more imaginative Old Testament writers, show us clearly that
what the prophets were most anxious about was to produce,
in no doubtful fashion, the conception of a living, personal,
acting God. Of course, they could not do it in any other
way, because their religion had its original foundations, not in
a philosophy but in the brightly coloured, naively sensuous
conceptions of a nature-religion.
4. It is equally certain that the historical books of the
prophetic period did not give up the habit which the earlier
narratives had of representing God as appearing and acting like
a man under the limitations of time and space. In the exilic
age greater care was taken; and A shows a marked difference
in this respect from B and C. But even he does not hesitate
to conceive of the Divine presence as sensible, and to connect
it with the sacred ark. 2 In fact, the declaration that God
buried Moses seems due to him. 3
But the perfect poetic freedom with which, in poetry, the
approach of God is described in all the splendour of the
grandest natural phenomena is, in my opinion, a proof that
we must not infer from such pictures a really sensuous con
ception of the divine acts. For, had that been the case,
the poets would have carefully kept to certain definite
metaphors. Hence we have the right to assume that even
in the narratives in question which are likewise clothed
in poetic diction, the representations of God s coming are
1 B. J. xlii. 13, lix. 17 ff., Ixiii. 3; Hos. v. 14, xiii. 8; Jer. xxv. 30; Job
xxxviii. 1, xl. 6 ; Deut. x. 4 ; Ps. xxxvii. 13, lix. 9 ; B. ,T. xlii. 14 ; Amos
iv. 2, vi. 8, viii. 7 ; Dent. i. 8, 34, ii. 15, iv. 21, vi. 23, vii. 8, 12 ; Isa. vii. 18,
20 ; B. J. xiii. 4 ; Jer. xlvii. 6 ; Isa. v. 26 ; B. J. xxvii. 1, xxxiv. 5ff., lii. 10,
Ixii. 8 ; Amos i. 2 ; Ezek. x. 5 ; Joel ii. il.
2 Gen. xvii. 1, 22, xxxv. 9, 13 ; ef. Num. xi. 16, xii. 9, xiv. 11 ff.
:! Dent, xxxiv. 6. Generally, however, in A the presence of God is simply
equivalent to the appearance of the pillar of fire (Lev. ix. 4 (vi. 23), xvi. 2 ;
Num. ix. 16, xii. 5, xiv. 10).
106 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
meant, not as historical accounts of actual manifestations
of God, but as the free poetic drapery of His self-revealing
activity.
As in early days, the song of Deborah and the psalm of
David depict to us God s approach in all the grandeur of
the tempest, 1 so we meet with similar descriptions all through
the prophetic age. 2 God goes before Israel ; He rides upon
the heavens, on the light clouds ; He comes forth out of His
holy place. 3 In heaven is His throne, His holy palace, whence
He regardeth the children of men. It is He who pierced the
fleeing serpent, that is, the cloud-dragon that darkens the light
of heaven ; 4 who made heaven and earth heaven for Him
self, earth for man. 5 Later, Ezekiel, in vision, pictures God in.
full detail as present in a definite place. 6 And in like manner,
in the life of Elijah, we are told, in a story as beautiful as it
is pregnant with meaning, that whirlwind, earthquake, and
fire passed before the prophet s eye without the Divine
presence being in these phenomena ; but at last he heard a
voice gentle as a whisper, and God was in the voice. 7 But as
the last passage is clearly intended to explain in what way
1 Judg. v. 4ff. ; Ps. xviii. 8ff. (1 Sam. ii. Off. ; Jiulg. iv. 14).
2 2 Sam. v. 24 ; Dent, xxxii. 10 ff. ; Ps. xxxv. Iff., 1. 3, Ixviii. 5, Sff., 34,
xcvii. 2ff., cxliv. 5 if. ; B. J. Ixvi. 15.
3 Deut. xxxiii. 26 (i. 30, 33, 42, xxxi. 3, 8) ; Micali i. 3; Nahum i. 3 ff. ; Hab.
iii. 3 ff. ; B. J. xxvi. 21 ; Isa. xix. 1.
4 Deut. xxvi. 15 ; Micah i. 2 ; Jer. xxv. 30 ; Isa. vi. 1 ff. ; B. J. Ixiii. 15
(that, in Isa. vi., the prophet means to depict the heavenly palace of God
is evident from the whole description, according to Avhich the seraphim stand
round about God as lie sits on a high and lofty throne, the spacious apartment
not being divided into a holy place and a holy of holies, and the altar of incense
being set up in the throne-room itself) ; cf. Job xxvi. 13, iii. 8.
5 Ps. cxv. 15f.
6 Ezek. i, 26, iii, 12 ; of. i. 28, iii. 23, viii, 4, x. 4, 18 ff., xi. 22 tf.
7 1 Kings xix. 11 f, A.V., a still small voice ; R.V. (margin), a sound of
gentle stillness. (In Ps. xlviii. 3, Hitzig and Ewald understand the expression,
" The corner of the north, the city of the great king," as if Zion were described
as " the mountain of the gods in the north." In itself, the poetic application
of this Asiatic mythological idea would be quite possible. But the brevity
and unintelligibility of the expression appear to me to tell against it, and I
cannot see that it would be unworthy of the poet to mention in this way the
ANTHROPOMORPHISM. 107
God reveals His essential attributes, Ezekiel also makes his
description more precise in this respect by saying that he saw
God s glory, that is, the self-imposed Form in which God reveals
Himself. We cannot imagine that the meaning of the other
prophets was different. Only this much is certain, that the
importance attached to God s transcendental character and
the anxiety to distinguish Him from everything material,
which began with A and grew stronger and stronger after
Ezra, was quite foreign to pre-exilic saints.
But, although we frankly admit that, until the Exile, pious
Israelites knew nothing of a spiritual nature in God which
would have prevented them from conceiving of Him as
materially alive, and even that they would have had difficulty
in understanding the distinction between God and matter, we
must with equal emphasis deny that the traits we have
sketched justify us in maintaining that the Old Testament
writers conceived of God as actually conditioned by matter
and space. They speak like materialists, simply because they
have not yet clearly apprehended the distinction between spirit
and matter. But what they mean to teach regarding God is
not His entanglement in mundane conditions, but His power
over space and time. All legend, and therefore sacred legend
too, represents what is transcendental under sensible, tangible
forms. The barriers between heaven and earth, between the
spiritual and the material life, vanish. Unless this were so,
legend would never acquire that peculiarly fascinating, child
like grace which constitutes its greatest charm. The more
perfect, spiritual, and poetic its form becomes, the freer will
it be in this respect. Even the later narratives spoak of
God in a freely poetic and sensuous style. But descriptions
such as occur in B, C, and in the book of Judges, are not
found in later times. Besides the way in which the Israelites
originally confined the presence of God to their own sanct-
geographicnl position of Zioii in the extreme north of the little kingdom of
Judah.
108 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
/
uaries was not unobjectionable from a religious standpoint ;
and against it the prophets expressed themselves clearly and
openly. 1
5. In every period of this religion it is quite customary
to apply to the inner life of God the feelings and motives
of human life, and the sentiments of the human heart. In
such expressions there must, from the nature of the case,
be something inappropriate, something not quite in harmony
with a perfectly spiritual conception of God. For a human
soul, in all its life and motives, necessarily shares in the
frailties, passions, and limitations of a creature ; and accord
ingly there cannot but cling to any expressions descriptive
of that life, a something limited, and " anthropopathic." which
does not accord with a perfectly spiritual being. Hence to
ascribe to God love, hatred, jealousy, fear, wrath, repentance,
scorn, etc., is, so far as form is concerned, manifestly
inappropriate. 2 But without such epithets a conscious
personal life could not be described at all in popular lan
guage. If these are taken away, there remains nothing but
a cheerless baldness of metaphor which cannot interest
a pious heart. They offer certainly in an inadequate
form, but still in the only possible one, that which is
more important for religion than any philosophical specula
tions about God. They give us a glimpse of the fulness of
God s inner life, that very life by means of which the ways
of divine revelation become explicable. They show us a
personal God whose heart overflows with love to His own,
with love which cannot see itself rejected and yet remain
coldly indifferent, a God whose faithfulness and truth are
ever in conflict with sin; the very God whom the whole
history of salvation proclaims, and whose most perfect
revelation in living act is Jesus death of love. These
" anthropomorphisms," then, are in no sense a dimming
1 Jer. iii. 16 ; 1 Kings viii. 27 ff. ; cf. Deut. i. 42.
2 E.g. Gen. iii. 22, vi. 6f., xi. 6 ; Ex. xxxii. 10 ff., 14 ; Ps. ii. 4, and often.
ANTHROPOPATHY. 109
of the perfect idea of God ; but they contain, although in
popular dress, the really positive part of the statements
regarding Him. They become the more prominent, the
warmer religion becomes. While post-canonical Judaism, in
its emptiness and baldness, shuns them, and the Alexandrian
school with its intellect dazzled by the splendour of Hellenic
speculation is ashamed to own them, Jesus shows them
special favour. The prophets cling with the utmost deter
mination to this style of speech. They preach a jealous
God, who does not permit Himself to be mocked with
impunity, 1 and a merciful God who is ready to turn from His
resolve, who is ready to forgive. 2 They talk frequently and
emphatically of God s anger and zeal, of His love which
longs to pardon, of His sorrow for His people s sins, of
His joy in human virtue, and of His " repentance." They
tell how God laughs, in sublime scorn, at man s pride ; and
how He consoles Himself and takes vengeance on His
enemies. 3 In fact, this freedom of representation goes so
far that the poet makes God say that Satan beguiled Him
into destroying Job without cause. 4 In the prophetic period,
therefore, the full personality of a living God who feels
and wills, is insisted on even more strongly than before.
The incongruity of form, inseparable from such expressions,
is easily explained away. The repentance of God, since it
is likewise stated that His decrees remain immutable, He
not being a man that He should lie, 5 grows into the assured
conviction that human development is not for Him an empty
indifferent spectacle, that it is just this inner immutability
of His being which excludes that dull, dead unchangeableness
1 2 Kings xvii. 7 ff. , xxiii. 26 ff.
2 2 Kings xxii. 19 f.; Jonah iv. 11 ; Joel ii. 18.
3 Isa. ii. 9-21, i. 24, iii. 8, ix. 7, xxx. 27, 30, xxxvii. 32 ; Dent. vi. 15,
xxxii. 16, 35, 41 ff. ; Job. i. 8, ii. 3 ; Jer. xviii. 8, 10, 11, xxiii. 19 f., xxv. 37,
xxx. 24, xxxii. 31, 37, xxxiii. 9, xxxvi. 7, xlii. 10 f., 1. 15, 28, Ii. 6, 11, 36, 56 ;
Ezc-k. xxv. 14, 17 ; B. J. xiii. 13, xxvi. 11, xxxv. 4, xlii. 25, xlvii. 3, lix. 17 f.;
1 Sam. xv. 11, 35.
4 Job ii. 3. 5 Gen. vi. 6 IF.; cf. Num. xxiii. 19 ; 1 Sam. xv. 11 ; cf. 29.
110 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
which remains outwardly the same, however much cir
cumstances may change. Since God is represented as
the bestower of blessing, and as rejoicing to give life
to all His creatures, His jealousy is meant to express
that He is not an unconscious natural force, which pours
out its fulness in utter indifference, but that human love
exercises an influence over Him. Since God is repre
sented as mocking at the rage of the peoples, His fear must
indicate that He is a God who sets a definite aim before
Him, who constantly keeps the development of the world
within the limits of His eternal decrees, and that His wisdom
does not tolerate the self-boasting of short-sighted man.
God s wrath and hatred, taken in connection with His
gracious power, are standing expressions for the self -asserting
majesty of His living essence. We have, therefore, in the
words before us, simply a non-scholastic phraseology and a
purely religious interest.
6. We thus obtain the following picture. It__is_not the
sirj^u^Hty_of_God, least of all in the sense of a philosophical
conception of the Absolute, that forms the basis of the Old
Testament belief j.n^ God, but His _foll__living personality,
which is nevertheless involuntarily conceived of as human.
In earlier times, the people unquestionably thought
of God as actually connected in a material way with the
special forms and manifestations by which He revealed
Himself; and the language of sacred legend estimates His
acts by standards perfectly applicable to human conduct.
But it is equally certain that He is, from the first, thought
of as " Elohim " that is, so far as this can be expressed by
a non-philosophical idea, He is thought of as raised quite
above creature limitations and weaknesses. Nor is this
certainty disturbed either by the language of the whole
Old Testament, which describes Him, with all the frankness of
poetic licence, as coming, appearing, and acting, in an
altogether human and natural fashion, or by the fact that
SPIRITUALITY. Ill
a life of the soul is attributed to Him, which is thought of
as developing in the very way in which the life of a human
soul develops.
A doctrine of the divine spirituality, in the philosophical
sense, is of course nowhere found in the Old Testament,
not even in the prophets. God is not spoken of as a
Spirit (the one passage that points in this direction, Isa.
xxxi. 3, is explained later on) ; it is the Spirit of God that
is spoken of: that is to say, as the full inner life of
reason and will is, in the case of man, described as spirit,
so too, in the case of God, a similar fulness of strength,
energy, and life, is thought of, which is then also capable
of proceeding forth from Him as an active supra-mundane
principle. And this Spirit of God is, like the spirit of man,
conceived of as more or less material. Hence we read of
the glowing breath of a wrathful God, of the blast of the
breath of His nostrils. As the thunder is the voice of
God, so the whirlwind is His breath. 1 And in not a few
passages this Spirit of God is represented as very independent ;
as in the long run every influence proceeding from a person
(wisdom, word, or spirit), can be poetically represented as
independent within its own sphere of influence. It is so
in B. J. Ixiii. 10. 2 For when it is said, "they grieved
His holy spirit," it is certainly the spirit of prophecy put
upon Moses and the prophets that is meant. But this spirit
is itself a divine power. And in Ezek. xxxvii. 9 ff., at any
rate the Spirit of God is thought of as very independent.
The same is true of B. J. xlviii. 16, if that passage is to
be translated, " The Lord Jehovah and His Spirit," that is,
Jehovah with His Spirit has sent me (the prophet).
1 Gen. i. 2, viii. 1 ; Ex. xv. 8, 10 (Deut. xxxii. 11) ; Ps. xviii. 9, 16, xxix.;
Hq. xiii. 15 ; thus already in early passages but continuing down even to the
latest days.
2 If from the mention of Jehovah, the Angel, and the Spirit, the Trinity has
been discovered in this passage, it is hard to say why the arm of Jehovah, in
the 12th verse, should not be taken as a fourth person.
112 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
Hence even in prophecy the spirituality of God is conceived
of not in a metaphysical but in an anthropological and
popular sense, as " intelligence clothed with human attri
butes " (de Wette). In contrast with the material, that is, the
needy, dependent being, eager for enjoyment and outward
satisfaction, and tied down to a definite outward form, God is
spiritual, Elohim; that is, perfect, independent, and in need of
nothing. He is the living God, the God of life, in whom
life is present as a property, and that, too, an inalienable
property. 1 He is in need of nothing, and seeks no sensuous
enjoyment ; this being expressly taught, in opposition to a false
idea of sacrifice. 2 In contrast with the gods of wood and
stone, He has no image. On Horeb, Israel heard a voice, but
did not see a form. It is on this that the Deuteronomist
bases the prohibition of images a prohibition he certainly
was not the first to issue. 3 And wherever God s revealed
glory is depicted, there is always light the most spiritual
element in the world of sense light, at once the veil and
the revelation of God. 4 He is not afraid of the material. The
world and the mass of heathen peoples are to him as nothing,
as the drop of a bucket. 5 He needs no outward experience ;
is not dependent on external impressions. For He knows
the heart, 6 and has not eyes of flesh, 7 which an optical illu
sion can deceive. He is the Creator who, by His mere word,
makes the world come forth, and with it time and space. 8
Accordingly, if one wishes to express in a single word the
antithesis between God and His creature, then Gfod and man
may be contrasted as Spirit and flesh; just as what is trans
cendental, independent, and self-existent, is contrasted with
1 Deut. v. 23, xxxii. 40 ; Jer. x. 10. 2 Ps. 1. 7 ff.; B. J. xl. 16.
3 Deut. iv. 12, 15 ff., 23, v. 6ff. (xvi. 21); Ex. xx. 4.
4 Ps. civ. 1 ff. 5 B. J. xl. 15 ff.
6 1 Sam. xvi. 7 ; Ps. xliv. 22, cxxxix. 23 f.
7 Job x. 4. (Here already we have the antithesis of flesh and spirit. ) Pa.
txxi. 4.
8 Gen. i.
SPIRITUALITY.
what is material, frail, and transient. In point of fact, this
conception of Isaiah s comes very near to what is doctrinally
expressed in the New Testament by the words " God is
Spirit." l
The significance this spirituality of God has for religion
is already insisted on by the saints who lived prior to the
eighth century. The narrative by C gets out of the divine
name Jehovah the idea of absolute self-existence, and con
sequently teaches that God is original, absolute, independent
life that is, Spirit. 2 C thinks that even Moses could not
look upon God but could only look after Him, recognise Him
by the traces of His working ; 3 and he teaches, like Deuter
onomy, that Israel is not to make any idols, because at the
mount he had a direct perception only of the voice of God. 4
The oldest Psalms speak of God seeing the hearts of men. 5
Hence the early saints knew of this spirituality, that is, they
understood the significance of the name Elohiin.
7. The age of the Scribes takes a much greater interest in
freeing the idea of God from sensuous elements. Even then,
of course, we have to deal only with a tendency, not with
final results. In point of fact, every utterance which the
age before Ezra had made regarding God was considered
by the later ages as still authoritative. And in many places,
especially where, as in Daniel and Chronicles, 6 passages from
the earlier Psalms are imitated and utilised, the old idea of
God meets us in full vitality and bloom. The magnificent
description of God in Daniel is not second to any passage in
the prophets. 7 God is represented, even in Chronicles, as in
living union, perceptible even to the eye of sense, with the
1 Lsa. xxxi. 3. 2 Ex. iii. 14. :J Ex. xxxiii. 23 ; cf. 18, 11, 9, xxxiv. 15.
4 Ex. xx. 22. E.y. Ps. vii. 10, xi. 4, 5.
6 1 Chron. xvi. 8ft ., xxviii. 9, xxix. 10 ff. ; 2 Chron. vi. 14 ff., vii. 14, 16,
xvi. 7ff., xix. 6, xxv. 8 if., xxx. 9, 18, xxxii. 7f.; Dan. ii. 19 ff., 22, 46, iii. 17,
28 ff., v. 23, ix. 9, 14; Ezra v. 11 ff., x. 14; Nell. ii. 12, i. 5f., ix. 5 If., 17,
27, 31.
7 Dan. vii. 9.
VOL. II. H
114 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
forms of revelation adopted by Himself. 1 And of God s
mercy, truth, and righteousness, as well as of His answering
prayer, there is frequent enough mention. 2
But, while in Ezekiel s whole conception of revelation the
more transcendental view of God is already unmistakable, 3
from Ezra s time onwards any comparison of God with other
Elohim becomes more and more meaningless. The unity of
God has become one of the most valuable and important
possessions of knowledge, not merely from the religious stand
point, but from the theological and metaphysical as well. His
incomparable and transcendental character is so self-evident,
that it seems impossible to do enough in the way of represent
ing Him as a Being removed as far as possible from all
connection with human beings and human feelings, and of
depicting Him in the most abstract and exalted terms. Hence
the names " God of Heaven," " Most High God," begin to be
used* and are even put into heathen mouths. 5 Instead of the
living name for Israel s covenant God, the preacher Solomon
uses the more abstract term Elohim. In Chronicles, too, it is
found more frequently than in the earlier books. 6 And the
second collection of Psalms, which was made at this time
quite independently of the first book, 7 regularly insists on
substituting " Elohim " for " Jehovah," even where this
alteration produces combinations manifestly impossible, 8 as if
it were afraid to name the living, self-revealing God of the
1 1 Chron. xiii. 3, xiv. 10, 14, 15, xv. 3.
2 Ezra ix. 15 ; Neb. ix. 8, 33, 20, viii. 10 ; 1 Chron. iv. 10, v. 20 ; Dan. vi.
27, etc.
3 Ezek. i., iii., viii., x.
4 Ezra v. 11 ff., vi. 10, vii. 12, 21, 23 ; Neli. i. 4f., ii. 4, 20; Dan. ii. 18 f.,
28, 37, 44, iv. 23, 24, v. 18, 23 ; Ps. cxxxvi. 26 (Jonah i. 9).
5 E.g. Neh. ix. 27 f.; Ezra i. 2 ; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 23. (Cf. also the predicates,
Eccles. iii. 14, v. 1, vii. 15, xi. 5.)
6 1 Chron. iv. 10, v. 20, 25, vi. 33 f., xii. 22, xiii. 12, xiv. 10, 14, 16, xv. 15,
xvi. 1 ; indeed constantly where it does not quote its authorities literally.
7 As the two-fold insertion of the same Psalms shows, Ps. xiv. 2, 4, cf. liii.
3, 6 ; xl. 14, 17, cf. Ixx. 2, 5.
8 Such as the
THE TRANSCENDENTAL CHARACTER OF GOD. 115
covenant, or as if it saw in the mere naming of God a dishon
ouring of the divine majesty. In this way Elohim becomes
the name of God in use during the Levitical period.
With this tendency the excessive fondness for miracles
that is seen in Daniel, and afterwards in the second and
third books of the Maccabees, is closely connected. 1 For the
more God is withdrawn from all connection with the ordinary
course of existence, the more unintelligible and unconnected
does His action become, when He does interfere with the world.
The revelation must be brought about by means of the out
ward acts of subordinate beings. Prophetic inspiration is now
understood only as a vision or a dream. God is believed to
have "spoken" only in "primeval times." Naturally, among
a people in possession of the Old Testament, the simple living
conception of God s relation to the world could not utterly
disappear even in later times. The idea of God in Tobit
and in Jesus the son of Sirach is, on the whole, in accord
ance with Old Testament piety ; and even the book of the
Wisdom of Solomon has, in spite of some Hellenistic touches,
a very beautiful conception of God, based on the writings of
the prophets. It specially deserves to be mentioned that in
this book God is represented as the Father of the upright, by
means of Wisdom. Thus we have here the idea of an ethical
divine sonship, formed upon similarity of being, a sonship which
is based on the love of the "Lord who loveth souls." 2
But the later Hellenism, of which Philo is the chief
exponent, is particularly fond of conceiving God as " pure
Being," the self-existent, the truly existent, without name or
attribute ; unchangeable, without relation to time, without
1 Dan. i. 15, iii. 25, 32, ii. 19, v. 5, vi. 23, iv. 30 ; of. 2 Mace. iii. 21 II 1 ., v. 2ff.,
x. 29, xi. 8, xv. 11 ff. ; Tob. vi. 2, 4, 7 I . ; 3 Mace. v. 11, 30, vi. 18 1 ., ii. 22.
-AVisd. Sol. ii. 13, 16, 18, etc., xi. 26 f. (Eeelus. iv. 10). This thought
had certainly quite as much influence on the ideas of Jesus regarding the
divine Sonship as had the theocratic conception of Israel and of its king as the
Son of God. In xi. 17, the expression eg a^^ov uXns is probably an allusion tc
the Alexandrine idea of an eternal world -substance.
116 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
desire, blessed, equal only to Himself. 1 In the Pentateuch
the Septuagint changes the self-revealing God into the angel
of God, or into the place and glory 2 of God ; and it takes the
heathen gods to be demons. 3 Even in passages which have
otherwise a warm religious tone, the more negative concep
tion of the spiritually exalted God of heaven frequently
prevails over the more strongly religious character of the
real God of Israel. 4 And we have speculation already begun
as to the divine names, and also the superstitious idea that
an oath by the secret name of God 5 is of the utmost
efficacy. 6
It is certainly for the same reason that the idea of God
in these books is, in most cases, gratifyingly free from the
harsh and offensively sensuous forms in which the Old Testa
ment idea of God is often expressed. But this greater
smoothness and purity is in reality not an evidence of a
higher religious stage, but the result of greater exhaustion.
Where there is more thought than feeling, there exists, it is
true, a more exact picture of eternal things. But the inner
life is wanting. In the sphere of religion sober understanding
is not so high a gift as warm and living feeling.
CHAPTEE VIII.
REVELATION AND NAMES OF GOD.
LITERATURE. On the idea of revelation cf. Steudel, I.e.,
236 f., 240 f., 252. Hengstenberg, Christologie, 31). 27-86.
1 S 5, o v, T O V Sws S* Philo 296-298, 122 D, 128 A B, 815 C E, 816 C, 916 B,
950, 1045 B, 1046, 1048 D, 1087 A, 1093 C, 1142 E, 1150, 1103 D.
2 Cf. Langen, I.e., 202 ff., 210 (Septuagint of Lev. xxiv. 16 ; Dent, xxxii.
8, 43 ; Ex. xxiv. 10 ; Num. xii. 8, etc.).
3 Septuagint, Ps. xcvi. 5.
4 Tob. i. 13, v. 26, x. 12 ; 2 Mace. xv. 4. 23 ; Jud. v. 7, vi. 20, xi. 17, etc.
5 Die Sibylle bei Friedlieb, xv. 140 ff.
6 Enoch, translated by Dillmann, Ixix. 14 ff.
REVELATION AND NAMES OF GOD. 117
On the moaning of the names of God : Oehler (2nd ed.,
Orolli) in Herzog s Realencyclopddie^ art. " Nainen." On
tho names of God : Hitzig, " Ueber die Gottesnainen im Alten
Testamente " (Hilgenfeld Zeitschr. f. wiss. Theol. xviii. 1).
Dillniann, art. "Ueber Baal uiit dcm weibl. Artikel" (Monatslur.
d. l f/l. Akad. d. Wiss. zu Berlin, 16th July 1881). Th.
Noldeke, " Ueber den Gottesnamen El " (Monatsb. d. kgl. Akad.
d. Wiss. zu Berlin, 14th Oct. 1888); cf. Zeitschr. d. deutsch-
morgenl. Ges. xxxv. 162, 502 ; Siizungsber. d. Berl. Akad.
1882, 1175 ff. De Lagarde, Abh. d. Gott. Ges. d. Wiss. 1st
May 1880. Nachrichtcn v. d. kgl Ges. d, W. zu Gott. 1882,
173 ff. ; 1886, 147 ff. Mittheilungcn, 107 II ., 222 II . Oehler
(Kautzsch), art. " Elohim " (supplement to Herzog). Dr.
Eberhard Nestle, Die israelitischen Eigennamen nach Hirer
religionsgeschichtlichen Bedeutung, 1876). Dietrich, AWi. zur
hebrciischen Grammatik, 1846, p. 44 f.; cf. 16. On the word
Jahve : Schrader, art. " Jahve " in Schenkel s Reallexicon.
Land, "Over den Godsnameii mrr en den Titel N^3 " (Theol.
Tijchclir. 1868, 156ff.). Nodi jets over den Goclsnamen nin^
1869, 3. Fr. Delitzsch, "Die neue Methode der Herleitung
des Gottesnamens nin (| " (Zcitsclir. f. d. g. lutherische Theol. u.
Kirche 1877, 4. (But cf. the essays of Fr. Delitzsch and the
letters by Dietrich, published by him, Zeitschr. f. alttest. Wiss.
\. 173, ii. 173, iii. 280, iv. 21.) De Lagarde, D. M. Z. 1868,
331. Psalterium juxta Hebrazos Hieronymi 1874, Coroll.
Nestle, Jahrb. f. d. Theol. 1878, i. 126. Eeland, Decas
exercitationum philologicarum de vera pronuntiatione nominis
Jehovah 1707, 423 ff. Ewald, Gcsch. d. V. Israel, ii. 203 ff. ;
Jahrb. ix. 102, x. 20. Kohler, DC pronuntiatione ae vi
sacrosancti tetragrammatis 1867. Movers, Phonicier, i. 159.
Baudissin, " Der Ursprung des Gottesnamens Idco " (I.e., 181-
254). Stade, p. 346. Kueneri, i. 399. Kautzsch, Zeitschr. f.
edit. Wiss. 1886, vi. I7ff. Philippi, "1st mn accad-sumer-
ischen Inhalts ? " (Zeitschr. f. Volkerpsychologie u. Sprachw.
1883, 2). Jablonsky, Panth. aeg. L 1750, ii. 1752 ; i. 250.
118 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
Diodoms Siculus, i. 94 (ed. Dind. i. 125). Hieronymus on
Psalm VIII. Philo Byblius in Euseb. Prcep. evang. Dind.
i. 37 (31a). Origenes, ed. de la Rue, i. 656, 7, ii. 49, 539.
Epiphanius, Adv. hcer. i. 3, 20. Clemens Alexandrinus,
Strom, v. 562 (ed. Potter, 666). Macrobius Saturninus, i. 18.
Demetrius Phalereus in Euseb. Prcep. evang. (ed. Dind. ii. 16,
519d, 520a). Theodoret (ed. Sirm.), Qucest. in Pared, i. 364 ;
Qucest. in Ex. XV. i. 86. Fab. hcer. iv. 260, v. 3 f .
Hesychius zu Ofeia? u. IwaOdfj,. On the name Zebaoth
cf. Fr. Delitzsch, Zeitsclir. /. luth. Theol. 1874. Eberhard
Schrader, " Der urspriingliche Sinn des Gottesnamens Jahve
Zebaoth" (Jahrb. f. protest. Theol i. 316 ff.).
1. God, as the source of all the life in the world, and,
therefore also of man s, cannot be reached by human effort as
such. If man is to have aught of God, he can receive it only
from God, who is lovingly self-communicating. That is Israel s
belief from the first. No narrator dealing with primitive days
ever thinks of man as raising himself up to God by his own
act. From the first, God is the speaker, man the hearer, and
a hearer too very childlike and weak in understanding. 1 God
reveals Himself; man calls reverently on His name. 2 The
religion of Israel comes into existence by God appearing,
speaking, commanding, and by man obeying and believing.
So it is with Abraham, and so it is at Sinai 3 Moses and all
the men of God after him are not philosophers who ponder
over the mysteries of the transcendental world, but prophets
whom God permits to know Him. The word JHJ, which is
used in the Old Testament for the knowledge of God, denotes
a knowledge gained by living communion, by actual ex
perience.
Such a knowledge of God, resting upon His self-communica-
1 Gen. ii. 16, iii. 3, 6, 8ff. * Gen. iv. 1 ff., 6 ff., 26, vii. 1 (vi. 13 f.).
3 Ex. xix. ff. The passages in B and C, from Gen. xii. onwards, are too
numerous to be mentioned separately. Even A holds resolutely to this idea
(Gen. xvii. Iff.; Ex. vi. 3ff.).
KNOWLEDGE AND KEVELATION OF GOD. 119
tion, is everywhere presupposed by the Old Testament as
actually present. The ancient people undoubtedly thought of
Jehovah revealing Himself in a very material and tangible
fashion, in theophanies or appearances of the angel of God, in
dream and omen, by the mouth of the priest who interprets
the sacred signs, and of the prophet who is grasped by the
hand of God or seized by His Spirit. 1 But, on the whole, the
conviction that revelations of the living God take place, is
one common to every period down to the Exile. God is not
a God who hides Himself in the sense of shutting His life up
within Himself. His Spirit streams forth into all the world,
generating and preserving life, and awakening in men, where
soever He will, a supernatural inspiration, in which they
behold the divine. His word 2 goes forth to the world and it
comes into being ; it goes forth to the prophets and they know
Him and proclaim His will. His messengers, in whom His
will makes itself known, find the men of God. His glory
comes near to His favoured ones in the holy places. He
appears and reveals Himself to the spiritual eye of the inspired,
in dream and vision. Such is the revelation presupposed in
the stories and legends of Israel, from Adam to Moses. 3 The
prophets are conscious of it in their own souls. 4 The prophetic
law promises it also for the ages to come. 5 And that this
communication of God is a reality and a truth is the funda
mental proposition by which this whole religion stands or
falls. 6
This religion, it is true, never imagines itself in possession
1 E.g. Ex. iv. 24, xii. 23 ; Num. xxii. 22 ; 2 Sam. xxiv. 16 ; 2 Kings xix. 35 ;
cf. Judg. vi. 36; 1 Sam. iii. 3 ff. ; 1 Kings xx. 23. (The "voice of God,"
Dent. iv. 12 ; 1 Sam. iii. 4 ; 1 Kings xix. 11 ff.)
2 Ps. xxxiii. 6. 3 Gen. ii. 16, xii., xv. ; Ex. xix., xxxiii. 11.
4 Isa. vi. 5 ; Jer. i ; Deut. iv. 33, v. 24.
5 Deut. xviii. 15.
6 The later idea of the Shechina has its biblical foundation in God s dwell
ing " in Israel (Eden, Heaven, the Temple), Deut. xii. 5, 11, xiv. 23 ; 1 Kings
viii. 12; the expression Batli-Qol in "the voice of God," e.g. 1 Sam. iii. 4;
Deut. iv. 12 ; 1 Kings xix. 11 ff.
120 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
of a perfect communication from this God that exhaustively
explains His being. No created being can contain the
fulness of Deity. In this sense, certainly, God is a God that
hideth Himself. The childlike character of legendary pre
sentation may well allow the God of heaven and earth to hold
intercourse, like a man, with His elect. But this disappears
along with the language of legend. Even Moses, the most
highly favoured of all God s servants, can, according to the
early narrative, see only the glory of God or His back that
is to say, only the effect of His personality, only the form that
the invisible God of light chooses to take. 1 Where God com
municates Himself by speech, it is more accurate to say that
" the angel of God " lias spoken that is, there has been, not
an absolute self-communication, but one made through being
conditioned in a creature, through a form imposed on His
infinite being, whereby it is neither exhausted nor limited.
Indeed the Old Testament considers, as the ancients usually
did, that whoever actually sees God must perish, die, become,
as it were, " banned," because contact with the High and Holy
One would make him unfit for this earth of ours, would
consume his earthly being. This idea is firmly rooted in the
popular belief even with regard to angels. 2 It is the same in
Isaiah as in B, C. If any one were to see the face of God,
he would die. 3 Whoever saw God and " lived thereafter,"
has to tell of wonderful mercy shown him. 4 Before God s
holy glance, a creature of earth in its nothingness and im
purity must shrivel into dust. 5 This idea was also trans
ferred, by the reverence of early days as well as by the awe
inculcated by the scribes, to the holy forms of divine revela
tion, and, most of all, to the ark of God in which the early
community unquestionably saw, in a very realistic fashion,
1 Ex. xxxiii. 20 ff.
2 Judg. vi. 23, xiii. 22 ; Gen. xxxii. 30 (C).
3 Ex. xxxiii. 20 (C) ; Dent. iv. 33, v. 23 ; Isa. vi. 4 ff.
4 Ex. xxiv. 11 (B). B Ex. xix. 12 f., 21, xx. 19 ; iii. 6.
KNOWLEDGE AND REVELATION OF GOD. 121
the presence of God. For an unconsecrated person to look
into the ark or touch it, was death. 1
Hence there can be no question, cither of an exhaustive
apprehension of God or of a self -acquired knowledge of His
being. God must open the eye of the spirit before a man
can understand His truth ; God must first speak to him. 2
The bold titanic spirit that thought it could storm the gates
of heaven must, with shame and confusion of face, sue for
pardon in reverent silence. 3 The later prophetic age still
teaches that "every man is brutish and without knowledge," 4
and believes that God is a God who hideth Himself; and
that "it is His glory to conceal a thing." 5 It is but the
reflection of His splendour, but the image of His glory, that
is visible to man. Even the prophets see Him only in figure
and vision. They venture to paint in words only His
surroundings, not Himself. 6 And wisdom, the possession of
which would guide to the secret of the divine being, is not to
be found by any creature, is not to be gained by human toil,
or got in return for earthly treasure. Destruction and Death
say: "We have heard a rumour thereof with our ears. " 7
The true wisdom in which this God reveals Himself is
only to be found in the fear of God. Its conditions are
moral, the way to it is religious. The wicked " know not
God." 8 The knowledge of God unfolds itself to him who
willeth to serve God. 9 This religion has, by the eighth
century, thoroughly exploded the old heathen notion which
kept holy inspiration entirely apart from morality. God lets
Himself be found even when He is not sought for, 10 but only
by the upright. To them He is willing to reveal Himself at
1 1 Sam. vi. 19 if. ; 2 Sam vi. 7 ; cf. Ex. xxviii. 35, xxx. 21 ; Lev. xvi. 2, 13.
2 ISTum. xxii. 31, xxiv. 4 ; Isa. xxii. 14. 3 Job xl. 2 ft ., xlii. 1 f.
4 Jer. li. 17 ; Job iv. 19 ; Ps. xlix. 73.
5 B. J. xlv. 15; cf. Jobxxvi. 14, xxxvi. 26 f., xxxvii. loff. (Prov. xxv. 2, xxx. 1-4).
fi So Isa. vi. and Ezck. i. 10 ; cf. Job xi. 6 ; Ps. cxlvii. 5.
7 Job xxviii. 12, 20, 22. 8 E.g. Ps. liii. 2.
9 E.y. Job. xxviii. 28. 10 B! J. Ixv. 1.
122 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
any time ; not merely in the monuments of a bygone age,
but in the living present, in the experience of the pious and
the upright in heart. 1 He can be seen, 2 not with the bodily
eye, nor with the glance of the speculative mind, but with
the eye of inward vision which loses itself in reverential con
templation of the glory, blessedness, and truth of Israel s God.
Thus a true, although naturally not an exhaustive, 3 knowledge
of God is possible for one who, as a pious child of Israel,
seeks God with humble heart in the ways which He Himself
has appointed. The period after Ezra loses more and more the
conviction of God s living revelation ; and this tells in favour of
a bygone age of revelation and its literature. Hence A already
thinks that the self-same God who formerly spake with men,
and especially with Moses, is now to be found only in His
holy statutes and judgments. For the singers of Ps. i., xix.fr,
and cxix., revelation and Holy Scripture are already identical.
And even where, as in Daniel and the Apocalypses, a present
revelation is taken for granted, it no longer appears as a self-
revelation of the living God, but as a communication from the
transcendental God through special messengers, or through
extraordinary excitement of the imagination. 4
2. When God is in communication with men, they must
have a name for Him. For the Hebrews, as for the earlier
peoples in general, a name is no colourless appellation,
serving merely for use. It must be more ; it must really
express the character of the person indicated and his real
importance ; or it must embody a declaration of faith, a hope
which those who give the name connect with the person
named. Thus in the first narrative by B, man s right to
!Ps. xxv. 12ff., Ixxvii. 3f.
2 Ps. xvii. 15, xxvii. 8, xlii. 3, etc. For the more exact meaning of the ex
pression, cf. supra p. 81; cf. also Ewald, Jahrbiicher der biblischen Wissenschaft,
xi. p. 31 ff.
3 Detit. xxix. 28. What is hidden is for God ; what is revealed is for us and
our children.
4 Cf. 2 Chron. xxx. 27.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE NAME. 123
give names to the animals expresses his lordship over
creation, the power which his knowledge gives him over the
creatures. By their names he separates the animals from him
self as not akin to him ; but the " woman " ( n ^) he connects
with himself as being of the same essence. Accordingly
this narrator is fond of connecting with significant names
incidents which explain their meaning. To the names
Eve, Cain, Seth, Noah, Moses, etc., of course without any
regard at all to the scientific derivation of the words, he
attaches stories pregnant with instruction. In the same way
prophecy is fond of embodying the principal ground-thoughts
of the people s destiny in suggestive names, such as Lo-Ammi,
Immanuel, Shear-Jashub, etc. Also in cases where the
whole position and aim of a man s life are altered, a new
name is readily granted him. Abram and Sarai become
Abraham and Sarah ; Jacob becomes Israel, Hosea Joshua,
and Solomon Jedidiah. 1 A name corresponds to its object,
as a word to a thought. It is the body on which the object
stamps its impress. Hence man, too, has a name in relation
to God. When God calls Moses " by name," He thereby places
Himself in a personal relation to Moses as an individual, such
as He has with no other. In other words, with men a name
is, if not an expression of religious belief on the part of those
who give it (a case not at present under consideration), the
expression of the personal being of the particular individual,
especially in relation to the highest questions.
Accordingly a divine name has to express whatever has
been revealed or made known to man regarding the being
of God. The name, in its absolute significance, is the divine
being, as revealed, making Himself intelligible to others. Of
this name and its glory, prophets and poets speak often and
1 Gen. xvii. 5, 15, xxxii. 28 ; Num. xiii. 17. No doubt this is, in a very
marked degree, a peculiarity of A, who actually makes even God change His
name. Ex. vi. 3 ; 2 Sam. xii. 25 (John i. 42 ; Matt xvi. 18 ; Mark iii. 17 ;
Acts iv. 36).
2 Ex. xxxiii. 12 ; cf. xxxi. 2 Bezaleel. So later, B. J. xliii. 1, xlv. 4.
124 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
gladly. In Israel l God s name is great, glorious, and excel
lent, as it is in all the earth. God will not give it to another, 2
but is jealous of it, 3 anxious that glory be given to it. 4
He cannot endure that where He has revealed Himself as
God, or claimed something as His own, man should withhold
it, or touch what is His. The name of God is something
peculiarly holy. For His own name s sake, that is, because
the honour of His revelation has once been staked upon this
people, He will not reject Israel, but will glorify him, and guide
the godly. 5 For this name of God the temple is built. 6 In
this name the godly man walks, and Israel exults and boasts
himself. This name is put upon Israel to bless him. 7 To it
every one comes who bows before the might of Jehovah. 8
Since this name is on the angel who leads Israel, he acts as
God s plenipotentiary. 9 And wherever God s revelation finds
expression in His sanctuaries, there His name dwells. 10 The
true Israel walks and acts u in the name of God. When
the people of revelation is sunk in dishonour and in captivity,
the name of God is scoffed at by the heathen. 12 God swears
by His name. Indeed, this " name " can stand directly for God
Himself as the almighty, self-revealing God. " The name of the
God of Jacob set thee up on high." 13 Accordingly since the
name of God denotes this God Himself as He is revealed, and
as He desires to be known by His creatures, when it is
Jer. xliv. 26 ; Dent, xxviii. 58, xxxii. 3 ; Ezek. xxxix. 7, xliii. 8 ; cf. Jer.
x. 6 ; Ps. viii. 2, Ixxvi. 2.
2 B. J. xlii. 8 ; cf. xliii. 21, xlviii. 11.
3 Ezek. xx. 9, 14, 22, xxxix. 7, 25, xxxvi. 20.
4 Deut. xxxii. 3; Mai. ii. 2; Ps. cii. 16, cxliii. 11 f. ; Josh. vii. 9 ; Lev. xx.
3 ; cf. Ex. xxxii. 11 f.
5 1 Sam. xii. 22 ; B. J. xlviii. 9, 11 ; Ps. xxxi. 4, xxiii. 3, cxliii. 11 f.
6 1 Kings ix. 3 ; 2 Kings xxi. 4, 7, xxiii. 27 ; Deut. xii. 5, 11, xvi. 6, 11 ; Ps.
xxvi. 8 ; Isa. xviii. 7; B. J. xxiv. 15.
7 Num. vi. 27. 8 Josh. ix. 9. 9 Ex. xxiii. 21, cf. xxxiii. 14.
10 2 Sam. vii. 13 ; 1 Kings viii. 12 ff., xi. 36 ; Deut. xii. 5.
11 Micah iv. 5, v. 3 ; Ps. xxxiii. 21, cxviii. 26.
12 B. J. lii. 5f.; Ps. Ixxiv. 10, 18,
13 Jer. x. 6, xliv. 26 (Ps. xx. 2, liv. 3 ; Isa. xxx. 27 ; Prov. xviii. 10 ; 1 Kings
viii. 42 ; Gen. xlix. 24 ; DK> instead of DBty
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE NAME. 125
said that God will make a name for Himself by His mighty
deeds, or that the new world of the future shall be unto
Him for a name/ we can easily understand that the name of
God is often synonymous with the glory of God, and that the
expressions for both are combined in the utmost variety of
ways, or used alternately. 2 A person who, by a curse or a
frivolous oath, dishonours the " name," has insulted God and
comes under the ban. 3
Such being the significance of God s name, the various
divine names are naturally of great importance, and are not
to be lightly used. " Man may invent names for false gods,
but the true God can be named by man only in so far as He
reveals Himself to man by disclosing His essence " (Oehler).
And since God is, in His inmost being, unsearchable, one can
certainly conceive of a name of God which no one knows but
Himself. 4 Even the angelic being who reveals God will not
tell His name to a mortal. 5 And later Judaism, in forbidding
the name Jehovah to be uttered, proceeded on the principle
that it does not become a frail mortal to use a word that per
fectly describes the divine essence. But such names of God
the Old Testament does not know. Its divine names are
definite revelations to men of God s essence, public names ;
and any attempt to make them secret again is a sign of fear
and superstition. Since the name Jehovah is the proper
personal name of the God of Israel, as contrasted witli strange
gods, the expression " I am Jehovah " is often in His mouth
to denote His own uniqueness and majesty. 6 This is especially
the case in the Law, where this name, in fact, indicates the
close of divine revelation. 7
1 Jer. xxxii. 20, xxxiii. 2 ; B. J. Iv. 13, Ixiii. 12, 14, Ixiv. 1.
2 With 1133, or flM, flUO, B. J. xxiv. 15, xxvi. 10; Micah v. 3; Mai. ii
-2 ; Ps. cii. 16, xcvi. 7, xxix. 1 ff.
3 Ex. xx. 7 ; Lev. xxiv. 11.
4 As in the New Testament Apocalypse, iii. 12, etc.
(Jen. xxxii. 29 ; cf. Judg. xiii. 18.
6 Ex. xv. 3; Jer. xlviii. 15, li. 19, 57 ; B. J. xlii. 8 ; Ps. Ixviii. 5.
7 E.g. Lev. xviii. 6, xix. 12 f., 18, 28.
126 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
3. (a) Even apart from the names by which the God of
Israel is described, as it were, in reference to His personal
essence, He reveals Himself as the possessor of a supra-
mundane power that claims adoration, and to which man has
to show obedience, humility, and reverence. The most
general term for Deity in the Old Testament religion is
Elohim. 1 The word appears in the plural; for the whole
use of the singular, Eloah, shows it to be an artificial poetic
form, and riot the original form used by the people. 2
We have already shown that this use of the plural un
doubtedly points to the possibility of there being several
gods in other words, to the polytheistic idiom of the early
Semites. But as an Old Testament name of God, the word,
in spite of its plural form, whenever it refers to the God of
Israel, is used solely of the One God, whose act, consequently,
is described by the singular of the verb. It is, therefore, as
was formerly shown, one of those plural forms by no means
rare in the case of words denoting power and majesty, 3 which
help to increase the significance of the word, and to express
that fulness of power and majesty which is exclusively con
nected with unity of person. Probably the significance of the
word does not depend directly on the idea of strength, 4 but
on the notion of that which is terrible, majestic, adorable. 5
In itself the word Elohim certainly has not a meaning ex
clusively applicable to the God of Israel. It is not a proper
name of this God. The word may even denote a position
among men of majesty and the highest authority. Thus
from earlier days only in Ps. xviii. 32, where, however, the other re
cension in 2 Sam. xxii. 32 has 7!tf. This restricted use is decisive against von
Hofmann s view that the sing, is the original form on the analogy of pHV, and
means ff zfia.o /tK, the plural of which would therefore denote " tcrilbleness."
3 Cf. Ewald, Gram. 1786. In reality, akin to the abstract formation D >s n.
4 TIN (Ewald). Noldeke connects D\T>K and ptf, and takes the root-meaning
to be "Leader, Lord."
5 j]\, cf. Fleischer (in Delitzsch, Comm. z. Gen., 4th ed. p. 47 f.) TPID, O- ^KS.
NAMES OF GOD. 127
Moses is to become " Elohim " to Pharaoh, 1 and, according to
the other narrative, to Aaron also ; 2 that is, they are to see in
him their master, to whom they must look up with deference,
and from whom they have to take their orders. In like
manner, it is polite to say, " I have seen thy face as one sees
the face of Elohim," in other words, thou appearest to me
honourable and honoured. 3 It is also an ancient idiom to
call the magistrates Elohim, as possessing the highest power
and authority an idiom which may in some passages be
disputed, 4 but which in a host of others cannot be explained
away without the grossest straining of language, 5 and which,
moreover, is still, it appears, in use among the Bedouin. 6 In
like manner the manes of the dead are called Elohim. 7 In a
solemn address the king of Israel is called Elohim. 8 But it
is generally the gods of foreign nations that are thus
designated. For they are likewise objects of adoration and
worship. And all are called "sons of the gods "-beings
belonging to the class of Elohim who possess supernatural
powers, and share that mode of Being which stands above
the material and finite, above what is subordinate and life
less. 9 Accordingly, when the God of Israel is called Elohim,
He is thereby simply described as Deity, as possessor of a
1 Ex. vii. 1 (A). 2 Ex. iv. 16 (C). 3 Gen. xxxiii. 10.
4 Thus Ex. xii. 12 may be called doubtful, although the slaying of the first
born cannot be strictly called anything more than "an act of judgment on
men"; so also Num. xxxiii. 4, and especially Lev. xix. 32, where, however, the
" I am Jehovah " does not tell against the application to men.
5 Judg. v. 8, "He chooses new magistrates." Also in 1 Sum. ii. 25, I have
no doubt at all that magistrates must be meant. How any one can convince
himself that the words in Ex. xxi. 5, 6, and xxii. 7 ff., mean an approach to the
Deity, whose decision the priest is to communicate, passes my comprehension,
especially when one compares ver. 27 (Ps. Iviii. 2, Ixxxii. 1, are, however, more
doubtful).
6 Palgrave, i. 83. 7 1 Sam. xxviii. 13 ; cf. Isa. viii. 19.
8 Ps. xlv. 7.
9 In Gen. vi. 2, Ps. xxix., Job i. and ii., such beings are called DTl^lT^a or
DvK % in Gen. iii. 5, 22, Ps. viii. 6, they are called simply DTlttf. Un
doubtedly such a mode of speech points to a nature-religion being the original
foundation.
128 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
nature which is absolutely sublime, and to which obedience
and adoration are due from mortals. As a real proper name
for Israel s God, the word is used only in very late times,
when people thought of God as an abstraction, or were afraid,
as in the second collection of Psalms, to pronounce the holy
name of Jehovah. 1 All the time that the religion of Israel
is at its best, the word occurs only as an appellative, or
alternates with the holy personal name of God.
A word closely akin to Elohim is the divine name El, 2 in which
God s strength and power are emphasised. Old proper names,
perhaps, prove that this is the oldest Hebrew name for God,
and it alternates with the more poetic "Zur" (Rock). 3 But, as
in the case of Elohim, other gods can also be called El ; and in
proverbial sayings the word is applied to human relationships. 4
1 The procedure in A is naturally of quite a different character. He desires
to show the growth of divine revelation. On the other hand in C the name
Elohim is certainly used without any such intention ; and unless there are here
special circumstances in connection with the revision, this fact would necessarily
limit the explanation given above.
- It still appears to me to be the simplest way to derive the word from 7)X
(Ex. xv. 2, Ps. xxxvi. 7, Ixxx. 11, xc. 2), and to give this root the meaning to
be strong rather than to be foremost. It would be different, if it were necessary
with de Lagarde (Orientalia, ii. 3, 9, Mitth. i. 94, ii. 27,) to regard this deriva
tion from TIN as untenable, because the shorter pronunciation would be the
original, and the corresponding word-formations would, as neuter-passive par
ticiples, denote an involuntary condition, which ancient piety must have had
scruples in applying to God. De Lagarde would therefore assign the word to
the root "9S (cf. 7X, prep, to), and sec in it a description of God as " the One
who is the goal of all human longing and all human endeavour." It would be
useless to dispute as to the probability of such a name for God in primitive
times (cf. Bsethgcn, Beitrage zur semitiscliKn ReliyionsijeschicJtte, 1888, 272 ff. ).
But if God is described as "The Strong," the question is not whether the con
dition thus assigned Him is voluntary or involuntary, but whether it is a merit
or a defect. Words like p and ~ij are sufficient to prove that such word- forma
tions are quite admissible. The tsere in the plural and with the suffix is in favour
of the derivation from TIN (Ps- xlii. 10, LXX. icr%upo;}.
3 Zurishaddai, Pedahzur, Zuriel, Num. i. 6, 10, iii. 35 (Bab-ilu).
4 Ex. xv. 11, xxxiv. 14, etc., of strange gods. In El Gibbor the word is
used even of men (Jsa. ix. 4, Ezek. xxxii. 21). The idiom in Gen. xxxi. 29,
Micah ii. 1 ; cf. Deut. xxviii. 32, DT ^W t^\ is> n the analogy of the last
passage, to be translated "it is in the power of their hand," not " their hand is
as God"; cf. Hab. i. 11.
NAMES OF GOD. 129
Even the name Adonai 1 simply asserts what God is as
Deity, without describing Him as the one God of Israel.
Originally, perhaps, the word, which also alternates with the
simple P" 1 ??, or w ^h more precise definitions, such as ^."IN
DtfiNn or pKn^3 ftis, 2 had the plural suffix of the first person
added to it. In address this suffix still retains its meaning ; 3
but in all other cases it is quite otiose. Adonai describes
God as the Master to whom man stands in the relation of
servant. 4 The word Baal, though subsequently repudiated, was
probably used along with it even in Israel ; 5 and old poetic
expressions, like Abhir, 6 the strong, completed the circle of
these divine names. In all of them God is revealed simply by
His mighty power, which is far above what is earthly, human,
and transient, and to which obedience and reverence are due ;
in other words, as the absolute Master of nature. All these
words were used in the heyday of Israel s religion, especially
in poetic diction. Thus we find in Job the singular Eloah, 7
as elsewhere Adonai, 8 Ha-adon, 9 the mighty One of Jacob, 10
the Eock of Israel, 11 the King. 12
(b) Now in order to distinguish this mighty Being from
those who are also called Elohim, a name might be given
to Him indicating either that he was the highest in position,
or what is more in accordance with the essence of Israel s
religion that he had a special claim on the adoration of
Israel. In the former case God is called El-elyon. 13 For
1 TIN (the distinguishing Qamets), Ps. xvi. 2, xxxv. 23 (Gen. xv. 2, xx. 4).
2 jnKil, Ex. xxiii. 17 ; pKiT^3 P"1X, Josh. iii. 13 ; Deut. x. 17.
3 Gen. xv. 2, 8, xviii. 3, 27, 30, xx. 4. 4 Gen. xviii. 27.
5 Of. e.g. 2 Sam. v. 20, where the name Baal Perazim (^breaches made by
Baal) is given because of the discomfiture of the enemy by the God of Israel.
The repudiation of it appears to begin with Hosea ii. 1, 8.
6 T2N, Gen. xlix. 24.
7 Job iii. 4, vi. 4, 8, 9, ix. 13, xi. 5f., xii. 4, 6, xv. 8, xvi. 20, etc. (Deut
xxxii. 15, 17 ; Prov. xxx. 5).
8 Isa. vi. 1, xxi. 16, xxix. 13. 9 Isa. x. 16, 33, xix. 4.
10 Isa. i. 24 ; B. J. xlix. 26, Ix. 16 (Isa. xxxiii. 21, T^tf)-
11 Isa. xxx. 29. Isa. vi. f> ; B. J. xli. 21, xliii. 15, xliv. 6.
13 H^y ^N % (connected with r6j, Ps. vii. 18 ; Deut. xxvi. 19.
VOL. IT. I
130 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
although this divine name also appears among other peoples
of Semitic speech 1 as the title of their chief God, still
when used of the God worshipped in Israel, it is undoubtedly
meant to describe Him as the first, ruling as optimus
maximus over all other conceivable Elohim. The same
intention is manifest in the name El Shaddai which, according
to A, should be considered the only one in use in patriarchal
times. 2 This word is meant to denote God as the absolutely
mighty whom no other can withstand, so that His followers
may fearlessly and confidently trust in Him, may build their
faith upon Him. Such words may naturally occur even in
polytheistic religions, as is proved by the Phoenician Eliun,
the Syrian Aziz, and in fact by the familiar titles Jupiter
Optimus Maximus, and Father Zeus. But in such religions
they constitute the element that points toward monotheism.
To this same category belongs the beautiful and significant
expression " the living God," 3 which distinguishes God from the
products of art and nature as the self-governing Lord of life.
More important and more in accordance with the rise of
Old Testament monotheism is the second method of connoting
God by which He is defined as God of this people that is,
as the God connected with this portion of mankind by
religious worship. Thus God is called the God of the
fathers, 4 the God of Shem, 5 the God of the Hebrews, 6 the
1 Gen. xiv. 18 ; the God of Melchizedek. Adonai also occurs as Adonis.
According to Sancliu liathon in Eusebius, Prcepar. Evany, i. 10, 36, the
Phoenician Baal was called Eliun. (So also the Alonim valoniuth in Plautus,
Pcenulus v. 1 ; cf. Hitzig, Rhelnisches Museum fur Philol. x. 76 ff.).
3 TC t>S connected with Tl> adjectival formation, Ew. 155c. In A cf.
Gen. xvii. If., xxviii. 3, xxxv. 11, xliii. 14, xlviii. 3; Ex. vi. 3ff. (in early
poetry, Gen. xlix. 25). In the book of Ruth i. 20, in Job xxiv. 1, xxvii. 2,
xxix. 25, xxxi. 31, xxxii. 8, xxxiv. 11, xl. 2, and Ps. Ixviii. 15, the name is
used as purely poetical. (The reading S 1> is very improbable).
3 Josh. iii. 10 ; 1 Sam. xvii. 26, 36 ; Deut. v. 23 ; 2 Kings xix. 4, 16 ; cf.
Ps. xxxvi. 10, xlii. 3, 9, Ixxiv. 3 ; Jer. ii. 13, x. 10, xvii. 12, xxiii. 36.
4 E.g. Gen. xxiv. 12, 27, xxvi. 24, xxviii. 13, xxxi. 42, xxxii. 10, xlvi. 1, 3,
xlviii. 15, xlix. 24 ; Ex. iii. 6, 13, 15, 16, iv. 5, xv. 2, by all the narrators.
5 Gen. ix. 26 (B). 6 Ex. iii. 18, v. 3, vii. 16, ix. 1, 13, x. 3 (C).
NAMES OF GOD. 131
God of Bethel, 1 the God of vision, 2 the Fear of Isaac, 3 the
Shepherd and Eock of Israel, 4 and, above all, the God of
Israel. 5 The divine name which is found in all parts of
the book of Isaiah, and occasionally also elsewhere, viz.
" the Holy One of Israel," is worthy of special mention. 6 As
the whole context shows, this title is evidently intended to
denote, not the moral character of God, but only His majesty
as adored in Israel. The main idea unquestionably is, that
this God belongs to the people of Israel as the object of
their worship. But the word chosen is also meant to express
the incomparable majesty of the God whom Israel serves,
a majesty constraining to fear and devotion. In the same
way also God is called " the Holy One." 7
(c) All the time the religion of Israel was in full vigour
the personal name of the covenant God was the sacred
Tetragram mil". The history of the pronunciation of this
word is singularly obscure. A glance suffices to show that
the vowels of the present Massorah are not intended to
give its pronunciation, but to indicate that the word Adoriai
is to be read instead of it ; for these vowels are replaced by
those of the word Elohim wherever Adonai itself occurs in
the consonantal text. 8 The name " Jahve " was regarded by
the later age as a " secret " name of miraculous virtue, and as
1 Gen. xxxi. 13 (B).
2 Gen. xvi. 13 ; cf. xxiv. 62, xxv. 11. Certainly the meaning is obscure ;
NT may well be a word like jy in the sense of "vision." Perhaps the
original meaning of the whole name has no connection at all with the name
of God.
3 Gen. xxxi. 42, 53 (C).
4 Gen. xlix. 24, in old poetic phraseology (probably the Shepherd, the Rock
of Israel, not the keeper of the Rock of Israel, i.e. of the Israelitish sanctuary ?)
6 E.g. Gen. xxxiii. 20.
^XTiy fc^np, Isa. i. 4, v. 24 (19 used in mocking mimicry), x. 17, 20,
xii. 6, xvii. 7, xxix. 19, 23, xxx. 11, 12, 15, xxxi. 1, xxxvii. 23 ; B. J. xli. 16,
20, xlv. 11, xlvii. 4, xlviii. 17, xlix. 7, liv. 5, Iv. 5, xliii. 3, 14 ; 2 Kings xix.
22 ; Jer. 1. 29, li. 5 ; Ps. Ixxviii. 41, Ixxxix. 19.
7 B. J. xl. 25 ; Ps. xxii. 4 ; cf. Isa. v. 16 ; 1 Sam. vi. 20 ; cf. Jer. x. 10,
xxiii. 36 ; 2 Kings xix. 4, 16 ; Ps. xlii. 3, 9, Ixxxiv. 3 (in btf).
8 E.g. Gen. xv. 2 ; Deut. iii. 24, ix. 26, etc.
132 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
too holy to be pronounced. Hence Qoheleth already avoids
it, and the editor of the second collection of Psalms changes
it regularly into Elohim, even when his doing so involves a
mutilation of these Psalms. 1 In like manner, while the LXX.
let the name Sabaoth stand as a proper name, Saftawd, they
invariably translate this strictly proper name by the less sacred
word Kvpios. The growth of this awe, based perhaps on
Lev. xxiv. 11, 16, 2 can still be traced in the old Eabbinic
literature. 8 Prior to the Exile, however, the word was a
special favourite, and was used with religious pride ; while
the other names of God appeared as mere additions to it,
or alternated with it according to the law of parallelism.
In the later books it is repeated in a highly euphonious and
emphatic way, 4 and in combinations which were unknown
to the earlier ages ; 6 and it is very frequently used to denote
the special differentiating attribute of the true God. Q In
fact, it is a name which has suggested many a pleasing and
significant play upon words. With the meaning assigned to
the word since the time of C, viz. " He who is," are con
nected such expressions as " I am He," " I am the first and
I also am the last. " 7
Even tradition throws little light on the original pro
nunciation. According to Diodorus Siculus and Origen, the
proper pronunciation would be law or la?) ; according to
1 Ps. xlii.-lxxxiii. Psalms which occur both in the first and in the second book
are, in the first case, Jehovistic, in the second, Elohistic. Expressions like
"prptf DTPX occur, e.g. Ps. xlv. 8. This phenomenon is of special impor
tance for the explanation of the word Elohim in ver. 7.
2 The LXX. already translate 3p3 by ovo/u.a.%stv (of. Num. i. 17).
3 Of. in Schrader and Baudissin the growth of it according to Joseph. Ant.
xii. 5. 5, ii. 12. 4. Philo, De nom. mut. 2, Vita Mos. iii. 25, Mishna ix.
5, etc.
4 mrv n s , B. j. xxvi. 4.
6 iTliT TIN, Ezek. xxiii. 32, xxiv. 14, 24, xxv. 14, xxvi. 14, 24, xxviii. 2,
xxxi. 18.
6 Ezek. xxv. 5, 7, 11, 17, xxvi. 6, xxviii. 22, 23, 26, xxix. 9, 16, 21 5 xxx. 8,
12, 19, 25, 26, xxxii. 15.
7 Kin -OK, B. J. xli. 4, xliii. 10, 13, 25, xlviii. 12, Iii. 6 ; Deut. xxxii. 39.
. B. J. xliii. 10, 13, xliv. 6, xlviii. 12 j Ps. cii. 28.
NAMES OF GOD. 133
Jerome, Jaho ; according to Philo Biblius, levco ; according to
Clemens Alexandrinus, Iaoi>. According to Theodoret, the Jews
must have said * Ala, and the Samaritans Ta/3e; the latter
statement is also made by Epiphanius. Now since Jao is
probably = Jahu, a form which Jews were at liberty to
communicate to a non-Jew, and Aid is probably just n 11 with
a prosthetic vowel, we have left as the real traditional
form larj Iaj8^ = WJ! which the Samaritans had no reason
to keep secret. And besides, on linguistic grounds, if the
word is of old - Hebrew origin at all, Jahve must be
considered the only form which explains the contractions
Jahu, Jeho, Jah, Jo.
Supposing we take this for granted, the next question
is, what is the root meaning of the word ? Here the
explanation in Ex. iii. 14 may be at once set aside, because
of the fondness which the writer C invariably shows for
etymologies that certainly cannot be supported on linguistic
grounds. It merely states the religious meaning which C
wished to put into the name. According to Hebrew
etymology the word must undoubtedly be connected with
Hajah in its older form Havah, which, in later times, occurs
only in the cognate dialects. 1 To this word which, in its
later signification, denotes " being," Ewald assigns an earlier
and fuller meaning " to be high." Consequently he would
give to Jahve the original signification of " high, heavenly,"
which would practically correspond with the Aryan name
for God in its root " div." The formation of the word would
then be connected with the Qal on the analogy of Jizhaq,
Ja qob, etc. 2 Ewald thinks he is able still to find traces,
in the Old Testament itself, of this word having the meaning
" Heaven." 3 The passages he cites fur this are, at all events,
1 Schradei is right in pointing to Chavvah (Gen. 111. 20 ; cf. Gen. xxvii. 29 ;
Isa. xvi. 4),
2 Ew. Gram. 162a. (cf. on div, etc., Welcker, I.e., i. 130 ff.).
3 Gen. xix. 24 ; Micah v, 6 (He connects it with Ljb, J^Ji Tin, etc.).
134 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
far too late to justify such inferences. The derivation itself
is possible ; but it remains a very doubtful one. For the
Qal form the meaning " the living One " (Wellhausen), would
certainly be more natural. But the view of Schrader and
Lagarde appears to me still more suitable. On account of
the E sound in the last syllable, and the imperfect A sound
in the first syllable, they would refer it to a secondary con
jugation and take the Hiphil as the original form. Then
Jahve would be " he who causes to be " the Creator ; l or if
the signification " being " is only the weakened form of the
stronger " living," then " the bestower of life." Besides it
seems to me more probable that an ancient people would
have called its God " the bestower of life," than " the existing
One," " the living One." But even this view cannot be
termed certain. Delitzsch is decidedly right in maintaining
that the linguistic reasons against deriving the word from
the Qal are not conclusive ; and it is certainly an objection
that the root nvi has nowhere a Hiphil form, but expresses
the causative by the Piel. 2 And although the reference to
Aryan divine names, or to the Egyptian formula for God
" I am I " goes for little in explanation of an old Semitic
name of God, on account of the spirit of the Aryan nature-
religion being so entirely different, and on account of the
philosophical character of the doctrine taught by the Egyptian
priesthood, still it will never be possible to prove that God
could not have been described by ancient Israel as He whose
essence is " self-subsistent or absolute Being."
Indeed even the opinion that the word may have been
adopted from a larger linguistic family, in which case,
certainly, its pronunciation would be quite undiscoverable,
cannot be directly refuted. We cannot, it is true, make any
use of the resemblances in non-lsiaelitish groups of religions
1 Cf. also Movers, Phonicitr, i. 159. Stade, p. 429, wishes to get out of the
Hiphil the meaning "Feller, Destroyer."
2 Yet cf. Nestle for the Syrian idiom.
NAMES OF GOD. 135
which we have got handed down to us from an uncritical age
that was prone to confuse all religions. The Gnostic name
of God, Jao, is simply taken from reminiscences of the Old
Testament ; 1 the mention, by Diodorus, of the name Jao 2 on
the breastplate of Egyptian priests and the tradition given by
Demetrius Phalereus of the seven Greek vowels that formed the
secret name of the god of the Egyptian priests (IEHO&TA)
are utterly worthless. The connection with Jovis is false, for
the Aryan root div is the ground form of this word. But,
although the reference to the Indian Ahu or to the surname of
Adonis irp be not considered worthy of attention, and the simi
larity in sound to the Assyrian god Ja, Ea, Hu, be disregarded,
it is still a remarkable fact that in the cuneiform inscriptions
there is a king of Hamath called Ja-ubidi, and a king of
Damascus called Jalu ; and that in the Phoenician names,
AfiSaios, BiQvas, this divine name is still heard in the Greek
form, to say nothing of the Ammonite Tobijah. 3 It is
certainly possible, according to the mode of thought charac
teristic of ancient polytheism, that in these cases the God of
Israel is simply represented as being worshipped by individuals
belonging to other kindred peoples. But it is also possible
that this name belonged to a wider circle of Semitic peoples,
and that only in Israel did it attain to pre-eminent religious
significance. 4 It is, in fact, still the opinion of Land, as it
formerly was of Hartmann, von Aim, von Bohlen, and Colenso,
that the name is of North-Semitic, i.e. Canaanitish, origin, and
indicates the God of Heaven as the Giver of fruitfulness, in
whose honour the orgiastic worship of Syria was held. He
supports this view by the oracle of Apollo of Claras, which
has been preserved by Macrobius, in which the word law is
applied to Dionysius. Land, therefore, holds that this divine
1 On these cf. the thoroughly conclusive disquisition of Baudissin, 218 ff.
2 Diodorus, i. 94, takes it for granted that the name of the Israelitixh God
was, at that time, well known to the heathen. 3 Neh. ii. 10.
4 On the other hand, when Lydus, De Meiis. iv. 38, 14, speaks of Jao as a
god of the Chaldeans, he probably confounds them with the Israelites.
136 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
name was appropriated by Israel along with the sacred ark,
and that it became the recognised property of the people from
the time of David onwards, whereas the ancient God, to whom
the sacred stones at Gilgal were dedicated, was called El,
Baal. But even though the passages referred to were of less
doubtful authenticity, and of more certain age than they are,
still Land s hypothesis would be conclusively disproved by
the fact that since the earliest days as, for instance, in the
song of Deborah, Jehovah is found as the God of Israel
fighting against the Canaanites, but never appears as the God
of the Syrian Semites against Israel. Nevertheless, so long
as such theories continue to crop up, the question cannot be
regarded as completely settled. Hence all we can say is that
the divine name Jahve is probably of Hebrew origin, is in that
case to be read Jahve, and understood either as " the original
Source of real being," or more probably as " the Giver of life,"
both in the natural and the moral sense.
But how did the word come to mean the covenant God of
Israel ? The theory of A is that Moses was the first to intro
duce this name. When A says, 1 by way of giving final con
firmation to his ordinary method of interpreting history, " God
spake to Moses and said unto him, I am Jahve ; and I
appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, as El
Shaddai, but by my name Jahve I was not known to them,"
no unprejudiced person can doubt that this is meant to be a
record of the first revelation of God as Jahve. If the mean
ing of these words were, " The name was well-known, but they
did not yet know the depth of its meaning as explained in
Ex. iii. 14," one might well ask how a name could be known
without its real meaning being also known, since every revela
tion of a divine name is just the unveiling of a new side of tlic
divine character. It would be impossible, in that case, to
understand why A so persistently avoids using this name all
through the patriarchal age, and why its meaning is not at
*Ex. vi. 2ff.
NAMES OF GOD. 137
least explained now ; for Ex. iii. 14 is not taken for granted
by A. But it certainly follows from these facts that the
writer A intended, in accordance with the whole plan of his
work, to show how the God Elohim became the God El
Shaddai, and how, through Moses, the latter became Jahve,
the covenant God of Israel. This narrative of A s has no
historical value. The older narrators either use, like B, the
name Jahve even for the pre-Mosaic age, or, like C, they use
the name Elohim also for the post-Mosaic. Certainly the
mention by A of the name Jochebed for the mother of Moses,
and the enumeration in Chronicles 1 of several pre-Mosaic
proper names formed from HIPP, cannot prove that this divine
name was actually in use before the time of Moses, any more
than does the mode of language adopted by B 2 and C. But
it is in itself more likely that such a name was not invented
but simply found by Moses. We may, therefore, infer that
just as before Mahomet the name Allah was by no means
unusual among .his people, although put into the shade by
the individual deities, so in Israel also this name must have
been an ancient name of God, but that it now obtained quite
a new significance as the name of the one national God, the
covenant God of Israel. For that Jehovah was the God of Israel,
from the bpndage in Egypt onwards, is a very old tradition. 3
It is certain that, from the time of Moses, the name Jahve
is the proper name of the covenant God of Israel. It describes
this God as the absolutely exalted, incomparable personal Being
who, as Creator, is distinct from and above nature, and in
whom one may trust, without anxiety or fear, for defence
against all the powers of the world. Thus the declaration " I
am Jehovah " and the threat " The enemy shall know that I
am Jehovah " are old forms of speech in Israel. 4 But this word
1 Ex. vi. 20 ; Num. xxvi. 59 ; cf. 1 Chron. li. 24, vii. 3, 8.
2 Even B intentionally, and in remarkable agreement with Sanchuniathon,
makes the worship of Jahve begin not with Adam but with Enosh.
3 Amos ii. 10, iii. 1 ; Hos. xii. 10, xiii. 4.
4 Ex. vii. 17, viii. G, 18, ix. 14, 29, xiv. 4, 18.
138 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
receives its enduring and most pregnant meaning in C, where,
perhaps not strictly in accordance with the laws of language
but in a creative fashion full of the deepest significance, the
name is interpreted to mean " Being." Whether the writer
himself created this signification or merely gave a literary
dress to a meaning long in vogue, it is, of course, impossible
for us to determine.
The passage in question 1 runs as follows : " And God
said unto Moses, I Am that I Am ; and He said, Thus shalt
thou say unto the children of Israel, I Am that I Am hath
sent me unto you." Here it is by no means mere eternity of
being that is predicated of God, or, as the later Alexandrine
philosophy put it, the abstract idea of substance, TO OVTWS ov.
It implies something personal and moral. God is a per
sonal Being possessed of independent will, under no foreign
influence, and consequently unchangeable, absolutely true to
Himself, and to His own Being. Whoever has God, has on
his side not merely irresistible power but also the trust
worthy, faithful God, whose will, once revealed, can no longer
be limited and changed from without. It is by this declara
tion that the highest conception of God in the Old Testament
religion is first revealed. Till God unveils Himself in the
New Testament, as the Father of the Son, nothing higher is
said of Him than that He is Jahve in the above sense of
that word.
Since the time of Hosea, it is true, the term " Father," as
applied to God, is often found in the prophets. But it either
describes God s special love to Israel, and, in that case, is not
so much a name of God as a description of His covenant-
fellowship with His people. In this sense, the term is the
foundation of the doctrine of Jesus regarding God as His
Father. Or else, where the word occurs without any such
nearer limitation, 2 it refers to God solely as the great First
Cause and the supreme Euler, so that nothing more is implied
1 Ex. iii. 14. 2 Jer. ii. 27, iii. 4 ; Mai. i. 6.
NAMES OF GOD. 139
than in the term " Lord." Consequently, as a real divine
name, this word does not take us beyond the ordinary Old
Testament doctrine of God.
The name Jahve is the personal name of the covenant God
of Sinai. Hence it is self-evident that this name can be applied
to no other God. But it is quite proper to join other names
to it, in order to express the dignity of this Jehovah. Hence
He is called Jehovah the God of Israel, the Everlasting
God, thy God, etc. The singular combination Jahve Elohirn,
which is probably due to the hand of the final redactor in the
chapters connecting A and B, 1 expresses in a rather doc
trinaire fashion, the idea that the covenant God of Israel is
none other than the God of the world.
(d) In the earlier poetry and heroic history, the title " God
of hosts " 2 is of very frequent occurrence. It is found in
various forms, more or less exact ; its complete form is
" Jehovah, God of hosts." 3 The derivation of the phrase
may appear doubtful, in consequence of the ambiguity of
the word " hosts." The word is undoubtedly used at first
of the hosts of Israel, which, as such, are the hosts of God. 4
And many expressions, especially in poetry, which describe
God as He marches to war in defence of Israel, mustering His
host and summoning His men of might, may refer to this
1 Gen. ii. 46-iv.
2 Cf. Oehler (2nd ed. Kautzsch) in Hcrzog, art. " Zebaoth."
JTIKZHnnfa HIST, sometimes inaccurately JYIX1S HIPP, in the LXX. as a
proper name 2a/3a<w^ ; cf. 1 Sam. i. 3, iv. 4 ; Isa. i. 24, v. 24, vi. 3, 5,
viii. 13, 18, ix. 12, xiv. 27, xvii. 3, xviii. 7, xix. 4, 12, 16, 18, 20, xxii.
12, xxix. 6, xxxi. 4f., xxxvii. 16, 32, xxxix. 5; B. J. xiii. 4, xxiii. 9,
xlvii. 4, xlviii. 2, li. 15, Kv. 5 ; Jer. ii. 19, vi. 6, 9, vii. 21, ix. 6, x. 16,
xi. 17, 20, 22, xv. 16, xix. 3, 11, 15, xx. 12, xxiii. 15, 16, 36, xxv. 8,
27 f . ; Hos. xii. 6 ; Micah iv. 4 ; Zcpli. ii. 91 .; specially complete Amos iii. 13,
v. 14 h"., 27. In Haggai and Zecliariah they are artistically massed togethrr.
The form m&OV OIK occurs in Isa. x. 16. The form ni^3V D r6tf is, of
course, only an absurd editorial alteration in the second collection of Psalms for
rntfas mnv PS. HX. 6, ixxx. 5, 8, 15 (stm cf. PS. ixxx. 20, niiov DTtbtf niiT).
4 E.g. Ex. xii. 17, 41, 51, vii. 4 ; Num. i. 3, 20, ii. 3, 9, 18, x. 14; Deut
xx. 9 ; Ps. Ixviii. 13 ; 1 Kings ii. 5 ; Deut. xx. 9,
140 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
meaning. 1 But the stars are also called the host of God, the
army of heaven which God has created and which obey His
call. 2 This army is represented as used by God for the
purposes of His kingdom ; and it might very well be deemed
expedient, in view of the idolatrous worship of this " army of
heaven," to describe Him as the God whom this very host has
to obey. 3 Lastly, the angelic hosts are represented as the
hosts of God. These are thought of as a well-appointed
army, with princes and leaders ; 4 and in the more exalted
diction of poetry they are often, in accordance with the
ancient idea, confounded with the army of heaven. 5 And as
" chariots and horses of fire " encircle those whom God loves, 6
He might very well be called the Captain of these heavenly
hosts. Thus, apparently, the phrase may have three distinct
meanings, the God of the armies of Israel, the God of the
starry host, the God of the angelic throng.
From the periods in which these expressions are used, no
certain conclusion can be drawn. At the most, we may infer
that an original reference to the starry host and the worship
paid to it, is improbable. The expression is old ; and evidently
the worship of the host of heaven in Israel and the neigh
bouring peoples is a result of Assyrian and Babylonian influ
ences. Consequently, if there is any reference to the stars,
it can only be in the second instance, after these got into
the ranks of the Elohirn. On the other hand, the earthly
and the heavenly hosts 7 of Jehovah have an equal claim to
1 So 1 Sam. xvii. 45 ; Ps. xxiv. 8, the God of the armies of Israel, Jehovah
mighty in battle ; Ps. xliv. 10, Ix. 12, Thou goest not forth with our hosts; B. J.
xiii. 4, the Lord of hosts mustereth the host for the battle ; cf. Ps. cviii. 12.
2 Deut. iv. 19 (Job xxxviii. 7) ; Jer. xix. 13, xxxiii. 22 ; B. J. xxxiv. 4, xl.
26 (Gen. ii. 1; Neb. ix. 6 ; Ps. xxxiii. 6).
3 In addition to the passages quoted, cf. for the worship of the host of heaven,
2 Kings xvii. 16, xxi. 3, 5, xxiii. 4f. For the stars fighting, Judg. v. 20.
4 1 Kings xxii. 19 ; Josh. v. 14 ; Ps. ciii. 21, cxlviii. 2, they are the host of
heaven ; cf. Ps. Ixxxix. 8, Ixviii. 18.
5 Job xxxviii. 7. 6 2 Kings vi. 17.
7 The stars are the host of Jehovah (Gen. i.-ii. etc.). Of course, in that case,
we must in Ps. ciii. 21, cxlviii. 2, either read 1JO> or suppose a later plural
NAMES OF GOD. 141
consideration. But, in view of a whole array of parallel
passages that force themselves irresistibly on our notice, it
cannot be doubted that the hosts of Israel were regarded as
the armies of this God. 1 While Israel was carrying on the
wars of Jehovah with courage and success, it saw in its God
also its Commander-in-chief, to whose help the people trooped
at the call to arms, and who went forth Himself with the
armies of His people. 2
But the emphasis with which the name is used to assert
the majesty of God, and the use of the word Sabaoth 3 in
the absolute, make it probable that the pious did not think,
in the first instance, of earthly hosts when they described
God as the Lord of hosts. The eye of believing Israel saw
God surrounded with His heavenly hosts, with chariots of fire
and horses of fire, whose warrior princes are angels of the
highest rank. When this people was prosecuting its wars, it
saw in its God the heavenly Helper who, by the might of
His heavenly hosts, assured His followers of victory. To the
eye of faith, the hosts of heaven and earth formed but a single
army. Thus the name may well have referred originally to
the hosts of heaven. 4 And this agrees also with the fact that
it is particularly common when the majesty of Jehovah has
to be asserted as against other gods. 6
L 1 Sam. xvii. 45, xviii. 17, xxv. 28 ; Judg. v. 23. "God of the armies of
Israel," "the wars of Jehovah." In Jer. xxxii. 18, "the Lord of Hosts "is
synonymous with " Hero."
2 Since the name appears very frequently along with the ark of God, it might
be connected with the originally warlike character of this sanctuary.
3 Never ^yCMP nifcO.
4 Ps. Ixxxix. 6. -10 ; Isa. xxxi. 4 (Wellhausen, Judg. v. 20 ; 1 Kings xx. 19 ,
Nahum i. 14).
6 Amos iii. 13 it, iv. 13, vi. 8, 14, ix. 5 ; Isa. ii. 12, etc.
142 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
CHAPTER IX.
THE BEING AND ATTRIBUTES OF GOD.
LITERATURE. Diestel, "Die Heiligkeit Gottes" (Jahrbb.
fur deutsche Theologie), 1859, iv. 1, Iff. "Die Idee der
Gerechtigkeit im A. T. (I.e., v. 2, I76ff, 1860). Alb.
Eitschl, De ira Dei, Bonn 1859, 8-15. F. Weber, Vbm
Zorn Gottes, ein liblisch-theologischer Vermeil, 1862. Barthol-
omsei, " Vom Zorn Gottes" (Jahrl. / deutsche Theol. 1861,
vi. 2). Achelis, " Versuch die Bedeutung des Wortes ssnp
aus der Geschichte der gottlichen Offenbarung zu bestimmen "
(Theol. Stud. u. Krit. 1847, i. 187 ff.). J. Matth. Eupprecht,
"Ueber den Begriff der Heiligkeit Gottes" (Theol. Stud. u.
Krit. 1849, iii. 684). Caspari, " Ueber das Wort !>fcnfe? Bhjp,
cf. jesajanische Studien " (Zeitschrift fur luther. Theol. und
Kirche, 1844, iii. p. 92 ff.). Achelis, "Ueber den Schwur
Gottes bei sich selbst " (Theol. Stud. u. Krit. 1867, iii.).
Menken, "Versuch einer Anleitung zum eignen Unterricht
in den Wahrheiten der Schrift," 3rd ed. 1833, p. 58 ff. (Ges.
Schr. vi. 46 ff.). Baudissin, Studien zur semitischen Religions-
geschichte, 1878, Part 2 Heiligkeit Gottes. Oehler (2nd ed.
Delitzsch), Realencycl. art. " Heiligkeit Gottes."
1. God stands first of all in the category of Elohim. He
is Deity ; He is the strong and mighty One, the possessor,
therefore, of a nature of such majesty and power as to raise
Him above the world of sense and its limitations. This con
ception of God, if carried to its full logical conclusion accord
ing to our way of thinking, must free Him from all
limitations of a material existence in space and time, not only
in His being that is, as eternal and omnipresent, but likewise
in His knowing as omniscient, and in His willing as omnipotent.
But this religion, especially in the earlier ages, is very far
from being thus logical. Its only religious interest is to
conceive of God when helping His own as mightier than His
TRANSCENDENTAL CHARACTER OF GOD. 143
opponents, and as not impeded in His work by time and
space. Otherwise it never hesitates to conceive and describe
divine action as limited, like human action, both by time and
space. And although after the eighth century ancient legend
is no longer found in its full ndiveU, the Scribes who succeed
Ezra are really the first to find anything objectionable in such
ideas. Of course, even legend never speaks of God s existence
having either beginning or end. But when God repents l of
what He had formerly done, time is predicated of Him as a
change in His inner life. And when He is represented as
" walking in the garden," when Cain flees from His presence,
when He descends from heaven and walks with Abraham,
when Jacob is astonished that God is also in Bethel, and so on,
it becomes clear that God is not conceived of as omnipresent
in the dogmatic sense. 2 In the same way, it is certain that
the popular conception of God s presence as a gracious and
self-revealing God was very often confounded with an actual
localising of the divine presence. To die outside Canaan is
" to have one s blood fall to the earth far away from the
presence of Jehovah " ; 3 and evidently the sacred ark, with its
magical and fatal effects, is many a time directly identified
with the divine presence. 4
It is in accordance with this view that God s knowledge is
not represented as infinite, or His power as boundless. God s
question to Adam might, 5 perhaps, be explained as merely
the voice of conscience ; and to refresh God s memory by the
blowing of trumpets on feast-days 6 is no more a repudiation of
omniscience than prayer is. But there is an incongruity between
God s omniscience and His requiring to convince Himself, by
personal inquiry, of the truth of a rumour ; 7 and also between
1 Gen. vi. 6. 2 Gen. iii. 8, iv. 14, 16, xviii. 21 ff., xxviii. 16 f.
3 1 Sam. xxvi. 20 (2 Kings v. 17). The "face of God" is certainly the
usual expression for His revealing presence.
1 1 Sam. iv. 3-22, v. 3-vi. 19. When the sacred tent is pitched outside the
camp, Jehovah is not in the midst of His people (Ex. xxxiii. 7).
5 Gen. iii. 9. 6 Gen. iii. 9; Num. x. 9. 7 Gen. xi. 5, xviii. 21.
144 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
His omnipotence and His being caused anxiety by the newly-
acquired knowledge and the concerted action of men. 1 The
pious were not searching after the idea of the absolute, but
after that of the efficient working of the divine personality.
Their only concern was to make sure of this, as the founda
tion of their religious loyalty to God, that His providence
would be to them a real and effective protection. The idea,
of which they kept a firm hold, was the personal freedom of
God in regard to time, space, and every created thing, free
dom which assures believers that, as the covenant God of His
people, He is absolutely trustworthy, and unhampered by
limitations.
In this sense God is transcendental. He is called
Jehovah ; He who will be what He will be that is to
say, He who, in regard to the future, is absolutely self-
dependent, even as, in regard to the past, He is self-
originating, and is therefore exposed to no alteration by the
powers of the world and of time. 2 Sacrifice and prayer rise
to Him from every quarter. His angels, that is, the forms in
which He reveals Himself, find a man at any place 3 in the
land of Chaldea, or in the privacy of the pathless desert.
He is thought of as present at the covenant sworn to on
the lonely plateau. 4 Hence, even in the old popular reli
gion, God is most assuredly conceived of as omnipresent
in the sense required by the necessities of religion, but not
in the philosophical sense, and least of all in a panthe
istic way. He is thought of as omnipresent in a way
which quite readily admits of His being localised in heaven,
His holy palace ; 5 and which in nowise contradicts the
view of the pious that He is specially connected with the
places where His salvation has been revealed; with His
iGen. iii. 22, xi. 7. 2 Ex. iii. H.
3 E.g. Gen. viii. 20, xii. 1, xvi. 7, xxiv. 12 f.; Judg. vii., xiii.
4 Gen. xxxi. 50.
6 Ps. xi. 4, xviii. 7 (ii. 4) ; 2 Sam. xxii. 7 ; cf. 1 Kings viii. 32, 36.
TRANSCENDENTAL CHARACTER OF GOD. 145
throne above the cherubim, the sacred ark, His holy hill,
the land of His inheritance, and the garden of Eden. 1
The wisdom of God is conceived of after the same fashion.
It does not imply that He has no need of means whereby
to acquire knowledge. On the contrary, as it is quite con
cretely put, " His eyes see everything." But still His know
ledge is such that everything lies open before Him, the
present and the future, inner life and outward events, what
is secret and what is done before witnesses. On this is
based the primitive belief in soothsaying, prophesying, and the
casting of lots. On this also rests the belief that Israel s
history is under divine guidance. God knows beforehand
what Abraham will do, and what will befall him ; He knows
that Pharaoh will harden his heart at the doings of God, and
that Moses is capable of delivering his people. 2 God tries
the heart and the reins. 3 He knows Sheol and Abaddon
as well as the heart of man. 4 He knows thoughts, both
good and bad ; 5 weighs men s most secret deeds, and answers
prayer. 6
To this God of Israel faith looks up as to one whose power
is unhampered by creature limitations. He is the God who
works miracles, who can move at His will everything that
exists, and call forth by His decree what is new. The creation
of the earth and its inhabitants, the Deluge, the destruction
of Sodom, the defeat of the Egyptians and the Canaanites,
proclaim His power over nature and man; 7 they prove Him to
be the Mighty One, who can throw into the sea the horse and
his rider, 8 who killeth and maketh alive, who casteth down to
Sheol and bringeth up, 9 whose highest prerogative it is to
1 Josh. iv. 9, 18, vii. 6 ; 1 Sam. v. 3-vi. 19 ; 2 Sam. vi. 7-11 ; Ts. xv. 1, etc.
- E.y. Gen. xv. 13 if.; Ex. iii. 211 ., 19 ; iv. 14, vii. 3fl ., xi. Iff.
:! Ps. vii. 10, xi. 4. 4 Prov. xv. 3, 11, xvi. 1, 2; cf. xvii. 3, xx. 12.
5 Gen. vi. 5, 9, 13, vii. 1, iii. 11, iv. 6 ; 2 Sam. vii. 20. etc.
t; K.(j. Gen. xviii. 15, xxiv. 12 ff . ; 1 Sam. ii. 3.
7 Gen. ii., iii., vi., vii., xix. ; Ex. xii.-xv.; Josh. i. ft .
8 Ex. xv. 1, 3. 9 1 Sam. ii. 0.
VOL. II. K
146 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
humble the lofty and exalt the lowly. 1 Nature celebrates
God s power when, at His command, sun and stars fulfil their
courses, and when His voice of thunder startles and awes
every living thing into silence. 2 His hand is not too short to
save ; He who made the mouth can also cause to speak ; as
absolute Lord of the world He can give or withhold life. 3 It
is this divine omnipotence that awakens in David heroic
boldness. 4 In this is Israel s confidence ; for " some trust in
chariots and some in horses : but we will make mention of
the name of Jehovah our G-od." 5 Belief in this omnipotence
rings out clear in the names for God which the poets use,
when they call Him the Strong, the Mighty, the Creator of
heaven and earth. 6
When the great prophets are spoken of in this connection
as developing the idea of God, it must not be imagined that
the expressions were in any way purified and perfected in a
metaphysical sense. All that is meant is that the warmth of
religious conviction as to the power of God over the world,
and as to His own fulness of life, seems, if possible, to have
become intensified. As it was of importance, in view of the
charm possessed by the nature-religion of their cultured con
querors, to show the people what an inheritance they had in
their God, the prophets naturally took the liveliest interest in
picturing to them, when they were fearful and of little faith,
how highly exalted that God was above the world, and above
space and time. This holds specially true of the great exilic
prophet, whose task it was to create Israel as it were anew,
and to gather, out of the perishing people that succumbed to
the religion of Babylon, the nucleus of a new people prepared
to acknowledge the spiritual God.
Thus in the Psalms, and in the prophetic books after Amos,
1 1 Sam. ii. 4ff.; Job v. 11. 2 Ps. viii., xix., xxix.
3 Gen. xxx. 2 ; Ex. iv. 11 ; Prov. xx. 12 (1 Sam. xiv. 6 ; 2 Kings v. 7).
4 Ps. xviii. ; 1 Sam. xiv. 6, xvii. 37, 45, 47. 6 Ps. xx. 8.
* taj "W h$, TON, fO, W, ptn, and other expressions applied to God.
TRANSCENDENTAL CHARACTER OF GOD. 147
we find it frequently declared, and with ever-increasing
emphasis, that God is eternal, independent of all the changes
of time. Before the mountains were brought forth, or the
earth and the world had been created, even from everlasting
to everlasting He is God. 1 He is the same; the manner of
His being, therefore, depends invariably on Himself. 2 He
is the first and the last, whose days have no end. According
to A, the first day, in other words, time itself, comes forth
from the will of God. It is not said : " In the beginning
was God," but " in the beginning when God created." Hence
God is the self-evident pre-supposition of every beginning of
which a created being can conceive. 3 Therefore, heaven and
earth pass away. He endures, 4 and He endures as He is.
He swears by His own eternity, 5 by Himself and His great
name. 6 Hence He is the last, the most certain, on whom all
being depends the living God. 7 Thus He is called in
poetry the everlasting God, who inhabiteth eternity, who
calleth the aeons from the beginning, the everlasting King. 8
For Him time has not the same meaning as for a created
being : a thousand years in His sight are but as yesterday
when it is past. 9 " Thus the idea searches after a suitable
expression whereby to set God above all earthly time "
(Lutz). But this everlastingness attains its proper religious
significance in immutability, as it is said : He does not
repent; He remains as He is. 10
It is exactly the same in relation to space. True, it is
1 Ps. xc. 2, cii. 27 ; Job xxxvi. 26 ; B. J. xl. 28. 2 Kin.
3 Gen. i. 1, 5. 4 Ps. cii. 27.
5 Deut. xxxii. 40 ; Num. xiv. 21. 28.
6 Jer. xxii. 5, xliv. 26, xlix. 13, ii. 14 (Amos iv. 2, vi. 7 f., viii. 7) ; cf. B. J.
Ixii. 8.
7 2 Kings xix. 4, 16 ; Ps. xlii. 3, 9, Ixxxiv. 3f.; Josh. iii. 10 (Deut. v. 24, 26) ;
1 Sam. xvii. 26, 36 ; Jer. x. 10, xxiii. 36.
8 B. J. xl. 28, Ivii. 15, xli. 4; Jer. x. 10; cf. Dan. vii. 13, 22, "The
Ancient of Days " and indefinite expressions like Ps. Iv. 20, xciii. 2.
9 Ps. xc. 4.
10 Num. xxiii. 19 ; Ezek. xxiv. 14 ; Zech. viii. 14 f.; Mai. iii. 6 ; Lam. v. 19 ;
cf. Ps. xc. 4. cii. 26-28 ; 1 Sam. xv. 29.
148 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
always taken for granted that God is specially present in the
holy places, which He has consecrated as the points from
which His gracious revelation started. He is still always
called, in the language of poetry, " He who sitteth upon the
cherubim." 1 It is in His holy city, in His temple, in the
sacred ark, that He dwells ; 2 and to be far away from these
is " to go away from the face of God." 3 In the rustling of
the trees, David hears the approach of God. 4 And as the
eye, in its search for Him, is involuntarily lifted to the bright
expanse of heaven, so the ordinary diction of poetry continues,
down to the latest age, to speak of heaven as God s seat, 5 of
His holy temple there, 6 the place from which He goeth forth. 7
He answereth from heaven and sendeth help from the sanctu
ary, from Zion. 8 He dwelleth in the heights, even in Zion. 9
And these expressions are by no means merely symbolical.
But the godly of this age have long got beyond the idea
of the divine action being conditioned by space. God s
presence in Israel is the presence of revealing grace. When
they sin and break the covenant, then there is no God in
Zion ; He dwells no longer among them. It would be fatal
superstition to build upon God s presence, without having the
disposition which alone makes that presence possible. 10 And
although the temple is God s house, and though His eyes are
open toward it night and day, He is not confined within its
bounds. The temple is only the house where His name
abides, where He will allow His eye and His heart to be.
1 2 Kings xix. 15 ; Isa. xxxvii. 16.
2 Amos i. 2; Isa. viii. 18 (xii. 6), xxxi. 9 ; B. J. Ix. 13 ; Ps. xxvi. 8, xlvi. 5,
xlviii. 2, xiv. 7, xxvii. 4f., cxxi. 1, etc.; Joel iv. 16, 21. (In Micah vii. 14,
there is no mention of God dwelling in Carmel but of Israel feeding on its rich
pastures ; cf. Dent, xxxiii. 28) ; Num. xiv. 42 if.
8 B. J. xxvi. 17 ; cf. Hitzig. 4 2 Sam. v. 24.
6 E.g. Lam. iii. 50 ; Ps. xxxiii. 13 ff.
Isa. vi. 1 iF. ; Hab. ii. 20 ; B. J. Ixiii. 15.
7 Micah i. 3 ; Deut. xxvi. 15 ; B. J. xxvi. 21 ; Zcch. ii. 13 ; Ps. xxxiii. 14.
8 Ps. xx. 3 ; cf. 7. 9 Ps. Ixviii. 17 ; cf. Isa. xxxiii. 14.
10 Deut. i. 42; Jer. viii. 19 ; Ezck. xxxv. 10, xliii. 5, 7 ; cf. Micah iii. 11 ;
Jer. iii. 16 f., vii. 4, 8, 14, xxvii. 17 ; B. J. xlviii. 2.
TRANSCENDENTAL CHARACTER OF GOD. 149
Heaven and earth cannot contain Him, how much less then a
house. 1 Even the heaven where He dwells in His holy
palace is not the atmospheric sky. This sky contains Him
as little as does the earth. It is only, as it were, the throne,
of which the footstool is the earth. 2 The presence of God
pervades all space. 3 Prayer reaches Him from any quarter
of the world, from Babylon as well as from Zion. He is at
once a God at hand and a God afar off. 4 He has encompassed
with His Spirit the universe as it came into being, and with
His life-giving Word He lias filled the immensity of space. 5
His glory fills the whole earth and the heavens too. But it is
only in a late Psalm that we find a really philosophical view
of this divine omnipresence. 6
The God who rules time and space is a conscious personal
Being. He is omniscient. Space and time do not limit His
knowledge. Certainly it is only the Psalm just mentioned
that depicts the omniscience as well as the omnipresence of
God in a really instructive fashion. It describes how neither
the ends of heaven nor the depths of Sheol, neither light nor
darkness, can hide anything from God s knowledge, because
even the night is light about Him. But the passages are all
the more frequent, in which this conviction shows itself,
in naive individual expressions, which have sometimes
quite a materialistic ring about them. All prophecy is, in
fact, a proof of God s infinite knowledge. By it the prophet
of the Exile proves that God knows the things that are to
come before they spring forth ; 7 and that while the idolaters
1 1 Kings viii. 27 if. (31, 38, 44, 48, of. 12 f.), ix. 3 (of. Isa. xviii. 7 ; Dent,
xii. 5, 12, xvi. 6, 11, 15).
2 1 Kings viii. 27 f. ; B. J. Ixvi. 1.
3 Amos ix. 2ff. (Ps. cxxxix. 7-10; 1 Kings viii. 27 ; His countenance, His
Spirit, is everywhere).
4 Amos ix. 2 ff. ; Jer. xxiii. 24. 5 Gen. i.
6 Ps. cxxxix. 2 ff. Here God s Spirit, that is, His living power, and His face,
that is, His personal care of the world, are conceived of as the media of this
omnipresence. (The Phoenicians personify Shem - Baal and Pne - Baal as
goddesses. )
7 B. J. xli. 22, 20, xlv. 14ff., xlviii. 16.
150 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
are surprised by events, being unwarned of them, Israel, as
the people of the God who governs the universe, knows all
about them beforehand. 1 Time and space do not limit God s
knowledge. Even the most hidden and secret things He
knows, the depths of the heart, the sighs and sorrows of the
breast, the evil designs of the wicked. He looks down from
above on the bustling multitudes. 2 Before a man comes into
being, God knows his character and his calling. 3 Man
looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the
heart. 4 He that planted the ear, shall He not hear ? He
that formed the eye, shall He not see ? 5 In short, God
knows everything, 6 and knows it clearly and accurately. 7
God s power, like His knowledge, is not limited by any
thing in the world. His word called the world into existence,
so that it was good that is, corresponded to His will. 8 He
is the irresistible God from whom nothing can escape, 9 who
formed the mountains and created the wind, who maketh the
dawn darkness and treadeth upon the high places of the
earth, 10 who killeth and maketh alive, 11 the God of might and
power, the God who is to be feared. 12 He is the doer of
wonders. 13 His word does not return to Him void, just as the
snow and the rain do not return to heaven without making
the earth bring forth and bud. 14 When man is fearful and of
1 B. J. xli. 22 f., xlii. 9, xliii. 9-12, xliv. 7, 25, xlvi. 10.
2 Ps. xxxiii. 13ff. 3 Jer. i. 5.
4 1 Sam. xvi. 7 ; 1 Kings viii. 39 ; Ps. xxxviii. 10, xliv. 22 (Prov. xxi. 2,
xxiv. 12).
5 Ps. xciv. 9.
6 Jer. xi. 20, xvii. 9f., xvi. 17, xii. 3, xviii. 23, xx. 12, xxiii. 23 f., xxxii. 19,
li. 15, 19 ; Ezek. xi. 5 ; Zech. ix. 1 ; Job xi. 11, xxvi. 3ff., xxxiv. 21 ff.; Prov.
v. 21; Ps. xxxiii. 15, etc.
7 Hos. v. 3. 8 Gen. i. 31 ; Ps. xxxiii. 6. 9 Job xii. 14-21.
10 Amos iv. 13, v. 8 ; Micah i. 3 ; Nahum i. 3 ff.; B. J. xl. 25, xlii. 5, xliv.
25, xlv. 12, 18, xlviii. 13, li. 13 ; Job xxvi. 5ff.
11 Deut. xxxii. 39 ; Hos. xiii. 14 ; B. J. Ixvi. 9 ; Zech. xii. 1.
12 Isa. i. 24, x. 23 ; Jer. xxxi. 17, 35, xxxii. 18, 27, xlix. 19, 1. 44 ; Deut.
vii. 21.
13 Joel ii. 26; Jer. xxxii. 20 ; cf. v. 22, 24; Job v. 9ff., ix. 4ff., lOff.. xxxvii. 14.
14 B. J. Iv. 10 f., lix. 1 (1 Sam. xiv. 6 ; Num. xi. 23).
MORAL ATTRIBUTES OF GOD. 151
little faith, this omnipotence of God is called to his remem
brance, in order to shame and strengthen him. When he
trusts to his own strength, this teaching bows him in the
dust before the Almighty, to whom the heathen nations are
as the small dust of a balance, as the drop of a bucket. 1 No
wisdom, no understanding or counsel, avails aught against the
Lord. His counsel, which is far above the thoughts of man,
stands firm and sure. He does whatsoever He pleases ; 2
and all success comes from Him alone. 3 While the idols
can do neither good nor evil, He makes both good and
evil, and creates darkness and light. 4 And this God of
power is proclaimed alike by nature in her glory, which
is His work, 5 and by the wonderful history of His people,
in which He has proved Himself the Almighty, who
turns to His own ends everything that happens in the
world. 6
2. This mighty God who rules the world is worthy of all
confidence and love, and is the Source of whatever is good
and upright. Israel holds that in Him are united all the
moral qualities which should mark the character and conduct
of a perfect and exemplary man. It is true, God is still
naively regarded as liable to be affected by the same emotions
as influence the soul of man. But it is always the religious
aim of the writers to give a clear impression of God s perfect
goodness, truth, and wisdom, and to extol these attributes.
Hence it is of more importance to notice what is related of
God than what is expressly taught regarding Him.
1 Such passages as B. J. xl. 15-24, xliii. 13, xlv. 1, 1. 2, li. 7ff.; Zech. viii.
6; Ps. Ixxiv. 16 if., Ixxxix. 9 ff .
2 B. J. Iv. 8 ff. ; Ps. cxv. 3.
3 Jer. xxxii. 19 ; B. J. xiv. 24, 27, xl. 29 ff.; Zech. x. 3 ff.
4 B. J. xli. 23, xlv. 7, liv. 16 ; Amos iii. 6.
Jer. v. 22, x. 10, 12, 16, xiv. 22, xxvii. 5 ; B. J. xl. 12, 1. 2f., li. 15 ; Job
v. 9 if., ix. 4ff., xi. 7ff., xxxiv. 13, xxxvi. 26-xxxvii. H; Ps. xxiv. Iff.,
xxxii i. 13-17, civ.
r ])oAit. x. 21, xi. 3, xxvi. 8, xxix. 2, xxxii. 12 ff.; B. J. xiv. 27, li. 2, 9 ;
Jer. x. 6f., xxxi. 8; Ps. Ixvi. 50 ., Ixxiv. 13 ff., Ixxvii. 15-21, Ixxviii. 4ff. ,
cxxxv. 8 ff.
152 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
The first attribute of moral perfection is righteousness, 1 that
is, the moral exactitude with which God applies the standard
(which He has within Himself) of perfect motives, without
fear, partiality, or selfishness, wherever His revelation finds
expression. The word P^v is, after all, not often applied to
God. 2 Where it does occur, it describes God as the mighty
Rock on which the moral order of the universe is founded, in
which the pious may safely trust for defence against the mighty
wicked; 3 that is, in the very way in which Ps. xvii. 2, and
Prov. xv. 25, 29, xvii. 15, extol God as the foe of injustice
and the answerer of the godly. Faith in God s righteousness
the godly man must retain, in spite of all the apparent
success of injustice. 4 It ip the pledge that justice will
triumph in the world ; 5 and it realises the salvation of the
godly. 6 Hence the " Zidqoth Jalive " are His deeds of right
eousness as the covenant God, His acts of salvation. 7 And
even in Ps. xxxvi. 7, the righteousness of God, which is
" high as the mountains of God/ is His saving power, in
which the godly trust and from which they expect help ; and
it is synonymous with God s " goodness." 8 Thus, in many a
Psalm, where the righteousness of God is celebrated, it is com
bined with His "goodness," because he who is faithful to the
covenant may hope for salvation equally from both. 9 There
is never any antagonism between the goodness of God and
His righteousness, which the Old Testament extols. But
1 p^V, np*lV- (The condition which corresponds with the normal rule.)
2 In Ex. ix. 27, it means simply "to have right on one s side in a quarrel."
* Ps. vii. 10, 18 (ver. 12 is probably to be translated after ver. 9 as "doing
justice to the righteous"), xi. 7, xviii. 21.
4 Jer. xii. 1.
5 Zcph. iii. 5 ; B. J. xlii. 21 ; Ps. cxix. 137, cxxix. 4.
6 B. ,T. xlv. 21; Ps. Ixix. 28, cxliii. 11.
7 Judg. v. 11 ; Micali vi. 5 ; 1 Sam. xii. 7 ; B. J. xlv. 24 ; Ps. ciii. 6.
8 Ver. 11 ; cf. Ps. v. 9, xlviii. 11, Ixxi. 2, cxix. 40, 149, cxliii. 1, cxlv. 7.
9 Hos. ii. 21; Ps. xxii. 32, xxxiii. 5, xxxv. 28, xl. 11, li. 16, Ixxxix. 15,
cxlv. 7 (Prov. xxii. 23; Ps. xxxi. 24, etc.). In Jer. ix. 24, righteousness and
goodness stand in antithetic parallelism to wrath. It is interesting to com
pare B. J. xlv. 21 with Zcch. ix. 9,
MORAL ATTRIBUTES OF GOD. 153
God as the righteous One is of course also the Judge of the
world, before whom wickedness meets its doom ; l the God who
sanctifies Himself by righteousness, and gives expression to
His righteousness by punishment. 2
Faith in God as the defender^of the right_ lies at the
root of Israel s whple_conception of history^ From the flood
till the conquest of Canaan, God shows that He will not
permit a breach of morality to pass unpunished ; and He
applies, through His omnipotence as judge, the standard of His
revealed will wherever it is not inwardly realised. Thus He
is " the avenger of blood," 3 who does not allow a guilty man
to pass unpunished. 4 Hence, God s will is indissolubly
linked with the great statutes of justice and morality.
Because He is Israel s God, that people must not warp and
violate justice. 5 In the ten commandments, He sets up in
Israel for all time coming the great landmarks of righteous
ness towards one s neighbour. 6 Because He is God His
conduct must be absolutely upright. Because He is the
judge of the world, and therefore the highest source of all
justice and all morality, He cannot show respect of
persons, He cannot destroy the innocent with the guilty. 7
In His whole treatment of the people He shows Himself
blameless in all things, mindful of justice, faithful to His
promises and His statutes. With the merciful He is merciful ;
with the perfect, perfect ; with the pure, pure ; and with the
froward, froward; 8 that is to say, He is the living standard
of moral order. He hateth the wicked. 9
Now, in the narratives of the Old Testament, there appears
1 Ps. ix. 5, 8, 9, 17, 1. 6, xcvi. 13 ; Deut. xxxii. 4.
2 Isa. v. 16, x. 22.
" Glen. xlii. 22 ; Lev. xviii. 25 ; Ps. ix. 13.
4 Ex. xx. 7, xxxiv. 7 ; Num. xiv. 18. Especially in Ezck. iii. 16 ff., xiv. 9,
2:j, xviii , xxxiii. 10 f.
5 Lev. xxiv. 22. 6 Ex. xx. ; Dent. v. 7 Gen. xviii. 23 ft .
8 Ps. xviii. 26, 28.
!l Ps. xi. 5 (Hos. xiv. 10. The ways of God are straight, mid the just shall
\v;ilk in them ; Init transgressors shall stumble therein).
154 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
to be a good deal that does not agree with this belief. For
example, the partiality shown to covenant-friends, even when
they are in the wrong, contradicts the true idea of righteous
ness. 1 But here, on the one hand, it must not be forgotten
that God s special love and care of His people forms the
foundation-stone of the whole conviction ; and, on the other
hand, that even Israel will, like the Canaanites, 2 " have to
be spued out of the land of Jehovah," if he walk in their
ways. In point of fact, according to the idea of ancient
justice, the claims of a confederate and the claims of a stranger
are quite different. Thus, justice demands that God s pro
mises be fulfilled. Consequently, what appears strange to us
was not, in the eyes of the narrators, at any rate, an in
fringement of justice on the part of God. 3 In like manner
it might appear unjust in God to give Israel a land already
in the possession of others. But it is always taken for
granted that the sin of its inhabitants was already full ; 4
that God, as the Lord of the whole earth, can take back
what He gave ; and that His covenant engagements required
Him to give this land to Abraham s seed. Indeed, it is an
eternal truth " that a people, rent by internal divisions, and
sinking deeper and deeper in moral degradation, must
succumb before another people in which there is springing
up a vigorous and harmonious life, full of trust in divine
power, and therefore striving after higher things " (Ewald). 5
Finally, there is the very old objection that the spoiling
of the Egyptians tells against the purity of the Old
Testament idea of God s righteousness. 6 But, although one
rejects the strictly allegorical interpretation of the passage,
l E.g. Gen. xii. 17, xx. 3ff.
2 Num. xxxiii. 56 (Deut. viii. 19 f.).
3 Still, as de Wette rightly says, such stories are to be explained as due,
not to imperfect ideas of God, but to an uneducated aesthetic and moral sense ;
morality is to be judged according to the spirit of the time and of the theocracy ;
cf. Lutz, p. 93 ff.
4 Gen. xv. 16. 5 Cf. also Br. Baur, ii. 9. 6 Ex. iii. 22 ff.
MOKAL ATTRIBUTES OF GOD. 155
according to which " the higher religion " is snatched away
from the Egyptians by the people of God, as Laban s
teraphim were once carried off by Rachel, 1 still the story
itself is in no sense meant to describe a violation of the
rights of property. God, who guides the history of the
world, so arranges, that Israel is not sent forth from the land
of unjust bondage without his wages. Hence the righteous
ness of God is working here in unison with His covenant
love. 2 But the event itself is, on Israel s part, a simple
demand which the Egyptians, according to divine arrangement,
feel constrained to grant from fear of the miracles wrought by
Jehovah. It is the Egyptians who break the peace.
When the piety of Israel has once become self-conscious,
it is regarded as a certainty, not requiring proof, that all the
decisions of God bear the stamp of perfect righteousness.
Even were a person, with the intention of benefiting God,
to forsake justice and truth, God would not accept his service,
but would, on the contrary, punish him. Neither fear nor
hope can ever induce Jehovah, the Governor of the world, to
give an unjust decision. 8 He who is Himself the source of
all justice, 4 and who, in judging the world, metes out the
strictest justice 5 He, the God of judgment 6 will not
punish the innocent for the sins of their fathers, but will
hold every one responsible for determining his own destiny. 7
He reckons everything at its proper value, and does not
allow injustice to pass itself off as justice, or to remain
unpunished. 8 The psalmist knows that God would not hear
1 Cf. Ewald, ii. 87. Schroring (Zeitschrift fur lutherische Theologie und
Kirche, ii. 1850, p. 284 ff.).
2 Gen. xv. 14 ; Ex. iii. 21.
3 Job. xiii. 6-12, 16 (xxii. 2-4, xxxiv. 14, xxxv. 5).
4 Ps. xcix. 4. 5 Deut. x. 17 ; Ps. Ixxv. 3.
6 Isa. xxx. 18 ; B. J. xxxv. 4, lix. 18 ; Deut. x. 18.
7 Ezek. xviii. 24-27.
8 Hos. xiv. 10 ; Isa. iii. 13 ; Zeph. iii. 5 ; Nalium i. 3 ; Jer. ix. 23, xi. 20,
xii. 1, xx. 11, xlvi. 28 ; Ezek. vii. 4, 9, 27, viii. 18, ix. 10 ; Deut. x. 17,
xxviii. 7ff.; Joel iv. 2ff.; Lam. i. 18 ; Ps. i., xcvi. 13.
156 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
him if he had, while praying, been cherishing wicked designs
in his heart. 1 And it is one of God s prerogatives to abase
the proud and exalt the lowly; in other words, to adjust,
by His omnipotence, the unjust and arbitrary distinctions
of earth. 2
Trustworthiness and truthfulness, 3 together with righteous
ness, are the main elements of human honesty, and are the
necessary foundation of confidence. Thus God is trustworthy, in
the very highest sense. He shows Himself so when He swears
by Himself. 4 His word which He pledged to the fathers He
redeemed in every act of His providence. He gave them
the land of promise, and raised up kings, as He undertook
to do. 5 To Abraham, hoping against hope, He gives the
promised heir by Sarah. 6 He leads the people under Moses,
as He had promised, by mighty deeds, and with a high
hand, into Canaan. 7 And, although it is said " He repents,"
that is really a naive expression for His trustworthiness which,
remaining inwardly true in altered circumstances, has there
fore itself undergone an outward change. 8 He is true ; 9
what He says, He really means. On this depend both law
and prophecy. ^References to God s fidelity and truth are
uncommonly frequent all through the Old Testament, 10
especially in the later times of distress, when the men of
God had to arouse and strengthen the faith of the despairing
people. Thus, in many instances, righteousness and faithful-
1 Ps. Ixvi. 18.
2 Isa. ii. 12 ff. (v. 16) ; Ezek. xvii. 24, xxi. 31, xxxi. 14, xxxiv. 16 ; Job v.
11-16 ; Ps. cxxxviii. 6 ; Joel ii. 20.
3 nillDK, Deut. vii. 9 ; p&u, pK to make firm ; cf. pOtfn and HDS (For
the word cf. de Lagarde, Mittheilungen, i. 105).
4 Gen. xxii. 16, etc. 5 Cf. Gen. xii., xv., xvii.
6 Gen. xviii. 9 ff. 7 Cf. Ex. iii. 6 ff., vi. 2 ff.
8 Gen vi. 6 ; cf. Num. xxiii. 19 ; 1 Sam. xv. 22, 29 (2 Sam. xxii. 31).
9 2 Sam. vii. 28 (His words are pure, Ps. xii. 7) ; He hateth falsehood, Prov.
xv. 26 ; cf. Ex. xxxiv. 6 ; Gen. xxxii. 12.
10 Cf. e.g. for riEN, Ps. xxxi. 6, Ixxi. 22, xix. 10, cxi. 7, liv. 7, xci. 4,
cxlvi. 6, for n:iDN, Hos. ii. 22 ; Lam. iii. 23 ; Deut. vii. 9, xxxii. 4 ; Ps.
xxxiii. 4 together in Ps. xl. 11, 12.
MORAL ATTRIBUTES OF GOD. 157
ness are of course synonymous, or, at any rate, they explain
each other. 1 The pious man, when in distress, trusts to God s
truth, and hopes that He will send it down from heaven, like
an angel to guide him and be his shield. 2 In it lies the pledge
that he who remains true to the covenant may also console
himself with the covenant promises, that God keeps and
does not forget His covenant. 3 God s word is pure. He is
the rock on which men can build. 4 He alone is perfectly
pure. For, measured by the standard of His eyes, God s
most trusted servants are not pure, nor yet the heavens,
not to speak of the creatures of the dust. 5 Hence, also, the
law which reveals His will, is spotless, unalterable, and pure ;
a fortress in which men can dwell secure, amid all the
change of earthly things, and all the uncertainty of human
knowledge. 6
(&) But integrity must be combined with "goodness," that
the character may be perfectly trustworthy. 7 Hence Israel
believes in the goodness of his God. This is in no way
antagonistic to His righteousness. A man would not be
" righteous " if he was not at the same time benevolent, ready
to benefit and help, and, if need be, to excuse pardonable
mistakes. No doubt this goodness of God this " sym
pathy " for the weak 8 depends absolutely on His own free
will. He shows mercy to whomsoever He will. 9 And in the
last resort, His honour is the highest goal. " The Lord hath
made everything for His own purpose." 10 But out of His
1 E.g. Ps. xxxvi. 6ft ., xcvi. 13, cxliii. 1, cxix. 38.
2 Ps. xliii. 3, Ivii. 4, 11, xci. 4, xcviii. 3, Ixi. 8.
8 Dent. iv. 31, vii. 9 ; Hos. xii. 1 ; Ps. xl. 11, Ivii. 3 il 1 ., Ixi. 8, Ixxxix. 14.
4 Prov. xxx. 5 ; Deut. xxxii. 4, 15, 18, 30, 37 ; Nahum i. 7 ; B. J. xxvi. 4,
xl. 8 ; Ps. xxviii. 1, cxliv. Iff.
5 Hab. i. 13; Job iv. 18.
" Ps. xix. 8, 10, xciii. 5, cxix. 86, 89-91, 142, H>0, 172; K.-cles. xii. 13.
7 2 Sam. xv. 20.
* D Wl (adjectives TOP! and Dim). (2 Sam. xxiv. 14 ; Kx. xxxiv. 6.) For
the expression, cf. Gen. xliii. 14, 30 ; of. mrv rfen, den. xix. 16 ; Deut. x. 18 ;
mercy towards orphans, widows and strangers.
9 Ex. xxxiii. 19. 10 Prov. xvi. 4.
158 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
goodness springs the creation of the world. Its glory and
beauty declare this. But, above all else, the sight of man,
who has been raised to the highest plane of created being,
who has been made in the image of God, must recall the
divine goodness. Even the artless prattle of children must
become a power to convince scornful unbelievers of their
folly. 1 From that which Christianity calls the love of God
the Old Testament religion, especially in its beginnings, is
still, it is true, very far removed. God s love is not bestowed
on all nations alike. Down to the age of the prophets,
the particularistic foundation of the idea of God is merely
restricted, never quite abandoned. The God of Israel orders
His foes to be ruthlessly exterminated. Human pity be
comes wickedness when it spares the "banned." The God
who fights the battles of Israel " among the mighty," and who
has not yet laid aside the features of the terrible God of the
Hebrews, is very far indeed from being recognised as the
loving Father of all mankind. 2 God s goodness is primarily
experienced as goodness towards His covenant friends, just
as a man who is kind to his friends may be merciless to his
foes.
Israel has had experience of God s goodness. The covenant
with the fathers and with Moses is a work of pity and of
love ; 3 an adoption, by which the relationship established is
that of child to father. 4 Thus, on the ground of this election,
Israel experiences a special covenant love, which, as such,
must of course be one-sided. It is God s delight to do good
to Israel. 5 He lets His mercy continue for a thousand
generations. 6 Without either obligation or necessity, He has
loaded Israel with the benefits of salvation. 7 The greatest
1 Ps. xix. 1 ff. ; Ps. viii. 3 ff.
3 Josh. vi. 17, vii. 12 f., 24 f., xi. 20; Judg. ii. 2; 1 Sam. xv. 2ff., xxviii. 18;
1 Kings xx. 42.
3 Ex. iii. 7 ; Judg. iii. 9, x. 10 ff., etc. 4 Ex. iv. 22, 23.
5 Jer. xxxii. 41. 6 Deut. v. 10, vii. 9.
7 B. J. xlviii. 11.
MORAL ATTRIBUTES OF GOD. 159
love of which men know, the love of a father for his son, 1 of
a husband for the wife of his youth, 2 is a metaphor of God s
love to Israel. Nay, all earthly love is weak compared with
the highest divine love : " Can a woman forget her sucking
child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her
womb ? Yea, these may forget, yet will not I forget thee." 3
Thus Israel celebrates the goodness of God in a thousand
strains of tuneful praise. 4
But this goodness of God towards Israel is no chance or
arbitrary frame of mind. It depends on the deepest char
acteristic of the divine personality. God shows mercy to a
thousand generations, but is angry only unto the third or
the fourth. 5 He is plenteous in mercy. 6 The mere sentence,
" I am Jehovah," should be enough to move Israel to sym
pathy and to mercy. 7 The true Israelite confesses " I am not
worthy of the least of all Thy mercies, and the truth which
Thou hast showed unto me." 8 God s mercy depends on the
overflowing goodness of His heart. 9 To the weak His very
nature makes Him loving and sympathetic. 10 He heals broken
hearts ; He gathers into His bottle the tears of sorrow that
they may not be forgotten. He loves the widow and the
1 Hos. xi. 1 ; Dent, xxxii. 6, 10, xxxiii. 3 ; Isa. i. 2 ; B. J. xliii. 6, xliv. 24,
Ixiii. 16.
2 Hos. i.-iii. ; Ezek. xvi. xxiii.
3 B. J. xlix. 15 (Jer. xxxi. 3 ; Hos. xiv. 5 ; Deut. iv. 31).
4 Ps. v. 8, xxiii. Iff., xxv. 6, lix. 17, xxxi. 8, 17, 22, xxxvi. 6, 8, 11, xl. 11,
xlii. 6, xlviii. 10, li. 3, Ixvi. 20, cxviii., cxix. 76, 124, cxxx. 7, Ixxxvi. 5 ; B. J.
liv. 8, 10, Ixiii. 7. (Hosea lays special emphasis on the attributes of God s dis
position, i. 6, ii. 3, 21, iii. 1, vii. 8ff., xi. 1, 8, xii. 1 ff.)
5 Ex. xx. 5 f.
6 Ex. xv. 13 ; Num. xiv. 18 ; Ps. vi. 5, xiii. 6 ; 2 Sam. xxiv. 16 ; "Jehovah
repented Him of the evil " (Judg. ii. 18). The strongest expression occurs in Ps.
xviii. 36, "Thy condescension hath made me great" (iTO^), if the text here be
correct.
7 Ex. xxii. 21 ft .; Lev. xix. 9-18, xxiii. 22.
8 Gen. xxxii. 10 ; cf. xxiv. 12, 27 ; Ex. xxxiv. 6.
9 Jer. xxxi. 18 ff.; B. J. Ixiii. 16 (HID, Ps. cxviii., etc.).
10 OWl (Deut. x. 18 ; B. J. xlix. 9), liv. 7, 10 ; Jer. xxxiii. 26 ; Joel ii. 13,
etc. Dim, Deut. iv. 31 (B. J. Ixiii. 7).
160 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
stranger ; He pities the orphan. 1 The poor and needy who
call on Him in deep distress, He gladly hears. 2 And from
His people He Himself requires mercy and compassion. 3
The more real the piety of Israel becomes, the better do
they understand that God s mercy is the strongest force deter
mining His will. 4 The pious are convinced that this mercy is
based on God s position as Creator, and, consequently, has a
foundation which, on principle, excludes particularism. God
cannot will the destruction of those whom He has created ; His
heart impels Him to help the poor and the suffering. 5 The
beauty and the order of creation proclaim His goodness. He
gives His waiting creatures meat and drink so that they may
praise Him. 6 All men without distinction receive the gifts
which God has scattered with open hand. 7 Indeed, in the
book of Jonah, it is said even of the heathen world that God
can will for it nothing but life and happiness, that He must
feel pity for His creatures. 8 God is not in the earthquake,
nor in the whirlwind, but in the still small voice. 9
In the Old Testament the particular word " Love " is hardly
ever applied to God ; and where it does occur in a later writer,
it denotes God s special covenant love for Israel; and the reverse
side of this is, of course, hatred of the hostile peoples. 10
(c) The picture of perfect personal and moral life is com
pleted by the idea of God s wisdom. 11 In the Old Testament
this is, of course, presupposed from the first. God is, in fact,
1 Deut. x. 18, xxiv. 10 ; Fs. x.l 4, xiv. 6 ; Hos. xi. 8, xiii. 4, etc.
2 E.g. Isa. xxxvii. 15 ff., xxxviii. 2 ff. ; Ps. xliv. 27, Ixxxvi. 5, cxlv. 18, etc.
" Dcut. x. 12, 18, xxiv. 17, xxvii. 19 ; Isa. i. 17 ; Zech. vii. 10.
4 Ps. ciii. 8, 17, cxlv. 8 ; Joel ii. 13 ; Jonah iv. 2 ; Lam. iii. 22 ; Micah vii. 18 ;
cf. Ps. Ixxiii. 1.
5 B. J. Ivii. 16 ; Deut. x. 18 ; Jonah iv. 10 IF.; Gen. i.
6 Job xxxviii. -xlii. ; Ps. civ. 11 ff., 28 if., cxxxvi. 1-9., cxlv. 15, cxlvii. 9.
7 Ps. civ. 14 ff., cvii. 36 ff. 8 Jonah iv. 10 f. (Ruth ii. 20).
9 1 Kings xix. 11, 12.
10 Mai. i. 2f., 2HN (Prov. iii. 12 ; Deut. vii. 8, 13 ; B. J. Ixiii. 8 ft .). Still,
passages like Gen. xxix. 31 and Prov. xxx. 23, show that the expression
"hatred" is taken from the idiom of polygamy, and denotes, not hostility, but
neglect.
11 Cf. Bruch, I.e., p. 123 If.
THE WISDOM OF GOD. 161
the Creator, Governor, and Lawgiver of the world. But
it is the Wisdom -literature that first busies itself expressly
with this side of the idea of God. Indeed, it is only its later
portions that begin to deal with a circle of ideas concerning
divine wisdom, which is more nearly akin to philosophical
speculation than anything else on Hebrew soil. Both the
wonderful order in nature which God has created, 1 and the
perfection of the moral statutes which is to be admired in
His law, proclaim 2 that God is wise ; that He has in Himself
the utmost perfection of intellect, standard, and aims. God s
wisdom alone gives the key by which to understand the world
and man. The wisdom which gives a man true insight into
the divine connection of things, as well as the real practical
shrewdness which enables him to regulate his conduct by
principles proved true from eternity, 3 is not a plant grown on
human soil, is not a product of man s spiritual activity, and
does not vary or have a conditional value like all purely
human things. It is a real force, a phenomenon of objective
significance. Man cannot attain it by any act of his own;
he can only receive it in the fear of Jehovah. 4 It is the
absolutely highest good. All the treasures of the earth and
of the deep are not to be compared to it. 6 For it is nothing
else than the very wisdom of God in other words, the con
tents of His reason, of His own conscious life and will. It
is nothing conditional or human, but the everlasting standard
which is the goal as well as the origin of all created
being.
Hence the wisdom of God is personified, obviously, it is
true, in a free poetic style, just as its opposite, folly, is repre-
Uob ix. 4, xii. 13, 17, xxxvii.ff.; B. J. xl. 28, 13; Gen. i.j Ps. xix.,
civ. 24.
2 Deut. iv. 8 ; Jer. x. 12 ; Ps. xix. 8 ff.
3 Prov. vi. 1-11, xxii. 26, xxiii. Iff., xxvi. 17; cf. xxiv. 17 f., xxv. 21 ff.; Job
xxviii. 28. The parable in Isa. xxviii. 23-29 shows that the order and the pro
portion observable even in the events of ordinary life are due to God.
4 Job xxviii. 28.
5 Prov. ii. 4, iii. 13 ff., viii. 11 fi ., 19 ; cf. iv. 5 ff.; Job xxviii. 15 ff.
VOL. II. L
162 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
sented as acting like a person. 1 Consequently, the expressions
must not be taken too literally. I cannot convince myself that
any references are found in the Canon to the connection of
this wisdom with the philosophico-religious conception of
"the son of God" 2 and the first man. 3 One side of the
divine activity is represented in free poetic fashion as a Being
acting independently. But on the one hand this description
is, like all Eastern poetry, very objective. Wisdom has a
spirit and a word. It alternates with God as a subject
absolutely synonymous. 4 On the other hand, the Eastern
mind, which is specially intuitional, passes much more readily
from a poetic picture to the actual idea of an independent
personal existence than a Western thinker does. Hence we
find here, certainly, the foundation of the pregnant thought
that the inner conscious life of divine will proceeding from
God, can be thought of as an activity independent of
God ; that it thus forms the foundation for the being and
continued existence of the world, and finds its real and per
manent expression in the personal life of man when modelled
after the divine. Here, also, the real interest is a religious
one, viz. to become conscious of the divine value of the
commonwealth of the kingdom of God.
Wisdom was with God before the world was ; she was
brought forth by Him as the first of His works, that is, as the
first objective expression of His being and will, so that God s
purposes with the world and with man appear synonymous
with His own eternal purposes. 5 She is the partner of His
1 E.g. Prov. ix. 13.
2 Ewald would take Prov. xxx. 4 in this sense. But the " who is his son "
is plainly in the style of a proverb and has no special emphasis.
3 Oehler and Dillmann would understand Job xv. 7 in this sense. But there
the first man is evidently thought of, not as synonymous with the pre-mundane
wisdom, but merely as the possessor of the deepest insight, in accordance with
the idea that human experience is the greater, the farther it goes back.
4 Prov. i. 23, 26, 30. (The parallel of the word HCOn is, in Prov. i. 2f.,
nrZJ ; in Prov. ii. 2f., Ps. cxlvii. 5, ruun ; in Prov. ii. 10, Djn ; and in Prov.
ii. 11, rP2TE-
5 Prov. viii. 22 ; Job xxviii. 23 f.
THE WISDOM OF GOD. 163
throne and His associate. 1 By her He created the world ; 2 by
her He guides it. 3 She sports hefore God on His habitable
earth; and her delight is with the children of men. 4 She then
comes to men, addresses them as their best friend, recommends
to them the path by which life is to be found, and invites
them to the marriage-feast. 5 In a word, she wishes to embody
herself, to become flesh in the moral and religious life of men.
And, at the same time, she is God s peculiar possession. He
alone knows her ways and understands her fully; He alone
is the absolutely wise. 6
APPENDIX. The age of the Scribes afterwards made
a real attempt to work out this side of the doctrine re
garding God on theological lines. Certainly the books that
became canonical after Ezra s time do not show any further
development of the thought worthy of mention. Wisdom, as
she appears in Qoheleth, 7 is thought of, in accordance with
the whole anti-theological character of the book, not as specu
lative, but as purely practical. But this speculation becomes
much more prominent in the apocryphal books, and especially
in the Alexandrine philosophy of religion, strictly so called.
Its great importance, in connection with the growth of Christ
ian dogma, warrants a fuller exposition of it.
In the book of Baruch wisdom is poetically described in a
manner similar to Prov. viii. She dwelt with God, and was
then lent to Israel. Thus she was seen on the earth, and
sojourned among men. 8 In the book of Jesus son of Sirach
in its present Greek form, and in the book of the Wisdom of
Solomon, she is described in almost exactly the same way ;
although in the latter book the tendency of the description to
Prov. viii. 30.
Prov. iii. 19 f., viii. 22 IT., 27 ff., 30; Job xxviii. 23 ff.; cf. Jer. x. 12; Ps.
civ
24.
Jer. li. 15. 4 Prov. viii. 31. 5 E.g. Prov. ix. 2 if.; cf. viii. 17.
Ps. xxxiii. 11 ; Jer. li. 17 ; Job xii. 13 f.; Isa. xxxi. 2.
Eccles. ii. 13 f., iv. 13ff., vii. 12, 15 ff., viii. Iff., ix. 13 ff., x. 2ff., lOff.,
xii. 1. 8 Bav iiit 28 ff., 36 ff.
164 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
pass from a mere personification to an actual impersonation is
decidedly more pronounced. True, in Oriental books of a
rhetorical cast, it is always difficult to determine where the
one ends and the other begins.
Wisdom is with God from eternity, the partner of Hip,
throne and cognisant of His thoughts. 1 She is an emanation
from God s glory, 2 the brightness of His everlasting light, 3 the
mirror of His power and goodness. 4 She is one, and yet can
do everything ; she remains within herself, and yet makes all
things new. 6 She is of resplendent purity, 6 and has a spirit
that is reasonable, holy, only-begotten. . . . beneficent, bene
volent, absolute and independent, almighty and all-observant. 7
She is more in motion than any motion. 8 She was created
before all things, 9 and boasts herself in the presence of God
before His powers. 10 She is everywhere. 11 She is the prin
ciple of creation, especially of man s creation ; for she has a
spirit of love to men. 12 She is the artificer of the universe,
poured out by God upon all His works. 18 She is the prin
ciple of redemption. She invites the righteous to heavenly
possessions, 14 makes those who love her sons of God, 15 searches
out those who deserve her, 16 descends into the souls of God s
servants, and makes them God s friends and prophets. 17 She
is the principle of divine revelation that seeks rest in and
takes up her abode with men, and especially with the holy
people ; in other words, she serves, as it were, as priestess at
1 Ecclus. i. 1; Wisd. Sol. viii. 3f., ix. 4, 9 (ptra, vapstipo;, pufns, a-u^iuiriv t^uv).
2 Wisd. Sol. vii. 25 (avoppotx, arfAis).
8 Wisd. Sol. vii. 26 (aTayya^a t^uro; ui^iov).
4 Wisd. Sol. vii. 26 (foovrpov, Juv). b Wisd. Sol. vii. 26.
6 Wisd. Sol. vi. 13.
7 Wisd. Sol. vii. 22 ff. (voipov, u<ytov, ftovoyivis, Xsarrov, vo)t.vftipis ) o%u).
8 Wisd. Sol. vii. 23. 9 Ecclus. i. 4, 7ff., xxiv. 14.
10 Ecclus. xxiv. 1 ff. . n Ecclus. xxiv. 4-9.
12 Ecclus. xxiv. 10 ff., xlii. 21 ; Wisd. Sol. vii. 21, ix. 2; cf. i. 6.
13 Ecclus. i. 2ff.; Wisd. Sol. vii. 21.
14 Ecclus. iv. 12, vi. 24 f., xv. 2ff., xxiv. 7ff., 18-31. (After these one always
hungers and thirsts anew ; cf. the words of Jesus, Matt. xi. 27 ff.)
15 Ecclus. iv. 11. 16 Wisd. Sol. i. 4, 6, vi. 16.
17 Wisd. Sol. vii. 27, viii. 1, x. 1 ff., 21, xi.
SPECULATIONS REGARDING GOD. 165
the holy places of public worship. 1 Wisdom is several times
used as synonymous with God. 2 But it is specially import
ant that she appears in connection with " the word of God," 3
which is obviously the most active form of divine revelation ;
for, as manna, it feeds ; as the serpent, it heals ; and as the
pillar of cloud it goes before the hosts of Israel. In Enoch,
also, there are found allusions to these thoughts in con
nection with the Messiah, in whom dwells the Spirit of
wisdom. 4
In Hellenism proper this circle of ideas is most fully worked
out by Philo, though not without visible traces of the influence
of the Stoic and Platonic schools of philosophy. In Philo the
idea of God is weakened down into the idea of absolutely
spiritual pure Being. 5 Hence, in order to explain the world
and God s revelation in it, he requires a medium. This he
finds in the thought of the divine forces (ideas), which, as
mercy and judgment, reveal the divine Being to the external
world. 6 Their combination is the Word, the Logos, a term
which Philo prefers, from its being of the masculine gender,
to the word Wisdom, although, according to him, the contents
of both are the same. 7
The Logos is, on the one hand, the whole contents of the
divine world of thought resting in the JVoO? of God, synonym
ous with the inner life of God Himself, and corresponding to
the \0705 evSidQeros in the human soul. On the other hand, it
is the externalising of this as revelation, corresponding to the
in which man s thought finds expression. 8
1 Eoclus. xxiv. 7 if.; Wisd. Sol. x. Iff., xi.
2 Wiscl. Sol. i. 4f., ix. 17.
3 Ecclus. i. 5 (?), xxiv. 3 f . ; Wisd. Sol. xvi. 12, 26, xviii. 15 ; cf. vi. 12, vii.
22 f., ix. Iff.
4 Enoch xlii. Iff., xlix. 3.
" 816 C, 916, 950, 1045 B, 1046, 1048 D, 1087 A, 1103 ; cf. 74 B, 600 C, 815
C E, 916 B, 1150, and often ; cannot mingle with other being, 329 C, 479,
518, 805 B, 948, 1087 C.
6 139 A, 345, 504 D, 1048 D, 1150 (*aV vovras, Enoch Ixxi. 3).
7 176 E, 48 A, 458 B, 508 C, 498 D, 1103 B. 8 513 A, 672 C,
166 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
Thus the Logos is that which connects the divine ideas their
place; and that which connects the divine forces the
Archangel} If a life is to originate outside God, then that
is possible only by the life of God communicating itself by
self-revelation ; in other words, through the Logos. Hence,
He is the master workman of the world ; 2 the divider who
brings into the lifeless and disordered mass of chaos the
principle of form and order. 3 But He is, at the same time,
the ideal of the world, as the thought of a work of art exists in
the artist s soul before it is stamped on the material. 4 Above all
He is the ideal, and therefore the goal of man ; in other words,
the ideal man in the image of God, of whom Gen. i. speaks. 5
He is likewise the principle of revelation and redemption.
Only through Him does the world exist before God. For if
it did not contain some divine thought, it would not be
entitled to exist. Hence, He is the High Priest who makes
atonement for the whole world. 6 And wherever there are
reconciling and redemptive influences at work in the history
of salvation, these are revelations of the Logos. He was
Melchisedek ; He was the Builder of the tabernacle, the Eock
in the wilderness, the Manna, 7 etc. He will at last lead the
holy people again into their rest, in the superhuman form
of an Angel. 8 These thoughts explain all the expressions
which Philo applies to the Logos. He did not, of course,
think of the Logos as personal, in the modern sense of the
word, but as a force, influence, thought. The Logos is
called the house of God, 9 the prince of the angels, 10 the
effulgent likeness of God, the express image of His being, 11
1 4, 5, 341 B, 509 B, 600.
2 The separate ideas are the rays ; He is the collective light. 6 A, 92 A,
416 C, 452 B, 466 D, 513 B, 823 C.
3 Of. 1. 4 1248 D, 4, 817 B, 1150 B.
e 341. 6 466 B, 509 B.
7 75 C, 76 E, 80, 92 A, 93 A, 176 E, 162 D, 179 C, 218 A, 438 D, 470,
507 B.
8 937 A. 9 389 B, 418 A. 10 341 B, 509 B, 600 D.
11 6 C, 80 C, 600 D, 823 C.
TIIK HOLY GOD AND HIS GLOKY. 167
incomprehensible and infinite as God, 1 indivisible, 2 the
second God, 3 the viceroy of God. 4 Only through the eternal
thought of God, which also stands from all eternity before
the eye of God as that which is to be realised, could a world
exist outside of God and have a value as having come into
existence, and as being in process of development. As High
Priest, the Logos is a pledge to the world of its connection
with God, and to God of the permanent value of the world.
He thus stands between the two as Intercessor for the world. 6
In connection with this world, He is the governor and pilot,
the charioteer of the divine forces, and the umpire. 6 By
revelation He leads humanity, which has been created for
Him, and especially the people of salvation, onward to their
goal to the realisation of His own being in humanity. What
ever saving influences exist among men are all, in the last
resort, due to the Logos.
The further development, in Palestinian Judaism, of
thoughts like these into the conceptions of the Jeqara,
Memra, Shechina 7 and Adam Qadrnon (the first Adam), 8
does not require to be discussed here.
3. (a) Among the "moral" attributes of God we did not
mention His holiness, 9 because, according to the idiom of
the Old Testament, it does not express any one side of His
character, but describes the general impression which the
pious have of God s relation to His creatures. While holi-
1 The first-born son, 140 E, 298 B, 329 C, 341, 93 B, 452, 466 C, 497 D,
1046 D E.
s 513 B. 3 599, 600 D (ed. Mg. ii. 625).
4 398 B, 466 <J, 600 E (79 A, **/). 466 B, 509 B.
s 398 B, 466 C, 600 E.
7 Pirke Aboth 3. Ubi scdent duo qui Icgeiu tractant, Shcrhinu cum illis
cst.
s The Bath Qol (Pirke Aboth vi. 2) is a term for the idru of revelation
in the sense of the later age.
9 Tlp. Hence ;<T Ip, BHpj, C^pnn. It is linguistically connected with
Jjnn, tsnh, etc., and denotes what is "set apart," "made pure," tfij3c.
The opposite of gnp is not NB, but ^n xowv, Lev. x. 9 (as tfOB is the
opposite of
168 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
ness was formerly regarded as the attribute which warded off
from God whatever was evil and dishonouring to Him, that
is, His moral sublimity, many modern scholars have put
forward a different view. According to Diestel, as well as
Achelis, God s holiness is meant to describe His direct con
nection with Israel through revelation that is to say, an ex
clusive " property-relation," in other words, it expresses
not so much the unapproachable moral majesty of God,
as His inner relation to Israel. This view is exaggerated
in a one-sided way by Menken, 1 who says : " By holiness is
meant not so much the general unapproachable perfection
and glory of God, which makes Him infinitely superior
to all the excellence of all His creatures, as His con
descending grace, His self- abasing humility, His humbling
Himself in love." But this view is nothing more than
plausible.
By far the most frequent use of the word " holy " in the
Old Testament is in reference to the people, its customs, and
its arrangements for public worship. There the matter is
quite clear. A person, a people, a vessel, is holy, most
assuredly, not because of its contents, but in so far as these
things are " sacred," i.e. appropriated to God, and therefore
called to share in God s dignity, and withdrawn from all
profane or common uses. Some tilings, it is true, are in them
selves more adapted for this than others, e.g. such as are
perfect in themselves and worthy of honour (pure). Still
even these are holy only in so far as they have been set apart
for God. The word " hallow," which is so often used, simply
means " to dedicate to a religious use," " to make a thing God s
property," in contrast with putting it to " a profane or com
mon use." The glory of God makes the tabernacle " holy " ;
the sacrifice " hallows " the altar. A " holy thing " 2 means
either a place set apart for God s use, or a utensil dedicated
1 Citing Ps. ciii. 1 ff., cv. 3 ; Hos. xi. 9 ; Ps. xxii. 4, xxxiii. 21.
2 In the metaphorical sense (Ps. Ixxiii. 17).
THE HOLY GOD AND HIS GLORY. 169
to His service. An earthly thing becomes holy by being
appropriated to heavenly purposes. And the more directly it
can be appropriated to God Himself, the holier it becomes, so
that things belonging exclusively to God are " the most holy
of all.** Hence Diestel is perfectly right in saying of earthly
things, " Holiness is a concept not of material but of relation."
The " holy " are those dedicated to God, those who serve God
in heaven and on earth. 1 Israel is a holy people because it
is God s peculiar people ; and a priest belonging to this people
is specially holy. 2 And when conclusions as to the people s
conduct are drawn from this relationship of property, Israel s
" holiness " naturally requires material and moral abstinence
from everything unbecoming a people dedicated to this God.
Here, too, the concept of a property relationship is amply
sufficient, with the natural explanation which it gets in the
moral idea of God.
And this idea is equally sufficient where the poetry of
the Old Testament speaks of God s holy arm, name, temple,
heaven, etc. It merely emphasises the fact that every
thing which proceeds from Him, or in which He has a share,
participates in the incomparable majesty of His being, and in
His claim to be reverenced by man. 3 Many even of the pas
sages in which God Himself is called holy could perhaps be
explained without the help of any other idea for example
the numerous passages, especially in the book of Isaiah, in
which God is called " the Holy One of Israel." Even there it
might possibly be only the exclusive character of His relation to
Israel that is indicated. The expression would in that case
be but slightly different from the title "God of Israel." In
deed in many passages where God is called without any special
1 Zech. xiv. 5; Ps. xvi. 3, xxxiv. 10 ; Job v. 1, xv. 15.
Ex. xix. 5f.; Lev. xxi. 15, xxii. 9, 16.
3 Ps. xi. 4, iii. 5, xx. 7 ; cf. the concordance for >CHp and ighp. The passage,
1 Sam. ii. 2, is used without any special emphasis : God is the incomparable one
(Kitschl). On the other hand, in 1 Sam. vi. 20, the word indicates the awful
majesty of the divine P>eing.
170 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
emphasis " the Holy One," l we might be satisfied with this
explanation. But even in these cases the explanation of
the term by the relationship of property is barely satis
factory, and does not do justice to the emphatic character of
the word ; and certainly the great majority of passages in
which God is called holy, leads us to give a much fuller
meaning to the term.
When God swears by His holiness, 2 there must be a refer
ence to some unchangeable attribute of His own being. When
the creature is awe-struck at God s nearness, because He is
holy, when the Holy One of Israel is compared to a flame of
fire, and stress is laid on His incomparably terrible majesty, 3
the word must be intended to indicate the gulf between God
and the creature, that is, to express the consuming majesty
of the divine Being. And when the Lawgiver, who has
most logically developed the idea of the holiness of God and
of His people, bases on the declaration " God is holy " a claim
for holiness on the part of the people in such a way that a
particular kind of material and moral national life is the
result, 4 he cannot have intended his words to mean, "You
must be Mine, because I am yours." That would leave the
whole purport of his claim unexplained.
Hence, in the ordinary language of Israel, the holiness of
God must denote the peculiar relation of Israel s God
towards His creatures, and specially towards man. In the
very earliest times the word must have denoted the consuming
glory of the Semitic God ; and it still carries with it something
of the dread with which the ancient Hebrew regarded the
terrible God who annihilates what comes near Him, and kills
what is dedicated to Him. 5 At any rate it was primarily not
1 Gf. e.g. V>. J. xl. 25 ; Ps. xxii. 4 ; Hak iii. 3, i. 12. Even the inscription
of Eslimunazar calls the gods "holy."
2 Amos iv. 2. 1 Sam. ii. 2, vi. 20 ; Isa. vi. 3 ff., x. 17.
4 Lev. xi. 44, 45, xix. 2, xx. 7, 26, xxi. 8 ; Num. v. 3.
5 From the holiness of God it follows that contact with anything of His, or
any changing of His arrangements, is fatal (Lev. x. 2f.; Num. i. 51, 53, iii. 10,
THE HOLY GOD AND HIS GLORY. 1 1
a mural but a material idea. Fire and light appear to be the
suitable forms of revelation for the Holy God. 1 The creature,
as such, would perish in His presence. To disregard or violate
the divine holiness brings down " the wrath of God," and the
consequent destruction of the creature. 2 God is a Being
exalted incomparably high above the world, who keeps His
majesty free from every stain of dishonour, and wards off
from His unique greatness even the slightest misjudgment or
injury. 3 And everything that belongs to Him shares in
this majesty, and claims the self-same reverence. What
ever earthly thing is holy possesses this character as being
God s property, and must maintain it by withdrawing itself
from all dishonour, from everything unclean and noxious.
Hence also the name " the Holy One of Israel " was cer
tainly intended to describe God, not merely as the God of Israel,
but as the unapproachable, incomparable One, in whom Israel
may put his trust, although the world be hostile to him, and
before whom he must tremble, should he himself prove un
faithful. The expression is emphatic, as when God is called
a Bock or a Light. 4 We meet with this signification of the
word " holy " wherever it is used emphatically of God. He
dwelleth high and holy ; He is the faithful Holy One. 5 An
unclean people, prone to rebel, cannot serve Him, because He
is holy that is, tolerates no dishonour. 6 God hallows Him
self that is, preserves and reveals the incomparable majesty
of His Being, and desires that He should be hallowed, that
08 ; Isa. viii. 14). He is an unapproachable terrible Lord, easily offended and
provoked, threatening evil (1 Sam. xxvi. 19 ; 1 Kings xii. 15, xxii. 20 if. ; Amos
iii. 6 ; of. Ex. xxxiii. 20 ; Judg. xiii. 22 ; Isa. vi. 5. To Hp s corresponds the
" sacer esto " of the Romans (Ex. xxix. 37, xxx. 29 ; Lev. vi. 11, 23 ; Josh. vi.
17 f.). Ex. iii. 5 ; Isa. vi. 3f., and Gen. xxviii. 17 (Ps. cxi. 9) also show the
connection between "holy "and "terrible."
1 Ex. iii. 5 ; Isa. x. 17. 2 2 Sam. vi. (j I .
3 B. J. Ivii. 15. 4 Cf. especially Isa. x. 17.
n Hos. xii. 1 ; Prov. iv. 10, and indeed in the plural. Thus Job vi. 10 ; B. J.
Ivii. 15 ; Ps. xcix. 5, 9. Also in 1 Sam. vi. 20 the word must, at any rate,
signify "unapproachable, terrible."
c Josh. xxiv. 19.
172 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
this unique majesty should be acknowledged. 1 He hallows
Himself in Israel when He shows how unassailable He is by
a hostile heathen world, and also when He resents and
avenges any breach in Israel of His covenant rights. Thus
His holiness is the consolation and hope of His people, and at
the same time a source of holy dread to the wicked. 2 God s
name is to be hallowed in Israel that is, reverenced in its
majesty. 3 He hallows Himself by righteousness, in other
words, He guards, as Judge, the authority of His unassailable
personality. 4 And everything which is the seat of His holiness
becomes an object of holy dread, and destroys any unclean
thing that touches it. "While, according to the prophet, the
Seraphim cry, " Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts," the
sons of God, according to the ancient psalm, declare His
glory in the heavenly temple. 5 To be holy and to be glorious,
to be hallowed and to be glorified, may correspond exactly,
because in both cases the majesty of the self-revealing God is
displayed and maintained before the world.
(b) We have already alluded to the expression which sur
rounds the whole Old Testament picture of the divine Being
as with a halo of light viz. the glory of Jehovah. 6 What the
religion of Israel denotes by this word is certainly, in the first
1 Dent, xxxii. 51 ; Isa. viii. 13.
2 Ex. xv. 11 ; Hab. i. 12 ; Isa. v. 16 ; Ezek. xxxviii. 16, 23, xxxvi. 23 ; cf.
1 Sam. vi. 20 ; Lev. x. 3 : Josh. xxiv. 19. Probably Hos. xi. 9 also belongs to
the first class of passages. God says, " I will not execute the fierceness of Mine
anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim ; for I am God and not man ; the Holy
One in the midst of thec : and I will not come in wrath." If the phrase " the
Holy One in the midst of thee " does not simply mean the same as " thine
honoured Lord and God," then it must, like the antithesis of God and man,
express the exaltation of the divine Being above earthly vicissitudes, and of His
will above the changes of His counsel.
3 E.g. Lev. xxii. 32. 4 Isa. v. 16 ; Ezek. xxxviii. 23, xxxix. 27.
5 Isa. vi. 3 ; cf. Ps. xxix. 9, xcix. 3, 5, 9 (Ezek. xxxvi. 23 to magnify one
self, Lev. x. 3). The distinction between the two terms is brought out most
clearly by remembering that from the glory of God moral inferences can never
be drawn by His worshippers, and that God s holiness as such can never be
manifested.
THE HOLY GOD AND HIS GLORY. 173
instance, the actual presence of the God of light God s re
vealed glory, as it appears to His favoured ones in all its awful
grandeur and majesty ; l and in this signification 2 the word
still occurs in Ezekiel and in A. But the phrase generally
denotes the special majesty of God s revealed Being, the perfect
fulness of His Godhead, which the creature has to acknowledge,
praise, and glorify. It is this which, according to the early
psalm, "day preaches to day and night to night," in words which
are heard even unto the utmost ends of heaven. It is this
which the sons of God rejoice to celebrate when, as they watch
in the palace of God the progress of the revealing thunder
storm, they keep saying, " Glory, glory." God proves this
attribute of His upon His enemies because He wishes to
show them that He is the King of Glory. 3 Thus, too, in later
days, the poet prays that God s glory may be exalted above
the heavens and the earth 4 in other words, that God may
cause every created thing to acknowledge His incomparable
majesty. And the prophets hope that God s glory will fill all
lands in quite another way than heretofore, that all creatures
will have to acknowledge this God as the Most High, as the
perfect fulness of the Godhead. 5 God means to set His glory
among the heathen that is, to be acknowledged and wor
shipped even by them. 6 On that account He will not give His
people to the heathen as a spoil. 7 This glory all beings are to
ascribe unto God ; that is, they are to praise and glorify Him
according to the measure of the divine majesty that is revealed
unto them. 8 This glorifying of God and of His name is the
highest thing for which an Israelite, as well as a disciple of
1 Ex. xxxiii. 22 ; cf. iii., xvi. 7, 10, xxiv. 16.
2 Ex. xxix. 43, xl. 34, 35 ; 2 Chron. v. 14, vii. 1 ; Deut. v. 24 ; Ps. xxvi. 8 ;
Ezek. xliii. 2, 4 ; B. J. xl. 5.
3 Ps. xix. 1, xxix. Iff., 9, xcvi. 3, cxxxviii. 5 ; Isa. vi. 3 ; Jer. xiii. 16 (in
Ps. viii. 2, 10 "the name" of God is quite synonymous; Ex. ix. 16, xiv.
18 ; Ps. xxiv. 7.
4 Ps. Ivii. 6, 12. 6 B. J. xxxv. 2, xl. 5 ; Num. xiv. 21.
Kzek. xxxix. 21. 7 Num. xiv. 12 ff.
8 B. J. xliii. 7 ; cf. lix. 19 f.; Hab. ii. 14 ; Ps. xcvi. 7.
174 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
Jesus, can pray : " Not unto us, Lord, not unto us, but unto
Thy name give glory." l This God of glory is of course per
fectly blessed in the fulness of His being, and without a single
wan t a God who, out of His mere good pleasure, can give all
things, but asks for nothing ; from whom all receive, but to
whom nothing is ever given.
" Tin; Lord is in His holy temple,
Let all the earth keep silence before Hini."-
(c) From the holiness of the morally perfect God, the
attitude which God takes up towards human sin follows as
a matter of course. This relation is summed up in the
old phrase, " He hateth sin." 3 He is not a God, as was said
later, who delighteth in iniquity; evil shall not dwell with
Him ; He is of purer eyes than to behold evil. 4 Breaches
of the great statutes of right and equity are to Him an
abomination. 5 But owing to His holiness and His mercy this
antagonism to sin shows itself in different aspects.
When human sin assails God s holiness and honour,
especially when Israel breaks the covenant God has made
with him, or when heathen nations show hostility to His
honour or His purposes of salvation, or when any
thing happens in Israel injurious to the holiness which
befits the people of this God, then His wrath and holy
indignation are aroused. 6
In the concrete conception of God current in the earlier
ages, and in accordance with the original idea of His holiness,
both these words undoubtedly imply the thought of human
1 Ps. cxv. 1.
- Ps. xvi. 2, 1. 9-12 ; B. J. xl. 28 ff., xlvi. 5ff.; Hab. ii. 20 ; Zech. ii. 13.
3 Ps. xi. 5.
4 Ps. v. 5 ; Hab. i. 13 ; Lev. xxvi. 15 ff. ; Deut. xii. 31 ; B. J. xxvi. 9, lix. 2,
Ixi. 8.
5 Prov. xii. 22, xv. 8f., 26, xvi. 5, xxi. 27 (royin)-
6 p|s, pin, may, non, DVT, pjvp, n&wp, N3p ta (NUP, Josh. xxiv. 19);
Gen. vi. 6; Num. xii. 9; Ex. xxxii. 10 ff. ; Deut. iv. 21, vi. 15; Josh. xxiv.
19, vii. 26 ; Ex. xx. 5, xxxiv. 14 ; Num. xxv. 11 ; cf. Num. xxxv. 33 f.
THE WRATH OF GOD. 1*75
passion ; and the impression of the terrible God of the Semites
is still visible. The ancient Hebrews, too, tremble before
the mystery of divine wrath. 1 Not only does God s wrath
destroy without mercy the enemies of His people, but it
blazes forth whenever His sanctuary is touched by any
profane person or thing ; 2 when the people complain and
murmur needlessly; when the spies show themselves cowards ;
when their own kindred rise up against Moses and Aaron. 8
When the angry breath of God s nostrils is spoken of, or
when it is said that God whets His sword, or that He is
angry all the day, 4 these are but poetic metaphors taken from
the martial wrath of an insulted hero. Only from this point
of view could the godly man pray :
" Lord rebuke me not in Thine anger,
Neither chasten me in Thy hot displeasure ;
Punish me but with justice." 5
Such expressions take it for granted that the wrath of God,
like that of men, will, if left to itself, overleap the bounds
of equity. Only on account of thoughts like these did it
require to be expressly stated as for instance by Micah 6
that it was not blind rage but the wickedness of Israel that
drove God to the use of threats. But because the conception of
God s wrath is still mixed up with the idea of human passion,
it is said, especially in later times, that God does not give free
rein to His anger, at least within the limits of His covenant.
He is God and not man. Hence He will not act according
to the fierceness of His anger. He is not always wroth ; else
the spirit would fail before Him, and the souls which He
had made. 7 Taking this restriction for granted, we may say,
therefore, that all through the Old Testament, the anger of
God is represented as the natural excitement of the Holy
1 Lev. x. 6 ; Num. i. 53, xviii. 5 ; cf. Ex. xii. 13, xxx. 12 ; Num. viii. 19.
- Num. i. 53, viii. 19. 3 Num. xi. 1, 10, xiv. 37.
4 Ps. vii. 12 ff. xviii. Off.
" Ps. vi. 2 ; Jer. x. 24 (cf. also the expressions in Jer. xv. 15, xxii. 7).
6 Micah ii. 7. 7 Hos. xi. 9 ; B. J. Ivii. 16 f.
176 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
God, conceived of as rising into passion, when His holiness and
honour are assailed, when His heart grows hot as a burning
fire. 1 This wrath of God naturally falls, in the first instance,
on those nations that attack Him by assailing His holy people;
on those who, without any divine commission, show themselves
hostile to Israel, and set themselves " against the Lord and
His anointed." 2 This wrath next falls on Israel when, forget
ful of the covenant, he serves other gods or dishonours the
name of God by scornful disregard of justice and morality.
For God dishonours those who dishonour Him. 3 For in
stance, the breach of Israel s plighted troth to the Gibeonites
through Saul s acts of violence is punished by the wrath of
God. 4
On the other hand, there is nowhere any mention in the
Old Testament of God being angry, on account of original
sin, with those members of His people who remain honestly
faithful to their covenant with Him. On the contrary, such
persons have perfect confidence in His mercy. Just as little
is God angry of Himself with the nations of the heathen
world, unless they interfere with the history of revela
tion. It was only in later times, in the sorrowful days of
oppression, that men saw the wrath of God in the miseries
of human life itself, and attributed these also to the uncon
scious sin of the people. 5 In this we are witnessing a
transition to a deepened consciousness of sin, such as Hebrew
antiquity knew nothing of. No doubt the early Hebrews,
like their heathen contemporaries, thought it possible to
incur the anger of God unwittingly, or, at least, without any
evil intention, but just through some unconscious, that is to say,
1 Zepli. ii. 2, iii. 8 ; Nahum i. 5, 6 ; Deut. iv. 24, ix. 3, xxviii. 63 ; Isa.
xxx. 27, 30, xxxiii. 14; B. J. Ix. 10, Ixi. 2, Ixiii. 5f., Ixiv. 5, Ixvi. 14; Ps.
xxxviii. 4.
2 Ps. ii., Ixxiv. 18 ; Ezek. xxxvi. 23, xxxviii. 16, 23. 3 1 Sam. ii. 29.
4 2 Sam. xxi. Iff.; cf. Amos i. 3-ii. 3.
Ps. xc. 7 ff. Still even here external violation of God s holiness by His
people may be meant.
THE WKAT1I OF GOD. 177
not wickedly intended, violation of His holy things, or of the
ordinances of His law. That follows from the previously
explained conception of God s holiness which, in fact, includes
both the material and the moral. Where men believed that
they recognised God s anger in the miseries of their lot, they
sought to discover the cause of that anger by consulting
oracles and prophets. But no one ever thought that God s
anger was due to man s moral inability. 1
Somewhat narrower than the idea of God s anger, but
otherwise essentially similar, is the idea of God s jealousy
or zeal, which is found in all the Old Testament writings,
but is especially frequent in those subsequent to the
Deuteronomic period. 2 This jealousy naturally presupposes
the marriage relationship, and can therefore be only thought
of when there is a question as to some violation of the holy
bond which unites Israel to God. Hence the reference to
God s jealousy stands, as Geffken justly observes, after the
first and second commandments, not after the rest. When
Israel worships other gods, he arouses the jealousy of
Jehovah.
This jealousy of God is also directed against Israel s
enemies, and consequently is represented as a motive for
God s deeds of deliverance whenever Israel is, contrary to
his own will, separated from his God, and dishonoured by
strange nations and gods. Then the jealousy of the husband
endeavours to save the imperilled honour of the wife. 3 But
where the people faithlessly turn away of their own accord
1 A clear instance of this is 2 Sam. vi, 6 ; 1 Chron. xiii. 9 (2 Cliron. xv. 13),
where the wrath of God falls on the non-Levitieal person who touches, with a
good intention, the sacred ark. There the anger is caused by disregard of
God s "holiness." The higher the idea of God s transcendental and holy
character became, the more did every breach of His ordinances and forms
appear to be a challenge of His anger. This is specially true of A and the
Deuteronomistic editor of the historical books.
2 All the expressions mentioned here are very frequent in the prophetic
writings. God s anger is spoken of with special frequency by Jeremiah (iv. 4, 8,
26, 23, vii. 20, 29, etc.), the Deuteronomist, and Ezekiel.
3 2 Kings xix. 31 ; Isa. ix. 7 ; Zech. i. 14, viii. 2 ; Joel ii. 18.
VOL. II. M
178 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
from their God, and worship other gods, then the zeal of
God is a zeal of indignation and judgment which, in turn,
gives up and divorces the wicked people. 1 This wrath and
jealousy of God determine His final judgment of the world. 2
As a perfect man dare not tolerate insults to his honour
or infringements of moral order, but treats them with anger
and indignation, it follows on the other hand from his merciful
disposition that, so long as there is a possibility of his
adversary repenting, he will restrain his anger, and not be
quick-tempered ; and that, wherever it is not a question of
wicked purpose, but only of unintentional offences, or where
the adversary seeks forgiveness, and proves himself really
sincere in his professions, he too will be ready to forgive and
become reconciled. Both attributes are predicated of God when
He is called " long-suffering " 3 and " gracious." 4 God does not
give His people up even when they break the covenant.
He bears with them notwithstanding all the sins of their
history. Even after the time of the Judges He raises them
up a David, and is never weary of inviting His people back
again by the mouth of His servants. And the later age
understands full well that all God s chastisements were
intended to spare the people their worst sufferings, because
He has no pleasure in the death of the sinner, but rather
that he should turn from his evil ways and live. 5 With
long-suffering patience God restrains His anger for His own
name s sake, because His purposes of revealing mercy are
bound up with this people. 6
1 Deut. iv. 24, v. 9 ; Zeph. i. 18 ; Nahuin i. 2 ; B. J. lix. 17, Ixiii. 15 ; Ezek.
v. 13, viii. 17, xvi. 38, xxiii. 25, xxxvi. 5, xxxviii. 18ff.; Ps. Ixxviii. 58,
N3p !>N, Deut. vi. 15 ; Josh. xxiv. 19.
3 E.g. 2 Sam. xii. 14. Because thou hast given occasion to the enemies of
Jehovah to blaspheme, thy child shall die (Ps. xciv. 1, 10).
8 D^SS 1"1N, Ex. xxxlv. 6 ; Num. xiv. 18.
4 pun and jn, Jonah iv. 2 ; Ex. xxxiii. 19, xxxiv. 6.
5 Deut. v. 10 ; ISTahum i. 3 ; Ezek. xviii. 23 ; Jonah iv. 2 ; Ps. Ixxxvi. 15,
dii. 8 (Micah vii. 18 ; Zeph. iii. 9).
6 Hos. xi. 9 ; B. J. xlviii. 9.
THE MERCY OF GOD. 179
And when the sinner returns, God willingly becomes
reconciled. In order to deal with such sin as does not
break the covenant, He has had His holy place of recon
ciliation set up. And even when a man has separated from
Him, God yearns to forgive. He longs to pass by the
transgression, to repent Him of the evil. 1 Even in wrath He
is not forgetful of mercy. He lets Himself be found, and
invites the sinner to turn to Him with full confidence. 2
God s anger and jealousy on the one side, God s long-
suffering and mercy on the other, are in no sense contradictory
or meant to counterbalance each other. On the contrary
they stand, by preference, side by side. 3 The same passage
which says that God will by no means clear the guilty, says
also that He is slow to anger. The same statute which pro
claims that God will punish sin unto the third and fourth
generation, tells also of His great mercy, and declares that He
takes away and pardons sin. There is forgiveness with God for
the very reason that He may be feared. 6 For truly religious
fear can be awakened only by a God who does not inexorably
insist on the law of retribution, but who knows how to
forgive and be gracious. In the heart of a true man zeal for
the honour of his house, and for justice and morality, must
be combined with a patient and placable disposition. So also,
in the case of God, anger and jealousy are thought of as co
existing with long-siiffering and tender mercy. Still we may
well suppose that, in the earlier ages, Israel thought more of
God s anger and jealousy, and that the knowledge of His
mercy and long-suffering in all its glory dawned but very
gradually on the people.
1 Ex. xxxiv. 7 ; Num. xiv. 18 ; 2 Sam. xxiv. 10, 16 ; Joel ii. 13 ; Amos vii,
3, 6 ; Jer. xviii. 8 ; Jonah iv. 2 if.; B. J. Ivii. 18.
2 Isa. i. 18 ff.; Hos. xiv. 5 ; Joel ii. 13 ; Micali vii. 18; P>. J. Iv. 6f.; Jonah
iv. 11 ; Ps. xli. 5, Ii. 3, Ixxxvi. 5, 15, ciii. 8, cxi. 4, cxvi. 5, cxlv. 8 (B. J. Ixiii.
!), Ixv. 1); cf. Joel ii. 18; Hab. iii. 2; 1 Kings viii. 50; Lam. iii. 31; Ps,
Ixxviii. 38 (xxxii. 6, tfVO ny).
3 Nahumi. 2f. ; Ps. ciii. 8.
4 Ex. xx. 5f., xxxiv. 6f. ; Num. xiv. 18. 5 Ps. exxx. 4.
180 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
CHAPTER X.
CREATION AND PROVIDENCE.
LITERATURE. Plank, " Die biblische Lehre von der
Schopfung der Welt " (Deutsche Zeitsclir. fur christl. Wissen-
schaft und christl. Leben, ed. Schneider, 1853, 43, 44, 49,
50); P. Kleinert, " Zu der alttestamentliche Lehre vom
Geiste Gottes " (Jahrbucher fur deutsclie Thcoloyie, 1867, i.).
1. In the Old Testament the relation of the world to God
is, from the very first, unhesitatingly declared to be that of
the creature to the Creator. The Semitic religion, with which
that of the Hebrews is connected, may indeed have understood
the thought of creation only in the limited sense of a fitting
up of the world. But the pious in Israel are so very clear
in their conception of a personal supra-mundane God that a
pantheistic development of the world, or the existence of it
side by side with God, never occurs to them. And scientific
interest occupied so entirely subordinate a position in
Israel s thought, that the question whether the origin of the
present form of the world might not be a mere development,
or whether the existence of it might not be regarded as a
continued process of growth, could not be so much as
raised.
That God was the Creator of the heavens and the earth
was always a settled question for Hebrew piety. The oldest
Psalms tell us that the heavens declare the glory of God,
and that His majesty is celebrated by the earth, so that its
hymn of praise resounds above the heavens. 1 Hence the
beauty and order of the world is His work ; and the chief end
of the world is to glorify the majesty of the divine Being.
Certainly the narrative by B is not really meant to give an
account of the creation, but to serve as an introduction to
1 Ps. viii. 2 (run ?), xix. 1 ff.
CREATION. 181
the history of the world and of man. Still it does relate
that God created the heavens and the earth, made the trees
grow out of the ground, developed by a mist the seeds of
vegetation, and formed man and beast of the dust of the
ground ; that is to say, He freely exercised, in inner harmony
with the growing world and its laws, His own creative
energy. 1
All this is said again and again in the Psalms, in the
speeches of the prophets, and in the declarations of the
prophetic period. The Spirit of God that is, the moving
principle of His own life is the spirit of life in beings
innumerable. 2 The word of God proceeding from Him, pro
duces, in accordance with His will, the forms of the world. 3
The wisdom of God makes the everlasting standards and laws
of the divine life the foundation of the natural laws and
moral order of the world s life. 4
That God created or fashioned the world 5 is very often
stated ; and nowhere so often as in the later Psalms, and by
the exilic Isaiah. The statement is not made for the express
purpose of teaching this doctrine, but is either due to the
direct welling-up of thankful joy at the Creator s goodness and
mercy, 6 or is used in order to strengthen and renew the people s
faith that the Almighty is constantly at work in their behalf,
by reminding them that everything has been called into
being by Him ; or finally, in order to meet man s insolent
murmurs by the decisive declaration that the creature can no
more contend with the Creator, than the potsherd with the
potter who made it out of senseless clay. 7 In this sense it
is said that heaven and earth arose at God s command and by
1 Gen. ii. 4&-iii. ~ Ps. xxxiii. 6, civ. 29, cxxxix. 7 ; Jol> xxxiv. 14 f.
:i Ps. xxxiii. 6, cvii. 20, cxlvii. 15, 18.
4 1 rov. viii. 22-32; Job xxviii. 23 ff.; Ps. civ. 211 ., cxxxvi. f>ff., etc.
5 nby, ny, PS. xcv. 4 r. ; ,TCV. x. IG.
(i Ps. xxiv. 2, xxxiii. 6 I ., Ixxxix. 12, Ixv. 7, cvii. 24, cxxi. 2, cxxiv. 8, cxxxiv.
3, cxlviii. 5; Lsa. xxxvii. 16; B. J. xl. 28, xlii. 5, xliv. 24, xlv. 12, 18,
xlviii. 13, li. 13.
7 Isa. xxix. 16 ; Jer. xviii. 6 ; B. J. xlv. 9.
182 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
His wisdom ; l and that the beauty and the order of the world
proclaim its Maker s glory. 2 And not merely the world as
such, but every individual development in it is an expression
of God s creative will. Every one of these, it is true, is also
a result of the great laws and ordinances of nature. The
earth revolved ; the sea burst its swaddling-bands. 3 But it is
none the less God s free will, in accordance with which these
ordinances have produced such results ; of independent laws of
nature the Old Testament knows nothing. The order of nature
is simply the expression of Divine wisdom. 4
Thus, like every living thing, man, too, is produced, both
body and soul, by ordinary generation ; and every child has a
life-long connection with its parents. 5 But it is equally
certain that the living force in each individual also depends
on the Spirit of God; 6 and every individual knows that
he is the direct creation of the God who fashions the heart
of man and puts the spirit within his body, who already
knows the life that is forming, writes in His book beforehand
the day of birth, and has prepared the reins in the womb. 7
The order of nature is in no wise antagonistic to God s
creative activity, but is merely the expression, visible to the
creature, of the power of God directed by His wisdom. Biblical
traducianism is, indeed, opposed to that scholastic creationism,
which conceives of a soul distinct from the body, being called
forth directly from God, but not to the religious creationism
which is convinced that each individual is an immediate
expression of God s creative will.
1 Ps. xxxiii. 6, xcv. 4f., xcvi. 5, cii. 26, cxlvi. 6, cxxxvi. 5 ; Job xxxvi. 3,
xxviii. 25.
- E.g. Ps. civ. 10 ff.; Job xxxviii. 4-xxxix. to the end.
3 Ps. xc. 2, civ. 6-9 ; Job xxxviii. 8 ff.
4 Ps. civ. Iff., 29, cxxxvi. 5; Prov. viii. 22-32;. Job xxviii. 23 ff.; B. J.
xliii. 7.
5 Deut. v. 9 ; Ps. li. 7 ; Job xiv. 4.
(i Ps. civ. 29 ; Job xxxiv. 14 f. (x. 8, xxvii. 3).
7 Ps. xxxiii. 15, xcv. 6, cxix. 73, cxxxix. 13> 16 ; Zech. xii. 1, Job x. 8, xxxiii.
4 ; Jer. i. 5, xxxviii. 16 ; B. J. Ivii. 16.
CREATION. 183
As to detailed theories regarding the events of creation,
opinions were, before the time of Ezra, perfectly free and
undefined. The succession and the order of the individual acts
of creation were depicted in a free poetical style. 1 Not till
the Levitical period was an endeavour made, in dependence
on A, to begin a definite theological tradition. 2 In the earlier
books we seek in vain for information regarding the philo
sophical questions that may be connected with the idea of
creation for example, as to how creation is related to time,
and to the existence of matter ; and whether matter is to be
conceived of as eternal, or whether the world was created
absolutely out of nothing. When scholars formerly thought that
such questions might be decided, for example, from Job xxvi.
7, they forgot that the " nothing " upon which God founded
the earth 3 is not that out of which the earth is created, but
the immeasurable void of space, the abyss above which they
imagined that the terrestrial orb was kept hovering.
A thorough treatment of the creation question, and one
undertaken of set purpose, is found only in the narrative by
A, with which the Old Testament as we now have it begins.
It is meant to describe a creation, in the strict sense of the word.
For in making God s week of labour end with a day of rest, 4
it draws a clear distinction between the creative acts of God
and His ways of revealing Himself to the completed world.
On a closer examination of this narrative, its present
form can scarcely be regarded as quite original. Expressions
such as " And it was so," " And God saw that it was
good," " And God made," etc., have been used here, evidently
in the interest of a definite system of sacred numbers, or been
put in the wrong places. 5 The body of the narrative is probably
very much older than A, who has merely edited it, incorpor-
1 So Ps. civ. 6-9 ; Job xxxviii. 7. Even Ps. xxxiii. 6-9 merely repeats the
simple religious elements in the idea of creation.
- Ps. cxxxvi. 6ff. ; Eccles. iii. 11, vii. 29.
3 nD^IT^;. 4 Gen. i. 7-ii. 4c ; especially ii. 1 fl .
5 E.g. i. 30, " And it was so."
184 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
ated it in his work, and fitted the narrative into the frame of
a working week, which winds up with a Sabbath. 1 Even
this narrative gives us neither philosophical nor scientific
information, but simply the fundamental thoughts of religion
as to God s relation to the developing world and its laws.
And whatever material there is in it for natural science or
philosophy, it certainly does not claim to do more than repro
duce the views on these subjects which prevailed in Israel,
at the time it was written. In fact it need not have had
any special connection with Israel, or even been generally
current only among that people. Biblical religion, as a whole,
is in no way responsible for these views, or for any of their
contradictions of modern science.
In this narrative, too, God is represented as connected with
existence outside of Himself by the concept of " the Spirit
and the Word of God." 2 God s vital force, which is repre
sented in a concrete way as His breath, proceeds from
Him, and becomes the source of created life in whatever it
breathes upon. Over the lifeless and formless mass of the
world-matter this spirit broods like a bird on its nest, and
thus transmits to it the seeds of life, so that afterwards, at
the word of God, it can produce whatever God wills. And
His word creates the world that is, God s inner world of
thought becomes, through His will, the source of life outside
of Himself. The Spirit and the Word of God are represented
as forces locked up in God. The Spirit appears as very
independent, just like a hypostasis or person.
To the metaphysical question, about the world being made
out of nothing and about the origin of matter as making the
world possible, our narrative gives no answer. Even though the
usual translation were right, which sees in Gen. i. 1, taken as an
1 This cannot be considered doubtful, in view of the character of the revision
undergone by the Decalogue, and of the intention of this writer to assign to
antiquity the origin of the sacred customs.
2 miT Pill, Gen. i. 2 ; cf. Dent, xxxii. 11. 3 From Gen. i. 3 onwards.
CREATION. 185
independent sentence, an account of the creation of matter
previous to the six days work, the question would not be
clearly answered. The verb used for " create," which primarily
denotes nothing more than a working up of given material, 1
has, it is true, in the idiom of the language, had its meaning
restricted to such action of God as produces something new ; 2
but it certainly may pre-suppose, as is at once shown by
the following verses, 3 the presence of matter for this divine
activity to operate on. It is clear, however, that this transla
tion is quite wrong. For without taking into considera
tion the fact that JW&H2 can properly occur, as the Jewish
grammarians have already seen, only in a prepositional and
conjunctional clause, since its very form implies dependence on
the following sentence, the phrase "the heavens and the earth "
cannot possibly denote " matter," because from ver. 2 onwards
the earth alone is in existence, and out of it " heaven and earth "
are not made until the firmament is created. Besides, " heaven
and earth " is the standing phrase for " the created, finished
world," and it is so used just in reference to the six days
work. 4 Hence the words cannot mean, at one and the same
time, the starling -point and the result of the divine action. Now
in view of the phrase " in the beginning," and also of the second
verse, it is absolutely impossible to regard the first verse as a
superscription to the six days work. Then ver. 2 corresponds
exactly to the form of a Hebrew circumstantial clause, which
usually appears as the second member of a period, 5 and the
whole sentence has a perfect parallel in Gen. v. 1 ff., that is,
in the opening sentence of A s second narrative. 6 Moreover,
when we consider that ii. 4 stood originally before i. 1 as a
superscription, and was, for obvious reasons of form, put in
1 {02. Elsewhere nb JJ, "IV, IDS pDH, p!3.
- Ex. xxxiv. 10 ; Num. xvi. 30 ; Ps. li. 12 (of a spiritual creation B. J. xliii.
1-15, Ixv. 18; Ps. cii. 10).
:! Gen. i. 21, v. 1 f.
4 Gen. ii. l-4a, xiv. 19-22 ; Ex. xxxi. 17 (Gen. ii. 46).
5 E \vald Gram. 341a. 6 Cf. in Schrader I.e., p. 47 ff.
186 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
here just to mark off the next narrative, being thus changed
into a sub-scription, the sentence becomes quite similar to the
form of sentence A generally uses. Hence we see ourselves
compelled, with Ewald, Bimsen, Schrader, and others, to trans
late : " In the beginning when God created heaven and earth,
now the earth was without form and void, and darkness was
upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was brooding
upon the waters, God said, Let there be light." 1 Hence
there is nothing stated here about the origin of matter.
God s first act, when producing our present world, was to
, give the command, which created light as the life-producing
element in the universe. When this first act took place, there
existed a condition of things in which the earth, including in
S it at that time the heaven, presented itself to God as a chaotic
mass, shrouded in darkness and covered with water. As
to whether this condition was itself eternal, produced out
of itself, or temporal, called forth by the will of God, our
narrative says nothing. This purely metaphysical question is
not so much as touched upon here, any more than in the
kindred cosmogonies of the Chaldeans and the Phosnicians,
and is not solved of set purpose in any part of the Old
Testament. Hence, in later times, even the Alexandrian view
of the eternity of the " firj ov" as an explanation of the origin
of the world could be quite well harmonised with the Biblical
doctrine of Creation, as soon as it referred all actual finite
being and life absolutely to God. But that it was decidedly
at variance with the real meaning of our narrative, admits
nevertheless of indirect proof. When God, the possessor of
heaven and earth, 2 can make everything good, that is to say,
finds nowhere any hindrance in anything already in existence,
which, having its origin in some other being, is antagonistic
1 On the analogy of Hos. i. 2 ; Deut. iv. 15, a change of the vowels into
&O2 after v. 1, is not at all necessary. To make one s individual taste the
standard by which to judge this translation, as Wellhausen does, is not a per
missible procedure in matters of this kind.
2 Gen. xiv. 19-22.
CREATION. 187
to Him ; l and when to His word " Be " comes the willing
" And it was," 2 in other words, when matter obeys the divine
command like a willing servant, it is assuredly taken for
granted that everything, even this chaotic matter which obeys
the creative word of God, is included within the will of God,
and called forth by Him. And who can doubt that A had
this conviction ? That it is nowhere expressly taught is
simply due to the fact that A had really no occasion to raise
this metaphysical question. Least of all had he ever thought
of the daring conceptions of a world-wide catastrophe and a
world-wide restoration with which modern theosophy has
credited Old Testament science. 3
In what relation time stands to creation is another question
likewise left untouched. Even in the ordinary interpretation
of Gen. i. 1 "the beginning," being merely contrasted with
" the end," 4 would denote the beginning of the history of the
world without reference either to time or eternity. But accord
ing to our interpretation we are simply told with what the
1 Gen. i. 31. 2 Gen. i. 3, 6, 11, 14.
3 Since the time of J. Bohme, not a few theosophists have maintained that vor. 2
is meant to describe what the world, created according to ver. 1 as a xffft: } became
in consequence of a fall in the world of spirits. This thought, which would be
natural enough in the circle of thought that produced the Look of Enoch, is,
if our translation of the text be correct, absolutely without foundation. But even
if ver. 1 be taken as an independent sentence, such a thought is against both
language and sense. If ver. 2 were meant to describe something that happened
only subsequent to ver. 1, and indeed through the discontinuance of what was
there stated, it could not have been said "now the earth was" (nrpn TlNm),
but "and the earth became" (f~liKn Tim). But since nrVTI is used, and
with a participle too, in the parallel clause, which certainly can describe
only a continuous condition, ver. 2 must describe something that is either
synchronous with what is stated in ver. 1 or is included in it. Hence the
situation cannot be different in the two verses. But even apart from these
reasons, it is a postulate of correct thinking not to assume that a thought has
fallen out between two successive sentences, which requires to be stated before
the second sentence can be properly understood. Any one who sets aside this
postulate, may read the whole system of Christian doctrine out of any heathen
book. Besides the notion of a fall of angels before the creation of the world
(different from the narrative in Gen. vi. 1-3) is altogether opposed to the view of
the Old Testament. Satan is not a fallen angel.
4 The history reaches from JW&H to nnnK (Delitzsch).
188 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
work of creation began, and out of what the present form of
heaven and earth was then produced in six days. Still it is
undoubtedly taken for granted that time, as it exists for us, is
merely a category for created things ; in other words, that the
world, as such, cannot have come into being within the limits
of this time, but itself includes it. For the first day runs its
course within creation itself, 1 and is therefore a part of the
world s being ; and before " the first day " time is of course
inconceivable. Chaos is without motion, development, and
growth, therefore also without time. But such abstract
questions are altogether foreign to Old Testament piety.
The religious thoughts, which are really contained in this
narrative may be summed up as follows :
(1.) God and the world are distinct. The sum of Being out
side God is an object on which God acts; it exists therefore apart
from God. The vivifying Spirit of God broods over the universe.
It is God s word which calls into being each individual form,
not a thought, an inner self-development of God, as the Pan
theism of the Hindoo represents. Hence God establishes every
thing through a voluntary intentional expression of His will :
He spake and it was done ; He commanded and it stood fast.
(2.) God and the world are not independent. One form of
life does not originate from another according to a dead,
mechanical law ; nor does God call forth life in an arbi
trary, disorderly manner, in defiance of the laws of His own
world. The laws of the world are an expression of the divine
will. The earth itself " brings forth." The individual life is
developed out of the organic totality of nature by the
forces and laws which God has put into it by means of His
vivifying Spirit. But the earth brings forth at God s word
and command, obeying His will, and fulfilling it by her order.
Between the order of nature and the will of the living God
there is no antagonism ; the two are one. 2
(3.) God and the world are not opposites. The earth on which
1 Gen. i. 5. 2 Gen. i. 20, 21, 24.
PRESERVATION. 1 8 9
God works as Creator is, it is true, a dull, dead, moaning mass
a chaos. 1 All the civilised peoples of antiquity take it for granted
that the world, before it became a well-ordered living whole,
existed without either order or light, as a chaos pregnant with
future being, and the possible foundation of true life. Accord
ing to B, moisture is the means of engendering life ; accord
ing to A, the world begins to grow out of moist matter
when once the primeval flood which prevented the develop
ment of life is dried up. Now, our narrative, as has been
pointed out, does not expressly say that this chaos was the
product of God s will. But although the world has not in
itself the power to produce order and beauty, it is nevertheless
the willing instrument of God s Spirit, which broods upon the
face of the waters. It is not antagonistic or evil. It places
itself at God s command, so that He can make everything
" very good " ; and He, on His part, rejoices over it and
blesses the creatures on it.
2. In the growth of individual creatures, creation and
preservation run into each other. In the narrative of
B the two are still directly interwoven ; and although
the narrative of A purposely separates the two by the idea
of the Sabbath, it, too, conceives of the development and
continued existence of the creature as dependent on the con
tinuance of God s creative activity. The same idea runs all
through the Old Testament. Hence, to quote some of the
earlier passages, God takes away the breath of life as He
pleases ; that is, its continuance depends upon His will. 2 He
saves life that is, it is in His hand. 3 He is the Lord of life,
the God of the spirits of all flesh. 4 When He no longer
allows His Spirit " to rule " in the individual creature, it sinks
1 irQI inn the Pluenician Bcian, the Hindoo world -egg, the Chaldean world-
woman, the Greek x,**!*"- #&*>pu>v.
" Gen. vi. 3 ; cf. ii. 17. Cf. generally the flood, the overthrow of Sodom, the
slaying of the Egyptian first-born, of the Korahites, etc.
3 Ps. xviii. 17 ff. ; Gen. viii. 1 ; cf. 21 ff., etc.
4 Num. xvi. 22, xxvii. 16.
190 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
back into its own nothingness, into the mass of matter without
attributes. 1 In like manner, when God gives rain and
drought at will ; when He rules the elements as " cloud-
compeller," 2 and uses at His pleasure the forces of nature ; 3
when, at the wave of His hand, the hosts in heaven s vault
run their courses, rejoicing like heroes and warriors, 4 the order
of nature is but the expression of His almighty freedom.
The existence and further development of the created
world depends entirely upon God s will as to its con
tinuance or preservation. This comes out with special clearness
in the thought already mentioned that the blessing of offspring,
even against hope, is due to Him alone. 5 Hence all the self-
developing life of created beings issues forth from His will as
well as from the womb of nature. In the later writings it is
just the same. The continuance of life is every moment de
pendent on God. " Thou hidest Thy face, they are troubled ;
Thou withdrawest their breath, they expire and return to their
dust ; Thou sendest forth Thy breath, they are created ; and
Thou renewest the face of the ground." 6 God allows men to
die, and says, " Eeturn, ye children of men." 7 He threatens
death, and retracts the threat. 7 He cuts the thread of life. 8
His care preserves the spirit of man. 9 In the shadow of His
wings men are safe ; in His light they see light. 10 In His book
all their days are written, and He determines the course of their
lives. Hence His book is the book of life. 11 For all flesh is
grass is, in comparison with God, absolutely without strength
of its own, and without assurance of permanence. 12 In like
1 Gen. vi. 3. 2 Gen. ii. 5, vii. 11 ff., etc.
3 Gen. xix. 24, especially in the plagues on the Egyptians, e.g. also Ex.
xvi. 16ff. ; Ps. xxix.
4 Ps. viii. 1 ff., xix. 5 ff., xviii. 8 ff.
6 Gen. xv. 5f., xviii. 10 ff., xxv. 21 esp. Gen. xxx. 2, 8 (Ps. xxxi. 16,
xxxiii. 6ff.).
6 Isa. xxxi. 3 ; Job xxxiv. 14 ; Ps. civ. 29 f. 7 Ps. xc. 3.
8 Isa. xxxviii. 1 ff., 12 ; Job xxvii. 8. 9 Job x. 12.
10 Ps. xxxvi. 8. u Ps. xxxix. 5ff., Ixix. 29, Ixxxix. 16, cxxxix. 16.
12 Ps. xc. 5f.j B. J. xl. 6.
PROVIDENCE. 191
manner, the hand of God is seen in all the ordering, propaga
ting, and maintaining of created life. Children are His gift ;
and He forms the spirit of man within him. 1 He giveth
rain and fruitful seasons ; 2 He cause th the grass to grow for
the cattle, and corn and wine for the sustenance of man. 3
To Him the young ravens cry for food, and the beasts of
the field pant unto Him. 4 Again, it is He who assigned
to every kind of animal its special form of existence, who
" made the ostrich forget wisdom, and did not impart unto
her understanding." 5 In short, it is He, as Amos says, 6 " that
formeth the mountains and createth the wind, and declareth
unto man what is his thought, that maketh the dawn dark
ness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth ;
Jehovah, the God of Hosts, is His name ; He that maketh
the Pleiades and Orion, and turneth deep darkness into the
morning, and maketh the day dark with night ; that calleth
for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face
of the earth ; Jehovah is His name ; that causeth destruction
to flash forth upon the stronghold, so that destruction cometh
upon the fortress."
3. The God who preserves the world is the God of Israel.
Creation and preservation reach their goal in the history of
the kingdom of God. The kernel of religious faith in God s
sustaining power is the faitli of the saints in His providence.
The way in which God develops nature, according to His
own will, already points to higher objects. Nature must serve
to realise His purposes. Its first purpose is, by its beauty
and goodness, to praise the Lord, and to reveal to man the
fulness of His power and wisdom, 7 to be the mirror of His
glory and goodness. 8 But He also guides it according to His
1 Zecli. xii. 1 ; Gen. xvii. 1711 .; Ps. exxvii. 3.
2 Jer. iii. 3, v. 24, xiv. 22 ; Ps. civ. 13, cx.lv. 16 ; Gen. ix. 14 (v,ft*.wyiptri>s)*
3 Ps. civ. 14 ff., 27, cxxxvi. 25, exlv. 151 .
4 Job xxxviii. 38-41 ; Ps. civ. 21, 27 ; Joel i. 20.
8 Job xxxix. 17. 6 Amos iv. 12 f., v. 8 f., ix. 5 if.
7 Ps. viii., xix. p s> c j v> 3^ C xxxix., cxlvii. 8, 17-19.
192 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
purposes with man. 1 Snow and hail are His weapons, piled
up in His heavenly armoury. The thunder is His voice of
menace, which announces His going forth to battle. 2 Every
thing in nature must serve as a means of attaining the great
moral ends of the kingdom of God on earth. Fertility and
drought are means of education in the hand of God. Hence
as a land, the fertility of which is not like that of Egypt, due
to regular and, as it were, absolutely certain conditions, but the
welfare of which depends entirely on the refreshing rain,
Canaan is in a pre-eminent degree a land of faith. 3 The
swarms of locusts are God s hosts, which proclaim the day of
His anger ; 4 and in the general conceptions of the last day,
the catastrophes of the natural world play an important part.
Now the full expression of this faith is the idea of miracle,
which is exactly the same all through the Old Testament. Israel
never concerns itself any more than did the other religious
peoples of antiquity with the question of how miracles can be
reconciled with the fixed la\vs of Nature. For in these ages the
idea of nature being governed by fixed laws had never been
broached. No doubt even the Old Testament in its later
writings speaks of a covenant of God with day and night, and
of the bounds which He has prescribed for the several powers
of nature, beyond which they cannot pass. 5 But of an order
of nature, inviolable even by the divine will, no one
ever thinks. Only in one very late Psalm, and even there
in quite an indefinite way, do we get a sort of hint as to such
an order in nature as is, like the moral law, an inviolable
ordinance of God. 6 Every event in Nature is looked at merely
as a single act of God s free will, rain and sunshine as well
as earthquake and prodigy. Consequently the essence of a
1 B. J. xlvi. 11, xlviii. 15 f. " Amos i. 2 ; Job xxxviii. 23 ; Joel iv. 16.
3 Deut. xi. 12 fF., xxviii. 12, 23 ; Lev. xxvi. 3, 15ft .; Job xxxviii. 25 ; Ps.
Ixv. 10 if., cxlvii. 15 ff.; Hagg. i. 7ff.; Jonah i. 4, ii. 1, 11, iv. 6ff.; Joel i.
4ff., 17 ff.
4 Joel ii. 11 (that execute his word).
5 Jer. xxxiii. 20, 25 ; Ps. civ. 9 ; Job xxxviii. 10. 6 Ps. cxlviii. 6.
MIRACLES. 193
miracle is not that it is "unnatural," but that it is a specially
clear and striking proof of God s power, and of the freedom
He exercises in furthering His objects. It does not stand out
as an irregular individual occurrence, in contrast with a
differently ordered whole ; but it stands out as a specially
striking individual occurrence, in contrast with other single
events, which, being less striking owing to their frequency, are
less calculated to produce the impression of God s almighty
power in executing His purposes.
The whole Old Testament regards the miraculous as a
matter of course. No pious man ever doubts that when God
wishes to give His servants special help, by standing by them,
and punishing His enemies, the necessary occurrences must take
place, be they ordinary or extraordinary. Nothing happens
without a cause ; everything depends on God, whose word
never returns to Him void. 1 By such signs Moses is sus
tained in his arduous task ; 2 according to the later narrative,
they are constantly happening to Elijah and Elisha. 3 In
order to show His favour, God gives the barren a son. 4 He
lets loose the plagues of heaven and of earth on the contem
poraries of Noah, on Sodom, and on Egypt. Contrary to all
the ordinary conditions of existence, He sustains Israel in the
wilderness. He proves by the destruction of the Korahites,
by Miriam s leprosy, and by the death of Aaron s sons, His
unassailable holiness in Israel. 5 Man does not live by bread
only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of
God. Is anything too wonderful for God ? 6 Thus poetic
expressions and idioms, occurring in the narrative, grow into
pictures of historical events, be they never so contrary to
experience. 7 In the historical narrative, especially of the
1 Amos iii. 4 ff. ; B. J. Iv. 10 f. 2 Ex. iv. 2ff. (C), vii. 8-xiv. (composite).
3 1 Kings xvii.-2 Kings vii. 4 Gen. xxi. 1, xxv. 19 ff., etc.
8 Gen. vii., xviii., xix. ; Ex. vii. 8 ff.; cf. Num. xii., xvi.; Lev. x.; 1 Sam. v.
6 Gen. xviii. 14 (B) ; Deut. viii. 3 f.
7 How they arise from poetical expressions is seen with the utmost clearness
in Josh. vi. 5, x. 12 f. ; Ex. xvii. 10 f. ; Judg. xv. 19. In this connection the
VOL. II. N
194 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
Deuteronomic writers, we find events recorded as occurring in
the early ages which, according to our ideas, contradict in the
strongest way possible the natural order of things. 1
A miracle is not represented as something exclusively at
the command of Jehovah. It is also within the power of
other Elohim, because they too have power over nature, as
higher beings with full freedom of action. 2 Hence Deuter
onomy declines to accept a miracle as a sufficient proof that
a man is sent by God. 3 Nor does it ever occur to the
narrators that the miraculous accounts they give are absol
utely incompatible with ordinary experience. For it often
happens that these miracles, being comparatively natural,
are similar to natural events that also occur elsewhere, as
was long ago remarked in reference to the plagues in Egypt,
the passage through the Eed Sea, the manna, the quails,
and the springs of water. 4 The eye of the saint detects " a
miracle" where the dull glance of the ordinary man sees
nothing but commonplace occurrences. For him the working
of God in the ordinary incidents of daily life is so astonishing
as to become miraculous. We meet with this idea, in its
most attractive form, in a number of somewhat late Psalms. 5
Consequently the real peculiarity of a miracle is simply this,
that, at specified times, striking incidents, closely connected
with moral ends, occur in the domain of Nature, at the word
of God, or in answer to the prayer, or bidding of men sent by
Him. Here the decisive element is the teleological that is
to say, the agreement of events in nature with those in the
passage, Judg. v. 20, is worthy of notice, "They fought from heaven ; the stars
in their courses fought against Sisera," for in it the purely poetic colouring is
still present, but, at the same time, the transition to a miraculous story, such
as we find in Josh. x. 11 f., is clearly indicated.
1 Josh. x. 10 ff., xxiv. 7 ; Num. xxii. 28.
2 Ex. vii. 11, 22, viii. 7, 18, ix. 11. (The magicians are probably thought of
as working under the influence of their special Elohim. )
3 Deut. xiii. 1-3.
4 Ex. x. 13, 19, xiv. 21, xv. 25 ; Num. xi. 31, xx. 8.
5 Ps. xcvi. 3, xcviii. 1, cvii. 8, cxxvi. 3 ; cf. Ixvi. 3, cxxxix. 14.
MIRACLES. 195
sphere of morality. As a matter of course, the natural event
must be of such a singular character as to awaken surprise,
and produce the impression that God has been making free
use of His omnipotence. But what is considered singular
varies very much according to circumstances. The domain
of miracle includes stories calculated to prove the absolute
omnipotence of God as, for instance, when God bestows
beforehand a three-fold blessing on the Jubilee and the Sab
batical year, when manna gathered on the Sabbath proves
uneatable, when at the prayer of Moses the plagues cease at
a given hour, when the land of Goshen is not touched by the
plagues that ravage all the rest of the country, when the sun
stands still, etc., as well as the simpler examples already
mentioned where the teleological element alone points to the
miraculous, and even significant names and symbols. 1
A miracle is primarily in its outward form an unusual out
standing act, 2 a mighty deed. 3 Its character is so outstanding
as to take it completely out of the category of ordinary events.
It gives the impression of being something awe-inspiring, some
thing terrible, 4 because it reveals the Lord who ought to be
feared. As an expression of God s directly creative power, it is
" a creation." 5 But its chief use is to convince, to act as a sign 6
that the living God is in the midst of His people, 7 as a pledge
by which God, as the absolutely Supernatural, attests the com-
1 Ex. viii. 4, 18f., 24 f., ix. 4f., 26, 28 f., x. 23, xi. 7, xvi. 18, 24 f.; Lev.
xxv. 21 ; Josh. x. 12 f.; cf. Isa. viii. 18.
2 n&&M, Ex. iii. 20, xxxiv. 10 ; Josh. iii. 5 ; Judg. vi. 13 ; Ps. Ixxi. 17, Ixxv.
2, etc. tf^a, B. J. xxv. 1; Ex. xv. 11 (the verb, Gen. xviii. 14). The idea
is that of being " singular. 5 Similarly HSID, Ex. iv. 21, vii. 9, xi. 10;
Ps. cv. 5, "distinguished." This term is generally combined with fllS
(Ex. vii. 3 ; Ps. cxxxv. 9), and is sometimes weakened down to the meaning of
the latter word.
3 nirra 2 Sam. vii. 23 ; 2 Kings viii. 4 ; Ps. Ixxi. 19, cxxxvi. 4 ; Job v. 9,
ix. 10. iwjA ^n:n, Joel a. 21.
4 HKTI3, Ex. xxxiv. 10 ; 2 Sam. vii. 23.
5 rWO, Num. xvi. 30 ; cf. Ex. xxxiv. 10, 1&TQ3 tit? "I^N DIK^M-
t: niX, e.y. Ex. iii. 12, xii. 13, xiii. 9; Judg. vi. 17, oto., 06 IV.
7 Josh. iii. 10.
196 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
mission of His messengers, and confirms their words. Hence
the miraculous is also specially connected with the holiness
of God. 1 In itself, it is true, every outward act in which a
spiritual one is symbolically represented and, as it were,
authenticated, may be a sign. But, naturally, it is the more
significant the more directly the act itself, as being an extra
ordinary and wonderful occurrence, produces on the spectators
the impression that God Himself is acting. Hence, all through
the Old Testament, the miraculous is quite openly accepted as a
matter of course. Still, it must also be said that, comparatively
speaking, it is kept very much in the background. It is only
in the post-exilic period that there is anything like a real
passion for the miraculous.
4. The most difficult side of this question is to understand
the relation of the divine activity to personal beings conscious
of their own actions. Piety demands such an emphasising of
God s action as would logically take away man s freedom.
Moral consciousness, on the other hand, demands a freedom
which, looked at by itself, would exclude all divine co-operation
and order. It may be impossible for philosophy to solve this
contradiction, based, as it is, on the inability of finite thought
to comprehend a divine activity that works in a way unlike
anything in the present world. But the Old Testament knows
nothing of this dividing gulf or, indeed, of this whole difficulty
as is invariably the case with simple faith. It holds fast to
the moral claim. The emphasis it lays upon moral duty, and
the prominence it gives to the responsibility which every one
has for his own destiny, are clear enough proofs of this. 2 The
prayer of the pious is represented to be a power that influ
ences God, as simple faith will always maintain. 3 A prophetic
blessing, given to those in favour with God, is considered an
1 Ex. xv. 11 ; cf. Ps. Ixxvii. 14 f.
2 E.g. Gen. xvii. 2 ; Ex. xx. 2ff., 12, etc.
3 Gen. xviii. 23, xxiv. 12 ff. (xx. 7, 17), xxv. 21 ; Ex. viii. 4ff., 24 ff., ix. 28,
x. 17.
PROVIDENCE AND FEEE WILL. 197
influence that will bind destiny, bind it even in spite of a
subsequent change of will on the part of him who gave the
blessing. 1 Thus human piety feels the freedom and efficacy of
human action, combined with a naive assurance of faith. The
whole moral teaching of the prophets is based on the conviction
that God holds every man responsible for freely determining
whether he is to be saved or condemned. 2 But with equal
emphasis, and without the slightest feeling of any contradiction
between the two views, the Old Testament insists that the
sovereign will of God finds expression through the free will
of His creatures, and that nothing which the free will of man
ever does is thereby removed beyond the influence of the
divine will. God is the potter and man the clay. 3 The most
difficult of all problems in connection with this whole view,
viz. how sin and evil can be reconciled with this power on
the part of God, is not raised at all even in the later books.
It is said not only that God made everything good, 4 but that
sin and evil come to man from God. 5
The relation of God to human freedom is most simply ex
pressed in the words, " God is King " 6 that is, God directs
1 Gen. xxvii. 27, 33 ; Ex. xii. 32.
2 Ps. i.; Isa. i. 14ft ., v. 4-7; Job v. 6; Deut. xi. 26, xxx. 15, 19; Jer.
xxi. 8.
3 Jer. xrviii. 5 ft .; Amos iii. 6 ; Lam. iii. 38 ; B. J. xlv. 7, 9, Ixiv. 7 (Isa. xxix.
16). The words ill B. J. xlv. 7 can hardly refer to the dualism of Cyrus, of
which the prophet can scarcely have been aware. It does not say, " In order
that thou (Cyrus) mayest know Me." The question is as to the temptation
to see in the defeats sustained by Israel the influence of other gods. In Ex.
xxi. 12 f., involuntary homicide is represented as "an act of God."
4 Gen. i. 31.
5 B. J. xlv. 7 ; Amos iii. 6. Although Hoffmann thinks that nyi and lyn
must be read here (alarm, nynn, side by side with 1531 1? ; cf. Ex. xxxii. 17),
i.e. an alarm by a " watchman " or prophet (since false prophets do not warn),
still since nobody would ever think of acknowledging that all evil comes
from Jehovah, it appears to me that the context points directly to the fact
that people must be on their guard before God, the Judge who may condemn.
Whether Israel did not also, in patriarchal times, attribute "evil" to other gods
than Jehovah, we cannot determine. But the doctrine of Amos is that every
event in the history of the world is to be attributed to Jehovah (i. and ii.).
6 Ps. xxix. 10.
198 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
by His orders even the manifold varieties of human develop
ment. In what unbelief regards as chance, faith sees an act
of God. 1 This conviction is most directly expressed in the
doctrine of retribution. The everlasting moral will of God
makes its influence on human destiny felt in this way that
every act of opposition to it brings its own punishment, every
voluntary act in harmony with it its own encouragement and
reward. In the older writings, this doctrine is taught with
all the confidence of a religious axiom. In the life both of
the people 2 and the individual, 3 the relation to God is thought
to determine the lot, so that man s free will is controlled by
God s. Even in late ages this belief is often represented as
axiomatic. 4
We are carried further by the view that all human action,
however it may be meant, must nevertheless tend to fulfil the
counsels of God, especially for the benefit of the children of
God s people. All the hostile acts of the world against the
patriarchs of Israel turn into blessings. 5 The whole history
of Joseph proclaims the truth of what C puts into the mouth
of God s favourite, " Ye meant evil against me, but God meant
it for good." 6 The exposure of Moses and the risk he ran of
perishing, his act of homicide and his flight, must all help
forward the wonderful plans of God for this chosen servant
of His. 7 In like manner, the Egyptians themselves, whose
hearts God touches, must see to it that God s people do
not go forth without booty from the land of bondage. 8 All
1 Ex. xxi. 13 ; Prov. xvi. 33.
3 Ex. xx. 8 if.; Ps. vii. 17 ; Judg. ii. 14, 20, iii. 8, 12, iv. 2, vi. 1, x. 7, 17 ;
el . Ex. xxiii. 25 if.
3 Ex. i. 20 f.; Prov. x. 9, 24 f., 28 f., xi. 8, 21, xii. 3, xiii. 9, 21, 25, xiv. 11,
19, xx. 20 f., xxi. 18, 21, xxii. 12.
4 Lev. xxvi.; Deut. xxviii.; Josh, xxiii. 15; Ps. i., v. 13, ix. 19, xxv. 13,
xxxiv. 11, 20, xxxvi. 13, xli. 2, Iv. 24, Mi. 4, cxix. 165 ; Isa. iii. 10 ; Hos.
xiv. 10 ; Jer. xvii. 5 ; Prov. i. 31, ii. 8, 21, iii. 1, 8, 10, 21, 32, iv. 4, 10, v. 21,
vi. 15, x. 24, 28.
5 Gen. xxvi. , xxx. 26-xxxi. 54, xxxii. 4 Ii . , xxxv. 5.
6 Gen. 1. 20 (xiv. 5, 7, 8, 9). 7 Ex. ii. 1 ff., 11 tf., 21.
8 Ex. iii. 21, xi. 2.
PltOVlDENCE AND FilEE WILL. 199
that Saul, in his hostility to David, can do, only serves to in
crease the power and influence of Israel s true king, whom
God has chosen. 1 In these and a hundred other instances
the history of the Old Testament celebrates the God who
laughs to scorn the haughty plans of the mighty ones of
earth, 2 the God from whom cometh victory and the disposing
of the lot, 3 who guides the hearts as well as the footsteps of
men, 4 of whom it is said, "Man proposes, God disposes," 5 and
of whom the poet sings, " His eyes behold, His eyelids try the
children of men, to put to shame all the wicked devices of
His foes." 6 This faith in the will of God, deciding the lot of
man and overruling all his actions, meets us even in the latest
ages in all the freshness and vividness of the earliest. The
haughty might of Assyria is for God as an axe in the hand of
the woodman ; and as soon as He has accomplished His work
on Zion by the help of the Assyrians, they are thrown aside.
The king of Babylon who said, " I will ascend into heaven, I
will exalt my throne above the stars of God," has to descend
into Sheol. Asia s conquering monarchs, however little they
may imagine it, are the servants of Jehovah, called by Him
to chastise the people of God, or to liberate and exalt them. 7
The prophet who means to shirk his duty is compelled by the
sea, by storm and miracle, to obey God s will. 8 " I know,"
says Jeremiah, "that the way of man is not in himself: it is
not in man that walketh to direct his steps." 9
This conviction was the root of the confidence and hope,
the humility and devotion, which form the chief characteristics
of Old Testament piety. " Except the Lord keep the city, the
watchman waketh but in vain." Unto God belong the treas-
1 Sam. xix. ff. (xx. 15) ; <;f. e.<j. 2 Sam. xvi. 10, xvii. 14 ; 1 Kin#s xii. ];">.
I s. ii. 4. ;{ Prov. xvi. 33, xxi. 31.
Prov. xvi. 7, xx. 24, xxi. 1. 6 Prov. xvi. 9, xix. 21.
P*. xi. 4, 6.
Isa. x. 5, 15 f.; B. J. xiv. 13, xli. 2, 25, xliv. 21, xlv. 1 ; Jcr. I. 211., 9, 41,
li. 11, 20 if., 28.
8 Jonah i. 3 IF., ii. 1, 11.
9 Jer. x. 23 ; cf. Job xxxviii. 12 ff., xl. 2ff.
200 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
ures of the world ; unto Him, also, belongeth victory ; He
putteth down and lifteth up ; Canaan was won, not by Israel s
sword, but by God s right hand, so say the Scriptures, thus
condemning all self-exaltation. 1 In condemnation of despond
ency and the fear of man, they tell us that " God carries out
His plans in spite of everybody ; no power on earth can hinder
Him. 2 He appoints the times and destinies of men from of
old ; 3 He causes both good and evil. 4 His angel destroys the
proud hosts of the enemy, and encamps round about those that
fear Him. 5 Without Him nothing can happen ; He creates
the workman who forges the sword, as well as the destroyer
who wields it ; no evil can happen in the city without His
permission." 6 Finally, in order to give courage and hope to
the suffering saint, it is said, " The Stone which the builders
rejected is become the Head of the Corner. This is the Lord s
doing ; it is marvellous in our eyes. 7 He that keepeth Israel
neither slumbers nor sleeps ; He giveth to His beloved in
sleep. 8 A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand
at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. 9 The
tears of the saints are put into God s bottle." 10 Thus the
life-blood of Mohammedan piety, faith in God s providence, is
quite as strong in the Old Testament, but it is even more
vivid and has not yet degenerated into fatalism.
Since everything turns out at last to be in accord with
God s counsel, of course all history, and above all the history
of salvation is traced back in a very special way to the direct
action of God. It is from this point of view that we must
1 Prov. xx. 24, xxix. 26 ; Hagg. ii. 8 ; Zccli. x. 3 ; Ps. xliv. 4, 7, cxxvii. 1,
Ixxv. 8.
2 Ps. xxxiii. 10, 11, 16, Ix. 13, Ixii. 12, Ixxvii. 11, xciv. 11, cxviii. 6,
cxlvi. 3.
3 Isa. xxii. 11 ; Ps. xxxi. 16.
4 Isa. xxxi. 2 ; B. J. xlv. 7 ; Job xi. 10 , Lam. iii. 38.
5 Isa. xxxvii. ; Ps. xxxiv. 8.
6 Amos iii. 6 ; B. J. liv. 16 ; cf. Hos. xiii. 12 ; Hab. i. 12 ; Ezek. xxxiii. 2.
7 Ps. cxviii. 22 f. 8 Ps. cxxi. 4, cxxvii. 2. 9 Ps. xci. 7.
Ps. Ivi. 8,
BELIEF IN PROVIDENCE. 201
judge the way in which all the writers of the Pentateuch
have done the work of narration. God calls Abraham,
leads, guides, and blesses him; just as He chooses him, on
the other hand, to be a source of blessing to his descendants. 1
It is God who gives Jacob the skill to manage his business
affairs, and increase his wealth. 2 He not only sends Moses,
but He specially communicates to him every particular of
the campaign and every single commandment. 3 In short,
the whole history of salvation is the immediate " doing
of God." We must also understand it in the same way,
when God enjoins the carrying off of the Egyptians
valuables, when He orders the extirpation of the Canaanites,
and when He resolves to reveal His glory to Pharaoh
by destroying him. 4 All action of this kind, every
ordinance which furthers the history of redemption, every
combination of circumstances which makes it clearer than
ever that the kingdom of God stands on a moral foundation,
is represented as due to the direct action of God, who not
merely permits it, but brings it about. At the approach of
Israel, the nations are panic-stricken, because they discern
the hand of the divine ruler of the universe who has des
tined tliis land for Israel. 5 Even the non- subjugation of
Canaan is represented as pre-arranged " in order that Israel
might learn war." 6 In the same sense, the prophets
proclaim that God protects His holy people, and carries
them as an eagle carries its young ; that the servants of
God among this people destroy and plant, convert and
1 Gen. xii. 1 ff., xviii. 19 (B). 2 Gen. xxx. 28 ff. (B, C).
3 Ex. xiii. 17. He does not lead Israel by the direct route, because of the
strength of the Philistines; cf. xiv. 1 ff., xxiii. 29 ; Num. x. 1, xiv. 41, xxxiii.
2, 38 ; cf. Lev. i. 1, iv. 1, v. 14, vi. 1, 19, vii. 22, xvii. 1, xx. J, xxi. 1, xxii.
17, 26 ; Num. i. 1, ii. 1, iii. 1, 39, 51, iv. 37, 41, 45, 49, etc.
4 Ex. ix. 16, x. 1, xi. 9 ; Lev. xviii. 24 f. n Josh. ii. 9.
fi Judg, iii. 1. This whole conception comes out with singular strength, e.g.
in 2 Sam. xvi. 10, 11, xvii. 14 ; 1 Sam. xxvi. 12, Gen. xxv. 23 f. ; Judg. xiv. 4,
In all these stories, what is subjectively experienced as painful, indeed even
what cannot be subjectively justified, is, when viewed objectively, woven into
the series of God s "doings."
202 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
harden ; that they mark out beforehand the ways which the
people are destined to take. It is an antidote for all human
anxieties to hear words like, " Leave Me to care for My people,
for the work of My hands." 1 And although ancient Israel may
probably have thought of Jehovah only as acting for and in
His people, nevertheless the prophets know that God is not
guiding Israel s destiny only, but that the_history of foreign
nations is also His work. The undertakings of Assyria and of
Babylon are His achievements. As He brought Israel up out
of Egypt, so He brought the Philistines from Caphtor, and
the Assyrians from Kir. He gave the Syrians help through
Naaman. And the prophecies of His messengers are directed
against the other nations of the world as well as against
Israel. 2 Hence the whole history of the world, with all its
great events, is the work of God.
This influence of God, even upon the inner history of
independent beings, is explained by the view which is
characteristic of every part of the Old Testament alike,
that the Spirit of God is the foundation and condition
of all the spiritual life of man. The Spirit of God that
is, the conscious vital force peculiar to God, which, as
proceeding from Him, is the power that engenders life, the
principle both of creation and of preservation is not
merely the power of physical life which causes the animal
continuance of beings possessed of souls. It is, likewise,
the power which sustains the personal life of man, and to
which are due all supernatural developments in the spiritual
life of humanity. It appears to the earlier ages, mainly, as the
spirit of prophecy. Thus it rests on Moses, passes over from
him almost in a material form to the elders, 3 and, later on,
it seizes upon Saul even against his will. 4 But it is also, in
1 B. J. xlv. lOff.; cf. <?.</. Hos. xiv. 5f.; Amos ix. 8 ; Isa. xxii. 11.
"Amos ix. 7; Dent. ii. 12, 22; Isa. v. 26 ff., vii. 20, viii. 7, ix. 11, x. 5ff.
xxiii. 9 ; B. J. xlv. 1 ; 2 Kings v. 1.
3 Num. xi. 17-21 ; cf. Deut. xxxiv. 9.
4 1 Sam. x. 6, 9, 11, xi. 6, xix. 20.
BELIEF IN PROVIDENCE. 203
a ii] ore general sense, the spirit of supramundane wisdom
and understanding. 1 As supernatural, holy enthusiasm, and
heroic valour, it takes full possession of the Judges, and
renders them capable of marvellous daring. 2 It calls into
exercise the wisdom of a true king, the gifts of a wise
ruler. 3 In short, the Spirit of God works as the spirit
of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge, and of the
fear of the Lord, no less readily than as the spirit of
prophecy. The early ages represented its effects in strong
and almost materialistic forms. Afterwards these appear in
less striking forms of presentation. But, wherever any
higher spiritual force and capacity, in no wise explicable as
a created force, manifests itself in man, it is the Spirit
of God that produces it. 4 Even artists and poets, with their
inexplicable technical skill, are "filled with the Spirit of
God." 5 The arts of daily life, the discoveries of the human
intellect, for instance, good and sensible methods of agricul
ture, come from God. 6 It is universally true that " there is
a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty giveth him
understanding." 7 Intelligence must be got by prayer to
God. 8 And, above all, the mysterious impulses which enable
a godly man to lead a life well -pleasing to God, are not
regarded as a development of human environment, but are
nothing else than "the Spirit of God," which is also called,
1 Gen. xli. 38 ; cf. 1 Kings v. 12, x. 24.
2 Num. xiv. 24 ; Judg. xi. 29, xiii. 25, xiv. 6, 19, xv. 14 ; cf. iii. 10, vi. 34 ;
1 Sam. x. 6, 10, xvi. 13 (f>y f6s and CJQ^). Specially instructive is the
combination of sensuality and heroism in Samson, "the Xazirite, " to whom this
Spirit of God is represented as being communicated, obviously not in a moral
sense, but in a purely external way owing to his being a iSTazirit e.
3 1 Sam. xi. 6 ; 1 Kings iii. 28.
4 Prov. viii. ; Job. xxviii. ; Isa. xi. 2 ; B. J. xlii. 1.
5 2 Sam. xxiii. 2: cf. Ex. xxviii. 3, xxxi. ?>, G, xxxv. 31, 35, xxxvi. If.
(niD3n nil, QT!^ im). On the other hand, the more historical account in
1 Kings vii. 14, says nothing of any special divine inspiration in the. artificers
employed on the temple of God.
6 Isa. xxviii. 26, 29 (nxy N^QH). 7 < Tl ^ xxxii. 8.
8 (Ezek. xviii. 31 ; Hogg. i. 12, 14) ; Ps. li. 12, 14, cxix. 73, 144, 169.
204 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
as being the Spirit peculiarly God s, His Holy Spirit. When
God takes that away from a man, He thereby excludes him
from the number of His servants. 1 This whole conception
shows us that religious revelation is far from being repre
sented in the Old Testament as a perfectly isolated and
unintelligible phenomenon, like the communication of special
secrets of knowledge ; and that it has, on the contrary, close
and vital connection with all the other supernatural domains
of spiritual life. The sages of Old Testament life, still subject
to the influence of " the true God," are very far from holding
the Levitical doctrine of inspiration. They regard inspira
tion as marvellous enthusiasm, as the filling of an individual
with higher than ordinary power.
Owing to this conviction, the Old Testament saints found
no real difficulty in a question which in later times caused
great searchings of heart. The spirit of God which is given
to a man for a definite purpose, and which is sometimes
conceived to be just like an angelic being that seizes
hold of a person in quite a naive materialistic fashion, 2
remains, of course, in the hand of God, and may be used
by Him just as the moral conditions or the purposes of
the kingdom of God demand. It is taken back again if
the vessel prove unsuitable, and is transferred to others,
just as the spirit of God, being the spirit of life, also
forsakes any form which can no longer sustain life. 3 In
this sense God is the Lord of the spirits of all flesh.
Accordingly, the impairing and disordering of the spiritual
life of man must also be ascribed to the will of God, who
takes away His spirit. Indeed, just as God may allow His
spirit to work in a man so as to ennoble his spiritual life,
He may also permit it to work so as to disorder and weaken
1 Ps. li. 13.
2 1 Kings xviii. 12 ; Ezek. viii. 3, xi. 1, xliii. 5 (like "the hand of God,"
Isa. viii. 11 ; Ezek. iii. 14, 22).
3 Judg. xvi. 19 (later 1 Sam. xvi. 13 f.),
THE SPIRIT OF GOD. 205
that life wherever His righteousness or His purposes of
salvation demand it. The spirit of God is, in itself, only a
miraculous power by which the life of man is regulated. It
is of course a gracious spirit, whenever it is conferred by
way of a blessing. 1 But in itself there is no direct moral
element. It is the spirit of God that first impels Samson
to slay the Philistines, as it impelled him to rend the
lion. 2 Thus it is quite easy to believe that God, in order to
punish, sends an evil spirit from the Lord, a false spirit. 3
Thus David can imagine that God in His anger is stirring up
Saul to persecute the innocent. 4 Hence it can be said that
when God wishes to destroy, men "do not hear," that is,
are not able to hear ; 5 that God hardens by His prophets,
in other words, produces an inward hardening against the
truth, which must then lead to swift and certain ruin, 6 so
that He becomes, to His people, a stone of stumbling and a
rock of offence. God hardens by His words arid acts, in
order to effect the mysterious purposes of His wisdom. The
deceived and the deceiver are His. Indeed, the people can
pray, "Why dost Thou make us to err from Thy ways, and
hardenest our heart from Thy fear ? " 7
5. But, although this question presented no difficulty to
the speculative in Israel, manifold complications necessarily
arose even for this people out of the relations between
1 Ps. cxliii. 10.
2 Judg. xi. 29, xiii. 25, xiv. 6, 19, xv. 14.
3 Judg. ix. 23; 1 Sam. xvi. 13 ff., xviii. 10, 12, xix. 9; 1 Kings xxii. 21;
cf. 2 Sam. xxiv. 1 ; 1 Kings xii. 15. Certainly, in such cases, we generally have
not the Spirit of Jehovah, but a spirit from Jehovah or a spirit of Elohim, so
that it is the divine influence rather than the connection of such a spirit with
the covenant God of Israel that is emphasised. But the difference is not
essential, and in 1 Sam. xix. 9, at least, our present text has njn Hirf fTD-
4 1 Sam. xxvi. 19. 5 1 Sam. ii. 25.
6 Ex. vii. 3, xi. 9 (cf. iv. 21, ix. 12, x. 1, 20, 27, xiv. 4, 8, 17 ( ( >tn, Wpn)
most strongly in Ex. ix. 16 (C). Very frequently also in the prophetic period,
cf. Deut. ii. 30 (where it happens for Israel s good). Isa. vi. 10, xix. 14, xxix.
10f.; cf. B. J. Ixiii. 10f., Ixiv. 5.
7 Deut. ii. 30, xxix. 3 ; Josh. xi. 20 ; Job xii. 16 (20-25), xvii. 4 ; Isa. viii.
14 ; Jcr. vi. 10 ; B. J. xliv. 18, Ixiii. 17.
206 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
human action and divine supremacy. At first, no doubt,
in the fresh vigour of faith, these difficulties were over
looked. But they necessarily cropped up anew as soon as
men began to think for themselves, and follow their religious
principles to their logical conclusions. True, the fundamental
question itself as to the relation of free will to divine action
is either not raised, or is left unsolved. But religious men are
apt to stumble on particular occurrences, which force this
question upon their attention in the form of a practical dilemma.
Thus the wise in Israel begin to have doubts about religion,
and then they make attempts to overcome those doubts.
First of all, the moral sense was of necessity offended by
the fact that a man s salvation or non-salvation depended
on his belonging to a particular race. For this seemed to
leave everything to fate, nothing to a man s own moral
freedom ; and in the wanton ill-humour of despair the people
could exclaim : " The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the
children s teeth are set on edge." The declaration itself could
not, it is true, be denied. The destiny of an individual is con
nected by a thousand threads with the acts and the circum
stances of his forefathers. 1 It is an absolutely undeniable
fact ; and it is simply due to this, that an individual is not
a personality all at once, but becomes so only gradually; and
that he cannot be regarded as existing for himself alone, but
only as a member of an organism. It is undoubtedly a law
of natural development that the sins of the fathers are visited
on the children unto the third and the fourth generation.
But the difficulty involved in this proposition is overcome by
religious thought in the times of Israel s sorest distress, when
it presses forward to the belief that this law is not the highest,
not the determining one. The final decision as to whether
a person is to be saved or lost, depends not on that natural
law that each individual belongs to a particular race, but
on the moral law that every personal being is able, in spite of
1 Deut. v. 9 ; Jer. xxxii. 18 ff.
DOUBTS AND THEODICY. 207
that natural law, to choose his own personal position. And
just as human justice is forbidden by the prophetic law to
punish a son for his father s crime, 1 so the prophets since
Jeremiah teach that the effect of ancestral guilt or merit is
transferred by God to the son only when, by his own personal
decision, that son identifies himself with this guilt or this
merit in other words, for every moral being there exists
the possibility of overcoming, through the higher law of moral
self-determination, the natural law of heredity. No longer
shall the proverb hold good in Israel : " The fathers have
eaten sour grapes, and the sons teeth are set on edge ; "
for the son s soul belongs to God as much as the father s
does. Every one shall die for his own iniquity. 2
In the second place, there must be a grievous temptation in
the thought that the very God who by His prophets hardens
the people has, after that hardening, to pronounce judgment
upon them. Here, too, the doctrine of God s hardening
influence is neither directly denied nor softened by superficial
evasions, such as " permission " or mere " foreknowledge."
It is asserted with the utmost distinctness that God has
the absolute right to do with His creature as He pleases,
without being criticised by man. Nor does any one doubt
that it is an effect intended by God, when, at a certain stage
in sin, His revelation makes the heart harder. God s word
can never return unto Him void. Where it is hindered from
blessing, it must curse. Light must make weak eyes weaker ;
nourishing food must aggravate the virulence of disease.
This is a necessary moral ordinance, in other words, one
willed by God from eternity. 3 Thus every prophet who has
to work in an age of incurable depravity must fulfil this
ordinance, must by his word of truth make deaf ears deafer
and blind eyes blinder. Hence God makes even the wicked
for the day of evil, just as He makes everything for His own
1 Deut. xxiv. 16 ; 2 Kings xiv. 6. - Jer. xxxi. 29 f. ; Exok. xviii. 211 .
;; Isa. vi. 9 if. ; 1J. J. lv. 11.
208 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
purposes. 1 But, from a moral standpoint, this fact may also
be represented as the result of the people s already incurable
moral obliquity, in other words, as a well-merited judgment
which God righteously inflicts upon His people. God sends
His prophets. But the people " see not with their eyes nor
hear with their ears." 2 Consequently their obduracy is
already the beginning of condign chastisement. With the
upright God shows Himself upright; but with the perverse
He shows Himself perverse. Every one ought to murmur
against his own sin, not against God. 3
But there is a third difficulty which the best of the people
must have found the most perplexing. If free will is no
barrier to the accomplishment of God s will, if therefore
whatever happens is the expression of His will, and He is
just and good, then every event must be in harmony
with the principles of morality ; and whatever befalls an
individual or a people must accord with their attitude to
religion and morality. Hence objection could be raised
to the very existence of evil, to the circumstance that God
creates evil of which all get a share. 4 Still the pious can,
with comparative ease, get over this difficulty, partly by the
thought that the arrangements of this world are incompre
hensible, and, partly by their sense of personal sinf ulness, and
the consciousness that even the best are not perfect. But
what might with all the greater certainty be expected is surely
this that, taking this universality of human evil for granted,
at least special and extraordinary misfortune should befall
only those who have given special offence to God ; and that
the pious, although liable to the ordinary ills of human exist
ence, should nevertheless be able to calculate on remaining
unmolested and happy within the limits of average experience.
1 Prov. xvi. 4.
2 Ezek. xii. 2; cf. also Ex. vii. 13, 22, viii. 15, with viii. 32 and ix. 34
(1 Sam. vi. 6).
3 Ps. xviii. 26 ; Lam. iii. 39.
4 Amos iii. 6 ; Micali i. 12 ; Lam. iii. 38 ; B. J. xlv. 7.
DOUBTS AND THEODICY. 209
Such is in fact the theory on which the history of Israel
is written. An exaggerated form of it is the view of the
Chronicler that the people s happiness or misery was unalter
ably determined by its attitude to the statutes and laws of
the priestly Thorah. But when the lot of the people and
its individual members was examined with a keener eye, and
without false humility, this belief in its simple naive form
could not pass uncontested. The ungodly were seen to
nourish and continue prosperous to the day of their death ;
the best had to endure the most bitter affliction. A Josiah
perished by the sword; a Jeremiah was crushed beneath a
thousand woes ; and sorrow-stricken psalmists prayed in vain
to be delivered from the injustice and oppression of the
great. At the very time Israel seemed most anxious to
press toward the goal, when it might have almost felt itself
righteous in regard to its God, it was trampled down all
the more. 1 In a word, evil appeared to come purely from a
law of nature, absolutely irrespective of moral order.
This observation necessarily met at first with a persistent
denial from the really pious. Destiny must accord with
righteousness. To the sufferer who maintains he is innocent,
his friends exclaim :
" Shall the earth be made desolate for thee.
Or shall the rock be removed out of its place ? " 2
Misery must be due to guilt,
" For affliction cometh not forth of the dust,
Neither doth trouble spring out of the ground ;
But man is born unto trouble,
As the sons of flame fly upward." 3
And when it is impossible to deny the contradiction between
1 Jer. xii. Iff. ; Job xxi. 7-end ; Ps. xxii. 2f., Ixxiii. 2; cf. xliv. 18, 21. In
llabakkuk, too, we find this feeling very strongly expressed.
- Job xviii. 4. 3 Job v. 6.
VOL. II. O
210 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
destiny and moral worth, the difficulty is solved by hope.
Thus it is the constantly recurring thought of Job s friends
that his suffering, if he only continue upright, will quickly
give place to great happiness, and that all the apparent
happiness of the wicked must come to a terrible end. 1 In
like manner the thought re-echoes from many passages in the
Psalms and the Prophets, that the present contradiction of
the law of moral retribution is only apparent and transient.
The true Israel will rise again in new glory and blessedness.
The wicked, seemingly so happy, will be overtaken by sudden
misfortune, and sink into Sheol like cattle. The suffering
saints will be rescued and crowned with victory ; in glory
and joy they will witness the overthrow of the wicked. 2
Thus in all the confidence and assurance of faith the old
declaration is reasserted :
" I have been young, and now am old ;
Yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken,
Nor his seed begging bread." 3
And in answer to the complaints and murmurings as to the
misery imposed by God it is said, in tones of earnest rebuke,
" Wherefore doth a living man complain ? Let each mourn
over his own sins." " How dare the clay contend with the
potter, a potsherd among potsherds of earth ! " 4
But such an answer cannot be decisive. It is only after
a great struggle that even Jeremiah can retain his belief in
it. 5 Hope could only have been regarded as a true solution
of this difficulty, and one not contradicted by experience, had
the doctrine of a future and eternal retribution, equally
certain to happen to all, been taught with perfect clearness ;
^Tob v. 3, 18-27, viii. 4, 13(1 ., 20, iv. 8ff., xi. 20, xv. 20 ff., xviii. 5ff., xx.
d-end (xxxiv. 11, xxxvi. 5). Imitated ironically xxiv. 18 ff., xxvii. 13 ff.
2 Habak. i. 2ff., 13, iii. 13; Ps. xxii. 23 ff., xlii. 6, 12, xliii. 5, xlix. 6, 15,
17ff., xxxvii. 9, 29, Ixiv. 8ff., Ixix. 31 f., 1. 21, Ixxiii. 17-21, Ixxv. 9, xci. 8,
xoiv. 23, xcii. 8, 10, 13, cxii., cxxviii., cxl. 9ff., cxlv. 18 ff.
3 P.s. xxxvii. 25. 4 Lam. iii. 39 ; Lsa, xxix. 16 ; B. J. xlv. 9, 11.
Jer. xii. 1 ff.
DOUBTS AND THEODICY. 211
and not merely taught, but accepted by the godly as the
innermost conviction of their souls. But since that was
certainly not the case, as we shall show later on ; since the
thought of future retribution sprang up only here and there,
and more in the form of passionately excited feeling than of
clear conviction, and that, too, only at a very late stage, the
stern reality had soon to laugh to scorn the consolation for
the contradictions of the present, which simple piety wished
to find in hope. A people may rise again into new pro
sperity. But what compensation has an individual who has
perished in misery ? The prosperity of one s descendants may
balance the injustice of one s own lot. But what good does
that do to the dead ? l The sudden ruin of a wicked people
may balance its former undeserved happiness. But when a
wealthy wicked man, after a life of uninterrupted prosperity,
dies quietly in a good old age, and goes down to Sheol, the
house appointed for all living, what punishment befalls him ?
It is from realising this truth in its bitter nakedness,
and maintaining it firmly against all foolish suggestions,
that the suffering undergone was only insignificant and
transient, that the book of Job gets its chief importance.
This patient sufferer knows from experience how false, and
even how fatal, the conviction may in individual cases be,
that a man s lot is proof of his moral worth. In bitter irony
he follows out the wise applications of the dictum :
" In the thought of him who is at ease
There is contempt for misfortune ;
It is ready for them whose foot slippeth. . . .
Upright men shall be astonied at this,
And the innocent shall stir himself up against the godless.
Yet shall the righteous hold on his way,
And he that hath clean hands shall wax stronger and stronger. " 2
1 Job xxi. 19-21.
2 Job xii. 5, xvii. 8 f. The problem in all its harshness, e.g. ix. 22, iii. 20,
x. 3, 18, vi. 2ff., xvi. 11, 17, xvii. 2, xix. 6-23, xxi. 7-end, xiii. 10 ff., xxiv.
23 ft ., xxvii. 2.
212 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
The trial of Job turns just on this, that God wishes to test
the strength of the sufferer s faith, and see whether he is
able still to retain his belief in the righteousness of God
when he is no longer conscious of any material sign thereof-,
and Satan hopes by this affliction to make Job doubt God,
and turn him into an unbeliever. Now in this book the
problem is solved by action. Job continues faithful, after
having struggled through all the sloughs of temptation. And
God does His injured servant full justice by crowning his
patience, and giving him abundant compensation. But the
real difficulty is not touched. The one-sided idea that
suffering is penal is not overcome, either by a clear view of
future reward, or by an acknowledgment of a higher suffering
on the part of the innocent, which the counsel of God alone
can explain. At the most, the value of suffering as a test
is brought prominently forward. The main thing for the
poet is that, in view of the divine wisdom, manifested in the
problems of nature, Job lias to acknowledge that it would be
foolish presumption, were he to insist on measuring God s
ways and acts by the standard of his own human thought.
Nevertheless the thoughts that really solve the problem
are already found in the Old Testament. The book of Job
itself had at least made it permanently clear that severe
sufferings are not always to be regarded as the messengers of
divine wrath, but may also be a test of God s favour, the
object of which is salvation, not destruction ; and that there
fore the righteousness of God is not to be judged by every
passing circumstance. But the speeches of Elihu, which
form an appendix to the book, insist, with great distinct
ness, that such suffering is to be understood as a discipline
intended to save from pride and presumption, which might
otherwise lead to destruction. He remembers the visions
and dreams by which the patient sufferer is instructed, and
he works up a picture of successful discipline, much the
same as that which the Chronicler in his narrative gives
DOUBTS AND THEODICY. 213
of Manasseh s misery and conversion. 1 And in the Prophets,
Psalms, and Proverbs, we constantly meet with the idea of a
discipline which saves from the day of misfortune, and which
it is a blessing to undergo. 2
We are then carried further by the hope which, after the
Exile, grows stronger and stronger, of an actual victory over
death even for the individual, a hope which affords an easy
and happy solution of all the enigmas of this life. But the
thought that goes furthest is that of a suffering, the worth
of which is absolute, a suffering which, according to the
secret counsel of divine love, the best endure in order to
accomplish the gracious purposes of God, a substitutionary
suffering in which they offer themselves as a sacrifice to
blot out the sins of their people, and make possible for the
world a higher salvation. By the thought of such a suffer
ing all those doubts are solved which could not but be
started by the suffering of the innocent. 3
Of scepticism proper, scepticism as to the actual existence
of an enduring moral good and of a supernatural world, the
prophetic period knew nothing. Occasionally, indeed, the
words used in the book of Job to describe the soul s bitterest
struggles, point towards this abyss; but Job himself never
comes near it. So long as the spirit of the old religion was
still alive in full prophetic strength and vigour, its adherents,
that is, all who did not turn away from it in materialistic
unbelief, could not possibly indulge in any such general
scepticism regarding religion. 4 It is only in Ecclesiastes
that the scepticism of the latest Old Testament period takes
up this ground.
1 Job xxxiii. 15-29, xxxvi. 8 ff. (2 Chron. xxxiii. 11 ff.).
2 Deut. viii. 2 (the sufferings of the wilderness journey as a means of discip
line) ; Hos. ii. 8ff., 11 ff., v. 2 ; Jer. xxxv. 13; B. J. xxvii. 8; Ps. Ixvi. 10,
xoiv. 12 ; Lam. iii. 27-30 (1D1D ITOin)-
3 B. J. liii.
4 Such doubt appears to the believer " brutalising " (Ps. Ixxiii. 22).
214 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
CHAPTEK XL
THE ANGELS.
LITERATURE. Gramberg, " Grundziige einer Engellehre des
Alten Testamentes " ( Winer wisscnsckaftl. Zeitschr. ii. 157 ff.).
W. H. Kosters (Theol. Tijdschr. ix. 1875) "De Mal ach Jahve
(x. 1876, 34 ff., 113 ff.) het onstan en de ontwickkeling der
angelologie onder Israel (xiii. 1879, 445 ff.) de Cherubim."
A. Kohut, Ueber die judisclie Angelologie und Damonologie in
Hirer AWicingigkeit wm Parsismus. Ch. F. Trip, Die Theo-
phanien in den Geschichtsbucliern des Alten Testamentes. Leiden
1858. Ode, Commentarius de angelis, 1739. Stein werder,
Christies Deus in Vet. Test, libris historicis. Schelling, Gfes.
Werke, Abth. ii. Bd. iv. 128 f. Hengstenberg, I.e., Chr. G.
Barth, Der Engel des Bundes. Ein Beitrag zur Christologie.
Leipz. 1845. Spencer, Lc., 1084-1188. Ziillig, Der Cheru-
bimwagen. Heidelb. 1832. Lammert, "Die Cherubim der
heiligen Schrift " (Jctlirbb. /. deutsche Theol 1867, 4, 589 ff.).
Riehm, De natura et notione symbolica Cheniborum, Bas.
et Lugd. 1864) "Die Cherubim in der Stiftshiitte und im
Tempel" (Stud. u. Krit. 1874, 3, 399 ff.). Bahr, I.e., i. 312 f.
Kamphausen (Stud. u. Krit. 1864, 4, 712 ff.). Kahnis, De
Angelo Domini diatribe, Lips. 1858, 4. Steudel, Veterisne
Testamenti libris insit notio manifesti ab occulto distinguendi
numinis, Tub. 1838.
1. As far back as we can look in the Old Testament, we
meet with the idea of superhuman beings, who stand to God
in a relation of kinship, but are inferior to Him in power.
Indeed, this idea is everywhere regarded as so self-evident
that it does not require to be in any way insisted on
in teaching. Sacred legend, as given in B and C, is fond of
introducing the angel of God, wherever there is any question
of special displays of divine power or providence. Frag-
THE ANGELS. 215
ments like Gen. vi. 1-3, songs like Ps. xxix., ancient stories
like Ex. xxiii. 20, speak of Elohim and sons of Elohim ;
and angels are constantly appearing in the history of Moses
and Joshua, and all through the earliest legends about
the Judges. 1 Thus, such beings are everywhere taken for
granted as objects of popular faith. As to the original
character of a popular view so ancient as this, we cannot,
of course, do more than form an opinion that approximates to
probability. But when we examine the oldest passages in
which such angelic beings are mentioned, the conviction is
forced upon us that two quite distinct views regarding them
have been combined. On the one hand, we meet with beings
which, along with the covenant God of Israel, are represented
as Elohim, mighty beings of the same class as He is, quite
above the natural and moral laws that govern material beings.
It is reasonable to suppose that these represent the gods of
the old Semitic religion, who have shrivelled up into subor
dinate heavenly beings. On the other hand, we find in the
Malach Jahve a living revelation and manifestation of this
covenant God Himself, as if it were a mere question of one
form of His activity. These two views must be separately
considered.
2. The Elohim, of whom the earliest writings of the Old
Testament speak, when they mean to indicate neither the
God of Israel nor expressly mentioned gods of other peoples,
are evidently personal spiritual beings, possessed of great
power, and contrasted with material beings, subject to the
laws of Nature. Of such Elohim God speaks when He says,
" Behold the man is become as one of us, to know good
and evil." 2 It is to them that the popular phrase refers
which describes oil and wine as gifts, which cheer both
gods and men. 3 In Psalms Iviii. and Ixxxii., unless these
1 Num. xx. 16 ; Josh. v. 13 ; cf. Judg. vi. 11 ff., xiii. 3 ff. a Gen. iii. 22.
3 Judg. ix. 8-15. Kosters would refer this directly to sacrificial offerings
acceptable to the Elohim, and hence he explains that the same expression is
216 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
songs mean to speak of men in a highly poetical fashion, they
are represented as " an assembly of gods," in which, with
words of censure and reprimand, God appears as king, to call
them to account for having superintended, in an unjust and
careless manner, the destinies of the peoples entrusted to their
care. They are more accurately described as " sons of God," 1
not, indeed, in the physical sense " begotten of God," or even
in the moral sense, " inwardly akin to Him through piety and
goodness," but as " individual beings who belong to the same
class, of which the full and highest development is God Him
self." 2 Consequently, in the poetic diction of the pre-exilic
age, and later, they are represented as " God s holy ones," 3
His heroes, His army, 4 His myriads. 5 They fill His heavenly
palace, 6 assemble before His throne to do obeisance to Him,
and give an account of their stewardship. 7 On the other
hand, they are not bound by the laws of morality, and they
interfere in a very high-handed manner with human affairs. 8
From the way in which these Elohim are spoken of, it can
scarcely be doubted that they are the nature-spirits of the
old Semitic heathenism. The divine beings who were
thought of as near the Most Hio-h God and in attendance 011
o o
Him, and were represented as not in themselves subject to
the moral law, nor absolutely dependent on Jehovah, did not
of course disappear from the popular imagination as religion
became purer. But they ceased to be of importance in religion
not used of the fig, which is not employed as an offering. But even oil is not
offered by itself as an article of sacrifice. It is much more natural to think of
articles of food actually enjoyed by the Elohim, as the realism of antiquity had
certainly no difficulty in doing. This view is supported also by Ps. Ixxviii. 25,
where manna, the bread of heaven, is described as " the food of the mighty/
i.e. not as an offering, but as the food of the heavenly beings (cf. Zech. xii. 8).
1 D^n^n-^3 and D^K" 1 ^
2 Cf. in general the meaning of p in the Hebrew language (son of the dawn,
son of the bow, etc.).
3 Deut. xxxiii. 2 ; Zech. xiv. 5 ; Ps. Ixxxix. 8.
4 Ps. ciii. 20 ff. ; 1 Kings xxii. 19. 5 Deut. xxxiii. 2.
Ps. xxix. 1, P. Ixxxix. 6 fl . 7 Job i. 6, ii. 1 (Ps, Iviii., Ixxxii.).
s Gen. vi. 1-3.
THE ELOHIM. 21*7
itself, and to claim either reverence or adoration. It was
quite natural that the conception of such beings should develop
as easily in the direction of opposing God as in that of serving
Jehovah. The first case is dealt with in chap. xiv. Here we are
concerned only with the second. We need not, with Kosters,
think primarily of the gods of other peoples. That is only a
later development of the thought. It was rather a question
as to the divine beings who had formerly been worshipped
by the Hebrew people itself. And it may well have been the
case that, even in primitive days, these beings were identified
with the stars, which as living powers rule over the earth in
wonderful majesty and order. 1 These " sons of the gods " are
in themselves of no importance for the religion or morality of
Israel. God is greater than they ; indeed, in comparison with
Him, 2 they become more and more mere nonentities. At the
most, the fact of a heathen world was explained by a later age
as due to Jehovah having given these beings, the host of
heaven, charge over the nations of the world while He
reserved Israel for Himself. 3 Otherwise they are thought of
as God s retinue. They perfect the impression of His glory ;
as heroes and men of might, they increase His splendour, and
make His warlike prowess manifest. That they must finally
become His servants and messengers is self-evident. But that
the Elohim and the Malachim are exactly the same is nowhere
stated in the Old Testament. 4 And in passages like Gen. vi.,
the old sensuous character of these beings, who are indifferent
1 Job xxxviii. 7 ; B. J. xlv. 12 ; cf. Jol> xxv. 2, xxxviii. 31.
2 Ex. xv. 11, xviii. 11 ; cf. Ps. Ixxvii. 14, Ixxxvi. 8, xcvi. 4, 5, xcvii. 7, 9.
3 Deut. iv. 19, xxix. 25, xxxii. 8, 9. With this is connected the arraign
ment of the gods in Ps. Iviii. and Ixxxii., and of the host of heaven in B. J.
xxiv. 21 ; cf. xiv. 12. The way in which Hebrew poetry speaks of Leviathan,
the fleeing serpent, "the fool," etc., points to an old mythological notion,
to the battles of the Deity with hostile powers of nature. (Ezek. xxix. 3,
xxxii. 2, 3 ; Ps. Ixxiv. 13 ; B. J. xiii. 10, xxvii. 1 ; Jer. H. 34 ; Job iii. 8, ix. 9,
xxvi. 13, xxxviii. 31 ; Amos v. 8).
4 Indirectly, perhaps, since the expression used in Gen. iii. and Ps. viii. of
the Elohim is applied to the " Malach Jahve " (1 Sam. xxix. 9 ; 2 Sam. xiv.
17, 20, xix. 38).
218 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
to moral goodness, has such prominence given to it that we
cannot wonder that their transformation into " angels " was
not effected without leaving a residuum, which necessarily
gave rise to the thought of impious but powerful beings who
rebelled against the ordinances and the purposes of God.
3. The angelology of Judaism is more directly connected
with the conception of the " Malach Jahve." It has recently
been asserted that where the word Malach occurs before the
Exile, it invariably means a terrestrial manifestation of God
Himself, which, as a form of manifestation or revelation is, of
course, to be distinguished from Jehovah as the king of Heaven,
who sends it. 1 This must unquestionably be described as an
exaggeration of an idea that is so far correct. An examina
tion of Genesis, chaps, xviii., xix., and xxviii., is sufficient to
confute it. For that the three figures which Abraham sees
do not represent the One Jehovah is evident from the fact
that two of them go on to Sodom, while the third, the proper
manifestation of Jehovah who does not wish to mix Himself
up with the sin and shame of Sodom remains behind with
Abraham, and thereafter sends the judgment down from
Heaven. And the Malachim which, according to C, Jacob
sees ascending and descending on the ladder that reaches to
Heaven, are not identical with Jehovah who, according to B,
becomes visible to the sleeper in his dream, but are simply
the servants of God, who inhabit His palace and carry out
His behests on the earth. Hence, even the early legends of
Israel know of Malachim, who are not a manifestation of
Jehovah Himself, but are simply servants that do His com
mandments. 2 But this does not lessen the accuracy of the
1 Kosters ; "Wellhausen, Gesch. Isr. i. 355, is right in recognising that in C,
Malachim, in the plural, are in the retinue of Jehovah and form His means of
communication with the earth (Gen. xxviii., xxxii. ).
2 The arbitrary character of Kosters hypothesis is made specially clear by
passages like Josh. v. 13 if., run* 1 fcOV ; or 2 Sam. xiv. 17, xix. 28 ; 1 Sam.
xxix. 9. On the other hand, the remark is true that the more transcen
dental the conception of God becomes, the more shadowy does the whole
conception of "the angel of God" become, the idea of mere "servants" or
MALACH JAHVE. 219
observation that early legend often speaks of the Malach
Jahve in such a way that his appearance and speech are
equivalent to an appearance and speech of Jehovah. These
passages, moreover, give one the impression that this is the
original view. It is, indeed, so marked a characteristic that
a considerable portion of the early Church saw in this angel
of God the personal Logos Himself i.e. the self-revealing God
who here presents us with a type of " the Incarnation." And
this view, in which there is undeniably an element of truth,
has been in modern times defended, with more or less skill, by
Schelling, Barth, Kahnis, Steinwender, Hengstenberg, and Stier.
In order not to miss the real import of this ancient view,
we shall, in the first instance, set aside all the passages in
which it is either probable or possible that a Malach Jahve
is spoken of who is expressly distinguished from a revelation
of God, and is conceived of merely as the bearer of a single
commission, or of a special divine communication. This
applies not merely to such passages as 1 Kings xix. 5, 7,
2 Kings i. 15, where the angel of God is clearly distin
guished from the subsequent manifestation of God ; or
2 Sam. xxiv. 15 ff., 2 Kings xix. 35, 1 Chron. xxi. 15ff.,
where the angel of the plague is nothing but a servant of God ;
or Ps. xxxiv. 8, xxxv. 5, 6, Gen. xxiv. *7, Mai. iii. 1, where
the singular is purely accidental, as is shown by comparison of
Ps. xci. 11, Gen. xxviii. 12, xxxii. 2, and where the whole
emphasis lies on the service done to the pious ; or 1 Sam.
xxix. 9, 2 Sam. xiv. 17, 20, xix. 28, where the popular
proverbs evidently mean to indicate a class of beings who
are indeed higher than man, but not identical with God. 1
But even passages are to be passed over, such as those in the
account of the Exodus by B and 0, where the Malach Jahve
"messengers" taking its place. This reaches a climax in Mohammedanism,
where even the Holy Spirit becomes "an Angel."
1 In such passages, where there is no reference to an earthly manifestation
of God, what would be the meaning of the addition "Malach," if one
merely meant to say "wise and gracious as God " ?
220 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
is probably spoken of in the fuller sense of the word. For
an angel in whom "God s name is" 1 and whose holy wrath
must punish the sins of the people, is, of course, in a certain
sense, one with God ; and when, in B, " the face of God "
goes before Israel 2 as a sign that God is reconciled, the
meaning undoubtedly is that God Himself has returned to His
people and is present among them. 3 And when Zechariah 4
and Deutero-Isaiah, 5 allude to these narratives, they rightly
make God and His angel stand in parallelism with one
another. But even here expressions such as Ex. xxiii. 20,
23, xxxiii. 2 f., Num. xx. 16 make the matter doubtful, at
least for C ; and it might be enough to think of an ambassador
of God who, as the representative of his heavenly King,
is clothed with His authority. In the same way Zech.
iii. 1 ff., where the angel of God might be regarded as iden
tical with the self-revealing God, is rendered uncertain by
i. 12. We confine ourselves, therefore, to the undisputed
passages, which all belong to the ancient kernel of the book of
Judges, and to sacred legend as given by B and C, and are con
sequently part of the original elements of Israel s national faith.
In all these passages, where it is stated that the angel of
God appeared and spoke, it is also assumed, without further
explanation, that the personal covenant God Himself appeared
and spoke. 6 The angel of God appears in human form. He
also speaks of Jehovah as of a third person a person distinct
from himself. He is, no doubt, clearly distinguished from
, Ex. xxiii. 20 f. (C).
2 ^Q, Ex. xxxiii. 14 (B), (xxsii. 34) ; cf. Deut. iv. 37. This "face " is the
holy presence of God Himself (Ex. xxxiii. 20). The Phoenicians and the Baby
lonians conceived of "the face" and "the name" of the Deity as just a new
female form of divine manifestation. For the meaning of "the face of God"
as His self-revealing presence, cf. Num. vi. 25, Ps. xxi. 7, cxxxix. 7, etc.
3 Expressly so in Ex. xxxiv. 9. 4 Zech. xii. 8.
5 B. J. Ixiii. 9 : "In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of
His presence saved them."
6 So Gen. xvi. 7 ff., xxi. 17, xxii. 11, 14, 15, xxxi. 11, 13 ; Ex. iii. 2ff.j
Judg. ii. 1, 4, vi. 11-24, xiii. 3-22.
MALACH JAHVE. 221
Jehovah. 1 But those who see him fear they must die, are con
scious that they have seen God Himself, and mark the spots
where these manifestations took place, as places where God
made Himself manifest. Jacob speaks of the Malach Jahve
who accompanied him and shielded him all through life, 2 while
the narrative itself knows only of God s personal intercourse
with him. The Song of Deborah makes " the angel of God "
pronounce a curse upon Meroz, 3 while the curse itself is called
a " word from God." And the Elohim with whom, according
to Genesis, Jacob wrestled, is called by Hosea the Malach. 4
The simplest explanation of this fact is evidently this,
that Malach Jahve just denotes a theophany, or, as Hitzig
expresses it, " God, working at a concrete spot, and at a
definite point of time, is called the angel of God." 5 It
is further pointed out that Malach originally means not
" messenger," but " message, " commission." Naturally, even
in this explanation, a distinction must be drawn between
God who is the subject of this manifestation, and in relation
to it, always remains " the Heavenly One," and the form of
manifestation in which His " name," His " countenance," or
His " glory " dwells, as in the Temple, the pillar of fire, and
the burning bush. But this manifested form is never
thought of as a heavenly being used by God for this pur
pose, but as an earthly, movable, changeable figure, which
has no independent significance of any kind.
I do not mean to deny the high degree of probability
which this view possesses. It is in fact undeniable that the
form in which God thus appears is, as form, a matter of pure
indifference to the narrator, that absolutely no emphasis is
laid on the special personality of the angel, but that every
thing depends on God who is thus revealing Himself. Still
I cannot convince myself that the view itself is correct. The
1 Gen. xvi. 5, 9 ff. ; Num. xxii. 22 ff.
2 Geu. xlviii. 16. 3 Judg. v. 23.
4 Hos. xii. 5 (cf. Zech. xii. 8).
5 So Vatke, dc Wette, Eeuss, Bertlieau, "VVellhausen, Kosters, etc.
222 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
very word is sufficient to prevent this. I do not indeed
doubt that the abstract meaning of it is the fundamental
one. But the verb denotes " a sending, a doing of service."
For a person employed by God in His service, this is
undoubtedly a most appropriate term. But how should the
fact that God Himself becomes visible and shows Himself
in action be described as " a sending of God/ and not as
a " manifestation " or a " working of God." Hence, unless
one resolves with Kosters to consider, as theophanies, all
pre-exilic passages that speak of a Malach, it appears to me
inconceivable that in contemporary writers, and indeed in
the same documents, the old Hebrew language should have
used one and the same word to describe a theophany and
a supramundane person distinct from God. And it is
certainly a most artificial theory of Kosters that the very
Malach Jahve, who was originally meant to explain how
Jehovah could become visible without destroying the person
who saw Him, should himself become a being who is
invisible to men, or a sight of whom kills them. 1 For
in that case we must assume a radical change in the
original purpose, while both views occur in writings which,
like B, C, and the main document in the book of Judges, do
not in any way indicate different phases of Israel s religious
development. Hence it seems to me necessary to put the
term into a wider category. Wherever God wishes to reveal
Himself, He requires a self-revealing form, which men can
comprehend and endure. Where He wishes merely to give
an impression of His presence, sacred symbols or natural
phenomena through which His glory shines are sufficient. 2
But when He wishes to communicate His will for the pur
pose of making men conscious of it, He requires the revealing
form to be a person who thinks and speaks. He reveals
Himself through " angels." Now, just as the single spiritual
1 As Gen. xvi. 13 ; Num. xxii. 31 ; Judg. vi. 22, xiii. 22.
a 1 Kings xxii.
MALACH JAHVE. 223
acts of God are conceived of as spirits, 1 while the whole
working of God is represented as His Spirit, in like manner,
while the various sides of the divine will find expression
through angels, the " angel of God " is he in whom
God makes known to man, for special ends, His whole being
and will. The form of manifestation here also is a personal
being, who is not God. But what this being is, is of absolutely
no consequence. Whether he has a special personal conscious
ness and will, or whether he has a definite rank or a special
name, are matters of no importance to those who receive the
revelation. For them he is merely a form of divine revelation ;
Ids words are God s words ; to look on him is to look on God.
Hence this angel of God is of great importance, not indeed
for " the inner life of God," but certainly for His revelation.
While in the Asiatic religions of nature the revealed form of
the deity develops into a new and distinct deity, 2 in the
religion of the Old Testament, God, although revealed, remains
unique. Nevertheless his revelation becomes an actual and
real entrance of God into the world of phenomena. The revela
tion, which the creature receives and which it is capable of
understanding and bearing, is really a revelation of God
Himself. Yet the God who effects it still remains the God
who hides Himself and on whom the creature cannot look.
Thus there is undoubtedly in the angel of God something of
that which Christian theology means to express by the
doctrine of the Logos. Only the self-revealing life of God
is not yet human, nor does it yet exist as a permanent per
sonal life.
4. The idea of God being revealed in His angel or angels,
1 Sliechina, Bath-Qol, Kcbod-Jahve.
" The Taanit as Pen-Baal, the Asbirte as Shorn- Haul. We may also
remind the reader of Baal-Melkarth. (_T. p.s. cxxxix. 7. The Spirit and Face
of God (Schlottmann, Die Inschrift des JEschmunazar, pp. 75, 142. Fr. Lenor-
niant, La legendc de Semiramis, mtmoire pre.se.nt6 a la dasse des lettres de
V Academic, Jan. 8, 1872). (But cf., on the other hand, Dillmann, Comment.
z. Gen. p. 470.)
224 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
combined with a belief in beings of superhuman power but
subject to Jehovah, furnishes the material out of which
angelology, especially after Ezekiel s time, takes definite form.
Its religious significance is, of course, exclusively due to its
giving visibility to the working of God in Providence. The
angels reveal the will of God for the present and the future,
give His servants their life-work, deliver the pious, and
execute the divine judgments. The earlier ages, indeed, are
very far from seeing in them mere allegories of divine provi
dence or of the forces of nature. Still their own personality
as distinct from the will of God, whose agents they are, is a
matter of absolute indifference. They stand round about God
and serve Him, celebrate His praises, execute His commands,
and accompany Him as His troops of attendant horsemen. 1
For the earlier prophecy, angels are not a condition of
revelation. As bearers of God s spirit and word, the prophets
are directly inspired by God. The angels are merely the inter
mediaries of God s action, His manifestation, so that they
present almost the appearance of mere metaphors. But the
more transcendental the conception of God becomes, the more
important even for prophecy do such intermediaries become. 2
They are no longer conceived of as living and active, like "the
angel of God " in the olden days, but as individual bearers of
individual communications from God to His servants. This is
quite in keeping with the growing tendency to hypostatise the
Word and the Spirit as distinct from their possessors. 3 Thus
in Ezekiel the spirit is an angel ; 4 and the prophet who wrote
Zech. i.-viii. 5 gets his revelation transmitted and explained to
him by angels, just as if they were special human messengers.
1 Ps. xxxiv. 8, xxxv. 5f., Ixviii. 18, cxlviii. Iff. ; 2 Kings ii. 11, vi. 17,
xix. 35; Isa. xxxvii. 3G.
J E.g. 1 Kings xiii. 18, xix. 5-7, etc.
;t B. J. xl. 12 ff., Ixiii. 10, xlviii. 16 ; (Jen. i. 2 ; cf. Zech. ii. 7, iii. 4.
4 Ezek. ii. 2, iii. 12, 14, 24, viii. 3, ix. 1, 5, xxxvii. 1, xliii. 5, xl. 2 f .
(ix. 1-x. 7).
5 Zech. i. 9-14, ii. 2-7, iii. 1, 5ff., iv. 1, 4, v. 5, 10, vi. 4.
ANGELIC BEINGS. 225
In Daniel, God Himself is quite dumb, and His angel ex
plains the visions to the seer. 1 From this, on the other
hand, we easily understand how some of the later Israelitish
writings show a disinclination to employ this idea of
" revealing intermediaries." To the scribes and the priests
" Scripture " is the revelation of God ; aud they dislike
the thought of a "continuing revelation." This tendency,
which comes to maturity in Sadducaeism, is already visible
in a few passages of the Old Testament. 2 The real power
of religion, however, was on the side of angelology becoming
more and more vivid and varied. 3
5. Since the conceptions of the Israelitish people as to
angels are composed of such elements, it cannot surprise us
that they are in themselves of a very indefinite and fluid
character. The " nature-spirits " of the old Semites have
nothing to do with moral and religious limitations. They
must not be regarded as equal to the one God, and yet are
to be raised high above the level of human power and know
ledge. 4 The being through whom God is revealed shares in
the veneration due to God, but is nevertheless distinct from
Him, and is not conceived of as purely spiritual but as
capable, to a certain extent, of bodily acts. Thus the angels
of God eat and drink, in this, it is true, not differing much
from God Himself. They are represented as men of reverend
appearance to whom hospitality is offered, 5 or as men of
war. 6 Even in Ezekiel they are still assigned a human
form. 7 And when they appear to men, they are never in the
1 Dan. iii. 25 ; cf. viii. 16, ix. 21, x. 20.
2 Sirach does not expect any appearances of angels in his day. The
Chronicler rarely employs angels, however much importance he attaches to
the idea of Satan. Even A does not speak of angels (Neh. ix. 20). The priest
and the prophet are themselves Malachim of God (Mai. iii. 1 ; Hagg. i. 13 ;
B. J. xlii. 19).
3 Cf. infra.
4 Gen. vi. 1-3 ; cf. Gen. iii. 5, 22 ; 1 Sam. xxix. 9 ; 2 Sam. xiv. 17 if.,
xix. 28.
5 Gen. xviii. 8, xix. 3 ; Judg. vi. 11-23, xiii. 6 if.
6 Josh. v. 13 (2 Sam. xxiv. 17). 7 Ezek. ix. 2 ; xliii. 6.
VOL. II. P
226 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
earlier days thought of as winged beings. Indeed it is by
a ladder that they ascend into heaven. 1 It is only in later
times that they are represented as standing between heaven
and earth, that is, as hovering on wings. 2 But they are always
regarded as exempt from the burdens and limitations of earthly
existence, in quite a different way from human beings. They
appear to men whenever they please. They are beheld as " the
camp of God," as " horses and chariots of fire " that is, as
formed of the most spiritual heavenly element. 3 The angel
of God in Judg. vi. refuses human food with disdain, and
demands a " burnt-offering " for God ; and the imitation of
this in Judg. xiii. represents him as in need of nothing. In
the story of Balaam, the angel of God stands with drawn
sword before the prophet, without being observed by him ;
while the animal becomes aware of his presence, and naturally
shows signs of terror. 4 The angels are thought of as
" spirits," identical, as it seems, with the spirit that pro
ceeds from God. 5
Hence we may easily understand, without further explana
tion, that these beings, as Elohim, are thought of as without
a moral standard. In Genesis vi. it is only mankind that is
condemned for having overstepped its bounds, whilst " the
sons of the gods/ as " superior " beings, do what they please
1 Gen. xxviii.
2 1 Chron. xxi. 16, 27 ; cf., on the other hand, 2 Sam. xxiv. 16. Zech. v. 9
treats of winged creatures of a symbolic character ; Dan. ix. 21 should be
translated " gleaming in splendour." On the other hand, it is quite conceivable
that the human form was regarded merely as the form in which these beings
appeared to men, and that the Elohim had a different form assigned to them
in God s heavenly palace. On this point one must decide in conformity
with Isa. vi.
3 Gen. xxi. 17, xxxii. 2 f . ; cf. 2 Kings ii. 11, vi. 17.
4 Num. xxii. 23-27 ; cf. Odyss. xvi. 161 f.
5 1 Kings xxii. 21. This is Ezekiel s favourite expression, and while it, too,
may in a few passages like iii. 12, 14, xliii. 5, be understood of perfectly
impersonal acts of God, still it is clear from xliii. 6 that these "spirits" are
thought of as men, as persons. Moreover, the word certainly does not pre
vent a very concrete and sensuous conception of the actions of these beings
(riii. 2f., xi. 24).
ANGELIC BEINGS. 22*7
and are not punished as fallen angels in the way later theo-
sophy dreams of. 1 And yet as superhuman beings, nearly
akin to God and revealing Him to men, they are believed to
be " wise and gracious," as men would like to be and should
be. 2 Hence they are called God s "holy ones," that is, are
specially dedicated to His service. 3 Accordingly, the idea is
occasionally found that although not pure and perfect, as
compared with God, 4 they may nevertheless as servants, 5
standing near to Him, intercede for their inferiors, the
children of earth, and in this way obtain a certain religious
importance. 5 But this conception remains quite isolated.
Men are very expressly forbidden to make the angels, as
distinguished from God Himself, objects of worship, in the
sense, that is, of " the host of heaven, 6 while, of course,
"The Angel of God" is, in the old popular narrative taken
for God Himself. 7
How little this whole conception has been worked out, in
the sense of being made a constituent part of a doctrinal
system, is rendered particularly clear by the fact that there is
nowhere any statement as to " the angels " being created.
To the Elohim and the B ne-Elohim indeed the idea of
creation is not properly applicable ; nor could one feel
inclined to examine in this direction the beings who serve
God as a form of revelation. Originally, it is certain
the idea of creation applied to none but material fleshly
beings. When God is called the Lord of the spirits of all
1 Enoch C. vi. (translated by Dillmann), Jude 6 ; 2 Peter ii. 4.
2 1 Sam. xxix. 9 ; 2 Sam. xiv. 17, 20, xix. 27.
3 Job v. 1, xv. 15 ; Deut. xxxiii. 2 ; Zech. xiv. 5 ; Ps. Ixxxix. 6, 8.
4 Job iv. 18, xv. 15. (If xxi. 22, xxii. 13, are meant to refer to a judicial
trial of men in high position, we should get a thought like that in Isa. xxiv.
21. It seems to me that these passages refer only to the high-throned ruler of
the world).
5 Job v. 1, xxxiii. 23 ; Zech. i. 12.
This becomes always more and more important, as the influence of the
astrological religion of Mesopotamia goes on increasing. (Deut. iv. 19, xvii. 3 }
Ps. Ixxxix. 7.)
7 Gen. xvi., xviii. ; Jiulg. vi., xiii., etc.
228 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
flesh, " spirits without flesh " are not included. 1 In Job
"the sons of God" are thought of as present at the very
creation of the world, as admiring spectators. 2 The later age
of reflection first started the question. Hence it seems to
me probable that A includes them in the creation of the
"heavenly beings that rule the world," 3 and that Ps. cxlviii.
2-5 contains a similar idea. In Neh. ix. 6 there can scarcely
be a doubt of it.
That in Israel s mind, at least since the eighth century,
these heavenly beings are very closely connected with the
stars does not admit of doubt. In Job the morning stars
that praise God are not distinguished from the sons of God. 4
In Deuteronomy the host of heaven plays a great role, ruling
by God s decree over the heathen world. 5 And when the
post-exilic prophet, in B. J. xxiv. 21, pronounces judgment on
the host of heaven, he evidently identifies the gods of the
heathen nations with the stars, and thinks of them as subject
to God. 6 But the poetic expression in Judg. v. 20, "The
stars in their courses fought against Sisera," enables us to
conclude with certainty that this connection between the
Elohim and the stars goes back to a very high antiquity.
On the other hand it was altogether foreign to Israel s
antiquely realistic mode of thought to change the angels con
sciously into personifications of God s sovereignty over nature
and history. There is not a single passage which really points
to any such process. In a number of later Psalms, it is true,
the fact comes out all the more clearly that people were
1 Num. xvi. 22, xxvii. 16.
2 Job xxxviii. 7. 3 Gen. i. 14, ii. 1. 4 Job xxxviii. 7.
5 Deut. iv. 19, xvii. 3, xxxii. 8 (B. J. xl. 26).
6 B. J. xxiv. 23 ; of. xxvii. 9. This is probably the original passage to which is
due the idea subsequently connected with Gen. vi. of the angels being kept in
everlasting chains of darkness, and of Satan being let loose after the millennium
(Enoch ii. 6 ; Jude 6 ; 2 Peter ii. 4 ; Rev. xx. 7). (The host of heaven is to
be judged along with the kings of earth. Both are threatened with imprison
ment, and after many days they are to be visited, which means, I think, that
they are to be released).
CLASSES AND NAMES OF ANGELS. 229
to speak poetically of angels of Jehovah, when they
simply wished to give vivid expression to their conviction of
God s all-wise and almighty providence. Consequently the
religious import of this conception really lies, not in the
special personality of the angels, but in their furtherance of
God s purposes of salvation. Thus it is said, " The angel
of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him,"
" Let the angel of the Lord drive them away and pursue
them," " For He shall give His angels charge over Thee to
keep Thee in all Thy ways." 1 Ps. xliii. 3 (cxlvii. 15), goes
even further, for God s light and truth are personified as
angels that attend on the saints. But Ps. civ. 5 is the
clearest of all, " God maketh winds His angels, and flaming
fire His ministers " ; or Ps. cxlviii. 8, " Fire and hail ; snow
and vapours ; stormy wind fulfilling His word."
6. When God is represented as surrounded by attendants,
it is natural to suppose that these were thought of as beings
of various ranks. Still that cannot be inferred, at least in the
sense of the later angelology, from any of the earlier passages.
The story in Josh. v. 13 ff., where the man with a drawn sword
who meets Joshua is called captain of the host of the Lord,
can hardly belong to the older strata of that book. And in
2 Kings ii. 11, vi. 17, as well as in Judg. xiii. 17, 18, there
is no word of the angels having special grades of rank, or
names, but only of fiery chariots and horsemen, and of the
fact that as the angelic beings are " wonderful," they decline
to come within the range of human ken. It is only from the
words, cherubim and seraphim, that one could infer that names
and titles were given to those beings before the time of Ezra.
In the first place, the cherubim are met with in early
passages as beings by whose aid God descends to earth, His
winged carriers who may be compared with the wings of the
wind, and the thick clouds in which His everlasting light is
veiled, that He may draw near the earth in a thunderstorm. 2
1 So Ps. xxxiv. 8, xxxv. 5, 6, xci. 11. 2 So Ps. xviii. 11.
230 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
Thus it is still said, in late poetry, " He sitteth upon the
cherubim," that is, comes near for judgment. 1 For in this
passage the poet is thinking not of the tabernacle adorned with
cherubim, but of God as the Lord of the world. It is like
wise said, " He maketh the clouds His chariot; He walketh upon
the wings of the wind." 2 Hence God is called " He who
sitteth upon the cherubim. 3 For this poetic expression
has originally no reference to the cherubim above the ark of
the covenant, with which, it is true, later times are specially
fond of connecting it. 4 It is in this capacity, as commis
sioners specially entrusted by the God of Israel with His
revelation to mankind, that the cherubim are also described in
the great visions of Ezekiel. 5
In the second place, the myth which B gives us represents
them as the God-appointed guardians of the tree of life. 6 For
this passage is not meant to represent the cherubim as
inhabiting paradise in the room of fallen man. With the
" flash of a brandished sword," that is, aided by a mighty being
whose duty it is to punish (the lightning ?), they have to
prevent fallen man from getting possession of the sacred tree
of life. Hence they watch the garden in which this tree is
growing. Later still, Ezekiel, when comparing the king of
Tyre to them, describes 7 them in much the same way as the
fiery guardians of the mountain of God in Eden, enthroned on
1 Ps. xcix. 1. 2 Ps. civ. 3.
3 The D^13n 3^ V which alternates with Jahve Zebaoth, 1 Sam. iv. 4 ;
2 Sam. vi. 2 ; Ps. Ixxx. 2, xcix. 1 ; 1 Chron. xiii. 6 ; 2 Kings xix. 15, should
always be first translated in this way.
4 I certainly agree with Riehm that Itjfr with the accus. is rather a strange
way of expressing "enthroned upon the cherubim," for which one would expect
*?$. But that the phrase should mean " He who inhabits the cherubim," i.e. He
who dwells between their wings, because God is present in the temple under the
shadow of the wings of the cherubim, seems to me linguistically still more
incredible, since living beings cannot be inhabited like a house. The ark of the
covenant is the place where He who sits upon the cherubim reveals Himself, and
at first there were no cherubim at all above it.
5 Ezek. L, ix., x., xi., xliii. H Gen. iii. 24.
7 Ezek. xxviii. 13, 14, 1C. Perhaps the word Eden, in xxvii. 23, suggested the
idea to him.
THE CHERUBIM. 231
lightning, and with their covering wings spread fully out.
Thus they protect the heavenly sanctuaries from profanation.
Finally, they are met with as symbolical ornaments of the
temple, not only in the ideal picture of A, but also in the
description of Solomon s temple, given in the book of Kings
and in Chronicles. Their proper place is in the Holy of
Holies. In the temple there were two large gilded cherubim
on both sides of the sacred ark, which completely covered the
Holy of Holies with their outspread wings. 1 In A s ideal
description they are small in size, made of gold and fastened to
the throne above the ark of the covenant itself, facing each
other and overshadowing with their wings the holy place of
God s presence. 2 Furthermore, they often appear in the
ornamentation of the temple as symbols of the divine
presence, and less frequently in the description of the taber
nacle. The portable washing vessels of the temple are
specially ornamented with them. 3
If we wish to form an opinion as to these beings, we may
be certain in the first instance of two things. The one is,
that to the Hebrew imagination the cherubim are really living
beings, not allegories, and beings too from the heavenly world
of light, serviceable to God as means of revelation. The other
is, that they are, in fact, products of the imagination; they
belong to that large class of beings with which, from of old,
the religious imagination of Asiatics has peopled the heavenly
world, and which owe their origin and character mainly to
religious symbolism. They are consequently, like every
creation of fancy, very variable in form, and do not, like
natural objects, brook the restraints of pedantic description.
1 t Kings vi. 2:3, 23, viii. ( ,.
-Ex. xxv. 18 ff., xxxvii. 7 If. (1 Ohron. xxviii. 18ft 1 . makes iiu special
reference to them).
:! Ex. xxvi. 1, 31, xxxvi. 8 ; 1 Kings vi. 32, 35, vii. 29, 36 ; 2 Chroii. iii. 10-13,
v. 7 f. These "lavers on wheels" appear to have been exported to the farthest
north and west to which Phoenician trade extended in the bronze age. Of. G. C. F.
Lisch, " Ueber die ehernen Wiigenbecken der Bronze-Zeit" (Jahrbb.d. Vereinsf.
mecklenburg. Gesch. ix. 372 ff., *^v. 215 ff., 1860. (Ewald, Gott. Nachr. 1859).
232 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
From the earliest days the holy God was pictured by the
Hebrew and certainly not by him alone as descending to
earth in the grandeur of the thunder-storm, seated on the
cherubim, that is, making the heavenly beings, who at other
times guard his sanctuaries, the vehicles of his revelation.
Hence it was natural, with Ewald and Pdehm, to think of the
black thunder-cloud as the prototype of the cherub. But I
must concede to Kosters that, from the analogy of other parts
of Asiatic religious symbolism, it appears more likely to have
been the storm-winds which carry the storm-God hidden in
the cloud and fight for him. 1 Then when the people wished
to represent the revealed presence of this God as at rest in
the temple at Jerusalem, they had no hesitation in frankly
adopting a well-known Asiatic symbol, and making Him a
throne over which these cherubim spread their covering 2
wings. The same symbol, too, was put on the walls, doors,
and sacred vessels, to express God s holy presence. This was
imitated in the ideal sketch of the tabernacle, in which God
speaks from between the cherubim 3 ; and it is also used in
the temple of Ezekiel, although but sparingly. 4 But when
Ezekiel thinks of God as coming for judgment, or to bestow on
Israel a new proof of His gracious presence, he again sees Him
seated on His throne and borne to earth by the cherubim.
And wherever God s sacred treasures have to be guarded and
hidden, the imagination bethinks itself of these beings as
the symbols of God s presence and of God s unapproach-
ableness.
The fullest description of them is given by the prophet
Ezekiel. He first sees four living creatures 5 with the general
1 Among the Assyrians also the storm-winds are in fact "the throne-bearers"
of the heavenly deity, the "water-bearers" of the thunder-god when fighting.
In Ps. xviii. the wings of the storm carry Jehovah, while the clouds are only His
chariot, not the motive power. Hence "the sound of the wings " plays so great
ar6le(Pa. civ. 3 ; cf. Ezek. i. 24 ; 1 Kings xix. 11 ; B. J. Ixvi. 15 ; Ps. xviii. 11,
1. 3). One may also think of Maruts, of the dogs of Indra, and of Odin.
2 *pD. 3 Ex. xxv. 22 ; Num. vii. 89.
4 Ezek. xli. 18 ff. 6 Ezek. i. 5 ff.
THE CHERUBIM. 233
appearance of a man, but each with four faces and four
wings, and straight legs with the feet of an ox. 1 Under their
wings are human hands ; and these wings are so joined that
chey never require to turn. The front face is that of a man ;
right and left of this are the faces of a lion and an ox, and,
behind, that of an eagle. The wings partly cover the body
and are partly used for flying, and when the creatures stand
still, they let their wings droop ; out of the midst of them
gleam tire, torches, lightnings ; and connected with them are
four wheels that can turn in every direction, called whirling
wheels. 2 These are, like the creatures, covered with eyes, as a
sign of their intelligence. They are living ; the spirit of the
creatures is in them. 3 These creatures are afterwards dis
covered by the prophet to be cherubim. 4 On the tips of
their wings is poised a vault like that of heaven, with an
azure throne of indescribable splendour, on which the glory of
God rests. Thus seated, the self-revealing God is borne by
the cherubim, with a mighty rushing noise, down to earth,
into His temple, and then borne aloft again. 5 They praise
God with sacred songs, and give to His commissioner some
of the holy fire between the wheels. 6 They are, therefore,
heavenly beings from the mysterious world where God dwells, 7
full of divine intelligence and light, 8 the bearers of God s
revelation. They are evidently described with great freedom,
and remind one of the seraphim of Isaiah. Perhaps the whole
picture is taken from the artistic form of the temple lavers, 9 or
from some other work of oriental art. At all events after
wards, in his description of the future temple, 10 Ezekiel gives
the cherubim only two faces, the right that of a man, the left
1 Ox-feet, because these, being round, can go both backwards and forwards.
3 Ezek. x. 12, 13 (*?&$.
3 Ezek. i. 21, x. 12, 17. 4 Ezek. x. 1 ff., 14 ff., 20. 5 Ezek. ix. 3, x. 3.
6 Ezek. iii. 12, x. 2. 7 Ezek. iii. 12. 8 Ezek. x. 12.
9 The Mechonah HJIDSn, 1 Kings vii. 27 ff. Was this a symbolic representa
tion of the primeval water moved by the power of Jehovah ? cf. above).
10 Ezek. xli. 18 ff.
234 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
that of a lion no doubt because it is impossible to conceive
of carved work on a plane surface with more.
Ezekiel s description is certainly much more detailed than
anything in the earlier passages. The cherubim of the temple
must, from their size, have stood upright, with only one face, 1
doubtless that of a man. They are also represented with only
two wings. From the description of the tabernacle one cannot
with certainty affirm more than that the passage in Ex. xxv. 20
gives these creatures only one face. The Chronicler has com
bined the descriptions of the temple and the tabernacle in a
manner absolutely impossible, for he makes the large cherubim
of the Holy of Holies turn their faces inwards, that is, towards
each other, as those of the tabernacle do. 2 From the position
of their wings, this is an impossibility. He also brings in
Ezekiel s notion of the cherubim-chariot at an unsuitable place. 3
The fact that E/ekiel himself acknowledges that it was only
by degrees that he recognised " the creatures " to be cherubim,
warrants the inference that his description of them was new.
Thus, whether Ezekiel based his description on actually exist
ing works of art or not, he certainly made the figure more
complicated, prompted apparently by the consideration that
beings which did not turn, needed to have a face each way. 4
The only question is whether this development entirely altered
the original idea of the cherubim, by making, as Kiehm
thinks, composite beings out of winged human forms, 5 or
whether it was only a development very easily explained by
the variable character of all symbolic figures, and in no way
injurious to the original conception.
For Kiehm s view there is, in fact, not a little to be said.
Since cherubim are found in the temple alternating witli
1 1 Kings vi. 23. In the temple their height was the same as the breadth of
their outstretched wings.
- 2 Chron. iii. 11-13. 3 1 Chron. xxviii. 18.
4 The divine presence cannot, of course, have a "backwards" and a
" forwards." It turns equally towards all the four sides of the world.
5 Similar in a way, according to the Rabbis, Thenius, Keil, Kurtz.
THE CHERUBIM. Zo5
lions and oxen, 1 it seems improbable that they themselves
can have had the form of these animals. Both in the
temple and in the tabernacle they are represented as straight,
upright, with two wings and one face. Hence, as they cer
tainly were not meant to be huge birds, they are probably
winged men. Besides, even in Ezekiel, the principal face is
that of the man. But Riehm s theory obviously goes beyond
the range of certainty. If the cherub was just an imaginary
composite form, it was quite easy and natural for Ezekiel
to make it more composite still, so as to suit the purpose
of his description ; for example, to make out of a figure, the
body of which had the feet of an ox, the wings of an eagle,
and the mane of a lion, a winged figure with four faces.
But it would not be natural to make out of a purely human
figure, with wings, a composite animal figure, to which he
is himself the first to apply the term " creatures." 2 Now,
in the Old Testament, the cherub is, from the very first,
represented as something quite well known in other words,
as something that had lived on in the popular imagina
tion since patriarchal times. Absolutely no instructions are
given as to how the pictures are to be executed. That is
simply left to the artist. This fact points, in my opinion, to
extraordinary composite figures like sphinxes, winged bulls,
etc., which could be readily made by any one in the usual
traditional form, rather than to winged men ; for in the latter
case more would depend on the general pose of the figure, and
detailed instructions would be needed, at any rate, as to the
expression and the style. Besides, as ornaments for the sanctu
ary and its lavers, animal figures were much morn in keeping
with the oxen, lions, palms, and flower wreaths, than winged
men. The passage, Ezek. x. 14, unless we are arbitrarily to
assume that there has been a pure error in transcription, can
only mean that ox and cherub were practically the same.
Furthermore, when the poet in Ps. xviii. makes God ride on a
1 1 Kings vii. 29 (36). 2 m s n, Ezek. i. 6.
236 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
cherub he cannot have given it a human form. Lastly, it
strikes me as intrinsically improbable that any carved work,
representing a human figure, would be placed in the Holy of
Holies. To symbolical figures, such as are found all over
Asia in connection with temples, there could be no objection ;
but winged men, as such, were necessarily out of place in con
nection with Jehovah. Hence I feel constrained to hold to
the view that the cherubim were composite figures, with the
feet of oxen, the wings of eagles, the manes of lions, and the
body and face of men, standing upright, and spreading their
broad wings over the sanctuary. 1 Under a variety of
influences Ezekiel afterwards made this figure still more
composite.
At all events the cherubim were not angels, but symbolical
figures, combining the noblest qualities of the created world,
a man being the symbol of intelligence, a lion of sovereignty,
an ox of strength, and an eagle of swiftness. They were
regarded as the special property of God Himself, as His
heavenly servants, seated on whom He descends to earth.
It is they who at once proclaim and veil His presence, as He
abides in the sanctuary. As proclaiming His presence,
while veiling His glory, they are in general the guardians
of God s sacred treasures, which no profane person dare
touch. 2 These notions are deeply rooted in the sacred
symbolism of the ancient world, as is shown by the griffins
that guard the divine treasury, the dragons that watch
the garden of the Hesperides and the Golden Fleece, the
sphinxes in front of the temples, and the storm winds that
move the primeval waters, and conduct to earth the glory of
the thunder.
1 It would certainly be difficult for our Western imaginations to conceive of
such figures, if we did not actually find ourselves confronted with, them, as in
the ruins of Nineveh. Vatke s "beak, which was also like a lion s maw," is
surely calculated to make one careful. Ziillig : "an upright two-footed winged
ox, with the face and hands of a man."
2 "pD Ex. xxv. 20, xxxvii. 9 ; Ezek. xxviii. 16 (Ps. v. 12, xci. 4, cxl. 8).
THE CHERUBIM. 237
Certainly the Israelites never doubted the actual existence
of such beings. But they are themselves never regarded as
objects of worship, but only as symbols of God s holy presence.
Their enigmatic form is in keeping with the mysterious nature
of the unsearchable God, an idea, in fact, that takes a
hundred similar shapes in the ancient East. They are
imaginary figures of a religious kind, designed to express
the thought at once of God s nearness and of God s un-
approachableness, all this being represented, as was the
custom of the ancients, in a very real and life-like manner.
That the word " cherubim " has no connection with the
Hebrew roots that are nearest to it in sound, I am quite
sure. It cannot mean either carved work, 1 or figure of fear. 2
Even the conjecture of Eiehm, who connects the word with
"the restraining of the divine splendour," points to a char
acteristic of much too rare occurrence. 3 Still less can it be
a transposition for Eekub, "chariot," 4 for even that is only one
side of the cherubim s action, not to speak of the linguistic
improbability of such a transposition of the root letters.
I think it far more likely that the word belongs to a
larger linguistic group ; but that is a point on which it cer
tainly does not fall to me to express a decided opinion. 5
7. What are the seraphim ? It is even more difficult to
answer this question than to say what the cherubim are. For
the only passage in which seraphim are mentioned 6 speaks of
1 From 2"O, to plough, tear up.
2 From 2"O, to render anxious. The connection with 3"ID, "to cultivate,"
as if the cherub were the cultivator, the ox, or the meaning "the anxious
one " as the servant of the great God, or even the comparison with QTp "the
one kept near," I simply mention as having actually been given.
;> T"G, constringere.
4 2TG for 213"! like ^DD ^OD, 1 Chron. xxviii. 18 ; cf. Hofmann, Redslob.
5 Garuda (Philostr. Vit. Apoll. iii. 18), ypv-^. If Lenornuuit gives the right
reading, then we have, in the naming of the winged bulls of Nineveh as
" Kirubi," the authentic explanation of the word. But it does not become me
to pronounce an opinion on the subject. ("Essai de comm. des fragm. cosm.
do Berose d apres les textes cuneiformes," 1871, p. 80.)
Isa. vi. 2f.
238 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
them as if they had been so long and so well known that no
explanation was needed by any body. Consequently we have
only the most incidental reference to their real character. The
description in Ezekiel l already suggests a certain connection
with the cherubim ; and the New Testament adopts the
view prevalent in its own day, and without further inquiry
assumes that the two are identical. 2 But this can hardly
be right. According to Isaiah, the seraphim stand before
God in the heavenly sanctuary 3 as His attendants. Each
has six wings. With one pair they fly, not indeed as if
they were always flying, for they stand before God ; but they
fly with them when the occasion for flying arises. With
another pair, from a feeling of humility, they veil their faces ;
and with the third pair, from a sense of modesty, they
cover their naked " feet." If the last word were used in the
ordinary sense, we should have to think of draped human
figures, of which only the head and feet require to be veiled.
But the prophet may quite as well use the word " feet " in a
euphemistic sense, and in that case it would exactly suit the
naked bodies of animals. 4 Indeed, on closer examination,
draped figures would have no place for the pair of wings
with which to cover their " feet." Their face is that of a
man, and it is a human voice that issues from their mouth. 5
Their hands, too, are human, and require tongs to lift a
burning coal. 6 Their number is considerable ; they stand
round the heavenly throne in a double choir. 7 They are not
cherubim, at all events, in our sense of the term. The
cherubim carry or veil God, and show the presence of His
1 Ezek. i. 11, iii. 12, ix. 3; cf. Isa. vi. 2ff. (cf. Hendewerck s view in his
" Habilitationsschrift," 1836).
2 Rev. iv. 8.
a PJJ no^j because the servant stands before his Master who is seated ;
cf. Gen. xviii. 8 ; Zech. iv. 14.
4 Cf. D^n, Isa. vii. 20. 5 Isa. vi. 3. G Isa. vi. 3.
7 The one choir sings, the other responds, and then both sing together.
Hence the threefold repetition of " Holy." The phrase "one of the seraphim,"
suggests that their number was considerable.
THE SERAPHIM. 239
glory in the earthly sanctuary. But the seraphim stand
before God as ministering servants in His heavenly sanctuary.
It is certainly difficult to obtain from the one passage in
which these beings are mentioned a clear conception of their
nature. And one readily understands how the name " Saraph "
suggested that serpents were meant, and, being connected with
the worship of ISTehushtan, gave rise to the idea that the
seraphim were serpents, likenesses of the one in paradise. 1
But serpents with six wings and also human hands and
mouth, and which besides stand erect, would be rather too
much even for an Indo-Egyptian imagination.
Nor can they well have been "burning ones" 2 angels
of hre ; for, in that case, why should the seraph take
the sacred fire from the altar ? and what need could he
have of tongs with which to take up a burning coal ? Of
course divine fire must touch the prophet s lips ; but the fire
with which the heavenly beings are all aglow is as much
divine fire as is that between the wheels which is thought
of in connection with the cherubim. 3
I have no doubt that 1 Kings xxii. 1 9 f. gives us a sufficient
explanation of Isaiah s vision. There, also, the prophet sees
God on His heavenly throne, with " the host of heaven " stand
ing in attendance on His right hand, and on His left. 4 There,
as in Isaiah, God s commission is being executed by one of
those standing by. Hence it is certain that here also the
seraphim are nothing else than the angel-hosts who are ranged
round the throne of God as a holy choir. In fact, the word
admits of a very obvious and suitable explanation. According
to the kindred Arabic root it means the notables, the princes. 5
This meaning is, indeed, the only suitable one. The throne
1 Num. xxi. 6, 8 ; 2 Kings xviii. 4 ; B. J. xiv. 29, the name Bpj?. Vatke,
Ewald, etc.
2 Lev. x. 16. It would be like tJJtf- OtOD.
3 I omit all reference to Serapis, Terafim, etc. 4 Also (>
s , j * i_i> -> cf. Steudel 225 (Sheri(l ).
240 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
of an earthly king is surrounded by none but the highest
nobles of the realm, who are in personal attendance on their
sovereign. In like manner the " princes of God s host " stand
around His throne the mightiest of the sons of God.
If this explanation be correct we have, in the seraphim,
a parallel to the appearance of the captain of the Lord s
host to Joshua. In that case we should, of course, have
to suppose that the human form is assigned to angels, as
to God, only when they appear to men, and that in the
heavenly sanctuary they are thought of as beings having
symbolically composite figures.
8. From the very first the post-exilic books show a
growing inclination to deal with superhuman beings, and
thus fill up the gulf between human life and God who is
gradually becoming more transcendental. But what is
already begun in Zech. i. viii., and B. J. xxiv., becomes
more marked, from the second century onwards, after the
manner of an age that is growing more and more theological.
Perhaps, too, the tendency is fostered by increasing acquaint
ance with the views of other Asiatic peoples.
In Daniel the angels are already represented as having
special names, such as Michael, Gabriel. 1 They are arranged
according to rank ; 2 and Persia, Greece, and Judea, have each
their respective princes who watch over their interests and
fight for them. 3 God has a council (divan) formed of a
special class of angels, 4 which promulgates the divine edicts.
Angel " myriads " 5 deliver the saints in a very materialistic
way. 6 As God s holy servants they wear linen garments,
and in token of their princely rank a golden girdle. 7 In
other respects they are represented as human figures,
surrounded by a halo of glory. 8
1 Dan. viii. 16, ix. 21, x. 13, 21, xii. 1. 2 Dan. x. 13, 21, xii. 1.
8 Dan. x. 13, 20, 21, xii. 5 ff. 4 Dan. iv. 10, 20 (Ty).
Dan. iv. 32,. vii. 10, 16. 6 Dan. vi. 22.
7 Dan. x. 5, xii. 6 (viii. 13). 8 Dan. viii. 15, x. 6, 16.
DOCTRINE OF MAN AND OF SIN. 241
111 Tobit, Raphael, one of the seven angels, who present the
prayers of the saints to God, and have access to Him, 1 is re
presented as the companion of the young Tobias, 2 although he
has nothing more than the semblance of corporeal functions. 3
The book of Enoch 4 regards the cherubim and the seraphim
as different orders of angels. In the story of Bel and the
Dragon, an angel carries Habakkuk by the hair of his head
to Babylon and back, merely to prepare a simple meal for
Daniel. 5 In the story of Susannah, an angel of God has
to destroy the evildoers. 6 Among the Essenes the names of
angels formed part of their secret worship. 7 Among the
Hellenists, as in the later Kabbala, the angels are, on the
one hand, connected with the divine forces, and on the other
with the souls of men, an idea quite foreign to the Old
Testament. The New Testament shows that in pious circles
there prevailed a belief in angels and demons, similar to
that in Tobit ; while theologically educated Pharisees, like
Paul, had a complete system of angelology. The Sadducees
rejected this doctrine as well as the doctrine of the resurrec
tion, probably because they saw in it the danger of an enthu
siastic conviction of revelation going beyond the accepted
forms of religion.
(b) Doctrine of Man and of Sin.
CHAPTER XII.
MAN.
LITERATURE. A. Halm, De natura Iwminis in V. T. obvia,
1846. Roos, Grundzuge der Seelenlehre ans d. licit. Sclirift,
1 Tob. xii. 15. - Tob. iii. 24, v. 411 ., vi. 411 . :! Tob. xii. 19.
4 Enocli Ixi. 10. 5 Bel and the Dragon, oC, o ( J.
G Sus. 55, 59. 7 Joseph. De Bell. Jud. ii. 8, 7.
VOL. II. O
242 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
1857. Beck, Umriss der liblischen Seelenlehre, 2nd ed. 1862.
Delitzsch, Biblische Psychologic. Cams, Psychologie der
Heir tier nach ihren heiligen Buchern (Posthumous Works,
vol. v.). Bottcher, De inferis rebusque post mortem futuris ex
Hebrceorum et Grcecorum opinionibus, libri duo, L. 1, vol. i.
p. 20 ff. Hofmann, Schriftbeweis i. 284ff. Auberlen, art.
" Fleisch," and art. " Geist ; " Oehler, art. " Herz " (in Herzog,
1st ed. 2nd ed. by Cremer and Fr. Delitzsch). Wendt,
Notiones carnis et spiritus quomodo in vetere Testamento
adhibeantur, 1877; cf. by the same author, Die Begriffe
Fleisch und Geist im liblischen Sprachgelmuche, Gotha 1878,
1-41.
1. No one looking at the religion of the Old Testament
historically will expect to find in it a scientific anthropology
or psychology, least of all in the earlier ages, to which
the very idea of scientific development was altogether foreign.
All that one can expect is a popular view of man as a
natural being, a view resting on purely external observation,
and while consistent in essential points, admitting of very great
freedom of expression. For on such matters a people, although
not given to regular philosophical study, has always a tolerably
uniform view. The labours of scholars, while conducive to
clearness, are also the first cause of distinct divergency of
opinion. Besides, we may expect that in the Hebrew nation,
as in every ancient people, their view of man was very closely
connected with their whole religious development. Before
the Greek school made its influence felt, the Old Testament
view of man, as a natural being, continued essentially the
same, although of course it is only the later writings that
afford anything like sufficient material for the treatment of
such questions.
From an external point of view, man is primarily flesh
pK>3), a material finite being, such as we meet with every
where in the visible world. The term flesh, especially in A
(where " all flesh " is a favourite expression of constant
MAN AS A NATURAL BEING. 243
occurrence), 1 represents both men and beasts as belonging to
the sphere of material life, and as being actually alive ; for
matter without life is not flesh but dust, or a vegetable
organism. The word "flesh," in itself, means the bodily
frame, 2 as distinguished from skin ; it means what is firm and
yet supple in the living body, as distinguished from bones and
blood ; 3 and then, by synecdoche, the body itself as a sub
stance used, e.g., for sacrifice or food.* It is, therefore, a term
in constant use to denote relations between human beings,
which depend solely on the bodily life. " To be one flesh,"
is to be joined bodily into one. 6 My flesh and bone means
my blood relation. 6 And, generally speaking, where functions
and conditions which concern the human body are described,
the word flesh is very frequently used instead of body. 7 Again,
by synecdoche, the word denotes material beings themselves
as such men and beasts as animal beings, belonging to
the world of sense. Hence, when a man speaks of himself
in relation to his material existence, " my flesh " may mean
the very same as " I." 8 From such a usage it is easily seen
that the word may also be employed to denote the limitations
and weaknesses of human nature. Of course, as a product of
nature, flesh is neither unholy nor unclean. Otherwise, as
Wendt rightly insists, it could not be used in sacrifice.
But as distinguished from the divine and spiritual mode of
1 Gen. vi. 12, 13, 17, 19, vii. 15, 16, 21, viii. 17, ix. 4, 11, 16, 17 ; Lev. xvii.
14 ; Num. xvi. 22, xviii. 15, xxvii. 16. (In Isa. xxxi. 3 ; B. J. xl. 5 ; Jer.
xvii. 5 ; Ps. Ixv. 3, it stands in sharper antithesis to God).
2 Lev. viii. 31, ix. 11 ; Num. xix. 5 ; Job x. 11 ; Ezek. xxxvii. 6.
3 Ex. xii. 8 ; Deut. xii. 27 ; cf. Gen. ii. 23, xli. 2, 3, 19.
4 Lev. vii. 15, 19 f. ; Num. xi. 4, 13 ; Jer. vii. 21 ; Hos. viii. 13 ; Deut. xii.
15 ; cf. Ex. xvi. 3, xxii. 30. Of course it can also he applied to any separate
part of the body (Gen. xvii. 11, 14, 23, 24). And fulness of "flesh" denotes
health and strength in man and beast (Gen xli. 2 ; Dan. i. 15 ; Job xxxiii. 25).
5 Gen. ii. 23 f., and often.
6 Gen. xxix. 14, xxxvii. 27 ; Judg. ix. 2 ; 2 Sam. xix. 13 f. More generally
of the kinship of human nature in general, B. J. Iviii. 7.
7 Lev. xv. 13, 16, xxii. 6 ; Prov. iv. 22.
8 Ps. xvi. 9, Ixiii. 2, Ixxxiv. 3. (Indeed, in poetry, even TnOtfy (my bones)
is used of man as a sentient being, Ps. xxxii. 3, Ii. 10).
244 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
existence, that is, in contrast with God as transcendental, a
fleshly being is also in itself finite, weak, and prone to sensuality
and selfishness. Man as " flesh " must, in contrast with God,
feel that he is worthless, mere " dust and ashes." l And
since he belongs to the class of fleshly beings, he is not
capable of being filled for ever with the vivifying Spirit of
God. 2 Spirit and flesh, God and man, are contradictories. The
flesh cannot see God. And God, on His part, has not eyes
of flesh, which the outward appearance deceives. The flesh
is frail, weak, incapable of justifying itself before God. God
is the living, eternal, unchangeable One. 3 And yet, on the
other hand, the flesh is also that which moves and feels, in
contradistinction to a dead stone, or to bones. Hence, " a
heart of flesh " can be contrasted with " a heart of stone "
as sensitive. 4
Now this material being is made alive by the " spirit " (nn). 5
Spirit is primarily something in motion air in motion.
Hence wind is so termed, 6 arid so is the breath in a living
creature, since it is air in motion, which betokens life. 7
In like manner the Spirit of God, originally, we may be sure,
conceived of in a rather material way, is the power of life and
motion inherent in Him. 8 It is from this Spirit of God that
1 Gen. ii. 7, xviii. 27 ; Ps. ciii. 14. 2 Gon. vi. 3.
3 This antithesis to God and spiritual life is found most strongly expressed in
Isa. xxxi. 3 ; Jer. xvii. 5 ; 2 Chron. xxxii. 8 ; Job x. 4. (Eyes of flesh, i.e.
liable to be deceived), Ps. Ixxviii. 39. (Frailty), Dent. v. 23. (No flesh can
see God), Ps. Ivi. 5, etc. (cf. Job iv. 19). Certainly, in such passages, it is
the physical iveakness of the creature that is primarily meant, not an ethical
defect, or a metaphysical principle distinct from God. But, according to the
view of the Old Testament, sin, which is common to all and can claim forgive
ness, is due simply to this weakness of the material creature.
4 Ezek. xi. 19, xxxvi. 26. 5 Zech. xii. 1 ; B. J. xlii. 5.
6 Gen. viii. 1 ; Ex. x. 13, 19 ; 2 Sam. xxii. 11 ; Ps. i. 4, civ. 4. (With this
is connected the meaning, windy, vain ; synonymous with $>3,-|, Job vii. 7, xvi.
3 ; Jer. v. 13.
7 Job xix. 17, xxvii. 3.
8 E.g. Gen. i. 2, vi. 3 ; Job xxxii. 8, xxxiii. 4, xxxiv. 14 ; Ps. civ. 29, xxxiii.
6. As the thunder is God s "voice," so the storm is His "breath." And
poetry attributes to Him the short hot breath that betokens rage, when it
describes how He draws near to judge the earth (Ex. xv. 8 ; Ps. xviii. 16).
MAN AS A NATURAL BEING. 245
all created life, the breath of every living thing comes. The
spirit of man is his vital force, 1 which depends on the Spirit
of God, and which returns to God whenever the individual
life ceases. 2 God is the Lord of the spirits of all flesh. 3
While the spirit of all created beings comes from God s Spirit,
the spirit within them is also primarily the breath, which is
the material representation of life. 4 But the word next
denotes also this life itself, as what moves and influences a
person, causing his moods and feelings. Consequently a
man may be anxious, dejected, grieved in spirit; 5 just as,
on the other hand, a man s spirit may be " refreshed "
and " aroused " when he is " in good spirits." Hence it
can be said, "in his spirit there is no guile." 7 But as
soon as the life represented by the breath ceases, the man s
spirit is no longer in him. 8
The word " spirit " is, from its origin, the natural anti
thesis to the word " flesh." 9 As possessing motion, life, and
invisibility, it is the opposite of what is inert, frail, material.
And from expressing the divine motive power, it naturally
denotes also the divine forces which rule the world. For, as
the vivifying power of God is represented as spirit, so also the
1 Zech. xii. 1 ; Ezek. xxxvii. 10 ; B. J. xlii. 5 ; Job xxvii. 3, xxxiii. 4, xxxiv.
14 ; Ps. civ. 30, cxlvi. 4 ; Eccles. xii. 7.
2 Job xxxiv. 14 ; Ps. civ. 29 ; Eccles. xii. 7.
3 Num. xvi. 22, xxvii. 16 ; corresponding to Jer. xxxii. 27, IBQ-^D TI^K.
4 1 Kings x. 5 ; B. J. xxvi. 9; Gen. vi. 17, vii. 15, 22. "Shortness" of
breath indicates displeasure (Prov. xiv. 29 ; Job xxi. 4).
5 Gen. xxvi. 35 ; Ex. vi. 9 ; B. J. liv. 6, Ixv. 14, Ivii. 15 ; Ps. xxxiv. 19, li.
19 ; Prov. xvi. 19, xxix. 23, xv. 13, xvii. 22, xviii. 14. When the spirit is no
longer "steadfast," "is no more there" because of fear, this is the natural
expression for absolute want of courage and strength (Josh. ii. 11, v. 1 ; 1 Kings
x. 5 ; Ezek. xxi. 12 ; Isa. xix. 3).
6 Gen. xlv. 27 ; Hagg. i. 14 ; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 22 ; cf. Prov. xi. 13, xv. 13,
xvii. 22 ; Jer. li. 11 ; Ps. li. 14. The material basis of all these ideas is still
clear enough.
7 Ps. xxxii. 2, Ixxviii. 8; similarly in Num. xiv. 24: "There was another
spirit in Caleb." Most clearly in Ezek. xi. 5 ; Josh. ii. 11, v. 1 ; Judg. viii. 3
(where the spirit of a man denotes the measure of his courage and strength).
8 1 Kings x. 5 ; Judg. xv. 19 ; 1 Sam. xxx. 12.
9 Isa. xxxi. 3
246 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
individual acts of power proceeding from Him, the beneficent
as well as the baneful, are called " spirits," whether they
are conceived of as really personal, or merely as acting like
persons. 1 In the same way, all extraordinary individual im
pulses of the spiritual life in man which God causes may
be described as spirits. Thus there is a spirit of heaviness,
of jealousy, 2 of wisdom, of power, of might, of prophecy, etc.
In many of these meanings the word " breath " ( n ?^) is
a perfect parallel to the word "spirit." It likewise denotes
the breath of life given by God to the creature, 8 and then
the life itself, of which the breath is the material represen
tation. 4
As soon as a material being is made alive by the Spirit of
God, 5 it becomes a soul (^), or, more accurately, " a living
soul " (njn utej) a self-conscious life with feelings and de
sires. 6 In so far as this soul is regarded as dwelling in a
man, it is the expression of his conscious individual life.
When the soul " departs," the man dies ; 7 to take one s soul
in one s hand is to risk one s life ; 8 to seek after the soul
means to seek a man s life ; 9 and many other expressions
prove that the soul is synonymous with the individual
conscious life. 10 Hence the soul is the seat of feeling, in the
widest sense. It is sad, joyful, angry. 11 It desires, hates,
1 1 Kings xxii. 21 ff., and often.
2 Num. v. 14, 30 ; Hos. iv. 12. Wendt s choice of the German word " Muth "
to indicate these varying " moods " of the spirit is a very happy one.
3 Gen. ii. 7, vii. 22. 4 1 Kings xvii. 17 ; B. J. Ivii. 16 ; cf. Ps. cl. 6.
5 Job xii. 10. 6 So Gen. i. 30.
7 Gen. xxxv. 18 ; cf. 1 Kings xvii. 21 ; figuratively, Ps. xix. 8, xxii. 30.
8 Judg. xii. 3 ; cf. v. 18.
9 E.g. Ex. iv. 19 ; 1 Sam. xx. 1 ; 1 Kings xix. 10, 14 ; Ps. xl. 15, etc.
10 Ex. xxi. 30 ; Num. xxxv. 31 ; ransom for the soul (Ps. xlix. 9, 16) ; Gen.
xxxii. 31; Josh. ii. 13, deliver the soul; 2 Sam. i. 9, "my soul is in me."
Generally, Ex. xxi. 23 ; Josh. ix. 24 ; 1 Kings ii. 23 ; Prov. xxii. 23, 25. In
this sense the millstone, as a condition of sustaining life, is called "the soul of
the poor " (Deut. xxiv. 6).
11 Gen. xliv. 30. So soul is knit to soul (1 Sam. xviii. 1 ; cf. Judg. xvi. 16,
xviii. 25 ; 1 Sam. i. 10 ; 2 Sam. xvii. 8). Akin to this is, " to afflict, defile the
soul" (Lev. xvi. 29, 31 ; cf. xi. 43 f.).
MAN AS A NATURAL BEING. 247
loves, and wishes. 1 Hence a man s soul may mean much
the same as " his desire, his wish ; " and this idiom is even
applied to God. 2 Hence, the verb meaning " to breathe
afresh," according to the desire of one s heart, is beautifully
derived from the word " soul." 3 And because the soul is
that in man which feels, wishes, and wills, it is the proper
word for his individual personality. Whenever a person
speaks of his feelings, wishes, etc., he may, instead of using
" I," also say " my soul." 4
But not only has man a soul ; he is " a living soul," as a
beast also is. For in this lies the peculiarity of a living being,
which actually distinguishes it from a non-animal created thing. 5
Consequently, " souls " just means men, persons. 6 Hence since
a dead person is still "somebody," it is strictly correct to
call him " a soul." 7 Thus a man can say, " let my soul
die," " my soul lives " ; while, on the other hand, death is the
departure of the soul, 8 and a person lives by his soul. This
soul, as the sentient personal life of man, is conceived of as
1 E.g. Gen. xxvii. 4, 19, 25 ; B. J. xlii. 1 (of God) ; Ps. xi. 5, xlii. 3, xciv.
19 ; Song of Solomon, iii. 1-3. So one pours out one s soul before God (1 Sam.
i. 15). Purely poetic in Isa. v. 14, of Sheol.
2 E.g. Ps. xvii. 9, xli. 3, Ixxviii. 18 ; Ex. xxiii. 9 ; B. J. Ivi. 11 ; even of
cattle, Prov. xii. 10 ; of God, Lev. xxvi. 11, 30. The expression in Isa. xxix. 8
goes furthest of all, for there "soul" is used as synonymous with desire of
food, appetite, "stomach."
3 $B3\ Ex. xxiii. 12 (of God, Ex. xxxi. 17).
4 E.g. Num. v. 6 ; Judg. xvi. 30, etc. Thus a friend is "as one s own soul,"
1 Sam. xviii. 1, 3 ; Deut. xiii. 7 i.e. trusted as one s own self; or dear as life ? ?
(1 Sam. xx. 17).
5 Gen. i. 20, 21, 24, ii. 7, 19, ix. 10, 12, 16, xlvi. 15, 18, 22 If., 27; Ex.
i. 5, x. 4, 16, xii. 18 f., xvi. 16 ; Lev. ii. 1, iv. 2, 27, v. 1, 4, 15, 17, 21, vii. 18,
20, 21, 25, 27, xi. 10, 46, xvii. 10, 29 ; xix. 8, xx. 6, 25, xxii. 3, 11, xxiii. 29 f.,
xxiv. 17, 18, xxvii. 2 ; Num. xvii. 30, xix. 13, 20, 23. Especially frequent
"to destroy a soul from among the people"; cf. Gen. xvii. 14. Especially
strong, "the blood of a soul," Prov. xxviii. 17.
6 So "to get souls," in the sense of getting persons as slaves, Gen. xii. 5 ;
Lev. xxii. 11. So " to smite souls "= to take life, Gen. xxxvii. 21 ; Num. xxxi.
19, xxxv. 11, 15, 30 ; Josh. xx. 3, 9. So " souls " for " people" in the phrase
despised by people," B. J. xlix. 7.
7 Lev. xxi. 1 f., xxii. 4, xix. 28 ; Num. v. 2, ix. 6, 10 (more precisely DE> tjfcjj,
vi. 6).
8 Judg. xvi. 30 ; 1 Sam. xvii. 55 ; Num. xxiii. 10 ; Gen. xii. 13, xix. 19 f.
248 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
embodied in the blood like the spirit in the breath, no matter
whether it is more accurately expressed as " the soul is in the
blood/ 1 or more boldly as " the blood which is the soul." 2
Hence we see the special significance of the " heart " (i?) s
in the religious terminology of the Old Testament. The heart,
as the centre from which the blood circulates, is the centre
of the soul s activity the centre not merely of the world of
feelings and wishes, but likewise of the plans and counsels of
the understanding, and of the conscience. 4 " Without heart "
means " without understanding." 5 It is not the head or the
brain but the heart, which the Hebrew considers the seat
of thought, of counsel, of conscience, and of moral guidance.
A new heart means a complete change of thoughts, views,
and aims. This soul, as the irredeemable jewel, is the
peculiar treasure of man s personality. The oldest writings
of the Hebrews are fond of describing it by poetic expressions,
which are meant to indicate its unique value. It is the glory
of a man ; 6 it is " his only one " 7 for the deliverance of which
all else must be surrendered and sacrificed.
The simple facts of the Old Testament use of language in
reference to man in his natural condition, as we have just
stated them, easily explain how the three principal terms
spirit, soul, and body may be used in relation to each other
in very different senses, so that scholars have ample scope for
1 Lev. xvii. lla.
2 Gen. ix. 4 ; Lev. xvii. 116 (where t?B33 and 1OT are explanatory glosses).
(Dent. xii. 23).
3 Parallel with this we have in poetry TY\ v3> to include the more delicate in
ternal organs of life (Ps. xvi. 7, xxvi. 2, Q^JO ; Ps. xl. 9 ; l"ip, Ps. Ixiv. 7 ;
ciii. i. (D^m).
4 E.g. Ex. iv. 21 ; Gen. vi. 5, viii. 21 ; Josh. vii. 5, xi. 20 ; Prov. iv. 23, xv.
13 f., xvi. 5, 23, xxiv. 32 ; Isa. x. 7 ; B. J. xlii. 25 ; Job xii. 2f.; Judg. xvi.
17 ; Ps. li. 12, "a pure heart " is=conscientia bona. "Wendt is quite right in
remarking that the German word "Sinn " is a better rendering of the word nb
than the word " Herz."
5 Hos. vii. 11 ; Jer. v. 21 ; Prov. xvii. 16, etc.; senseless.
6 Gen. xlix. 6 ; Ps. vii. 6 (xvi. 9. Ivii. 9, cviii. 2), 1U3.
7 mTV, P S - xxii - 21 > xxxv. 17 ; Job ii. 4 ; Ps. xlix. 9.
MAN AS A NATURAL BEING. 249
the exercise of their ingenuity in constructing out of them a
complicated system of psychology. It is self-evident that the
spirit, the force breathed into man by God, awaking life in
him, belonging to all men alike and returning to God, can be
distinguished from the soul, the separate personal life of the
creature, which conies into existence whenever the spirit that
proceeds from God renders a portion of matter capable of inde
pendent existence, and which consequently exists in relation
to God as a separate creature. And it is still more self-evident,
that this soul and this spirit can be distinguished from the bodily
substratum within which they develop their vital energy.
Consequently, unless one carefully studies the context of
the passages compared, one can easily persuade oneself that
there is already in the Old Testament that threefold division
of man into body, soul, and spirit, which is certainly found in
the later Jewish schools of philosophy that came under the
influence of Greek thought, and which thus found its way
naturally into the thought of several New Testament writers. 1
But every unprejudiced person, on observing how these
terms are interchanged in the frankest manner possible, or
supplement each other, will acknowledge that even the
appearance of justification for such a view has vanished. 2 If
the spirit be regarded as the life that has become the man s
own, then it is not a substance alongside of the soul, but that
very life which the person feels to be the source of his
activity; only, if one speaks of spirit, the emphasis falls on
the vital force common to all men, which connects them with
God ; whereas, when the soul is mentioned, men s personal
feelings, experiences, thoughts, and wishes are put in the fore
ground. The soul, like the spirit, leaves a man at death, and
it returns to one who returns to life. 3 If a man s spirit is
1 1 Thess. v. 23 ; Hcb. iv. 12.
2 Most clearly Job xii. 10, vii. 11 ; B. J. xxvi. 9.
3 1 Kings x. 5 ; Judg. xv. 19 ; Ps. Ixxvii. 4, cxlvi. 4 ; 1 Sam. xxx. 12 ; cf.
Gen. xxxv. 18 ; 1 Kings xvii. 21 ; 2 Sam. i. 9 ; Jonali ii. 8, iv. 3 ; Ps. cvii. 5
(just as we say "life is going," "consciousness is going") ; cf. Ps. xxxi. 6.
250 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
broken, saddened, distressed, his soul is also broken, saddened,
and distressed. 1 In fact, spirit may often be parallel with
heart, because the same conditions of life may, in respect of
form, be represented as increase or decrease of the vital
force and energy, and, in respect of contents, as special moods
of individual experience and temperament. 2 And just as
spirit and heart stand parallel to each other, we likewise find
soul and heart combined ; in which case " with all the soul "
denotes full personal acquiescence, and " with all the heart,"
full determination of the mind. 3 Now the Ego as a sentient
personality is called not merely " my soul " but likewise,
although more rarely, " my body," " my bones," in so far,
that is, as it refers to bodily states. 4 Such being the perfect
freedom which we find in popular and poetic diction, we can
only declare it certain that a distinction is always drawn
between the bodily substratum and the life revealed in it.
But this life which is revealed in the body is, at one time,
described as spirit, when the emphasis is to be put on the
power of life and will which has its origin in and is con
nected with God, and which is common to all men ; and, at
another, as soul, i.e. heart, when the individual personal life
produced by God is to be spoken of with its world of ex
periences or views. 5 Of course the words are never absolutely
synonymous.
The Old Testament is, at any rate, as far as possible from
holding the idea of a pre-existent soul which is clothed with
a body, that it may live an earthly life, whether as a promo
tion, or whether it is in this way degraded from its own
1 Gen. xxvi. 35 ; Ex. vi. 9 ; B. J. liv. 6 ; 1 Sam. i. 15 ; cf. 1 Sam. i. 10 ; Job
xxi. 4 ; Judg. xviii. 25 ; 2 Sam. xvii. 8.
2 Ex. xxxv. 21 j Ps. xxxiv. 19, li. 19; B. J. Ivii. 15; cf. Ps. Ixxvii. 4, 7,
Ixxviii. 8, cxliii. 4 (1 Sam. i. 15 ; cf. Ezek. iii. 7 ; Isa. xxix. 24 ; cf. Ps. xcv.
10). Also B. J. liv. 6, Ixv. 14, Prov. xv. 13, Ps. cxlvii. 3, cix. 16, li, 12 -(cf.
Ivii. 8, cviii. 2, cxii. 7) show the close affinity of the terms.
3 Dent. iv. 29, x. 12, xi. 13, xxx. 6 ; Josh. xxii. 5.
4 Ps. vi. 3f., xvi. 9, xxxii. 3, xxxv. 9, li. 10, Ixiii. 2, Ixxxiv. 3.
6 Cf. Wendt, I.e. 27.
MAN AS A NATURAL BEING. 251
higher spiritual existence and forced into the bonds of
the material world. In the oldest passage in which such
a view has been discovered, 1 the simpler expression, " The
Lord killeth, and maketh alive," has as its parallel the
poetically bold declaration, "He hurleth down to Sheol, and
raiseth up." But there is here nothing more than a conviction
of God s absolute power over life and death, over the upper
world as over the world of shades. 2 Of a sojourn of unborn
beings in the realm of Sheol the writer is not even thinking.
Nor can the passage in Job i. 2 1 serve as a proof of any such
thought. When Job says " Naked came I out of my mother s
womb, and naked shall I return thither," his meaning cannot
be that the womb out of which he came is the womb of
Sheol, in which his soul had sojourned before his birth. For
in other passages of the book the development of the embryo
in the womb is conceived of as a direct act of God s creative
power, and regarded as the genesis of personality. 3 With
an inexactitude allowable in poetry two things are identified
which are not exactly co-extensive, existence in the womb of
the earth, the common mother of all, after a life of conscious
ness, and existence in the womb of one s mother previous to this
life of consciousness. 4 The point emphasised is simply this,
that neither condition admits of possessions or honour.
It is somewhat different with the expression in Ps. cxxxix.
1 5, " When I was curiously wrought in the lowest parts of
the earth." Elsewhere " the lowest parts of the earth "
denotes the realm of the dead, 5 and in a Psalm of so very
late a date, we might quite well expect a reference to the
Hellenistic doctrine of pre-existence, which is quite clearly
referred to afterwards in the Apocrypha. 6 At all events, the
view that the psalmist is here speaking of a soul s existence
in Sheol previous to its life on earth is very much more
1 1 Sam. ii. 6. 2 Just as in 2 Kings v. 7 (Ps. ix. 14) ; Deut. xxxii. 39.
3 E.g. Job x. 8ff. 4 Of. Ecclus. xl. 1. 5 Ps. Ixiii. 9.
6 Wisd. Sol. viii. 19 f. (Tu Marcellus eris. Virg. Jn. vi. 713 if., 884).
252 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
probable than the fantastic notion that he means to express
a hope that his personality will be re-born after death in
the world of shades. But since the psalmist in ver. 13
simply expresses the popular view as to the origin of human
life, and since he must have confused soul and body, were he
to speak here of pre-existence, there is nothing left for us
but to suppose that this dark expression must be intended as
a poetical description of the mysterious origin of an infant s
life. 1
In the account of creation which B gives, he directly
contradicts the doctrine, of the pre-existence of the soul. The
body is formed first, and then the soul is breathed into it.
Consequently man is, so to speak, first body, then soul. 2 By
the manifestation of the creative Spirit of God, a portion of
matter is made capable of a separate existence in other words,
it receives a soul. And A s account of creation is in no way
different from this. Through God s creative word man comes
into being, possessed of body and soul ; and by ordinary genera
tion a second man was begotten " in the image of Adam."
Consequently the whole man, not merely the body, depends
on the development of the species. The blessing of fruitful-
ness is given to men in the very same terms as to beasts. 3
Hence human life is primarily only one of the forms in which
animal life is manifested. In relation to God it is simply a
created thing, just as the life of beasts is.
All through the Old Testament this is the standpoint from
which the relation of man to God is measured. Even if the
name Enosh (Bfatf) does not, by its very etymology, point to
the frailty and weakness of man, it is beyond all doubt
frequently used in this signification. 4 The early narrative
calls man "flesh;" 5 and A classes man and all other animals
1 In Ezek. xviii. 4, of course, the phrase, "Every soul belongs to God," merely
means that God concerns Himself as much about the life of one as about the life
of another.
2 Gen. ii. 7. 3 Gen. i. 22, 26, 28, v. 3.
4 Ps. viii. 5 (Job xxv. 6). 5 Gen. vi. 3.
MAN AS A NATURAL BEING. 253
together as " flesh." Hence, in the song of the early psalmist,
it is the highest proof of God s love and glory that He bestows
such high honour on a being so insignificant by nature as man. 1
The truly pious address God with the full consciousness of
being but " dust and ashes." 2 And all the writers of the
Old Testament speak in this strain. He who is born of
woman, formed of clay, whom the breath of the Almighty has
made, stands over against the spiritual personal God as a
weak creature of the dust. Being flesh, and therefore mortal,
he cannot be measured by the standard of divine being. 3 God
remembers that man is but a wind that passeth away and
cometh not again. 4 He knoweth the children of men who
must go down to the pit. 5 Man, even as man, is not in a
position to contend with God, and to enter into judgment with
Him. Even were he innocent, he could not answer for him
self. 6 But he cannot be innocent. Every son of man is by
nature vain, deceitful, weak, and full of faults. 7 Hence,
" Cursed is the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh
his arm ! " Foolish is he who is afraid of man that shall die,
and of the son of man who shall be made as grass. 8 His
generation is fleeting and frail. Were God to take back His
breath to Himself, then all men would become dust. 9 " Cease
ye from man in whose nostrils is a fleeting breath, for wherein
is he to be accounted of ? " 10
1 Ps. viii. 5. 2 Gen. xviii. 27.
3 Ps. Ivi. 5, 12, Ixv. 3, Ixxviii. 39; cf. Job iv. 19, xiv. Iff., xxxiii. 6; Isa.
xxxi. 3, 8 ; B. J. Ivi. 2.
4 B>UK, especially frequent in antithesis to God (Ps. ix. 21, x. 18, Ivi. 2 ;
B. J. li. 12) ; "Not to be measured by the divine standard" (Job vii. 7, 12, 16,
18 ; Ps. Ixxviii. 39, Ixxxix. 48, cxliv. 3).
5 DTN" 11 ^, Ezek. xxviii. 2-7, xxxi. 14. Even Ezekiel s usual phrase for him
self when addressed by God, DlfcTp, has this meaning, ii. 1, 3, 8, iii. 1, 3, 4,
10, 17, iv. 1, vi. 2, vii. 2, viii. 5, and often.
6 Jobix. 2, 11 ff., 19 ff., 29 ff.; Jer. xii. 1.
7 llos. xi. 9 ; Job xiii. 25 f., 28, xiv. 1, 4, xv. 16, xxv. 4 ; cf. Ps. xxxix. 6, 7,
12, Ixii. 10.
8 Jer. xvii. 5 ; B. J. li. 12. 9 Ps. civ. 29 ; Job xxxiv. 14 if.
10 Isa. ii. 22. (The attribute, "fleeting," is got from HEEO and its context ;
cf. nn, ion.)
254 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
Accordingly, that false contempt for the body into
which, like every age of declension, later Judaism fell,
has no foundation at all in the healthy realism of the
Old Testament religion. And the pious in Israel are
equally free from the self-exaggeration of Greek spirit
ualism, in which the difference between man and God
dwindles away to one of degree. Man is an animal being,
like all around him. And even according to the view of B,
it appears to be just what must as a matter of course befall
man, when regarded solely from the side of nature, that he
should, when his individual life is over, return to the dust
whence he was taken, and that the Spirit of God which
animates him should be withdrawn from him, as from other
individual earthly beings. For in this narrative death is, it is
true, a punishment for sin, and there is a possibility of man
" living for ever," should he eat of the tree of life. But this
simply shows that such " eternal life " is not dependent
solely on man s own development. Accordingly, when God
intimates his punishment to the man, He says, just as if He
were speaking of something quite in accordance with the
nature of things, " till thou return unto the ground ; for out
of it wast thou taken : for dust thou art, and unto dust shall
thou return." 1
2. But although the Old Testament includes man, so far
as his natural life is concerned, in the same class as the other
living creatures of earth, it is equally certain that it likewise
recognises a special dignity and glory which belongs to man
alone, of all earthly beings, and which raises him not merely
comparatively but absolutely out of the ranks of the animals.
Thus the singer of Ps. viii. 2 exults because, by God s unmerited
grace, " man is but a little lower than the Elohim." For he
does not mean to speak of God as God. He does not say
" he is but a little lower than Thou," or a little lower than
" Jehovah." The Septuagint and the Targum give the mean-
1 Gen. iii. 19. 2 Ps. viii. 6.
THE SPECIAL DIGNITY OF HUMAN NATURE. 255
ing quite correctly, although they limit the meaning of the
word too much, when they translate " than the angels." Hence
man is certainly lower than the class of divine, spiritual, ruling
beings. He is still " flesh." But he stands, in the constitu
tion of the world, next to this class of beings ; there is only
a slight gap between them. Indeed, " the breath of man is a
lamp of the Lord." l Man is not merely, like the rest of
nature, a revelation of God to others, but to himself also.
The Spirit of God is for him not merely a vivifying spirit,
but also the spirit of a conscious, personal, moral life the
spirit of wisdom, of might, of art, of prophecy. He is not
merely an instrument for the spirit, as nature is ; but he is
able by the help of the Spirit to make nature itself his
instrument. In this way he, too, is naturally put into the very
position of influence which belongs to beings like the Elohim,
as contrasted with flesh. He is God s vicegerent upon earth :
" Thou hast put all things under his feet :
All sheep and oxen,
Yea, and the beasts of the field ;
The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea,
Whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas." 2
The narrative by B of man s creation shows, in the clearest
manner possible, this unique position of man in the category
of created beings. The body of the man is formed by a special
exercise of God s artistic power, as is the body of the woman
afterwards. 3 The Spirit of God is communicated to the man
by an operation which God personally performs upon him. 4
Human life is therefore regarded as in a definite personal rela
tion to the divine life. Man does not merely reveal this divine
life as a natural life, in the way it is revealed by the other forms
of individual life in nature ; he reveals it as a life personally
active, self-conscious, and free. Hence the other terrestrial
creatures are created with express reference to man. 5 He is
1 Prov. xx. 27. 2 Ps. viii. 7-10.
3 Gen. ii. 7, 21, 22, 1^, PI33). 4 Gen. ii. 7 (cf. on the other hand, ver. 19).
5 Gen. ii. 19 (different in A).
256 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
given the right of naming them, and thus of showing himself
their master by his knowledge of them. 1 These expressions
imply that man is the ruler of every created thing that lives
on the earth. In relation to him, the other living things are
his property. Hence, too, the life of an animal can be given
to God as an atonement for human sin, while the body of the
animal is used as human food. 2 Thus man, though as a
terrestrial being mere dust and ashes, is, by the grace of God,
exalted high above every other creature that lives on the
earth.
In harmony with these ideas, man is represented all through
the Old Testament as exalted in a unique manner above
all the inhabitants of earth. For him God has, in a special
sense, emptied out upon the earth the cornucopia of His
blessings. 3 Man is capable of holding personal communion
with God, and of living a life that reaches out beyond space
and time. The Spirit of God is for him not merely the
spirit of life, but also the spirit of wisdom and understand
ing, of counsel and might. To get convinced of this, one
requires but to refer to Israel s covenant with God, to his
position of sonship, and to the figures of the prophets who
are considered worthy of proclaiming " the word of God."
As a spiritual and personal being, man is the goal of
creation.
We find this belief most clearly expressed in A s account
of creation. Before God creates man as the crown of His
creative work on earth He takes counsel, so to speak, with
Himself as to His intentions. He does not say, " Let there
be men," but "let us make man." 4 Man is something new,
not merely a higher stage in the animal world. And with
all the emphasis of repetition it is said that God made man
1 Gen. ii. 19 (and whatsoever the man called every living creature, that was
its name).
2 So Gen. iii. 21, iv. 4. (According to A it was only after the flood that the
life of the animals became the property of man, Gen. ix. 3 ft . ; Lev. xvii. 11).
8 Ps. civ. 15 ff. 4 Gen. i. 26.
THE SPECIAL DIGNITY OF HUMAN NATURE. 257
" in His own image," " after His own likeness." ] It is now
rightly acknowledged that these famous words cannot denote,
as the old Protestant orthodoxy maintained, a state of moral
perfection such as no longer characterises men as we find
them in the world of experience. For apart from the fact
that A knows nothing of a fall, but simply makes Seth
succeed Adam, it is said in Gen. v. 1, 3, in direct reference to
man being created in the image of God, that Adam in turn
begat a son, Seth, in his own image. And the same narrator
later on speaks quite naively 2 of actual men who lived after
the flood as " made in the image of God."
Nor can this expression, at least in its most special
nuance, refer to a bodily likeness between man and God.
True, it should not be denied that the body, as expressing
the self-manifesting personality, must have seemed to this
narrator to have the likeness of God, and to bear the
stamp of the dignity characteristic of human nature. The
human form is, as a matter of course, the form in which
both God and the angel of God appear. And in view of
the attention paid in these early ages to the visible and
the sensuous, this side of it must not be too lightly estimated.
But in the religion of the unportrayable God, and especially
in this writer, that cannot be the full meaning of the expres
sion. Still less can it be exhausted by the thought of
man s lordship over nature. This is merely the natural con
sequence of such special dignity, just as it is also connected
in Ps. viii. with his relation to the Elohim.
In the connection in which it occurs this expression admits,
in my opinion, of only one meaning. In contrast with the
1 Gen. i. 26, v. 1. The difference between D and niDI is simply the differ
ence between the concrete and the abstract. In like manner !3 and 3 correspond
(comparing him with the likeness side by side, including him in the likeness).
2 Gen. ix. 6.
3 The New Testament also does the same (1 Cor. xi. 7, James iii. 9), although
on the other hand, following the philosophy then in vogue which referred
Gen. i. to the Ideal Man, the Logos, it takes this " made in the image of God "
as expressing the ideal of humanity.
VOL. II. R
258 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
material, transitory, limited nature of "the flesh," there is
the Elohim nature, which finds perfect, personal expression in
God Himself, who is a spiritual, eternal, independent Being,
self-ruling, self-conscious, personal, and almighty. This nature
man does not possess. He is a material being, belonging to
the category of "flesh." But, on the basis of the material,
he alone of earthly beings reflects this spiritual, personal
nature. The image is the stamp left by a living spiritual
Being upon an inferior sensuous substance. Thus the seal
of the Elohim nature is stamped, as it were, on the substance
of the fleshly nature. On the basis of impersonal life, man
is to be personal ; on the basis of a transitory life, spiritual ;
on the basis of a limited, sensuous life, morally free.
3. Whether aboriginal man ever possessed a special
nobility of nature, which was afterwards lost, is a question
the solution of which can be sought for only in the accounts
by B and A of the origin of man. For it will hardly be
maintained that any other Old Testament writer even hints
at such an idea. 1 As an answer to this question, the view
given in B s narrative is perfectly decisive. 2 Beyond all
doubt he tells us of a first sin, and certainly, therefore, of a
previous condition in which there was as yet no actual sin
that is to say, he tells us of a state of innocence. 3 Now,
if we have been right in taking this narrative, with its
miraculous trees and speaking animals, as mythical, it
cannot at any rate be meant to teach us anything about
the historical condition of aboriginal man. It accordingly
gives us the thoughts of Old Testament saints as to the
power of sin over humanity in general, and as to the
1 How little Old Testament piety hesitated to acknowledge with gratitude
the full glory of human nature, even in men as they now are, is shown by
Ps. viii. Even the late declaration in Eccles. vii. 29, " God made men upright,
but they have sought out many inventions," is merely a statement of belief
regarding God the Creator, not a historical testimony as to man s original con
dition.
* Gen. ii. 46-iv. 3 Gen. ii. 7-25.
MAN S ORIGINAL CONDITION. 259
essence and origin of human sin apart from its particular
development in different individuals. But even one who
imagines he can treat this narrative as historical, provided he
really wishes to take a meaning out of the passage and not
put one in, will soon realise the truth of these words of
Schleiermacher : l " Even were the question as to whether this
section was meant to be historical distinctly answered in the
affirmative, nevertheless we should not get anything out of it
from which we could obtain a historical knowledge of such a
state of innocence." Everything that this narrative actually
tells us, follows as a matter of course, as soon as it is under
stood to speak of mankind, and that, too, in a condition prior
to the first sin. The knowledge of the man consists, first, in
his recognising the woman as part of himself in other words,
in having right natural feelings ; 2 and, secondly, in giving the
animals names in other words, in maintaining lordship over
the creatures primarily by speech, inasmuch as knowledge is
the first stage of appropriation. 3 The moral condition of
mankind is not described any further than by stating that
the man and the woman in living together are not ashamed
of being naked ; 4 that is to say, they possess that innocence
of childhood with which every human life starts afresh, and
which is probably the uncorrupted starting-point of morality,
but at all events not its goal. It is simply assumed as self-
evident that there was, previous to the fall and to the experi
ence which it afforded of sin and guilt, a state of unconscious
innocence. 5 Finally, as regards the religious relationship of
man to God, man hears the voice of God commanding and in
structing him. But that is the case afterwards even with Cain,
not to speak of Noah and Abraham. 6 So there is nothing told
save what is absolutely self-evident. There is not the faintest
indication of an actual primitive condition being described,
1 Glaubensl. 72. 2 Gen. ii. 23. 3 Gen. ii. 19 f.
4 Gen. ii. 25, cm>. 5 Gen. ii. 17 ; cf. iii. 7.
6 Gen. iii. 911 ., iv. 6f., vii. Iff., xii. Iff.
260 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
much less of any doctrine regarding such a condition. In this
narrative we can find nothing more than an expression by Old
Testament saints of faith in the destiny and dignity of human
nature, a faith which, in spite of all the testimony of experi
ence to the dimness of this nature in individual men, holds
_ fast to the divine thoughts revealed in the creation of man.
With this, the other features of the narrative correspond.
Man is fitted for fellowship with God, and hears His voice,
the voice of the moral law. He can arid should do the will
of God, freely and lovingly. 1 The earth is given him as the
field of his activity. It is in the first instance, by the good
ness of God, made a garden, so as to afford man easy work and
innocent enjoyment. 2 As speaker and thinker, he rules over
the inhabitants of the earth, and thus the whole realm of the
knowable and the beautiful lies open to him as his life-work. 3
The closest and strongest of ties is made the foundation of
all moral intercourse : the love of husband and wife, the
marriage of one man with one woman a union in which,
according to God s appointment, the wife is to be a help, not
a toy, or a being leading an idle, aimless life, but a helpmeet
for man, in other words a human being with equal rights, not
a slave to male tyranny. 4 And the life of man, being of course
on its natural side material and finite, is subject to dissolution,
and returns to the dust from which it is taken. But on the
ideal side it is capable of attaining to an eternal life, like
that of the Elohim. In the garden of Eden there grows the
tree of life, 5 to eat of which would confer indissoluble life.
Man, as sinful, is, it is true, driven away from this tree.
But if without sin, he would, according to the meaning
of the narrative, have succeeded in eating of its fruit.
Hence, immortality is certainly implied in the idea of
1 Gen. ii. 16-21. 2 Gen. ii. 8ff., 16.
3 Gen. ii. 19 ff. 4 Gen. ii. 18, 21-24.
5 Gen. ii. 9, iii. 22, 24 (cf. the tree of life of Bundehesch, the sacred tree of
the Hindoos, of the Assyrians ; cf. Layard, Nineveh and Babylon, p. 426).
GENESIS II. -III. 261
man. When human nature is thought of, apart from its
actual disorder, it must be conceived of as not subject to
death. But, as a sinner, man is deprived of eternal life and
given over to death and the doom that follows. The tree of
life grows only in the garden of Eden. Eternal life does not
reside in human nature as such. It lies before man as his
moral goal, dependent on communion with God and the ideal
man. According to the narrative, this tree, like the other tree
beside it, is certainly meant to be a real tree, having physical
properties. But it is on the soil of religious thought that
such trees grow and bear fruit.
It is obviously a strong point in favour of our having rightly
gauged the bearing of this passage, that nowhere in all the Old
Testament is there any mention made of the historical condi
tion of primeval man. This silence would hardly be possible,
were such a doctrine taught in one of the most celebrated
documents dating at least from the ninth century. Prophecy
has to do with quite a different " state of innocence," and with
quite a different fall from that of Adam : with the ideal of the
people and its fall. Of course we should not be surprised to
find in the prophetic writings allusions to Adam and his sin,
just as references to Abraham, Jacob, and Noah are by no
means rare. Were there any such allusions, they would be
mere reminiscences of the very earliest history, not doctrines
regarding the original state of man and the fall. But it seems
to me wrong to find such allusions in any of the Old Testament
books that have come down to us. In Job xxxi. 3 3, it is not
said, " If like Adam I concealed my sin " for that is certainly
not the characteristic of Adam s conduct, according to the
narrative in Genesis but " If I after the manner of men kept
my sin secret." 1 Hosea vi. 7 is to be translated, as is clear
enough from vi. 4, v. 1 0, " They are as men who have trans
gressed a covenant," i.e. utterly untrustworthy, deceitful men. 2
1 Cf. Ps. xvii. 4, D1K niyS;?, "as men are wont to do."
2 Or else, "They transgress My covenant as if it were a human covenant."
262 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
Lastly, in B. J. xliii. 2*7, the context shows that "the first
father " of Israel who sinned, is not Adam, for Israel is being
contrasted with the other nations. It is rather Jacob-Israel
who is meant, the real ancestor and true prototype of the
people, who in fact appears also in Hosea and Jeremiah as
the ancestor from whom the sin of the people has been
inherited. 1 The fall of Adam is first referred to after the
fashion of the scribes in the Apocrypha. 2
Now if B s narrative does not warrant us in finding in the
Old Testament the doctrine of a historical state of perfection,
A s leads, beyond all doubt, to the same conclusion. In this
narrative, immediately after the description of man s creation
in the image of God, and of the blessing bestowed upon him,
we are told how the race was continued from Seth to Noah.
It is then simply mentioned that all this race, with the excep
tion of Enoch and Noah, fell into a state of deep depravity;
and this is regarded as fully accounted for by the weakness
of the flesh. 3 It is thus nowhere assumed that our first
parents possessed a nobility of nature now lost. No doubt it
is said that man was created good, and indeed very good, like
every created thing. But he is thereby merely declared to be,
like all other creatures, good in his natural condition, i.e. in
accordance with the creative will of God * in other words,
furnished with all the qualities of body and spirit necessary for
such a creature. As to whether he was also good as a moral
being, the narrative says, and can say, nothing. Creation as
such cannot make anything either morally good or morally bad;
nothing but the exercise of free will can do that. Creation
can only produce what is morally indifferent, that which is
as yet neither good nor bad, that is to say innocence.
From these narratives, therefore, we can infer nothing as
to the moral and religious condition of primeval man. But
B and A show us, we may be sure, the religious view of what
i Hos. xii. 4ff.; Jer. ix. 3, * Wisd. Sol. ii. 23 ff.
Gen. i. 26 ff., v. 11 ff. 4 Gen. i. 31.
NARRATIVE NOT HISTORICAL. 263
was set before humanity, as the goal and object of its being
that is, the divine idea of man. It is man s primary duty to
exhibit the life of the Elohim on the natural stage of the
material earth ; he has to raise himself to the level of a
personal, spiritual Being. He has to hold religious com
munion with God. For since God created man for a special
purpose of His own, He speaks at once to His new creature
and tells him of his vocation. 1 And wherever men are
mentioned who are regarded as true examples of a perfect
human life, such as Enoch or Noah, it is said that they
walked with God 2 in other words, that they constantly felt
that their whole life was being spent in the presence of God.
Hence morality and religion are reckoned the most character
istic possessions of every one who wishes to be a true man ;
and they are conceived of as being attainable by man as a
personal and spiritual being. Upon this conviction that man
was endowed at creation with a capacity for fellowship with
God and for moral life, the whole religion of Israel, with its
idea of the kingdom of God, its worship, and its prophecy,
is founded.
In the next place, family life belongs to the idea of man.
God creates man " male and female," and bestows on them
the blessing of fruitfulness. Marriage, as the union of one
man and one woman, is the natural foundation of all the
moral development of mankind. 3 Lastly, it belongs to the
idea of man that he should rule over the earth. Man is, by
his knowledge and will, to appropriate to his own uses the
soil of mother earth, as well as all its creatures, and make
them minister to his higher life.
4. Of special interest is the question, whether and in what
age one can find in the Old Testament the ideal premises
1 Gen. i. 28 ff.
L> Gen. v. 22, vi. 9 (fifr? "Jpnnn)- Somewhat different is OSD? "pfinn, to walk
as before the holy eye of God, that is, conformably to His will.
3 Gen. i. 27 f., v. 1.
264 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
of the doctrine of immortality, that is, the belief that eternal
life also belongs to the idea of man. Thoughts which point in
this direction are found in the Old Testament as far back as we
can go. Even in the early fragment, Gen. vi. 1-3, it is taken
for granted that if mankind had not sinned by going beyond
their proper sphere, they would have had the Spirit of God
"ruling in them for ever" in other words, they would
have been immortal. Consequently we have here the notion
that the ideal man is possessed of immortality. In B we
have found the notion that by remaining in Eden that is, in
fellowship with God man would have had everlasting life
within his reach. It is the same fundamental thought, when
Elijah is taken up by God to his home in heaven without
seeing death. 1 And even in A we find expression given to
this belief when he relates, certainly in accordance with the
primitive view of the national legend, that because " Enoch
walked with God," God took him. 2 For that expression can
not mean that he was cut off by a premature death. That
would be, according to the universal view of the Old Testa
ment, not a reward but a punishment. The idea rather is
that Enoch, without dying, is taken up to fellowship with
God. Consequently, when man raises himself into a true
union with God, he is represented as fit for an everlasting
life with God. 3
This belief that by approximating to the ideal of man in
other words, by living a pious God-fearing life one may obtain
the assurance of an everlasting life, proof against death, is still
more strongly expressed in the older portions of tlie book of
Proverbs. There it is said, " The way of righteousness is not
1 2 Kings ii. 1-11. Certainly ver. 16 already shows some uncertainty about
the narrative. It is clear that the Chronicler, even if Ewald should be right
in maintaining that he does not contradict the whole story (Avhich appears to
me not likely), passes it over in complete silence.
2 Gen. v. 21-24 (DTl^N 1DK Hpi?).
3 Besides, in the Izdubar epic, one may read quite a similar story about the
hero in the legend of the flood, whom God loved. Here also our writers had
perhaps before them elements of Chaldean legend.
THE IDEA OF ETEKNAL LIFE. 265
death," l and " with the death of the wicked hope perisheth," 2
from which the opposite is inferred regarding the pious. Such
words sound so strong that one might almost think they teach
a doctrine of immortality. But the more closely one examines
the language of the book and its use of the concepts " death "
and " life," the more cautious will one become in dealing with
such statements. The thought that death as a judgment, or
a visitation of providence, can, in certain given cases, be
avoided by wisdom, righteousness, and piety, which disarm
the wrath of God, is often expressed in words 3 so similar that,
even from the passages quoted, one cannot with safety infer
more than this, that, with the thought of fellowship with God
and of close approximation to the ideal of man, there is in
voluntarily connected, and that too occasionally with surpris
ing vividness, the consciousness of an eternal life that does not
succumb to death. Nor is there anything more than this
implied in the Psalms which fall to be considered in connec
tion with this question, viz. Ps. xvi. and xvii. 4
The singer of Psalm xvi. describes in the first four verses
his relation to God and to earthly parties. God he regards as
his highest good. To earthly parties his relation is such that
he says " of the saints who are in the land/ " they are the
excellent in whom is all my delight ; " and that he exclaims
in sharp antithesis to this
" May their sorrows be multiplied who woo other gods :
I would rather pour out blood than offer them drink-offerings,
And their names I will not take upon my lips."
In the next four verses he asserts with his whole heart that
this position which he has taken up, and all that follows from
it, he has found to be the most desirable and delightful
course which his soul could have chosen, so that he thanks
1 Prov. xii. 28.
- Prov. xi. 7 ; of. xiv. 32.
3 Prov. x. 11, xi. 4, 19, 28, xiii. 12, 14. xv. 24, xvi. 22, etc.; cf. Ps. xxi.
5, 7.
4 Hardly belonging to a very early age.
266 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
God and his own insight for guiding him to such a choice.
In the last three verses the psalmist gives expression to this
feeling of satisfaction, security, and joy :
" Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoiceth :
My flesh also rests securely.
For Thou dost not give my soul over to Sheol ;
Neither dost Thou suffer Thy loved ones to see the pit.
Thou showest me the path of life :
In Thy presence is fulness of joy ;
In Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore."
As God s friend, the singer is confident that he may defy death :
he feels sure that God will not forsake him, will not give him
over to death; that he may, on the contrary, rejoice, un
troubled by fear or anxiety, in the happiness which results
from communion with God, and which God bestows upon His
own. 1 At any rate, there is no question of resurrection and a
future life. Joy " in the presence of God " simply means the
joy in God s fellowship, which is very often vouchsafed to the
pious while on earth. Nor does the poet hope to rejoice at
the right hand of God. 2 He says rather that God holds in
His right hand joy and happiness, for the purpose, that is, of
giving them to the pious. And here, as so often elsewhere in
the language of poetry, the expression " for evermore " does
not exclude a normal end. 3 But that there can be no ques
tion of a complete miraculous preservation is shown by the
general character of the phrase, " Thou dost not suffer Thy
loved ones to see the pit," i.e. to die. Hence in themselves
these words are merely a testimony to that sense of security
which fellowship with God gives a man when face to face with
some danger that threatens to be fatal. Nevertheless, their
general impression certainly is to give the reader the feeling
1 Ps. xi. 7.
- The passages where 3 is apparently used in such a sense can be shown either
to depend on a verb which requires 3, as Ps. xvii. 7 ; B. J. xlv. 1, Ixii. 8 ; Ezek.
xxi. 27, or to have also the meaning "with the right hand," "in the right
hand;" Gen. xlviii. 13 ; Judg. xvi. 29.
3 l"l3 and D^iy, in this sense Ps. xxii. 27, xxi. 5, 8, 9, xli. 13, Ixi. 5 ; 1 Sam.
i. 22, xiii. 13 ; 1 Kings i. 31, etc.
THE IDEA OF ETERNAL LIFE. 267
that conscious fellowship with God implies a consciousness
of being raised above death in other words, that the idea
of man brings with it also the idea of an everlasting life
which death cannot impair. Consequently, this Psalm can
only tend to strengthen the impression already received that
eternal life is implied in the idea of man.
It is somewhat different with Psalm xvii. In the opinion
of many expositors it is meant to contain the hope of a
resurrection. In this case the subject under discussion would
be, not an eternal life proof against death, but the hope of
a restoration to life through the coming abolition of death.
This would, however, touch quite a different side of the
question, a question which could only find an answer in the
hope of the Old Testament. But even this is, in my opinion,
not the case.
In the first five verses of his song, the poet prays, " Help
me according to mine innocence." 1 In the following seven
he adds, " Deliver me, according to Thy righteousness, from
the bloodthirsty foes who are plotting my ruin," and then
with the malice of his adversaries fresh in his memory, he
closes with the entreaty :
"Arise, Lord,
Confront him, cast him down :
Deliver my soul from the wicked by Thy sword ;
From men, by Thy hand, Lord,
From men whose portion in life is but brief,
And thou wilt fill their belly with Thy stored up wrath :
Their children become sated with it,
And leave the remainder of it to their sons.
As for me, I behold Thy face in righteousness :
I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness." 2
1 Thou hast proved mine heart ; thou hast visited me in the night ;
Thou hast tried me, and findest nothing ;
While I meditated, I did not transgress with my mouth as men are \vunt to do ;
By the word of Thy lips I have kept me from the ways of the violent."
2 The reasons that have induced me to reject the usual translation of these
confessedly difficult words, and to follow the rendering proposed by Hitzig, are
the following : (a) Hpn certainly means duration, duration of time, and then the
268 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
In righteousness, which alone renders such a sight possible, the
righteous man beholds the face of God, in other words, he
has access to God, enjoys gracious fellowship with Him. 1 This
thought certainly contains no reference to a future life. In
contrast to the terrible downfall of the wicked, it simply
testifies to the confidence of the righteous that he will enjoy
the goodness of God " in the land of the living." Least of all
can " the awaking " here mentioned mean awaking from the
sleep of death. The meaning of the word itself is enough
to settle that. For where the word is meant to refer to
awaking from the sleep of death, 2 death must be expressly
described as a sleep. But the strongest reason why it can
not have this meaning is because the singer is hopeful of
being rescued from the death by which he is threatened,
and is therefore not expecting to die. Were such emphasis
given to the hope of resurrection, his prayer would be utterly
world as existing in time (Ps. xlix. 2, xxxix. 6, Ixxxix. 48 ; Job xi. 17). But
"Pn BTID can never mean, without fuller explanation, "men of the world"
as contrasted with "men of eternity," not to speak of the fact that every one
would expect Hpn T)D. All mankind are "men of the world." (6) It must
be the wicked who are described as those whose "portion in life," etc. But
in the Old Testament D" 1 *!! never means the fleeting life of sense, but just that
intense life, the last stage of which is eternal life. "Men whose portion is in
life" would mean much the same as <r ix.va. <ry; &&gt;?<;, but never "children of the
world." (c) If it really meant, "Thou fillest their belly with Thy stored-up
treasure, i.e. with blessings, they are full of children, and leave the rest of
their substance to their babes," that would be prosperity of the very highest
and most lasting character, such as may indeed fall to the lot of a wicked man,
but which in that case presents itself to the eye of the saint as something
quite incomprehensible, as the very hardest of puzzles (Job xxi. 6 ff. ; Mai. iii.
14 ff.). No Old Testament saint would ever have chosen these expressions to
describe "the fleeting joys of earth." Besides, the contrast of ver. 15 requires
that a mournful fate should be described in vers. 13 and 14. (d) What God
has stored up is His punishment (Job xxi. 19 ; cf. xxiv. 1), of which the children
and the grandchildren of the wicked man are still to get their fill. "To fill
the belly" means "they must swallow it" (Job xx. 23). Hence, everything
tends to show that thes<- expressions depict the destruction of the wicked man,
to which the antithesis " but as for me " also points. Still one has the impres
sion that the text is corrupt to an extent which makes an absolutely certain
exposition impossible.
1 For this expression, e.g. Gen. xliii. 5.
2 Kings iv. 31 ; Job xiv. 12 ; Jer. li. 39, 57.
EVIL OUTSIDE OF HUMANITY. 269
empty and pointless. 1 It may be added that the awaking
can scarcely be understood as an awaking from " the night
of terror," or " from the particular slumber to which the
singer was about to yield." The best meaning of it is,
" every new morning " I shall see the likeness of God. 2
He will reveal Himself to me as my deliverer. Hence
this Psalm cannot be of any value to us in our present
inquiry.
CHAPTEE XIII.
EVIL OUTSIDE OF HUMANITY.
1. The earliest parts of the Old Testament never speak
of a superhuman evil Being as the personal cause of human
sin, and of the ills which humanity has to suffer. It is
true that the early fragment, Gen. vi. 13, mentions the
Elohim as beings whose interference with men places the
latter in antagonism to the will of God. But in this
story their action is certainly not represented as sinful, in
the sense in which the later theosophy has taken it. The
" sons of God " are not punished, or even censured. In all
that is said about them, they are simply depicted as beings of
unlimited power, but not at all as sinful. Least of all are
they the representatives of a principle of evil. The point
of view taken in this little story is a purely natural one.
1 Cf. esp. vers. 7, 8, 9, 13, 14. If it be his resurrection that is to console the
psalmist, then his prayer for deliverance from present distress loses its whole
force.
2 This would give to rUlED a meaning something like that of a prophetic
vision, alternating in poetry with "to see Thy face ;" cf. Ps. xi. 7. The text
can hardly be correct. But it is less probable that "jrO UDN should be read than
that, following the LXX. (cf. Num. xii. 8), we should take ppfQ as a corrup
tion of niTCD, or some such word (I shall be satisfied when I see Thy counte
nance, Thy glory).
270 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
No moral standard is applied to the conduct of the Elohim.
They are " nature spirits," figures out of the ancient mythology,
which have already become shadowy.
The Spirit of God no doubt works evil too, but only
because every spiritual effect, whether felt by the individual
to be beneficial or baneful, is attributed to God. 1 Indeed,
even when this effect, e.g. deception, is thought of as per
sonified " in a spirit," 2 this spirit is certainly not an evil
spirit ; he simply brings out by his action one side of the
divine will. He belongs, in fact, to the host of heaven which
surrounds the throne of God ; and in order to execute God s
sentence of condemnation he becomes a lying spirit. Natur
ally also God s messengers very often appear as His active
instruments of destruction, judgment, and death. 3 But they
need not on that account be bad, any more than God Himself
who quickens and kills, pardons and condemns. In such cases
the moral standard is quite as inapplicable to these beings as,
in the case of human relationships, to those state officials who
have to discharge a disagreeable but just and necessary func
tion. In fact, it can be clearly proved that in the narratives
belonging to the original book of Kings this class of baleful,
morally or materially pernicious acts, which a later age was fond
of transferring from God to the evil Satanic being, are still
quite frankly ascribed to the direct agency of God. 4 Nor is
there any clear example found in early days of neighbour deities
being subsequently changed into demons, although such pro
cedure is so natural and necessary that it has occurred again
and again in other ages. 5 Lev. xvii. 7 belongs originally to
1 Judg. ix. 23 ; 1 Sam. xvi. 14, 23, xviii. 10, xix. 9 (xxvi. 19).
2 1 Kings xxii. 19ff.
3 Ex. xii. 23, JVJIBfo (cf. Gen. xix. 22 f. ; 2 Sam. xxiv. 16 ; 2 Kings xix.
35; Ps. Ixxviii. 49. Probably, according to Jer. xxiv. 2, "angels of misfortune "
(Del.), not angels of damnation. But, in any case, there is nothing about
morally bad angels.
4 2 Sam. xxiv. 1 ; cf. 1 Chron. xxi. ; Zech. iii. 1 ff.
5 Cf. the change of the Philistine god ni^P^D, 2 Kings i. 2, into the (l^Z,*.-
fatx of Matt. xii. 24, 27.
ORIGIN OF THE IDEA OF SUPERHUMAN EVIL. 271
the document of A ; and besides, the Seirim l here mentioned
are not evil beings at all, but rather, according to ver. 8 ff., a
species of satyr to whom it was customary to offer a share
of the sacrifice in the open fields ; and they certainly belong
not to Old Testament religion, but to the highly coloured
creations of popular fancy.
In like manner, the figure of Azazel, which plays such a
prominent role in A s description of the day of atonement,
cannot be used as a clue to what ancient Israel thought
regarding evil outside of humanity. We have already shown
that this name must certainly be understood as describing
a mighty being, to whom one of the animals presented as a
sin-offering is sent, laden with the guilt from which Israel has
now been freed, as a visible token that there is no longer any
guilt in Israel. We have also seen that this mighty being
must be conceived of as hostile to the God of Israel. But
even although the whole custom were really a very ancient one,
it would be of little service to us in our present inquiry. In
any case, there is no question of a morally evil being who
causes and loves sin, of a Satan in the Neo-Judaic sense.
Even if we give the words the widest possible meaning, we
have to deal only with a kakodsemon (evil demon) in the
ancient sense, i.e. not an ethically bad spirit, but a malevolent,
destructive one. Perhaps a being regarded by the kindred
Semites as divine, was degraded to this position by mono
theism. The idea is that outside the sacred camp, where
there is no covenant with the true God, and where holy
fellowship with Him is at an end, an unclean being, driven
out from the sanctuaries of Israel, bears sway. Azazel
is certainly " a prince (?) of this world," and, in fact, of a
world lying in wickedness, unredeemed. But, of course, it
means nothing more than that this world is felt to be
excluded from the blessings of the covenant, and this power
to be impure and vicious. From such a notion as this,
272 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
fragmentary as it is and certainly not a product of the forces
most characteristic of the Old Testament religion, one would
have no right to deduce the doctrine of a personal being
who is the cause of human sin. Least of all is this the case
when the passage, being a constituent part of A, gives us no
guarantee that the whole custom is of high antiquity.
The only passage of an early date where there is mention
of evil outside of humanity in connection with human sin
and its origin, and that, too, in such a way that it is repre
sented as an incarnate principle of temptation and malice,
belongs to B s account of the origin of human sin. 1 Certainly
any one, who holds this account to be a narrative of
events that actually happened, has not the slightest right to
speak here of a principle of sin or even of a devil. Least of
all, of course, ought he to introduce the absurd idea of an evil
spirit (?) working through an animal. For such an one the
whole account must run its course within the limits of
natural history. The serpent cannot be to him anything
more than the words represent, a beast of the field which the
Lord God made. It is merely said that it was more crafty
than the other beasts ; and in like manner the subsequent
punishment is closely restricted to the natural life of this
animal as an animal. 2
It is very different if we take the whole narrative as a
religious myth. Then the serpent (as it was from the first,
not as it became in consequence of an occurrence of this
kind) is a type of the seductive power by which man is
assailed, a type which is naturally suggested as soon as
the thought occurs, a type not arbitrarily chosen as in an
allegory, but born as soon as the idea itself. No wonder the
serpent figures so largely in proverbs ! 3 With the irresis
tible fascination of its eye, the iridescent hues of its skin, its
1 Gen. iii. 2 Gen. iii. 1, 14.
3 Herder, Geist der ebrciischen Poesie, i. 149 ff. Also in Micah vii. 17, it is the
type of all that is contemptible, and repugnant to a healthy mind.
ORIGIN OF THE IDEA OF SUPERHUMAN EVIL. 273
stealthy gliding motion, quick and startling as a lightning-
flash, and its poisonous fang, it is a natural type of the hostile
power that ensnares humanity. Indeed the serpent is well-nigh
ubiquitous in the world of religious imagery. 1 Almost every
nation sees something demonic in it, be that something
truly divine, or be it destructive. Thus the conception of
the serpent, as tempter, is found in the mysteries of Demeter
as well as in the primitive legends of Persia. 2 It is called
by the Greeks 3 as well as by the Phoenicians " the fieriest
and most spiritual of all animals," and by the Cretans
" divine," the symbol of spiritual power and the highest
wisdom, the giver of oracles. Among the Eomans it is
the incarnation of genius. And this thought is found even
among the primitive religions of Africa and America.
Hence we may confidently assume that the narrator meant
the serpent to symbolise a seducing power, a view which
the post-canonical age of Judaism considered to be self-
evident. 4
At all events there is absolutely no question of a personal
evil being. Symbols may represent a power or a principle,
but not an individual. Least of all is it a question of a
being that has become evil. The serpent is one of the
animals which the Lord God made, and is simply craftier
than the others. The whole story receives a solution as
simple as it is religiously suggestive, when we think of the
serpent as embodying the power of temptation, as it must
present itself to men apart from their actual shortcomings and
sins. Animal life as endowed with egoism and sensuous
1 Cf. e.g. Noldeke, "Die Schlange nach arabisclien Volksglauben " (Zeitschr.
far Volker -psychologic, von Lazarus mid Steinthal, 1860, i. 412 11 .). Baudissin,
Studien zur semitischen BeUgionsgeschichte, Heft i. Abth. 4 (Symbolik dtr
Schlange).
- Schulling, Abth. ii. Bd. i. Winduschmam), Zoroastrische Studien, ed.
Spiegel, 1863.
:< Cf. Welcker, I.e. i. 63. Porphyrius in Eusebius, Praep. ev., ed. Bind. i.
50. Philo, Fragm. 9.
4 Wisd. Sol. ii. 24 ; Rev. xx. 2.
VOL. II. S
274 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
appetites, is ordained and willed by God in so far as it is
animal, and is therefore good. It is, in fact, the highest class
of created being ; and without it neither individual existence
nor development is possible. Now, as soon as this sort of life
confronts man, who has been created for a personal, spiritual
life, it must become to him a principle of temptation. It must
confront him. For growing up as he does out of animal
life, he cannot but hear the voice of animal instinct inciting
him to rebel against the moral law of obedience and of
that moderation in enjoyment, on which depends the develop
ment of his life as willed by God. Consequently, though this
instinct of the flesh, of the animal life, is good as implanted
by God, and when in a non-personal creature, it necessarily
becomes for man the principle of temptation. It makes him
hate the limits imposed upon his enjoyment as a burdensome
check upon self, which he feels to be an irksome restraint. It
represents the limits which God has fixed for man as due to
God s envy and jealousy of his full and complete development.
It makes the transient, inferior good appear the highest, and
gives it, as being forbidden, a charm which, of itself, it would
never have. 1 Thus here also there is nothing about a personal,
morally evil power, hostile to God. As for the principle of a
material, selfish, that is, animal life, how it must of necessity
become an annoyance and a temptation to man, how it will
set him at variance with God and His law, and through a lie
seemingly founded on divine truth deceive him as to his true
goal and his eternal happiness, all that is here embodied
in an incomparably beautiful manner in the serpent, which is
at home even in Eden, and which, as an animal created by
God, is neither fallen nor evil, but becomes the cunning and
deceitful seducer of man.
2. We undoubtedly find that, about the time of the Exile,
stronger expression is given to the idea of superhuman
powers antagonistic to the advance of the kingdom of God.
1 Gen. iii. 1, 4, 5.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE IDEA OF SUPERHUMAN EVIL. 275
The gods of the heathen world appear in a form that closely
approximates to the notion of malevolent powers hostile to
the salvation and sovereignty of God. 1 And when the post-
exilic prophet speaks of a judgment on the host of heaven, 2
the stars must have been, after the Exile, regarded as the
tutelary gods of the hostile kingdoms, who are rebels against
God but not possessed of equal might. Still their struggle is,
properly speaking, one not of morals but of might ; and the
passage is a very late one. And it is of equally little
religious significance that here and there in the exilic books
we meet with ghosts and apparitions, such as originated
in the imaginations of other oriental peoples, and gradually
took hold of the Jewish imagination also. 3 Such mention
of them, as well as the naive use of mythological imagery, 4
is simply a testimony to the influence, upon these writers, of
the language and the poetry of the people.
In the literature later than the eighth century there are
really only two passages that bear on our question, viz. the
prologue to Job and the third chapter of Zechariah. In both,
an individual superhuman personage is mentioned, who stands
in the closest relation to temptation and evil, viz. Satan.
This name, which occurs in some other passages of Hebrew
literature, expresses at any rate the idea of hostility. 5 Satan
Certainly, even in Assyrian, Shidu denotes not the gods in general
but demonic beings. In such passages, however, as Dent, xxxii. 17 and Ps.
cvi. 37, the heathen gods and demons seem to merge into one another.
Azazel is also an instance of the same kind (Baudissin, 133, 140).
2 B. J. xxiv. 21 ff. Closely akin is the judgment inflicted on the gods of
Egypt (Exod. xii. 12 ; cf. Isa. xix. 1).
3 B. J. xiii. 21, xxxiv. 14. The D^y^ of Lev. xvii. 7 are also in the same
category. The Qistf and QK, on the other hand, are probably wild beasts of the
desert.
4 E.g. Job ix. 13.
5 p&n. For the word, cf. especially Num. xxii. 22, 32, where "the angel
of God places himself right in Balaam s way " if) |Bb6> or 1 Sam - xxix - 4 >
2 Sam. xix. 23 (Matt. xvi. 23) ; 1 Kings v. 18, xi. 14, 23, 25. If the book
of Job were post-exilic, the working out of this conception might be con
nected with the development of thought to which Israel was led by becoming
acquainted with the conceptions of Inner Asia.
276 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
may therefore be taken as the adversary of human happiness
and virtue. Both the above passages we must now submit
to a somewhat careful examination.
Satan, and the activity he displays in opposing the saint,
belong probably to the mythical material, by the use of
which the book of Job has been made the work of art that
it is. At least it is in favour of this view that, in the purely
poetical part of the book, no more attention is paid to him.
Among the sons of God who gather round the kingly throne
of the Most High who are, in other words, His most con
fidential and privileged servants, Satan also finds a place.
He is responsible to God ; he does not act without His
permission, and consequently he is never really censured by
Him. 1 He is, therefore, in the service of God, is included in
the divine will and in the circle of divine providence. He
goes to and fro in the earth, on the outlook for human sin.
Whatever he does, God does through him. 2 Consequently
there seems to be in this Satan nothing more than in the
angels of God who hurt and destroy. God s own sentences
of condemnation and punishment are carried out by His
messengers, who are not on that account a whit less good
themselves, and least of all are they meant to represent a
principle of sin antagonistic to God. 3
Nevertheless, in the view of the poet, it is perfectly clear
that Satan is not merely one who executes the will of God
from a standpoint of moral indifference, obediently fulfilling
all commissions, however sad their nature. His own personal
wishes and will are on the side of evil and temptation. He
" beguiles " God into destroying Job without cause. He envies
and hates man as the object of God s love and trust. He
wishes to destroy faith, seeking to break the bond which
1 Cf. Job i. 6-12, ii. 1-6.
2 Job i. 12, 16, 21, ii. 5, 7.
3 Cf. e.g. Job xxxiii. 22, "the destroyers," or 2 Kings xix. 35 ; Ps. Ixxviii.
49, etc.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE IDEA OF SUPERHUMAN EVIL. 277
unites the saint to God, so that he may " curse God to His
face." Unselfish piety is for him a subject of ridicule. 1
No doubt he ventures to approach man to tempt him, only
because God, in His zeal and wisdom, wishes to put man s
unproved piety to the test, just as the serpent is in Paradise
itself by divine permission. But while temptation is meant,
according to God s plan of salvation, to strengthen faith,
Satan intends it to drive the saint to despair. 2 Consequently
there is no doubt that Satan s personal being and will are
thought of as closely connected with his baneful activity as
a tempter.
The passage in Zechariah is of a similar character. In a
night vision the prophet sees the high priest that is, the
representative of Israel s reconciliation with God standing
before God in the filthy garments which an accused person
wears, and Satan beside him as accuser. 3 In holy indigna
tion God repels the accusation, " The Lord rebuke thee,
Satan ; is not this a brand plucked from the fire ? " Had the
accusation been received, then God s newly awakened mercy
and the recently effected restoration of Israel would have all
been in vain.
Consequently here also Satan is one of God s servants,
but the one who, in opposition to the divine love and mercy,
would fain bring to nought the saving fellowship of man
with God, in this instance, Israel s state of reconciliation as
embodied in the high priest. His plea is the antagonism
existing between the divine being and human sin, the weak
ness and sinfulness of the creature and his liability to tempta
tion. He would fain cut him off from the mercy of God
and hand him over to divine justice, which would have to
destroy him without mercy.
Hence, in neither passage, is Satan a being antagonistic to
God, and equal to Him, as is the idea of dualism. Strictly
1 Job i. 9 ff., ii. 3 if. 2 Job i. 12, ii. 6.
3 Cf. the phrases in Ps. cix. 6, " Let Satan stand at his right hand."
278 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
speaking, indeed, he is not even a being who acts in
opposition to the will of God, or attempts to contend with
Him. He is one of the superhuman servants of God, and
is submissive to His will, " merely a peculiar figure taken
from the angelology of that age" (Baumgarten-Crusius).
Least of all is there any idea of a fallen being, who
has by rebellion broken his original communion with God.
Nor is it to be forgotten that both passages are poetical
throughout, and not intended to teach anything dogmatic
as to a Satan. Neither is it altogether out of place to refer
by way of illustration to the accusers at Asiatic courts, for
indeed two passages in Ezekiel speak of " those who bring
iniquity to remembrance." 1
But these passages at any rate show that there was a
desire to exempt God from the acts of temptation, mischief,
and destruction that are a necessary part of divine jurisdic
tion, and in the last resort good, and to ascribe them to a
special being subordinate to Him, who was then conceived of
as personally fitted for such an office, and as performing its
duties with zest and pleasure. This tendency is seen more
fully developed when, in Chronicles, it is no longer God Him
self, who in His anger induces David to number the people,
but Satan who misleads David in this matter. 2 And while
in Job and Zechariah the name Satan is always found with
the article, in Chronicles it occurs without the article as a
proper name.
3. We may now summarise the result of our investigation
as to the Old Testament doctrine of " the devil " as follows :
As the doctrine of angels is based partly on the Elohim of
the old nature-religion, and partly on the idea of divine
revelation, and, in the broader sense, of divine providence,
ID, Ezek. xxi. 28, xxix. 16 ; of. B. J. Ixii. 6, Ixiii. 9.
- 1 Chron. xxi. 1 ff.; cf. 2 Sam. xxiv. 1 ff.; cf. Ps. cix. 6. The Seirim appear
in 2 Chrori. xi. 15, along with the calves of Samaria without any special
emphasis.
RESULT. 279
so the notion of " evil beings " is also derived from two
distinct sources. On the one hand the remains of nature-
reli^ion are traceable here also. The sons of God who, as
O
spirits of nature, without any moral characteristics, exercise
a mischievous influence on human affairs, and afterwards the
gods of the neighbouring peoples who are represented as oppos
ing the kingdom of God, and therefore as hostile to Jehovah,
and under His condemnation, grow into " hostile powers."
And the more Israel carne into contact with the civilised
religions of Chaldea and Assyria, the more the people began to
think of the uncanny ghosts and tca/coSai/jLoves of the neigh
bouring nations, the more also were the heavenly hosts which
were worshipped in Chaldea conceived of as tutelary gods
of the heathen, and consequently as objects of divine judg
ment. And away beyond the holy land the wilderness was
thought to be the dwelling-place of mighty beings, unearthly
and unclean. This class of ideas, however, is absolutely
without religious significance.
On the other hand, we have here also the idea of divine
providence ; and those who execute it in particular cases are
thought of as " spirits," " angels," " sons of God." God works
in them. Even when they deceive, tempt, hurt, and destroy,
it is God who acts through them. They are His messengers,
who perform His will, and therefore are riot thought of either
as hostile to Him or as fallen beings. But since the duty
of executing this part of the divine will is specially assigned
to one of these Elohim, to the adversary Satan, it comes
to be involuntarily thought that he is in hearty sympathy
with his office, eager to persecute and tempt men, and full of
hatred to the Kingdom of God and the idea of atonement,
and specially hostile to the pious and to the ministers of
reconciliation. To this the influence of Persian dualism
may have contributed. At any rate such acts of divine pro
vidence are more and more separated from the divine per
sonality, which is conceived of as too exalted and pure to
280 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
have such acts ascribed to it, as was the case in early days ;
and they are referred to this Being, who is thereby made to a
certain extent the representative of temptation and evil.
But nowhere in the Old Testament is there any mention of
hostility to God or of a fallen angel, or of a personal em
bodiment of evil.
The truly grand and religiously important conception,
which stands out prominently in B s serpent in paradise,
the idea of the universal power of the animal principle
which is also the power of death, has ruot been carried further
in any part of the Old Testament. It is only in Paul s
doctrine of adpg and d/juapria (Rom. vii.), and in John s
doctrine of the /cooyi-o? and the dp^cov TOV Koafjiov that this
thought reaches its full development.
In the apocryphal literature the tendency to carry this
doctrine of demons still further grew always stronger. In
this respect the book of Tobit has quite the character of
eastern legend. A demon Asmodi, who is in love with the
bride of Tobias, and kills her husband, is banished by the
smell of the liver and the heart of a fish to the confines of
Egypt, and is there bound in chains by Raphael. 1 The book
of Enoch gives names to the princes of the evil angels, 2 and
speaks of watchmen and of nature-spirits. 3 The passage
Gen. vi. 1-3 is made the starting-point of a fully-developed
theosophy. 4 The book tells of angels who, being identified
with the stars, endure the punishment of everlasting im
prisonment, because they did not keep to their proper course. 5
Satan is still distinguished from the host of the fallen angels
as a power hostile to God. 6 It is the same in the Fourth
Book of Ezra 7 and in the rest of the literature of later
Judaism.
1 Tob. iii. 8, vi. 7, 14 ff.; viii. Iff. 2 Enoch iv. 7 if., xx., Ixix. 2ft.
3 i. 5, x. 7, xv. 8, xx. 1 ff.; cf. Ixv. 8, Ixvi. 2, Ixxv. 1, 3, Ixxix. 6, Ixxxii. 17.
4 vi. 2ff., 7ff., vii. Iff., xv. 8. 5 xviii. 14.
G liv. 6 (x. 6, 13, Azazel). 7 4 Ezra iv. 1, 36, v. 20, vi. 3, x. 28.
THE EARLIEST VIEW OF SIN. 281
CHAPTER XIV.
MANIFESTATION AND NAMES OF SIN IN ISRAEL.
1. In the earliest parts of the Old Testament, sin is almost
invariably presented to us as nothing more than disobedi
ence to the statutes regulating religious, social, and civil
life in Israel, and a violation of the good customs in vogue
among this people ; but no occasion is taken to inquire more
deeply into the nature of sin as affecting man s inner life.
Sinners are described as persons who do things " that are
not done in Israel " in other words, things that ought not to
happen among a people so highly favoured of God. 1 They are
men " who work folly in Israel." 2 They are called " worthless
fellows," 3 a word which is a favourite expression in the accounts
of the earlier monarchical period, and which was even per
sonified, and came to denote destruction. Their action is
called Chamas, 4 which means a breach of what is considered
fair and honourable conduct on the part of a citizen. When
a man does not come into conflict with the great laws just
alluded to as regulating life and conduct, he feels himself
righteous, an object of God s favour ; and he hopes that God s
righteousness and truth will protect and help him in every
time of trouble. On the other hand, the old sacred customs
dealing with outward life, above all with matters of purifica
tion, and in particular the Nazirite mode of life, show that in
earlier times no clear distinction was drawn between (moral)
1 Gen. xx. 9 ; 2 Sam. xiii. 12 (Lev. iv. 2, 13).
2 Gen. xxxiv. 7 ; Jos. vii. 15 ; Judg. xix. 24, 30, xx. 6, 10.
s W>3, Judg. xx. 13 ; 1 Sam. i. 16, ii. 12, x. 27, xxv. 17, 25, xxx. 22 ;
2 Sam. xvi. 7, xx. 1, xxiii. 6; 1 Kings xxi. 10, 13; Prov. xvi. 27, vi. 12
6y s ^} im, WET^I like r6iy"03 ; 2 Sam. in. 34, vii. 10). In Ps. xviii. 5,
the word is personified and put in parallelism with death and Sheol.
4 DE>n, Con. vi. 13, xvi. 5, xlix. 5 ; Ex. xxiii. 1.
282 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
sin and (physical) imperfection and impurity. The importance
attached to sacred form after the time of Ezekiel and A is
certainly of a very different character. It is due not to the
unreflecting vagueness of an undeveloped view, but to a con
scious bias in favour of " legalism," caused by a one-sided
conception of God s purposes. It is, in fact, an actual obscuring
of what the prophetic age had seen clearly ; for the meaning
which that age gave to the will of God, and therefore also
to sin, was far deeper and grander. Not till the perfect life of
man was revealed in the person of Christ, was any advance
made beyond the knowledge of sin which the prophets pro
claimed. Prophecy lights up the night of sin and " the ways
of darkness " * with the torch of the divine Spirit, making
them visible to their lowest depths. And the self-examina
tion of the psalmist-singers, under the guidance of God s
Spirit, pierces even to the heart and reins, and lays bare the
tangled web of human wickedness with all its hidden joinings.
Here sin is taken in the purely moral sense, as the act of a
will perversely opposed to the divine will. Physical unclean-
ness, being regarded as non-essential in God s eyes, is now
put into the background. The Christian preaching of repent
ance can be directly based on this doctrine of sin.
2. In its most general form, sin is called Chattath, 2 a missing
of the right way, the opposite of a straight course of conduct. 3
This name is given both to the strongest manifestations of sin
and to its mildest forms. 4 The word may also denote an offence
against man. 5 But in the last resort every sin is directed against
God, the guardian of holy order. 6 It may be committed un
intentionally and unconsciously, by inadvertence, or from
infatuation. In that case, whether committed against God or
1 Prov. ii. 13, iv. 19.
2 H^isn, fiKEn, NtDn (of. Ewald Gram. 166a, ii. 173a).
1B>\ 4 Gen. xviii. 20 ; cf. xli. 9.
5 h NBn, Gen. xli. 9, 1. 17.
6 DTlW* KBn, Ps. Ii. 6 ; cf. Gen. xiii. 18, xx. 6, xxxix. 9 ; Ex. x. 17,
xxxii. 33 ; 1 Sam. vii. 6, xiv. 33 ; 2 Sam. xii. 13.
DEEPER SENSE OF SIN IN PROPHETS. 283
man, it is regarded as expiable by compensation. 1 Such sins
of weakness, being due simply to human frailty, are also
called "hidden," "unforeseen," "secret," "sins of youth." 2 But
a sin may also be committed with the full intention of violating
the law of God. In that case it is " sin with a high hand,"
and can be expiated only by the annihilation of the sinner. 3
When men do not conform to the law laid down by God for
Israel, they are called " wicked," 4 and are a class of man distinct
from the "righteous." That this conception is involved in
the word Easha is proved by the constant usage of the language, 5
and especially by the contrasted expressions " to pronounce
wicked," " to declare righteous," 6 an antithesis which occurs
even when the guilt has reference only to a single definite
judicial case. 7 The linguistic derivation of the word is obscure. 8
As contrasted with the divine wisdom, the idea of sin is
developed in an extraordinary variety of ways. Only in God
and in His truth is true practical wisdom to be found ; and
those who fight against that are fools, however wise they may
think themselves, and however much shrewdness and skill
they may display in securing the immediate material advan
tages of the present life. The lowest stage of this opposition
is "simplicity," 9 which of itself does not necessarily involve
1 rWBh, Lev. iv. 2, 22, 27, v. 15, 18 (yT *? Kim) ; cf. Josh. xx. 3, 9, the
law as to the avenging of blood.
2 rus^, PS. xix. 13, rmnw, D wy, PS. xix. 13, xc. s c f. oniyj nxtsn,
Ps. xxv. 7 ; Job xiii. 26.
3 HE") T3, Num. xv. 30 (cf. for the phrase Ex. xiv. 8 ; Num. xxxiii. 3 f. ,
where the exodus of Israel from Egypt is so called in contrast with a peaceful
dismissal).
4 Xftjh. Tlie verb in Qal. 1 Kings viii. 47.
5 Cf. Hupfeld on Ps. 1. For the antithesis Ex. ix. 27, xxii. 8, xxiii. 7.
6 p HVn and jpunn. 7 Ex. ii. 13, xxiii. 1.
8 The derivation from the rare and doubtful Syrian Ethpaal is rightly
abandoned. According to Dillmann Lexic. JEth. p. 280, one would have to
think of dirt, uncleanness. In my opinion the connection with E>JH and TJ"I is
by far the most probable, so that the original meaning would be "disorder,
rebellion."
9 nnS, D^riB, Job v. 2 ; Prov. i. 4, 22, 32, viii. 5, xiv. 15, 18, xxii. 3,
xix. 25. In a good sense, Ps. xix. 8, cxvi. 6, cxix. 131.
284 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
hostility to God, but may certainly amount to it. Next
comes ignorance, based on fleshly self-confidence, 1 which in
many cases it is still possible to change, want of insight, 2
empty- headedness. 3 Still stronger are the expressions, folly, 4
stupidity, 6 silliness, 6 expressions which no longer conceal a
religious antagonism to everything connected with divine
wisdom. Strongest of all is scoffing, 7 with its lying loquacity, 8
its mocking speeches, 9 and its cunning, 10 in which natural
intelligence is degraded to the service of sin.
Contrasted with truth, sin is lying, 11 untruth, 12 falsehood
and nothingness, 13 emptiness and vanity. 14 Sinners are per
verse 15 and crazy; 16 their plans are fraudulent. 17 Their
thoughts are deceit 18 and cursing. 19 They turn aside to
crooked paths 20 and are double-tongued sceptics. 21
1 1O^ tea, Ps. xlix. 14. ^03, Prov. xiii. 19, xiv. 7, xv. 2, 14, xvii. 12, 25,
iii. 36, viii. 5; cf. xxiii. 9, xxvi. 1, 9, xxix. 20; Ps. xcii. 7. The primary
meaning is "to be fleshy." In Job iv. 6, the word simply means "self-con
fidence." By transposition of the Radicals we obtain the words ^D, etc.
1 Sam. xiii. 13 ; 2 Sam. xxiv. 10.
2 ir"lDn, Prov. vii. 7, xv. 21, ix. 4, xxiv. 30.
3 Iim Job xi. 12.
4 f"63J> almost always in a moral sense, e.g. Deut. xxxii. 6, 21; Job ii. 10,
xxx. 8 ; Isa. xxxii. 5 ; Prov. xvii. 21 ; Ps. xiv. 1, xxxix. 9, liii. 2. This word
alternates with fjao, DI^D, Jer. iv. 22, v. 21 ; Eccles. x. 6.
5 "IJD, Ps. xlix. 11, Ixxiii. 22, xcii. 7, xciv. 8.
6 ^IN, rfatf, Job v. 2, xvi. 11 ; Prov. xix. 3, xxvi. 11 ; Ps. xxxviii. 6.
7 Jjta Job xi. 3 ; ^, p^, Ps. i. 1 ; Prov. xiv. 6, xiii. 1, xxii. 10, i. 22 ;
Hos. vii. 5; Jer. vi. 10, viii. 8 ; Isa. xxviii. 14, 22, xxix. 20.
8 0^3, Job xi. 3. 9 D^nn, Job xvii. 2.
10 D11V, Job xv. 5 ; Prov. xxvii. 12. Of course this word in itself has not a
bad meaning.
11 3D, Hos. xii. 2 ; Ps. v. 7, 10, iv. 3.
12 D^rO, Hos. xii. 1 ; Isa. xxx. 9, B. J. (Ivii. 11), lix. 13 (Ps. xvii. 4).
13 fctt^, Job xi. 11, xxxi. 5 ; Ex. xx. 7, xxiii. 1.
14 ")pt Ps. vii. 15 ; Ex. xxiii. 7 ; B. J. Ivii. 4, lix. 3, 13 ; Micah vi. 12.
is J-jy 5 Dent, xxxii. 5. 16 f>r6nB, Dent, xxxii. 5.
17 The bad meaning of nftttD, Jer. H. H ; P S - xxxvii. 7.
18 ITOT, Ps. xxxii. 2, Hi. 4, cxx. 2f., HttllD, Ps. v. 7, x. 7 ; Job xxxi. 5.
19 r6&5 in the bad signification (Ps. x. 7).
20 ny nan, PS. cxxv. 5. 21 PJSJD, PS. cxix. 113.
DEEPER SENSE OF SIN IN PROPHETS. 285
Contrasted with kindness, sin is oppression x and violence ; 2
contrasted with civil order and justice, it is crime, 3 wickedness, 4
worthlessness. 6 The wicked lie in wait to work mischief,
and do so habitually. 6 They defy justice. 7 In a word they
act like scoundrels. 8 Hence their conduct, being the opposite
of all that is good, must be woeful 9 and in fact abominable. 10
In contrast to the holiness of the covenant people, sinful
Israel is unclean, profane. 11 Its sin is represented as pollution 12
and abomination. 13 It forsakes God faithlessly and deceit
fully, 14 revolts against Him and His commands, 15 falls away
from Him, 16 rebels, 17 is disloyal, 18 despises Him, 19 hates Him, 20
I p^ y, Jer. vi. 6 ; Isa. xxx. 12 ; B. J. liv. 14 (1^3, Isa. xxxii. 5, miserly?).
" Y^ ; , Hab. i. 3.
3 Dn, Hal), i. 3 ; B. J. lix. 6 (cf. Isa. v. 7f., HBtWO and npjft).
4 i?iy> r6iy, iflJJ, lajJO, Ezek. xxviii. 18, xxxiii. 18 ; Job vi. 30, xi. 14,
xxvii. 7 ; Ps. Ixxi. 4, vii. 4 (poll).
5 f>JJ!{>3, Deut. xiii. 14, xv. 9 (Ps. xli. 9).
6 JIN (fltf IpP, {IK ijJB), Isa. x. 1, xxix. 20 ; Hab. i. 3 ; Ps. vi. 9, xiv. 4,
vii. 15, x. 7.
7 ;>JJI9> Ezek. xiv. 13, xv. 8; Lev. v. 15, 21, xxvi. 40; Num. v. 6, 12, 27,
xxxi. 16 ; Josh. vii. 1, xxii. 16, 20, 22, 37.
8 D^JDID, Ps. xxxvii. 1, 9, xciv. 16 (D"W"0, cf. D HT, |V1f, Ps. Ixxxvi. 14,
cxix. 21, 51 ; Jer. xliii. 2, 1. 31 ; Ezek. vii. 10.
9 ^EJJ, Isa. x. 1; Num. xxiii. 21; Ps. vii. 15 ; Hab. i. 3.
10 nnvw, HOS. vi. 10.
II *pl"l, Job viii. 13, xiii. 16, xv. 34, xx. 5, xxvii. 8, xxxiv. 30 ; Isa. xxxiii. 14 ;
B. J. xxiv. 5.
12 iTlJ, Lev. xx. 21. JYIKDB, Lev. xvi. 16 ; ni2)T Lev. xviii. 17, xx. 14
(23, 26); Judg. xx. 6; Ps. xxvi. 10 (Prov. xx. 23); ^371, Lev. xviii. 23;
rkl Ps. xii. 9.
13 rajJin, Lev. xviii. 22, xx. 13. ppJ, Lev. xi. 11, 12, 20, 41, 42, xx. 25.
14 3133 (p&T niQ, Ps. lix. 6) ; Hos. v. 7 ; Jer. v. 11, ix. 1 ; Prov. ii. 22, xiii. 2.
15 1 MID (PMPP""^ mo, 1 Sam. xii. 14, 15) ; Num. xvii. 25 ; Isa. xxx. 9 ; Ps.
v. 11 ; Hos. xiv. 1 ; cf. "HID, Isa. xxx. 9 ; Deut. xxxi. 27; Ezek. ii. 5, 7 f.,
iii. <), 26 f., etc.
]ti 3 JJtyS, Isa. i. 2 ; Hos. vii. 13 ; Ezek. ii. 3 ; B. J. xlvi. 8. (Also of
political rebellion (1 Kings xii. 19). It is also used in a milder sense, Lev.
xvi. 16 ; Gen. xxxi. 36 ; Ex. xxii. 8, xxiii. 21, xxxiv. 7, and more generally,
e.g. Gen. 1. 17.)
17 3 TIB, Josh. xxii. 19, 22, 29 ; Ezek. ii. 3 (for the meaning, 2 Kings
viii. 20, xxiv. 1, 20).
18 D^Dt^ or Q^ED, Hos. v. 2 ; Ps. ei. 3.
19 &O, Ps. x. 13. 20 Ex. xx. 4 ; Ps. viii. 3.
286 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
is faithless. 1 And as regards divine punishment, the wicked
are stiff-necked, 2 haughty, 3 talkative braggarts, 4 hard-hearted, 5
violent, mighty men, 6 bent on provoking God. 7 The picture
of sin is thus presented in an endless variety of ways, which the
above list by no means exhausts. Everywhere it shows itself
hostile to the self-revealing God, and His ordinances of wisdom.
In contrast to the highest good, it represents the one principle
of " evil," the sum of all that is morally and materially bad. 8
3. The fundamental characteristic of these acts of sin is
disobedience to God. " Eebellion is as the sin of witchcraft,
and disobedience as idolatry and teraphim," as the historian
makes Samuel, the man of God, declare. 9 Hence the strongest
form of sin, the one that destroys the very foundation of
character, is apostasy from God, the worshipping of false gods.
This is adultery, a breaking of the covenant. 10 Next to it
comes wilful abandonment of the ordinances by which the God
of Israel desires to be honoured. By this sin ancient Israel
understood the neglect of the sacred national customs. The age
after Ezra emphatically condemns any contempt of the statutes
and ordinances of the Law. And, however decided prophecy
was in laying the main emphasis on piety of disposition and
, Isa. xxx. 1, xxxi. 6 ; Jer. v. 23, vi. 28 (Hos. ix. 1) ; B. J. lix. 13,
Ixv. 2. p "iiD, Ex. xxxii. 8 ; Isa. i. 5, xxxi. 6.
2 Deut. viii. 11, 14, ix. 6, 13 j B. J. xlviii. 4 ; Ezek. iii. 7 ; cf. JW)^,
Dent. xxix. 18.
3 a W, Ps. xciv. 2, cxl. 6 ; Prov. xv. 25.
4 a^in, Ps. v. 6 (x. 3), Ixxiii. 2, Ixxv. 5.
5 a^T SS, B. J. xlvi. 12.
6 TO!) an( l am in an ironical sense (Ps. Hi. 3, xl. 5).
7 ta"" TTlD 5 Job. xii. 6 ; cf. with this, "a stiff-necked people," Ex. xxxii. 9,
xxxiii. 3, 5, xxxiv. 9 ; B. J. xlviii. 4 ; Ezek. ii. 4 ; cf. T\r\W, Ex. xxxii. 7 ;
nwn, isa. i. 4.
8 y- )) -jjp f Gen. vi. 5, viii. 21, xiii. 13; xxxviii. 7, xxxix. 9, xl. 7, 1. 15 ; Ex.
xxxii. 22 ; Judg. xx. 12 f. ; 2 Sam. iii. 39.
9 1 Sam. xv. 23 ; Hos. xiii. 2 ; Isa. xxx. 9 ; Ezek. ii. 5, 7, 8, iii. 9, 26 f.,
xii. 2, 3, 9, 25, xxiv. 3, xliv. 6 ; Dout. xxxi. 27, etc.
10 E.g. Hos. i.-iii., iv. 12, v. 3ff., viii. 4ff., ix. 1, 10, xiii. Iff.; Isa. i. 21,
ii. 6 ff., 18 ff., viii. 19 ; Jer. i. 16, ii. 5 ff., vii. 11, 18, v. 11, 19, iv. 17, viii. 1 ff.,
19ff.; Ezek. vi. 9, vii. 20, viii. 3ff., xvi., xxiii. 3ff.; Amos iii. 14, v. 26 ; B.
J. Iviii. 2, Ixv. 2ff.; Ivii. 5-10 ; Zeph. i. 5 ; Zech. x. 2ff., etc.
INNER ESSENCE OF SIN. 287
upright conduct, nevertheless in any violation of the holy
mode of life traditional in Israel it always saw a wanton
insult to God, and complained that Israel was so fleshly and
insubordinate that he never learned to conform even to the
external forms of life required by the divine will. 1 " My land
they defiled, and my heritage they made an abomination." 2
But the real complaint of the men of God is directed
against the violation of religious feeling, and of uprightness
and honesty in the conduct of the Israelites. In this they
find the real essence of Israel s sin. Unbelief produces
not only faint-hearted resistance to human might 3 and
dependence on human help, 4 but also self-righteousness in
regard to the divine word, through " being wise in one s own
eyes/ 5 Unbelief is the cause of lying and of hypocrisy
toward God. The people draw near with the lips, while the
heart is far away. They think to deceive God by an outward
appearance of devotion, whereas sacrifice derives all its worth
from faith and love. Their religion is a commandment of
men learned by rote. Q And against their neighbour they use
all manner of deceit. Every tongue speaks foolishness and
craft. They break the most solemn vows. They are false as
judges, false as prophets, false as men of business. 7 Instead
1 Kg. Hos. viii. 1, 12 ff., xi. 7; Amos iv. 4; Zcph. i. 8; Hagg. i. 2, 4 ;
Ezek. v. 6 (Isa. ii. Gil . ; Mai. i. 1 IF.) ; 1 Kings xv. 25, 33, xvi. 19, 26 ; 2 Kings
x. 29, 31, xii. 4, xiii. 1, 11, xiv. 24, etc.
2 Jer. ii. 7 ; of. xvi. 18 ; Amos ii. 4 ; Micah ii. 10 ; Ezek. xxxvi. 17 ; B. J.
Ixv. 3, 4, 11.
:) E.f/. Isa. vii. 2, viii. 12 ; Ps. iv. 7.
4 Hos. vii. 11, xii. 2, v. 13, viii. 9, xiii. 10; Lsa. xxii. 8ff., xxix. 15, xxx.
111 ., xxxi. Iff.; Jer. ii. 18, 36.
5 Isa. v. 21 ; Jer. viii. 8 ; cf. Hos. v. 5, vii. 10 ; Amos vi. 13 ; Isa. i. 11 ft 1 .,
xxviii. 1 ; Jer. ii. 35, xiii. 17, xviii. 18 ; Ezek. xvi. 49.
6 Isa. xxix. 13, xxx. 9; cf. i. 13 ff. ; Hos. v. 6; Jer. vii. 10 f., xi. 151! .;
Amos v. 22 ; B. J. xlviii. 1, Iviii. 3 ff.
7 Isa. vi. 5, ix. 16 ; Jer. xxxii. 31 ff. ; Hos. iv. 2 ; Micali vii. 5 ; B. J. Ivii. 4,
lix. 3, 8, 13 ; cf . Jer. v. 1 f., 12, 26 ff., ix. 2-4, 7, vi. 13 ; Hos. xii. 9 ; Amos
viii. 5ff. ; Micah vi. 10 f., iii. 11, vii. 3; Isa. v. 23; B. J. lix. 4, 7 f. ; Ezek.
xxii. 11, 13, 29; cf. Ps. xii. 1-5, xxviii. 3, Hi. 4, Ixii. 5, Ixiv. 7, cxix. 134,
cxx. 2f.
288 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
of kindness one sees covetousness, oppression, and usury in
its most repulsive forms. They are far from righteousness,
false-hearted, without natural affection, without compassion.
Trust and love have disappeared from family life. They
regard not the death of the pious, they scoff at them ; 1 and
ceasing to serve the true God, the people plunges into every
form of sensuality and lewdness, whether coarse or refined.
The sin of Sodom, pride and security and everything in
abundance, produces the same results in Israel also.
" Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the under
standing." The people becomes a profane people, uncircum-
cised in heart, a daughter of Canaan, a sister of Sodom and
Gomorrha, only more depraved. They behave themselves
more heartlessly and more shamelessly than the very beasts. 2
Since the time of Amos, therefore, the nation presents to
the eye of a prophet a very dark picture. And as all these
manifold forms of sensuality and selfishness are at bottom a
result of opposition to the will of God that is, to God Himself,
the whole of Israel s sin is really " a sin against God alone." 3
Hence Micah s complaint, " The best of them is as a brier,
the most upright is as out of a thorn-hedge. The godly
man is perished from the land, and there is none upright
among men." 4 Thus, in spite of all the exceptional cases
of individual just men among them, the people itself appears
to Isaiah as "a people of Gomorrha/ 5 Hence it is called,
1 Micah vii. 4ff.; Ezek. vii. 23, xxii. 3, 4, 11, 13, 17, xxiii. 37, xxiv. 6, 9 ;
Hos. iv. 1, 4, vi. 8 ; Amos ii. 7ff., iv. 1, v. 7, 11, vi. 12, iii. 9 ; Jer. ii. 30, 34,
v. 27 f., vi. 6f., xxi. 4, xii. 13 ; Ps. v. 7 ; cf. Zeph. i. 5, iii. 2, 11 ; Isa. i. 21,
23, ii. 11, 17, v. 7 f., x. 1 if.; Micah vi. 12, etc. (B. J. xlvi. 12 ; Ezek. ii. 4, iii.
7), (Isa. xxii. 13; Lam. iv. 16; Job xxii. 7, xxiv. 21, xxxi. 16 ff.) ; B. J.
Ivii. 3 f.
2 Amos iv. 1, vi. 4ff., viii. 4 ; Hos. iv. 11 ff., vii. 5 ; Isa. iii. 16 ff., v. 11 ff.,
xxxii. 9; Jer. v. 7, vi. 7 (Job xxiv. 15, xxxi. 9ff.); Ezek. xvi. 49, xxii. 10,
xxxiii. 25 ff.; cf. Isa. x. 6 ; Jer. ix. 26 ; Ezek. xvi. 3, 45 f., 56 ; cf. Isa. i. Iff.;
Jer. viii. 6 ff.
3 Ps. Ii. 6 ; cf. Jer. viii. 7, xiv. 7, 20, xvi. 10 ; B. J. xlii. 24.
4 Micah vii. 1 ff.
5 Isa. i. 10 (cf. Hos. xii. 8, xi. 8, iv. 1 ; Micah vii. Iff.; Deut. xxxii. 32 ;
Lam. iv. 6).
STAGES AND CLIMAX OF SIN. 289
" the seed of the adulterer and the whore." 1 And at the
very time sin is at its height, the prophet has to declare :
" Even though there were three men in Israel like Noah,
Daniel, and Job, they could not procure it mercy any more." f -
The people, as a whole, is such a sinful people that even
the righteousness still present in it can no longer avert its
doom. And the worst is that even those who ought to know
God, the teachers and the nobles, have forsaken Him. 3
4. Notwithstanding the variety of its forms, the sin of
Israel is all of a piece. From comparatively small beginnings
it advances step by step to its utmost height. From the
most innocent forms, in which it still has a pleasing
aspect, sin goes on growing till it openly boasts of its
devilish hostility to God. It commences with sinful feelings
in the heart, which even the good and pious still experience ; 4
with the sins of youth which are chargeable to human
frailty for " stolen waters are sweet." 5 It commences with
that rather innocent ignorance which God is still able to
excuse. " They are foolish, and know not what is right." 6
There is a sinful state in which the sinner still feels his sin a
burden, a misery from which he seeks restoration and deliver
ance. 7 But out of this rather animal state of nature, sin does
its best to grow. It keeps firm hold of the will, until it ceases
to struggle. It saturates with its poison the innermost parts
of the Ego. It turns sinners into enemies of God, men who
do evil habitually, and who yield themselves up wholly, with
all their personal faculties and gifts, 8 as instruments of evil. 9
1 B. J. Ivii. 3 ; Jer. ix. 2.
2 Ezek. xiv. 14 ff.; Jer. xv. 1 (vi. 28, vii. 16, x. 14, xiv. 11) ; cf. Gen. xviii.
23 ff.
3 E.g. Jer. ii. 8, 26, v. 5, x. 21 ; Micali iii. 1, 9 ; Zeph. iii. 3f.; Ezek. xxii.
29, xxxiv. 1-11 ; Hos. vii. 3ff.
4 E.g. Ps. Ixxiii. 2 ; Prov. iv. 23 ff.
6 Job xiii. 26 (Ps. xxv. 7, xix. 13 ; Prov. ix. 17).
c Ps. xix. 13, xc. 8 ; cf. Jer. v. 4 (Hos. iv. 14).
7 E.g. Ps. li. 5 ; Prov. ix. 4.
8 J1N byS* Ps. vi. 9, xiv. 4, xxxvii. 1,7. 9 Ps. xxxvii. 20 ; Dent. v. 9.
VOL. II. T
290 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
This highest stage of sin in all its aspects is described by
the prophets in the utmost variety of ways. In relation to
God it manifests itself in the persistent scorn of unbelievers,
of those who forget God. 1 " Let God make speed, let Him
hasten His work that we may see it and know it." Thus do
sceptics scoffingly invoke on themselves divine judgment. 2
Thus they say, " There is no God," " Don t trouble God about
us," "God doeth neither good nor evil," "He does not see
us, He has forsaken the land." 3 Then they curse God, 4 and
live on in bold, reckless security, as if God and His statutes
were mere empty dreams. 5 This is the stage of rebellion, 6
which in the case of Israel, His inheritance, God must of
course visit with a double punishment. 7 The climax of this
unbelief is the levity of despair, when people exclaim : " Let
us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." Such sin cannot
be forgiven. 8 It is equivalent to gloomy murmuring against
God as the source of life, and against life itself which has its
origin in the divine laws. 9
The highest stage of sin is likewise shown by the shame-
lessness with which it flaunts itself openly. The fool, the
scorner, despises rebuke ; correction only makes him worse, 10
he knoweth not shame. 11 The boldness of its countenance
testifies against God s people when, like Sodom, it openly pro
claims its sin. 12 This is shown in wanton disregard of a neigh
bour s interests, when one considers everything allowable
1 Ps. x. 11 ; Jer. ix. 3.
2 Isa. v. 18, 19, 24 ; cf. iii. 9, v. 12, viii. 6, xxii. 13 ; Jer. xvii. 15.
3 Hos. v. 7, vii. 2 ; Isa. xxx. 10 ; Job xxi. 14 f., xxii. 17, xxxiv. 7ff.; Ezek.
viii. 12, ix. 9 ; B. J. Ixv. 5, Ixvi. 5 ; Ps. xciv. 7 ; Zeph. i. 12.
4 Isa. viii. 21. 5 Ps. x. 4, 11, xiv. 1, liii. 2, Ixxiii. 11.
6 Ezek. ii. 3, 5, 7, 8, iii. 9, 26, 27, xii. 2, 3, 9, 25 ; B. J. Ixiii. 10.
7 Amos iii. 2. 8 Isa. xxii. 12-14 ; Jer. vi. 10.
9 B. J. xlv. 10 (the emphasis lies on the impious murmuring against the
holy laws of God, which even natural good feeling must gratefully honour.
The prophet also means specially to condemn all murmuring against the acts
of God as sovereign ruler of the world).
lu Prov. i. 7, ix. 7 if. n Zeph. iii. 5.
K Isa. iii. 9 ; cf. Hos. v. 5 ; Jer. iii. 3, vi. 15, viii. 12.
STAGES AND CLIMAX OF SIN. 291
that one has the power to do. 1 But the most terrible display
of the real nature of sin is when a man delights in evil
because it is evil, and loathes good because it is good. 2
Then bitter is called sweet, and darkness light. 3 Then
whosoever eschews evil is declared an outlaw. 4 Then men
hate light and truth, 5 and rejoice over the misfortune of
a neighbour. 6 Nay more, they have no longer even the
natural instinct of a brute beast for what is wholesome and
good. They seek after their own hurt. 7
At this stage, when a man takes delight in doing mischief,
and cannot rest without doing it, when he is wise to do
evil and " exults the more, the greater the evil is," 8 he is of
course irretrievably lost. When one has grieved God s Holy
Spirit, 9 has, as it were, bidden God adieu, 10 the heart has then
become insensible to every saving influence. Then it has to
be said : " As the Ethiopian cannot change his skin, nor the
leopard his spots, so this people cannot do good, because it is
accustomed to do evil." n The soul of the wicked desires
evil ; he makes a jest of infamy. 12
All through the ancient national legend and the national
history there are found instances of such stages of sin,
instances of lost beings whose souls are cut off from among
their people. Such is the case when the flood comes, when
Sodom perishes under the judgment of God, when Canaan
spues out its inhabitants, and when God determines to harden
by His prophets. 13
1 Micahii. 1 (for the meaning of DT 1 & B* "to be in the power of their
hand " ; cf. p. 128.
2 Micah iii. 2, 9 ; Ps. Hi. 5.
3 Isa. v. (20 Amos vi. 12 ; cf. Matt. xii. 31).
4 B. J. lix. 15 ; cf. Prov. xxix. 27. 5 Job xxiv. 13.
6 Ps. xxxv. 11 if., xli. 6 if. 7 Isa. i. 2 if. ; Jer. viii. 4 if.
8 Prov. ii. 14, iv. 16 ; Jer. iv. 22 ; cf. Isa. xxix. 20.
9 13. J. Ixiii. 10, Ixv. 3.
10 The peculiar idiom in Job i. 11, ii. 5, 9 (xii. 6 ; Ps. x. 3).
11 Jer. xiii. 23 ; cf. iv. 22, vii. 24 if., ix. 2, 4 ; Isa. vi.
12 Prov. x. 23, xxi. 10 ; cf. Ps. xi. 5, DDH Siltf.
13 Gen. vii., xiii. 13, xv. 16, xviii., xix.; Lev. xviii. 24 if. ; Num. xvi. ; Isa. vi.
292 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
CHAPTEK XV.
THE UNIVERSALITY OF SIN ANT) ITS ORIGIN.
LITERATURE. G. Baur, " Die alttestamentliclien und die
griechischen Vorstellungen vom Siindenfall" (St^^d. und Krit.
1848, i. 320 ff.).
Universality of Sin.
1. The earlier writings of the Old Testament take into
consideration individual transgressions of law and custom ;
and where nothing of the kind occurs, they speak simply
of innocence and righteousness. 1 In view of the terrible
degeneracy of God s people, the prophets have to deal, in
their teaching, with practical repentance, not with a theoretical
exposition of human sinfulness, or with proofs of its uni
versality. They censure all violations of the natural sense
of justice and equity, and demand obedience to its claims. 2
Even A s delineation of the early ages nowhere attributes
" sin " to the men of God of those days, but speaks of
righteous men whose careers were unblemished, and who
" walked with God." 3 Consequently we should seek in vain
in the Old Testament for a " doctrine of the universality of
human sin." But, from the very first, such universality is un
doubtedly taken for granted. Even those who are righteous
and godly in the midst of the general depravity are not
thought of as sinless in the sense which evangelical theology
attaches to that term. Even Job, who is acknowledged by
God Himself to be righteous, is not to be thought of as
free from moral imperfection, for " even His angels God
chargeth with folly." 4 And saints, such as the author of
1 Ps. vii. 9, xviii. 21 ff. 2 In Amos v. 7, vi. 12, viii. 8 ; cf. Duhm, p. 116.
~ J Gen. vi. 9 (v. 22) (D^H, p^tf).
4 Job i. 1. 8, ii. 3 ; cf. iv. 18 ff., xiv. 4 ff.
UNIVERSALITY OF SIN. 293
Psalm xxxii., who glory in the mercy of God, know well
of a heavy load of guilt which burdened their hearts till they
found mercy through repentance and confession. In fact,
they advise all the pious to follow their example and draw
nigh to God in penitence, and with sincere confession. 1
They therefore take it for granted that every saint has
cause to repent and confess. The popular philosophy, too,
recognises in sin something quite " human." 2
The narrator B has laid special emphasis on the uni
versality of sin, just as he generally pays much greater
attention to moral and religious matters than the other
historians of the Old Testament. In his account, the sin
of Adam, in conformity with the natural power of an
accomplished fact, becomes, in the second generation, fratri
cide. 3 The descendants of Seth, indeed, exhibit a better
disposition than the line of Cain, in which, owing to civilisa
tion, sin develops a haughty confidence in their power of
self-defence, and such a desire for mastery that they are
ready for anything. 4 But in God s eyes the whole result
is, that " the wickedness of man was great in the earth,
and that every imagination of his heart was only evil con
tinually," 5 in other words, that the whole world of man s
wishes, plans, and inclinations, was constantly and ex
clusively bent on thwarting God. And after the terrible
judgment of the flood, the second race of men is much the
same. God resolves to bear with them. He will no more
mete out to them mere rigid justice, " for the imagina
tion of man s heart is evil from his youth " 6 that is to
say, man cannot bear to be strictly judged by the standard
of the divine demands. Undoubtedly, sin is not restricted
here to individual acts of will, but is regarded as a bias
which every one inherits as part of ordinary human nature
1 Ps. xxxii. % IF. (6, "POirD). 2 Prov. xv. 33, xx. 9.
;; Gen. iv. 8. * Gen. iv. 23 f. * Gen vi. 5.
6 Gen. viii. 21.
294 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
in other words, as original sin. It is in keeping with this
that, according to B, every one requires the grace of God.
Thus, Noah finds "grace in the eyes of the Lord." 1 His
sacrifice secures favour for the new race of men. 2 And of
Abraham, Isaac, and especially of Jacob, sins are candidly
recorded. 3
In B, accordingly, it is taken for granted that sin is
universal, just as we read in Proverbs : " Who can say,
I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin ? " 4
And because God is righteous, He cannot apply to men
like these the standard of the highest justice. For to apply
this standard to such a race would be unfair. 5 On the
other hand, even in B, every actual sin is represented as
a voluntary act, not as a necessity or a hereditary doom :
" Sin croucheth before the door, and unto thee is its desire ;
but thou shouldest rule over it." 6 And along with this
universality of sin it is still taken for granted that there is,
among men, every variety and grade of sinfulness. Con
temporary with Noah, we have the generation which the
flood destroyed ; contemporary with Abraham, the men of
Sodom and the Canaanites who defiled their land. 7 And
even in the heathen world there are found, among the sinful
multitude, individuals who, like Abimelech and Melchizedek,
rank as the equals of the men of God in Israel. 8
1 Gen. vi. 8 ; cf. ix. 21-24 (vii. 1, where he is called righteous, sounds almost
like an interpolation from A. But in any case righteousness is no proof of
sinlessness).
2 Gen. viii. 20 ff.
3 Of course it must not be forgotten that, in many cases, the ancient con
ception of craft and violence warrants us in supposing that the narrator had
t[iiite a different opinion of the moral character of such acts from what we
should form (Gen. xii. 10 ft ., xx., xxv. 6ff., xxv. 28, xxvii., xxxiv., xxxv. 22,
xxxvii., xxxviii).
4 Prov. xx. 9; cf. xv. 33, where the value of "humility," which goeth
"before honour," is inculcated, or the passages which emphasise the salutary
effects of correction, x. 17, xiii. 1, 24, xv. 5, 23, xix. 20, 27.
5 Gen. viii. 21 . 6 Gen. iv. 7.
7 Gen. xv. 16 ; Lev. xviii. 24 ; cf. Gen. xviii., xix., iv. 8f., 25 ff.
8 Gen. xiv. 18ff., xx. 4ff
UNIVERSALITY OF SIN. 295
2. As a rule the prophets speak, primarily, not of human
sin, but of Israel s sin. They invariably take for granted that
the chosen people are sinful. Even in the best ages they
talk about a fall, a general declension from Israel s ideal. 1
Naturally they do this still more in degenerate times. Then
they depict, in the darkest colours, the adultery of Israel,
his want of love and fidelity, and his moral savagery. 2 And
in their hymns, the pious complain that all men are liars ;
that there is none that doeth good, no, not one; that deceit
and fraud, jealousy and wickedness, are universally pre
valent. 3
Of course there is no intention of teaching the universality
of sin as a dogma. Even in Israel such words have not a
dogmatic motive, but a hortatory and polemical one. The
prophets take for granted that there is, in themselves and
in their own circles, a very different general tendency from
that of the circles against which they are contending. They
speak of their own age, and not of all ages. They always take
for granted, explicitly or implicitly, that there are among
the people righteous men who are conscious of being in
harmony with the will of God. But even these are not
sinless. In circumcision, in acts of purification and sacrifice,
they include themselves, as men of " unclean lips," 4 among
the sinful people requiring the divine mercy. Israel as a
nation is an unfruitful vineyard, a vine without grapes, a
fig-tree on which no early fig is to be found. " There is not
a single godly or pious man ; the best of them is as a brier,
the most upright among them is as out of a thorn hedge."
1 B. J. xlvi. 8, 12, xlviii. 1-8, 1. 1, Iviii. 2H ., liv. 2ll .,lxiv. 5; IFagg. ii.
12f.; Zcdi. v.; Joel ii. 12.
2 Hos. i.-iii., iv. I2ff., vi. 10, viii. 9, ix. 1, xii. 12 I 1 ., xiii. I f . ; .Mioah i. 7 ;
Isa. i. 1ft"., 21, ii. till ., iii. 9, xvii. 10, xxii. 8ff.; Jev. e.<j. ii. 7, 20, J3, iii. Iff.,
9, 20, 26 ft ., v. 1, vi. 10 ff., vii. 2011 ., viii. 12f., xi. 9f., xiii. 27, xviii. 13;
Ezek. e.g. iii. 7, xii. 2, v. 5f., xxiii. Iff., 46, xvi., xx. 13 ff.
3 E.g. Ps. xiv. 3, xii. 2ff., xxvii. 12, xxxv. 5, 7, 11, 20, xxxvi. 2f., liii. 2-4,
xii. 7-10, Ixxiii. 6-10, cix. 1-5, cxvi. 11, cxl. 2, cxliii. 2.
4 Isa. vi. 5.
296 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
" They have transgressed the law, changed the ordinance,
broken the everlasting covenant." 1 The righteous who sigh
over these abominations, 2 have to confess with deep sorrow
that all the mercy and all the chastisements of God have
had no effect. 3 They unroll before us the dark history of
the people s sin, 4 and acknowledge that, in spite of all that
God has done, the nation has but rebelled against Him
in a still more stiff-necked and stubborn way. 5 Israel should
carry God in his heart, but not even the priests or the
prophets know anything of Him, or inquire after Him. The
people despise God s commandment and have no desire to
listen ; eyes and ears are closed ; they say to God, " Attend to
Thyself." They grieve His Holy Spirit, the Spirit bestowed
on the men of God. They complain that conversion to God does
no good, and do not believe that God works either good or evil.
They refuse to return, they are a generation of liars. 6 Hence
Isaiah says : " The ox knoweth his owner and the ass his
master s crib, but Israel doth not know, My people doth
not consider." And Ezekiel declares that even the prayers
of men like Noah, Daniel, or Job, would save themselves
only, not their families, from destruction. 7 Indeed, even the
exilic prophet, who announces mercy, knows full well that
the people do not deserve to have their sins forgiven, but have
provoked God to wrath. 8
3. If such is the judgment as to Israel, then of course all
mankind are under the dominion of sin. For, from the
nature of the case, a perfect righteousness, while possible
1 Isa. v. 1 ff.; Micah vii. Iff. (B. J. xxiv. 5). " E.g. Ezek. ix. 4ff.
3 Ilos. iv. 7, x. 1 ; cf. Isa, i. 5, v. 1-8, ix. 8f., 12; Amos iv. 5, 8ff.; Jer.
xliv. 10 ; Lev. xxvi. 18 ff. (Mai. i. tiff.), etc.
4 E.g. Deut. ix. 15 ff., 22 ff. ; Hos. ix. 10 ff., x. Iff, 9 If., xi. 2ff.; Zech. i.
4ff., vii. 11 ff.; 2 Kings xvii. 6-23.
5 E.g. Isa. i. 2, iii. 9, xxii. 12 ff.; Jer. xvii. 23, xix. 15, xliv. 5, xlvi. 17;
Amos v. 10 ; Ezek. ii. 4ff., iii. 7, vii. 13, xii. 2, 3, 9, 25, and often.
6 E.g. Amos ii. 4 ; Isa. vi. 10, xxx. 9 ; Deut. xiii. 7-19, xvii. 1-6 ; Jer. ii. 8
viii. 4 if.; Zeph. i. 12 ; Ezek. iii. 7, xii. 2 ; B. J. xlii. 19, Ixv. 1.
7 Isa. i. 3 ; Ezek. xiv. 14 ff.
8 B. J. xlii. 24, xliii. 2-3, 26, Ixv. 1 ff.
ORIGINAL SIN. 297
within Israel, is impossible beyond it. The heathen nations,
generally, are regarded by Israel as wicked, 1 as the haughty
foes of God and His kingdom, who trust in themselves and
in their own strength. 2 Consequently, the sin which is
dealt with in Israel is, in the last resort, the sin of all
mankind. One may, indeed, speak of original sin even in
connection with the people of Israel, because " his first father
sinned," because they are transgressors from the womb, an
adulterous seed. 3 There are particular forms of sin which are
common to whole classes of men. 4 But this particular kind
of original sin depends on the original sin of the race. We
are right in speaking of " original sin." For the individual
does not, by any voluntary act of his own, give his animal life
with its sensuality and selfishness the predominance it has.
He receives it along with his human nature. " Behold, I was
shapen in iniquity ; and in sin did my mother conceive me,"
is the complaint of the psalmist-poet, 5 who does not mean
to represent the mode of ordinary human generation as sin
ful, 6 but to assert that, from the very first, the human
embryo grows in a soil positively sinful. Human nature,
as every one gets it as the basis of his personal develop
ment, is, from the first, under the influence of a tendency
which is preponderatingly sensual and selfish. Nor can
it be otherwise. Out of the unclean no clean thing can
come, not even one. 7 Even Job, the righteous, feels himself
entangled in human frailty which, in his unguarded youth,
drew him into acts of sin. 8 There is no man who has not
sinned. Were God to mark iniquity who could stand ? who
1 Hence D^JJKn is actually, iu later times, tin; term for the heathen nations.
Ps. i\., x., cxxiii. , !, rxxix. 4 ; E/ok. vii. 21, 24 ; B. ,1. xiv. 5 (uftKpruXoi, Gal.
il. l.V).
2 Cf. especially Hub. i. 11 ; Ezek. xxviii. 2 If., xxix. 3, 9.
3 B. J. xliii. 27, xlviii. 8, Ivii. 3. 4 Gen. iv., ix. 25, xix. 37, 38.
5 Ps. li. 7. e , n ^ n .
7 Job xiv. 4 (v. 6, xv. 15) ; cf. ciii. 14 (Ps. Iviii. 4, speaks of the specially
close connection between the sins of habitual transgressors).
8 Job xiii. 26 (i. 8, ii. 3, xlii. 7).
298 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
could even examine the secret sins of his own frail heart ? l
Hence God foresaw that Israel would fall away from Him. 2
Thus Israel becomes more and more clearly convinced that
man is by nature sinful, governed by overmastering instincts,
which bring him into antagonism with the pure and spiritual
God. But in this, as we have seen, there is also consolation.
Men with such a nature God cannot judge " in His wrath."
But, above all, there is here a warning to be humble.
When a man appears before God, self-righteousness and con
fidence in his own worth are entirely out of place. He
must acknowledge that, if God were to enter into judgment
with him, He might bring a thousand to one. Hence, he
must trust solely to God s goodness and mercy. 3 He must
prove well his own motives, to see whether sin has not
seduced him into such feelings as malice, the lust of the eyes,
and hardness of heart. 4 God is nigh unto them that wait
quietly for Him, unto them that are of a broken heart and a
contrite spirit, 5 unto the poor and needy, 6 who have no
renown of their own, but who look up to God. Therefore
a man ought humbly to endure the evils which befall him in
this earthly life, as inevitable accompaniments of an earth-
born, sinful, impure existence. 17 He should recognise them as
the salutary discipline of God, 8 which only a fool despises. 9
" Whom God loveth, He chasteneth, as a father his son ; 10 and
1 1 Kings viii. 46 ; Ps. xix. 13, cxxx. 3, cxliii. 2.
2 Dent. xxxi. 16-21.
3 Ps. xxxviii. 4ff., li. 5ft ., Ixv. 4, xc. 7, 11 (Job xi. 6).
* Job xxxi. 1, 16 if., 29 ff. 5 Ps. xxxiv. 19.
6 "Oy mostly joined with JV3X, at other times also with 71 and *p ; cf. e.g.
Ps. ix. 10, 13, 19, x. 9, 12, 17, xiv. 6, xxv. 9, 16, 17, xxxi. 8, xxxiv. 3, xxxv.
10, xxxvii. 11, 14, xl. 18, Ixviii. 11, Ixix. 30, 33, Ixx. 6, Ixxii. 2, 4, 12, 13,
Ixxiv. 18, 21, Ixxvi. 10, Ixxxii. 3, Ixxxvi. 1, cix. 16, 23, 31, exl. 13, exlvii. 6,
i.-xiix. 4 ; Prov. iii. 34, xxx. 14, xxxi. 9. These "poor" are the true people of
Israel (Isa. xi. 4, xxix. 19 ; B. J. xiv. 30, 32, xxv. 4, xxvi. 6 ; cf. Zecli. x. 7,
11 ; Job v. 11-16).
7 Ps. xxxviii. 4 ff., xl. 13, xc. 10 ff; Job xiv. 5ff.
8 Job v. 17 ; B. J. xxvi. 16 (nDio, nroin, Drain).
9 Prov. i. 7, iii. 11, v. 12 ; Ps. 1. 17. 10 Prov. iii. 12 (Ps. cxviii. 18).
ORIGIN OF SIN. 299
the godly man confesses : " Before I was afflicted, I went
astray." 1 Indeed, conscious of his own weakness, a man
should willingly accept chastisement even from human well-
wishers. " Let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness ;
and let him reprove me, it shall be as oil upon the head." 2
Such humility befits a sinful man ; it is the beginning of
wisdom. 3
4. But whence comes the tendency to sin which rules in
man ? If we except the narrative of B, we may assert in
the most positive manner, that nowhere in any other part of
the Old Testament does anyone ever think of explaining it
by a historical event by a fall. The prophets speak of
another state of innocence than that of Adam, and of another
fall " after the likeness of Adam s transgression," 4 viz. of
Israel s declension from the holiness offered to him. They
see the roots of this fall in the self-satisfaction and content
ment of the people with the possessions they have obtained, a
satisfaction which makes them proud and haughty. 5 When the
people became full, they forgot the Giver; they believed neither
God nor His messengers. 6 This was the root of their pride
and stiffness of neck, of their love of luxury and sensual pleas
ures, of their fear of man and insubordination, in a word, of
all the individual sins of the people. But this is only a
description of a fact, not an explanation of the origin of sin.
The most of the writings of the Old Testament do not go
into this question at all. In A, where one might natur
ally expect an answer to it, sin is simply a result of free
will. God made man good. Consequently, sin cannot be
1 Rs. rxix. 67, 71, 72. 2 Ps. oxli. 5.
:: l.sa. ii. 11 il . ; B. J. xxiii. 9tf., xxvi. 9, xli. 17 ; Prov. vi. 20, viii. 13, iii. 5,
7 (xi. 2. xv. 33, xvi. 5, xviii. 1-2, xx. 9, xxi. 4, xxix. 23, xxx. 2ff). Correction
is the way to wisdom (Prov. i. 2, 3, 7, viii. 10, xx. 30, xxiii. 12).
4 Rom. v. 14 ff.
Hos. xiii. 6 ; Deut. viii. 11, 14, xxxi. 20, xxxii. 151 . (Prov. xxx. 9).
"Amosvi. 3, ix. 10; Jer. xlviii. 11; cf. ii. 19, 30, v. 3, vii. 28, xvii. 23,
xxxii. 33, xxv. 8ff., xv. 6, xxix. 19 ff.; Amos v. 10 1 Sum. xii. 13, 15;
B. J. 1. 2.
300 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
explained by creation. And God reprobates sin in all its
motions. 1 But all flesh had corrupted its way before God ;
wickedness, setting order at defiance, had filled the earth. 2
This writer who, in his general conception of righteousness
and sin, points to the very tendency against which the gospel
had to contend in Pharisaism, considers the essence of sin to
consist of individual breaches of the commandments regard
ing material and moral holiness, and pays no real attention
to the inner world of thought and desire.
Those Old Testament writers who go into the question are
distinctly of opinion that the universality of human sin is
explained by " the fleshly nature " of man himself that is to
say, by his connection with material and finite nature, which
is not in a position to fulfil the divine will. Consequently,
proverbial philosophy calls indolence the main source of sin,
that is, the sluggishness of the animal nature which hinders
the will. 3 Thus Isaiah says that he is " a man of unclean
lips ; " 4 and Jeremiah complains 5 that the heart is ruled by
the impulses of sensuality and selfishness " The heart is
deceitful above all things, and it is desperately sick, who can
know it ? " The heart in its natural state is unclean : it
must be circumcised before it can become pleasing to God. 6
And since man is dust, God cannot therefore judge him other
wise than as a frail and imperfect creature can bear it. 7
This connection of sin with the earthly, fleshly origin of
the natural man, is expressed most strongly and decidedly in
the book of Job, where it is the view held in common by
both contending parties. Contrasted with the God of Light
and His perfect purity, the very inhabitants of heaven have
^ev. xix. 2, 17. 2 Gen. vi. 12 f.
3 Prov. vi. 6ff., xviii. 9, xx. 13, xxiv. 33, xxvi. 13 ff. (xxiii. 30 f.; Job
xx. 12).
4 Isa. vi. 5. 5 Jer. xvii. 9.
Deut. x. 16. If the conjecture of Hitzig as to Prov. xxvii. 19 (Q!|JO for
D D), is light, then it is a parallel to Gen. viii. 21 regarding the depravity of
human nature.
7 Ps. ciii. 14.
GENESIS III. 301
defects and faults. How much less can a being formed of clay
and born of woman, claim to be free from sin, a being " who
dwells in a house of clay, whose foundation is in the dust,"
in other words, a being who grows out of a fleshly, earthly
nature into n living personality. Man " made of dust " and
" perfect purity " are quite incongruous ideas. 1 Although such
phraseology is primarily meant to emphasise the fact that man
is not in a position to justify himself before God, still it is
also a logical inference from it, that he is incapable of doing
what he ought, in the eyes of God, to do.
5. Thus the universal sinfulness of man is either simply
set down as an arbitrary fact, or attributed to the imper
fect animal nature of the human heart, which is due to its
connection with the life of the flesh ; and there is no attempt
made to explain it further by some act or other of the first
man. Only in the narrative contained in the third chapter
of Genesis could anyone hope to find a historical explanation
of original sin. For B, in fact, reports the first human sin.
But he neither attempts to explain it, nor does he represent
it as being in itself a sufficient explanation of the subse
quent sinfulness of man. What is merely a single fact
cannot, as such, have any inner moral significance for others.
Nor does our narrator ever hint that the first sin destroyed
the moral organism of man, and that the second man should
be thought of as born with a different nature from that with
which the first was created. It is only man s position that
is altered, not his moral power. Before Cain s door sin
lies couched ; but he ought to rule over it : he is therefore
in the same position as his father. 2 Besides, the first sin
1 Job iv. 17 ff., xiv. 4ff., xv. 14-16, xxv. 4-6 (v. 6: "For affliction cometh
not forth of the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground ; but man
is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.") So long as sin is brought into
connection with the fleshly nature, its purely moral character is, it is true,
still obscure ; it still appears akin to weakness, sickness, uncleanness. And
actual sin, in the moral sense of the word, has, indeed, a deep connection with
the natural side of man.
- Gen. iii. 17 if., iv. 7.
302 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
itself is related in such a way that the fleshly inclination,
which is in us the very essence of original sin, is presupposed
in the woman before she ever sinned at all as unbelief,
concupiscence, and a spirit of contradiction. Such a narra
tive, if a real historical account, would be utterly incapable
of sustaining the weight of the problem. It is of far too
insignificant and isolated a character for that, and has too
little connection with the moral history that follows. But if
it is really not a narrative of actual occurrences, but a
mythical form of religious thoughts, then it gives us nothing
more than the ideas of revealed religion regarding the rela
tion of sin to humanity in the abstract. It shows how,
apart from the power of sin over men as known from actual
experience, and as displayed in manifold individual develop
ments, sin assails human nature as such, and brings it under
its sway. It relates the fall of a hitherto sinless humanity ;
or, to put it better, the fall of pure human nature, as a fall
is always the foundation and precursor of the multifarious
developments of sin in every individual. Only in this sense
can this narrative help us to understand the essence of
human sin.
The possibility of sin is clearly traced back to the
arrangement and will of God. It is God who plants the
tree of knowledge in the middle of the garden. No cherub
keeps man from going near it, as fallen man is afterwards
kept from going near the tree of life. The tempter is in the
garden of Eden, and approaches the woman unhindered;
that is to say, temptation and the possibility of yielding to
it are regarded as necessities, if man is to be raised out of the
animal stage of existence. God gives the commandment, and
along with it also the possibility of transgressing it ; for there
cannot be a " shall " without the possibility of an " otherwise."
Consequently, it is by God s arrangement that sin assails man,
and that man can succumb to it. 1 If man is not to continue
1 Of. Gen. ii. 9, 17, iii. 1 ff.
GENESIS III. 303
an animal, he must be granted the possibility of tasting this
fruit. Without the possibility of sinning, there can be no
freedom ; without the temptation of becoming equal to the
Elohim, there can be no humanity. Hence it is correct to say
that God tempts man ; as, in fact, it is said afterwards that
God tempted Abraham to see whether he really feared Him. 1
But the act of sinning is traced in an equally decided
manner to the free will of man. God forbids sin. Hence it!
can never be explained as due to His will. 2 God punishes it.j
Hence it can never claim to have been decreed by Him. 3
No doubt, in a higher sense, even the free will of the creature,
with sin as its consequence, may be conceived of as part of a
divine arrangement ; so that, as the substratum to be removed,
as that which has to be negatived, it becomes the starting-
point of a higher development in harmony with the divine
Will. Our story does not forbid such, views ; but still less
does it advocate them.
Certainly sin is the giving up of a condition which can
not be permanent, and, consequently, is an enlarging of the
human sphere. God Himself confirms the statement of the
serpent : " Ye shall be as the Elohim." 4 In deciding of his
own free will to disobey the divine command, man attains to
a kind of independent activity, of which only an independent,
spiritual, personal being is capable, and which is utterly beyond
a mere animal, which has of necessity to obey already existing
laws. But this step forward involves a still greater step
backward. Men get to know that they are naked; in other
words, they have awakened to a sense of discord in their own
nature, to a consciousness of guilt. Paradise is lost ; the curse
of death is decreed ; further progress is made dependent on a
painful struggle against the intruding principle of temptation. 5
Hence the entrance of sin unquestionably marks an advance
1 Gen. xxii. 1 ff. 2 Gen. ii. 17.
3 Gen. Hi. 14 ft . 4 Gen. iii. 5, 22 ; cf. 2 Sain. xiv. 17, xix. 27,
5 Gen. iii. 7, 15 IT.
304 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
in human development compared with a state of innocence
without moral experience and decision ; but an advance that
can lead to the true goal only by a constant rising above self.
Sin is in itself a retrogression from original innocence. Only
in the light of redemption only, that is, as a stage which is
to lead to a higher, can sin be represented as a felix culpa,
as a stage of human development decreed from the first in
the counsels of God.
Sin is, in its essence, a violation of divine order, a trans
gression of law. To a being morally free, the highest good
can be presented only in the form of duty or law. Conse
quently, its opposite, antagonism to God, evil as evil, can be
nothing but a transgression of law. 1 It is not the neglect of
a specific command, nor the omission to perform a higher task
that constitutes the essence of sin, but the doing of something
forbidden. Natural life becomes evil only when it consciously
breaks a higher law. Then the natural instinct for pleasure,
which is good in itself, becomes " lust ; " and appetite, the
instinct of self-preservation, which is also good in itself,
becomes " selfishness."
Actual sin is caused by the principle of temptation, to
which man is and must be exposed. It arises from his eating
of the tree of knowledge of good and evil that is to say,
through man obtaining, contrary to the will and command of
God, an experimental knowledge of moral opposites, a know
ledge which presupposes a transgression of the law of
obedience. 2 In itself the expression, " to know good and
evil," simply means the capacity of forming an aesthetic and
moral judgment in contrast to the ignorance of a child or of
an old man grown childish. 3 Here, where it is a question of
1 Gen. ii. 17.
2 The view that there was in the tree itself a poison that acted on the senses,
and such-like Rabbinical fancies, it should be sufficient simply to mention.
3 Isa. vii. 16 ; Jonah iv. 11 ; Deut. i. 39 ; cf. 2 Sam. xix. 35 ; Odyss. xx. 310.
(In such phraseology there is not as yet any clear distinction drawn between
what is morally good and what is pleasant to the senses.)
GENESIS III. 305
human nature as such, what is meant is the experimental
knowledge of moral opposites, by which man gets into the
category of free personal beings, but, at the same time, into a
condition of guilt.
Sin becomes actual transgression owing to the two chief
instincts of all healthy animal life the instinct of self-
assertion and the desire of pleasure. Temptation is primarily
connected with the limitation of the "Ego," the tempter
speaking in scornful exaggeration of the prohibition, and
representing it as due to jealousy, as a malicious hindrance
to perfectly free self-development. It is this temptation
which first makes sin possible, as is proved by the obviously
embittered tone of the woman s reply, and its exaggerated
version of the command. 1 The main root of sin is unbelief,
which sees in the gift of God s love an unfriendly limitation.
But what decides the matter is the allurement of the
senses. When reverence for the commandment has once
been shaken, so that the woman ventures to look at the
tree with different eyes than heretofore, she sees that it is
" good for food and desirable to look upon." 2 Human sin is,
at bottom, mainly an affair of the senses, and consequently
admits of redemption. It is not simply hostility to God on
the part of the " Ego," but a yearning after a real, although
a lower good. Consequently, it is always possible to over
come this by a higher good. Now the essence of "human sin"
is partly unbelieving hostility to God and partly delight in
worldly pleasure. The woman sins first. The Old Testa
ment generally assumes that it is the woman who has the
greater inclination to sensuality a view, however, quite
compatible in the best ages of Israel with high respect for the
moral worth of woman. 3
1 Ccu. iii. 1, 4, 5 ; of. ver. 3, "Neither shall ye touch it" (i.e. the fruit).
2 Gen. iii. G. On account of the "desirable," it is Letter to take T^KTl as
meaning "attentive intelligent contemplation," rather than " making wise" (as in
Ps. xxxii. 8), which would necessarily refer to "the knowledge of good and evil.
3 Eccles. vii. 28 f.; cf. on the other hand, Prov. xxxi. 10-31.
VOL. II. U
306 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
Thus the essence of human sin is that disobedience to the
law of God which has its root in unbelief, and is caused by
temptation due to the power of the fleshly life. To such
temptation, based as it is on the sensuously selfish instinct of
animal life, every being that has a sensuous life must be
exposed. It has, as a matter of fact, forced its way into
human nature as such ; in other words, it forms the common
foundation of all individual developments of sin among the
children of Adam. Thus sin is accepted as a fact explaining
all the further moral history of man, although the manner
in which it did force its way in, does not appear either to
require, or to admit of, an explanation.
CHAPTEE XVI.
GUILT AND DEATH.
(I) Guilt and the Consciousness of Guilt.
1. As far as the dominion of sin extends, so far also, in
the view of the Old Testament, does its objective effect, guilt,
extend. Guilt is a state of actual antagonism to the Divine
law, which must be brought to an end, either by the destruc
tion of the guilty person, or by his being set free through
atonement. In the consciousness of the pious Israelite,
sin, guilt, and punishment, are ideas so directly connected
that the words for them are interchangeable. Sin, conceived
of as a condition, is called Avon, 1 a word which in itself ex
presses, like Chattath, simply the opposite of straightforward,
upright conduct. But as soon as declension is regarded as a
condition, it at once becomes a fact contrary to the divine
harmony, and one that must be brought to an end. Thus in
the simplest way, the word Avon comes to have the meaning
GUILT AND THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF GUILT. 307
of guilt. 1 In this sense, which is already, in fact, passing
over into that of punishment, it is obviously used in Gen.
iv. 13. For Cain is not speaking of the greatness of his sin
making forgiveness impossible, but is complaining of the
heaviness of the punishment inflicted on him, that as " a
miserable vagabond " he will be unable to live anywhere in
peace and safety. Hence the expressions, " to confess one s
guilt," 2 to bear it, i.e. to take its results upon oneself, 3 and
"to take it away," as one lifts off a load. 4 Hence it can
be said " God has found out our iniquity " ; 5 " the iniquity of
the Amorite is not yet full " ; 6 " to be consumed in the
iniquity of the city," 7 expressions in which the transi
tion is well and clearly shown. In Ps. xl. 13, guilt and
sin are already quite synonymous.
The proper word for the arrest under which guilt places a
man as regards God is Asham. 8 It shows with special
clearness that, according to Hebrew ideas, the conception of
guilt does not necessarily imply an act of free will. For
the sin-offering and the guilt-offering of the Thorah, which
are the sacrifices offered for such " delinquencies," are admis
sible only in cases where there has been no wicked inten
tion. Now as soon as a condition arises which is at
variance with the divine order, whether purposely or not,
there is guilt in other words, something which has to be
1 Ex. xxxiv. 7. 2 Lev. xvi. 21.
3 Lsa. xiv. 21, xxx. 13, xxxiii. 24, i. 4 ; E/ek. xxi. 30, 34, xxxv. 5 ; Ps. xl.
13 ; Lev. xvii. 16, xx. 17 it
4 Ex. xxxiv. 7 ; Num. xiv. 18. 5 Gen. xliv. 16. 6 Gen. xv. 16.
7 Gen. xix. 15. It is even termed rtft^ K JW, Lev. xxii. 16 ; Ps. xxxii. 5,
TlXtSn jiy. It stands in antithesis to ip2, 2 Sam. xiv. 9, 32. Besides, the
word nxtsn has the same meaning, "guilt," "punishment." So Lev. xxiv. 15,
Num. ix. 13, xviii. 22, 32 (Isa. v. 18), INftn Sb J. So KEPI, "to be guilty,"
Gen. xliii. 9, xliv. 32 ; Ex. v. 16 ; 1 Kings i. 21. Thus one brings "sin," i.e.
guilt, upon the people (Ex. xxxii. 21). Indeed, in Zech. xiv. 19, the word
stands simply for punishment. In a vividly religious conception of these things,
sin, guilt, and punishment are so closely interwoven that the very words become
interchangeable.
8 Dfc^K (verb, D^tf), e -9- Gen. xxvi. 10; Lev. iv. 13, 22, 27, v. 2, 19, 24;
T T " T
Nujn. v. 7.
308 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
removed by repentance or by judgment. This guilt is not
regarded as relating solely and entirely to particular in
dividuals any more than sin. It, also, develops in the case of
an organism. One may be cut off through the guilt of a city
without being personally guilty. 1 The iniquity of the fathers is
visited upon the children unto the third and the fourth genera
tion. 2 A single sin may bring guilt upon a whole community. 3
Through connection with sin, individuals, and indeed a whole
generation, may also inherit the results of earlier sins. God
punishes sinners and their children s children. The idolaters
of exilic Israel expiate their own and their fathers sins. 4
On Israel s account God is angry even with Moses. The sins
of Manasseh are expiated also by the better generation under
Josiah. 5 And ill-used Israel prays, " Let the iniquity of his
fathers be remembered " ; " Prepare for his sons a place of
slaughter for the iniquity of their fathers." 6 Conversely,
just as the blessing of the father descends to the children, 7 so
the innocence of a few may counteract the guilt of a com
munity, may prevent its punishment. 8 For the measure of
iniquity must be full before actual punishment begins. 9
In ordinary cases guilt is, as a matter of course, followed
by punishment, unless indeed such punishment be mercifully
averted by atonement.
2. How little developed the view of antiquity was regard
ing personal rights is also shown by the fact that God s
wrath at an act of wickedness ceases that is, the guilt is
regarded as having been purged away as soon as the law has
received any kind of objective satisfaction. 10 The prophets
1 Gen. xix. 15.
- Ex. xx. 5 ; cf. Gen. ix. 18, 25 ; Num. xiv. 18 (33) ; Deut. v. 9 ; Jer. ii. 9 ;
Lam. v. 7 (yet cf. 16).
Gen. xx. 9, xxvi. 10.
Jer. xiv. 20, xvi. 12, 18, xxxi. 16 ; P>. I. xl. 2, Ixv. 7; Lev. xxvi. 39.
Deut. i. 37, iii. 26, iv. 21 ; 2 Kings xxiii. 26, xxiv. 3 ; Jer. xv. 4 it
B. J. xiv. 21 ; Ps. cix. 14. 7 Prov. xx. 7 ; Ex. xx. 6.
Gen. xviii. 24-32 (xix. 21). 9 Gen. xv. 16.
10 Num. xxv. 4 ; 1 Sam. xv. 33 f. ; 2 Sam. xxi. 1 ff.
GUILT AND THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF GUILT. 309
frequently and emphatically declare that there is in sin itself
a power which must destroy the sinner. Wickedness
devours a land ; it rests on it like a burden, till it succumbs. 1
Iniquity is like a breach in a wall. 2 As the troubled sea
cannot rest, so sin must bring the transgressor to destruction. 3
He who sows the wind must reap the whirlwind. 4 Thus the
doings of a man recoil upon his own head. The wicked do
harm, not to God, but to themselves. 6 The same thought,
looked at more from a religious standpoint, manifests itself
in the conviction that God must inflict punishment in order
to assert His own will and the justice of His statutes
against the opposition of man. Sins are sealed up in a bag,
or, to use another metaphor, set in the light of God s coun
tenance. 6 They separate between God and His people. 7
God is to the wicked a consuming fire ; 8 He chastises, with
punishment suited to their guilt, those who still go on in their
sins. 9 And when once a certain stage of sin has been
reached, it demands a punishment which no repentance can
longer avert. Then comes the time when even the in
tercession of a Moses or a Samuel would be in vain;
when the prophets may no longer pray for the people ;
when even a Noah, a Job, and a Daniel could do nothing
more than save their own souls from the universal destruc
tion. 10
1 Jer. vi. 19 ; B. J. xxiv. 6, 20 ; xlii. 24.
2 Isa. xxx. 13.
3 Jer. xiii. 22, xiv. 7, 10, xv. 13, xxii. 10 ; B. J. Ivii. 20, Ixiv. 5.
4 Hos. viii. 7 ; Job iv. 8. xv. 35.
5 Hos. vii. 12 ; Isa. iii. 9 ; Ezek. xxii. 31 ; xxiv. 14 ; Jer. vii. 19, xliv. 7;
cf. Isa. ix. 18 ; B. J. 1. 10.
Job xiv. 17 ; Ps. xc. 8.
7 L5. J. lix. 2 (Isa. ix. 17 if.). Sin is fire, and the wrath of God is also
fire.
8 Isa. xxxiii. 14.
9 Ps. xxxix. 12, Ixviii. 22, xxxiv. 22 f.; cf. Hos. ii. 5, 8 it, iv. 7, 10, vii. 12,
ix. 2 IF., xiii. 3 ; Ezek. xxxiii. 8 f.
10 Hos. viii. 13, ix. 7, 15, xiii. 12 ; Isa. ii. 9 f., xxii. 14, vi. 9 ff.; Jer. x. 15,
xiv. 11, vii. 16, xv. 1, 4 ; Ezek. iii. 18 f., 21, v. 1 f., 15 if., vii. 10 IF., vi. 2ff.,
xi. 5ff., xiv. 14, 16, 20, xxi. 2ff., 6ff., 13 ff., xxii. Iff.; B. J. 1. 1.
310 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
3. From the time of Josiah the natural law by which sin is
inherited is no longer regarded as absolute. Every in
dividual, indeed, as a member of the species, must share in
the consequences of the relation to God being disturbed, and
in the sufferings entailed by the conduct of the former
generation. But this inherited share of guilt and punishment
must not be confounded with the guilt which a person brings
upon himself. The moral law of individual responsibility
must rank above the natural law of heredity. For his
father s guilt no one has to die, that is, to bear personally the
full penalty of divine justice. 1 This becomes law in Israel.
Jeremiah and Ezekiel proclaim it as a divine axiom. It shall
cease to be a proverb in Israel : " The fathers ate sour grapes,
and the children s teeth were set on edge," in the sense of " the
son bears the iniquity of his father." The soul that sinneth,
it shall die. Conversion may save a son from the death,
which connection with his father s sin seemed to render
inevitable. 2 Every one shall sin at his own cost. 3
The connection between the sin and guilt of an individual
and that of a whole race carries with it the conviction that so
long as human guilt has not, by bold antagonism to salvation,
attained a purely personal character, and thereby become
unpardonable, it is invariably made up of elements, some of
which are purely natural and the others moral. In other
words such guilt is partly hereditary, partly personal ; the
former having been contracted involuntarily, and the latter by
personal action. Consequently such guilt cannot be the
object of the divine wrath in all its severity, like guilt which
is purely personal. According to the standard of ideal human
righteousness, it would not be just in God to punish it. In
1 Dent. xxiv. 16 ; cf. 2 Kings xiv. 6.
2 Ezek. xviii. 2, 4, 19, xxxiii. 12 ff. ; Jer. xxxi. 29 f. Of course the converse
of this thought is that a hereditary blessing cannot be unconditional either ;
that it, too, is lost by a man who quits the good way of his forefathers
(Ezek. xviii. 10-13).
3 Prov. ix. 12.
GUILT AND THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF GUILT. 311
God s righteousness toward such men, mercy and long-
suffering are necessarily included. Hence it is said in a late
Psalm, " God knoweth our frame, He remembereth that we
are dust." l And the singer of Ps. li. feels that, because he
has experienced the power of sin even from the womb, he is
entitled to pray, " Have mercy upon me, according to Thy
great goodness." 2 That Ps. li. 7 has this meaning, that is, is
intended to give a reason why God must be inclined to forgive,
is plainly enough shown by the context. The first five
verses of the Psalm consist wholly of a prayer for forgiveness,
founded upon a penitent confession of sin. Then in verses
7 and 8, the psalmist, with a double " Lo " (jn), that is to say,
pointing God to something which should induce Him to forgive,
brings forward the two reasons on account of which he ventures
O
to hope for mercy. The first is " As man I am sinful ; my
sin, therefore, is due to human nature, not to my own
voluntary action." The second is, " Thou takest pleasure in
frank confession ; Thou hast Thyself encouraged me to present
an honest and wisely-framed appeal for mercy." Therefore
Thou wilt not reject me. In this verse man says on his
part, what in Gen. viii. 21 God declares on His, that this
earthly, natural, sinful humanity cannot bear to be judged
according to the standard of divine purity. And this is
still more emphatically expressed in B. J. Ivii. 16. Were
God to judge strictly, were He to be always wroth, the
human spirit which He had created would perish. The
Creator, who put the spirit of man in earthen vessels, is, on
that very account, the Merciful One, the God of grace. But
it is in the book of Job that this thought is expressed with
the greatest clearness. With the utmost emphasis Job
points out that the impossibility of man being pure before
God gives him a claim to be judged by God according to a
merciful standard, especially as inherited sin is, in fact,
accompanied by inherited misery. It is not worthy of the
1 Ps. ciii. 14. 2 .Ps. li. 7.
312 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
great divine Creator to apply to a creature of clay the
standard of His almighty power and purity.
" Wilt Thou harass a driven leaf?
And wilt Thou pursue the dry stubble ?
That Thou decreest bitter things against me,
And makest me to inherit the sins of my youth : . . .
If the days of man are determined, and the number of his months is with Thee,
And Thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass,
Then let him alone that he may rest,
May have pleasure, like a hireling, in his day. . . .
If I have sinned, what can I do unto Thee, Thou watcher of men ;
What is man, that Thou shouldest magnify him,
And that Thou shouldest set Thy heart upon him,
And that Thou shouldest prove him every morning,
And try him every moment ?
And why dost Thou not pardon my transgression, and take away mine
iniquity ? "
Thus Job complains that God, knowing full well that,
although not sinless he is certainly not a wilful transgressor,
wishes to force him into confession, as it were, by the rack of
pain; that the God who has created him is on the watch for
his sin, and will not free him from his iniquity. 1 In this
way the natural side of guilt really becomes an encouragement
to trust the divine mercy and be of good courage.
4. Whenever a man s conscience has been awakened by
the antagonism between the divine command and his own
conduct, and has not again become hard and unfeeling, guilt
is accompanied by a corresponding consciousness of it. This
is the view in B s narrative. When Adam has become sin
ful, the man and his wife see that they are naked ; in other
words, their natural nakedness makes them ashamed. They
hide themselves from God. 2 This feeling is expressed in the
penitential Psalms with matchless tenderness and fervour.
Conscience, born again of the Holy Spirit, penetrates deeper
into the mystery of guilt than all exhortations to repentance.
Here it is enough to mention Psalms xxxii. and li. On
the other hand, B s narrative shows how a man tries
1 Job vii. 17-21, x. 6-14, xiii. 25 f., xiv. 3, 5 ff.
2 Gen. iii. 7 ff. This is the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil.
DEATH. 313
hard to roll the guilt off himself on to others, and thus
escape the consciousness of guilt. 1 And in Cain, Lamech,
the generation swept away by the deluge, and the inhabitants
of Sodom, we meet with a stage of sin in which the con
sciousness of guilt is blunted into bold self -satisfaction/
Then God must, on His part, execute judgment on the guilty.
Death.
1. To human experience, the death of the body appears,
on the one hand, such a natural effect of the transient
character of all material beings that it has no particular
religious significance. This purely empirical view is
unquestionably the prevailing one among Old Testament
writers of all ages. That men must, without exception, die
and return to dust, to their mother earth, as soon as the
spirit leaves them, is simply taken for granted. 3 Even in
A s description of prehistoric times, death is spoken of as
something quite in the ordinary course of nature. True,
the antediluvians are credited with living an extraordinary
length of time, such as a poet might well describe as "life
for evermore." Still, it is stated of each, as the natural end
of his development, that he died, 4 without a hint being given
that this death was a judgment on account of moral
degeneracy, much less that it was the beginning of a more
perfect state.
But the Old Testament has also another, a religious, way of
looking at death and everything connected with it. Accord
ing to this view, death is something at variance with the
innermost essence of human personality, a judgment ; and
whenever this personality has reached its pure and perfect
ideal, it must at the same time be conceived of as raised
above death.
This is already implied in the old tradition which repre-
1 Gen. iii. 12 f. 2 Gen. iv. 9, 23 f., xix. 9 ; cf. Isa. iii. 9.
3 Ps. xlix. 11, xc. 3, cxlvi. 4. 4 Gen. v. 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 27, etc.
314 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
sents Enoch and Elijah as exalted to fellowship with God
without suffering bodily death. 1 It is implied in the Psalms
and Proverbs in which the godly man, conscious of being in
true communion with God, feels himself delivered from the
power of death. 2 Hence everything which has come under
the power of death is reckoned unclean, and must not be
touched by a member of the holy people. 3 The post-exilic
prophet sees death swallowed up in the latter days for ever. 4
And the exilic (?) psalmist complains that our earthly life
is so fleeting and transient, just because God sets our sins
in the light of His countenance. 5
That death is for men not merely an ordinary natural
occurrence but also a judgment, that it is out of harmony
with the inmost essence of personality, and is due to the
wrong development of man, is a view clearly expressed for
the first time in the fragment, Gen. vi. 1-4. By allying
themselves with the Elohim, men went beyond the bounds
assigned them by God, and became as the Elohim. And this
relationship must not become eternal. Man is flesh that is,
a material being with all the outer and inner limitations of
such a being. Consequently the Spirit of God, the Spirit of all
life, cannot rule for ever in such a creature. Only a definite
length of life, only one hundred and twenty years, are to be
graciously vouchsafed to him. As in all individual material
beings, so also in him is the breath of life to remain only for
a limited time. 6 According to this account, therefore, death
1 Gen. v. 24 ; 2 Kings ii. 11 if.
2 Ps. xvi. (Prov. xii. 28, xiv. 32, xv. 24, etc.), (cf. chap, xxxiii.).
3 Chap. xxiv. (Hagg. ii. 14). 4 B. J. xxv. 8 f . (xxvi. 19 if.).
5 Ps. xc. 7 if.
6 On this difficult passage I may make the following additional remarks.
The most difficult words in ver. 3 run thus: DJ ^1 L)hy^ D1N1 Till jiT"^
WO* 1 ViTl ")KQ Xin. Here I can reconcile myself least of all to the conjecture
of Schrader who would read ")JQ &OH D^DJ- To say nothing of the arbitrari
ness of the change, the thought that the Nephesh itself has become 1 asar, is
absolutely inconsistent with the old Hebrew mode of thought ; in the New
Testament, it might perhaps be possible. The explanation, ICO Kin DJ
DEATH. 315
is due pnrtly to man s material being, and partly to his
having overstepped his own limits by alliance with the
Eluhini. This is the first account of death s intrusion the
first, for it has been thought out without reference to (Jen.
iii. It is closely akin to the account we are now about to
discuss. Only it retains in a much more marked way the
features of nature-religion, and is less thoroughly per
meated with the characteristic spirit of the Old Testament
religion. 1
This thought that death, while on the one hand a law of
nature for the natural being, is on the other hand, for the
spiritual personality in man, a contradiction of its ideal,
a judgment, is worked out by B in a particularly pregnant
and thorough manner. Death is threatened as a judgment
also appears to me to have little probability ; for what Joes the D!l mean ?
Man, as man, has been flesh from the beginning. At the most, one might
interpret DJ in this way, "He is no better than the other fleshly beings "
(Wendt), deserves therefore no exceptional destiny. But there is nothing in
the context pointing to a comparison with other beings of flesh and blood. I
am inclined to think it would be best to read, by bringing forward the Zakkeph,
DJtJb D1N3 TVQ flT N$>, "My Spirit shall not always rule in man because of
their sinning," VID" 1 ITT) ")fc>l JO!"!, "he is flesh, therefore shall his days be
one hundred and twenty years." In that case "lO tflH would stand for
Kin "IBO" 1 "^ It is quite wrong to refer the words, " So his days shall be
one hundred and twenty years," to the interval of time which is still to be
granted to the human race as such before the flood ; and for the following
reasons : 1. This fragment knows absolutely nothing of a flood. According to
its opening words it should come immediately after the narrative of creation ; ii.
4&-iv., coming in as a consecutive account, prevented this, and so it was inserted
at the close of the pre-Noachic history. 2. " His (man s) days shall be one
hundred and twenty years" is quite in accordance with the usual idiom for the
life-time of individuals (Gen. v. 5, 8, 11, 14, etc.). 3. The antithesis, " My
Spirit shall not rule in man for ever" requires the fixing of a limit for an in
dividual life. For, as regards the human race, the Spirit of God did not cease
even at the deluge to rule in it (Noah). 4. In A, it is true, there are still after
the flood instances of longer life ; but with A our piece has nothing at all to do.
1 The whole situation would, of course, be very much more simple, could we
assume that Gen. vi. 3 belonged originally to an older form of Gen. iii., and
was only forced out of its place when " the tree of life " forced its way into the
narrative of B (Btulde). But however certain it is that older strata of literature
preceded our present form of B, still this particular conjecture appears to me
to be sadly wanting in internal probability.
316 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
on sin. 1 And when sin is committed, this judgment is exe
cuted. Man was formed out of the dust. Viewed from this
standpoint, it would be only natural that lie should return
to the dust. 2 But in Eden the tree of life was growing.
Hence it was possible that man in paradise that is, humanity
without actual sin might eat also of this tree, and thus live,
like the Elohim, for ever. 3 That man succumbs to death is
therefore not merely a natural law, but also a divine judgment.
In the day that he eats of the tree, he dies. Certainly, as
the serpent says, with devilish truth, he does not immediately
die a bodily death. But the divine truth of the sentence is
duly confirmed. Death lays its hand on him ; he is subject
to it. Bodily trouble and sickness become his lot ; and they
end in his return to the dust whence he was taken. It
is not, indeed, as if God had wished merely to frighten him
by exaggerating the consequences of sin, or as if a change
in the divine will could be made out from the creation of
the woman. To be driven away from the tree of life is
itself " death " in the widest sense of the word. 4
2. From this view of death the significance given to
" death " and " life " in the whole Old Testament world of
thought follows simply and naturally. Death and life are
the two great opposites in the lot of man. Death includes
everything which is a result of sin. Since bodily death is
usually taken for granted as the normal end of human life,
it is only special, premature, or violent modes of death
which prove its connection with particular sins that is, its
penal character, whether it be God Himself who punishes
with death, or the community which, in accordance with His
command, " cuts off the wicked soul from among its people."
In this sense " death " denotes the destruction of an existence
1 Gen. ii. 17. 2 Gen. iii. 19 ; cf. -|fea K1H.
3 Gen. ii. 9, iii. 22.
4 According to the Book of Jubilees, Adam actually died on that day, for
God s day is equal to a thousand years.
DEATH. 317
by a special judgment of God. 1 Life, on the other hand, is
everything which results from communion with God an
earthly existence, never shortened by a judgment, a resting in
God, a rejoicing in Him. In every period of the Old Testa
ment this use of language is equally prevalent. We first
find " long life " used to denote such lives as the patriarchs
enjoy, and such as, in Balaam s prophecies, the godly desire. 2
Then there are numerous passages in which " life," " life for
evermore " is contrasted with the judgments which cut men
off before their time. In this sense righteousness is deliver
ance from death ; in its ways is life. The fear of God, and
the teaching of the wise, are a fountain of life. 3 In this
sense the laws of Israel are ordinances, " by which man
liveth ; " and the law gives man the choice of life or death. 4
This of course does not mean that the godly do not die at
all. But they are safe from the doom of sudden destruction. 5
They see life, they live in the light of God ; 6 and oratorical
language is fond of adding the words " for ever," without
meaning thereby to deny that such a life will come to
a natural end. 7 In spite of inevitable death, they feel
themselves "the children of life," and enjoy, without fear of
death, the blessedness of an existence permeated with the
sense of everlasting divine life, and well-pleasing unto God. 8
In this conception of life there is always included that of
blessedness, of fellowship with God. When God makes
known " the path of life," He, at the same time, makes known
" the fulness of life " which is in His right hand. No one
1 Gen. vi. 13 ff., xix. 29 ; Ex. xxxii. 33 ; cf. Ex. xii. 15, 19 ; Num. xxvii. 3.
- Gen. xv. 15 ; Ex. xx. 12; Num. xxiii. 10.
3 Prov. iii. 2, 18, iv. 4, 13, 22, viii. 35, x. 2, 11, 16, xi. 4, 19, 26, xii. 28,
xiii. 14, xiv. 27, xv. 4, xvi. 22, xix. 23, xxi. 21. The righteous is .sealed "in
the handle of life " (1 8am. xxv. 29).
4 Lev. xviii. 5; cf. Ex. xx. 12; Deut. xxx. 15, 18, iv. 1, x. 13, xi. 26,
rttpl n3"Q; Jer. xxi. 8 f. ; Hab. ii. 4 ; E/ek. xviii. 4 II ., xxxiii. 16 ; Ps. xxxvi.
10, Ixxxv. 7, cxix. 139, and often.
5 Ps. Ixix. 29, cxxxix. 16. K Ps. xvi. 11 ; Hos. vi. 2 ; Amos v. 6, 14.
7 E.<j. Ps. xxi. 5, Ixi. 7ff. * EJJ. Ps. xvii., xlix., Ixxiii.
318 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
who does not rejoice before God in the " light of life " can
be said to live. An existence without God, and without joy
in Him, is not worthy of the name.
In the same sense, it is said that the way of the foolish,
of the ungodly, leads to death. 1 Contrasted with the ripe and
peaceful death in a good old age, which can be represented as
the ideal goal, their death is a sudden end, through the judg
ment of God. 2 Sheol opens its jaws to swallow the wicked. 3
Consequently, these are not merely included as individual
members of humanity in its sinfulness aod mortality, but
they are personally the objects of God s displeasure and
wrath, " children of death," and under condemnation. It is
this conception of death, not antagonism to the worship of
the dead, which is the ruling idea of the Old Testament,
when it considers anything " dead " as unclean, interrupting
communion with God.
3. Even B s narrative connects the whole realm of " evil "
with death. The woman s life of pain, her condition of
slavery, as the East knows it, the man s hard and poorly-
rewarded labour in his thankless fields, are represented as
punishment for sin. 4 " The outer discord of nature suits the
inner discord ; all nature wears for man a different aspect "
(Lutz). The narrative it is true does not overlook the fact
that, on the other hand, human civilisation is also furthered
by this evil, that the divine mercy makes evil a source of
higher good. 5 But, primarily, evil is a manifestation of death,
and a punishment for sin.
In like manner evil being connected with earthly life as
" the plague of mortals," 6 is regarded also by later ages as
due to the general bias towards sin, which manifests itself
1 K.ff. Ps. xxxiv. 17, xxxvii. 38, cix. 15 ; Prov. ii. 18, v. 6, viii. 36.
2 Job v. 26, xxix. 18 ; l. ,T. Ixv. 20 ; Zech. viii. 4, as the goal of the last
day. Of course, in times of special distress, an early death may be represented
as a favour shown to the righteous, B. J. Ivii. 2.
3 Ps. xlix. 15, 18, and often. 4 Gen. iii. 16, 17, iv. 14.
6 Gen. iii. 15-21, iv. 20 ff. 6 fcTOtf-tay, Ps. Ixxiii. 5.
DEATH. 319
even in the best of men, as sins of youth and secret faults.
That man, who is born of woman, is of few days and full
of trouble, that the days of his years are but threescore years
and ten, or at the most fourscore years, and their pride but
labour and sorrow, all this is a result of sin. 1 And so strongly
does pious feeling detect in special misfortunes the special
displeasure of God, 2 that the words, sin, guilt, and suffering,
are quite readily interchanged. 3 The inadequacy of such a
view, and the way to supplement it by a healthier conception
of outward evil, has been discussed in connection with the
doctrine of providence.
4. The prophets of the age before the Exile have to deal
as well with the death of the people, as with its sin.
As Adam " died " when he ate of the forbidden tree, so
Ephraim " died " when he sinned with Baal. 4 The beginning
of this death is inward sickness, from which one may be
suffering while apparently in the most vigorous health as,
for example, Jeroboam II. maintained to the last the external
power of Ephraim at the very highest point it ever reached.
Next come misfortunes, privations, and sufferings. Instead
of prosperity God gives drought, sterility, sickness, war,
defeat. 5 Then the death of Israel follows. The view of
the prophets as to the necessity of this death varies, as is
natural, with the character of their times. On not a few
occasions they still hope that they may avert it, and may
require to think only of divine chastisement. But ere long
they realise that it is inevitable. Judah, as well as Ephraim,
comes under its sweep ; and in the elegies over this death,
the guilt of the people is rightly regarded as its real cause. 6
1 Ps. xc. ]0. (This late Psalm certainly shows a penitential mood such as
the early days of Israel can hardly have known) Job xiv. 1.
2 Ps. li. 10, cxxx. 2, 8; Hos. iv. 3 ; Isa. xxxviii. 13 f. ; Jcr. iii. 3, v. -J5, xi.
22, xxxii. -J4.
3 E.g. Ps. xxxviii. f>, xl. 13, ciii. 3. 4 Hos. xiii. 1.
5 E.g. Amos iv. 6ft .; Hos. v. 13, vi. 5 ; Zech. xi. 9, 11 ; Jer. iii. 3, iv. 3,
and often.
6 Lam. i. 5, 8, 18, ii. 17, v. 16.
320 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
The death of Israel is the destruction of the national body.
Corruption ensues. The individual atoms are scattered over
the world. Israel lies in its great cemetery like a heap of dry
bones. 1 Only out of these can new life once more arise. The
life which God had offered to this people has been marred.
Only through a resurrection, only through a new birth, can
it obtain a life over which death has no power.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE CONDITION AFTER DEATH.
LITERATURE. C. Fr. Oehler, Veteris Testament i scntentia de
rebus post mortem futuris, Stuttg. 1846. Art. " Unsterb-
lichkeit " (Herzog s Realencyclopadie, 1st ed.). H. A. Hahn,
De spe immortalitatis sub vetere Testamcnto gradatim cxculta,
Breslau 1845. Colberg, Argumenta immortalitatis animorum
humanorum ct fntnri sceculi ex Mose collata, 1752. Conz,
" War die Unsterblichkeitslehre den alten Ebriiern bekannt
und wie ? " (Paulus Memorabilia, St. iii. p. 141 ff., Leipzig
1792). A. Wiesener, Lelire und Glauben der vorchristlichen
Welt an Seelenfortdauer mit besonderer Rucksicht auf das Alte
Testament, Leipzig 1821. Bottcher, De inferis rebusque post
mortem futuris, lib. i. vol. i., Dresden 1846. Fr. Beck, " Zur
Wlirdigung der alttestamentlichen Unsterblichkeitslehre "
(Theol. Jalirlucher, 1851, vol. x. 470 ff.). Ad. Schumann, Die
Unsterblichkeitslehre des Alten und Neuen Testamentes, liblisch
dogmatisch entwickelt, Berlin 1847. H. Gottberg Johannsen,
Veterum Hel)rceorum notiones de rebus post mortem futuris ex
fontibus collatce, Haunise 1826, part. i. Klostermann, Unter-
suchungen zur alttcstamentliehen Theologic. Die Hoffnung
kilnftiger Erlosung aus dem Todeszustande der Frommen des
1 Ezek. xxx vii.
THE STATE AFTER DEATH. 321
Alien Testamentes, Gotha 1868. Himpel, Die Unsterblichkeits-
lehre des Alt en Testamentes, 1857. Herm. Engelbert, Das
negative Verdienst des Alten Testamentes urn die Unsterllich-
keitslehre, Marburg 1856. Saalschlitz in Niedners Zeitschrift
filr historische Theoloyie, JSTeue Folge, I. iii. 1-89, iv. 1-86 ; cf.
by the same author, Mosaisches jRecht, i. p. 20 ff. Jaq. Meyer,
Disputatio thcologica qua inquiriiwr in vim quam habuit insti-
tutum mosaicum in Hebrworum de rebus post mortem futuris
opiniones, Gron. 1835. Herm. Schultz, Voraussetzungen der
christlichen Lehre von der Unsterllichkcit, 1861, pp. 206-248.
P^berhard Scheid, Dissertatio philologico-exegetica ad Canticum
Hiskice, Isa. xxxviii. 9-20, p. 20 ff., Lugd. Bat. 1769.
Kedslob, "Der Grundcharakter der Idee vorn Scheol bei den
Hebraern" (Ilgen Zeitschrift fur liistor. Theologie, Bd. viii.
1838, 2). Hupfeld, Zeitschrift fur Kunde des Morgenlandes,
1839, ii. 462 ff. Siiss, Zur Entwicklungsfrage der alttes-
tamentlichen Vorstellungen von der UnsterUichkeit. Albert
Kahle, Biblische Eschatologie (Abth. i. Eschatologie des Alten
Testaments), 1870. Die Hollenfahrt der Istar, translated
by Schrader and von Oppert. Bernhard Stade, Ueber die
alttestamentlichen Vorstellungen von dem Zustande nach dem
Tode, 1877 ; cf. Geschichte des Volkes Israel, p. 418 ff.
1. What has been said in the last chapter places it beyond
doubt that the Old Testament view did not regard death in its
ordinary form, as a rising into a more perfect condition of life,
as a freeing of man from the bonds of the material world, but
as a distinct loss, a withdrawal of what gives life its real value.
Nevertheless, even in the oldest parts of the Old Testament,
death is never thought of as being actually the complete end of
existence. To think of a personal being as absolutely ceasing
to be, is, for the more highly developed peoples, an impossi
bility. Consequently, the Hebrews, like all the civilised
nations of antiquity, firmly believed in a continued existence
after the death of the body. I purposely say " the Hebrews,"
for what we have next to examine is obviously not a doctrine
VOL. n. x
322 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
of the Old Testament religion at all. It is a popular belief,
and has all the indefiniteness and the sensuous figurativeness
of such a belief.
The conviction of the Hebrew people regarding a continued
existence after the death of the body is shown by the fact
that, from early days, the superstition of necromancy was pre
valent among them as well as among the neighbouring peoples,
and in spite of every prohibition held its ground with the
utmost tenacity down to a late period. 1 The Old Testament
religion, it is true, was decidedly opposed to such a custom.
But the way in which the opposition to it was conducted
proves that the belief on which it was based, viz. the con
tinued existence of the departed, and that, too, as Elohim who,
like the Dii Manes, know more about the destinies of men
than the inhabitants of earth do, was as prevalent among the
people as among the prophets of the true religion. Popular
forms of speech, too, indicate the same thought. When it is
said of those who enjoyed special dignity in their lifetime,
that at death " they were gathered to their people, to their
fathers," it is impossible, as is proved by the context of
individual passages, e.g. in the case of Abraham, who died far
from the home of his race, that a common tomb can be meant.
It must mean a certain community of existence after death. 2
So, when David says, " I shall go to him (his dead son), but
he shall not return to me," 3 a similar thought is expressed.
True, popular expressions like these are used in a very loose
way ; but still they are the clearest possible indication of the
thoughts prevalent among the people. Obviously a continued
existence is taken for granted an existence it is true con
ceived in a very indefinite way, scarcely more than death itself
thought of as a mode of existence. Life, existence really worthy
1 1 Sam. xxviii. 6ff.; Isa. viii. 19; cf. Lev. xix. 31, xx. 6, 27; Deut.
xviii. 11.
<J Gen. xxv. 8, 17, xlix. 33 ; Num. xx. 24, 26, xxvii. 13 ; Judg. ii. 10 ; 2
Sam. vii. 12, xii. 23 ; 1 Kings i. 21 ; Ps. xlix. 20.
3 2 Sam. xii. 23.
CONTINUED EXISTENCE AFTER DEATH. 323
of a man, is certainly thought of as lost. But still they
exclude absolute non-existence. And although other sayings,
where a person speaks of "being no more/ appear rather to
point to a negation of existence/ still a closer examination
of them shows that they are intended to assert merely the
leaving of the place occupied during the earthly life, not an
actual cessation of existence.
It is a state of death which this view presupposes a
state in which existence continues, hut life has vanished.
Such a view is very far removed from the elevating thought
of an immortality for the liberated soul, or from the blessed
faith in everlasting life. Hofmann is right in saying, " It is
not the body that expires and is dead, but the man in his
body ; that which is dead has descended to the under
world" (i. 493); and later on, "Life could not be the
blessing it is, if being subject to death were to be and mean
anything else than a suffering of the soul and the body " (i.
495). The most complete expression of this whole notion is
the conception of Sheol, the kingdom of the dead, which in
very many passages corresponds to the Greek notion of Hades. 2
The word probably points to the root *yy&, and the primary
meaning " hollow," " pit," if it is not connected, as some
recent Assyriologists maintain, with an Accadian word,
" Shual." There is absolutely no doubt as to the meaning
associated with it. Sheol is not the grave itself. For even
where there is no grave, Sheol is thought of as the abode
of the departed. 3 It is the dwelling-place of the dead, who
rest there after the joy and the suffering of life. It is " the
land of the shades," in contrast to " the land of the living."
The word occurs even in the earliest writers, and it is
introduced by later authors as in common use among the
1 Ceil. xlii. 13 (cf. xxxvii. 35) ; Ps. Ixxviii. 3 ,) (miT 1 $\ 1
2 According to " The Journey of Istar to Hades," the Chaldeans had quite th
sanu view.
J <icn. xxxvii. 35 ; Xum. xvi. 30, 33. 4 Ps. xviii. 6 (xvi. 10).
324 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
people, and with a perfectly definite meaning. 1 Even in early
poetical pieces it is found personified. 2 As the eye that is seek
ing God is involuntarily directed upwards toward heaven, so
the thoughts of any one in search of the abode of the dead turn
downwards to where like some vast vault, " the realm of the
shades " yawns wide. We maybe sure that the conception
of the Hebrew was not essentially different from that of the
Greek poet, who makes his hero say : " Much rather would I
work as a servant on a poor man s field in the land of the
living, than rule over all the hosts of the departed dead." ?>
The word meets us most frequently in the Psalms and in
the prophetic writings subsequent to B.C. 800, and, indeed, as
one with which poetic diction may take the greatest liberties,
since it personifies Sheol both as a monster with gaping jaws,
and as a hunter setting his nets, and also represents it as a sea
whose breakers swallow men up, as a fortress with doors
and strong bolts, and so on. 4 In later, as well as in olden
times, the grave is, beyond all doubt, the prototype with
which the idea of Sheol is associated not as if the two
were confounded, but because, the abode of the dead being
thought of as underground, the imagination naturally pictures
it as a grave. 5 Even in ordinary language the two ideas
readily alternate. The inhabitants of Sheol are those " who
dwell in the dust," 6 " who go down to the pit." 7 In
poetry, "worm," "pit," and "darkness," are interchangeable with
1 Gen. xxxvii. 35, xlii. 38, xliv. 29, etc.
2 Ps. ix. 14, xviii. 6, parallel to death and destruction as a man-hunting
monster.
3 Homer, Odyss. xi. 488 f. Notwithstanding this "lifelessness," he too re
presents the shade of Teiresias as knowing the future, as the shade of Samuel
does (1 Sam. xxviii. ).
4 Isa. v. 14, xxxviii. 10 ; Job xvii. 16, xxviii. 22, xxxviii. 17 ; Hab. ii. 5 ;
Ezek. xxxii. 21-31; Prov. ix. 18, xxx. 16; B. J. xiv. 9ff.; Ps. cxvi. 3,
cvii. 18.
5 Ezek. xxxii. 21-31; Prov. i. 12, vii. 27; Ps. xlix. 10, 12; cf. 15, 16
(cxli. 7).
6 Ps. 1 xxxviii. 4, 6, cxliii. 7 ; Job vii. 21 ; B. J. xxvi. 19.
7 Ps. xxviii. 1, xxx. 4, 10 ; Isa. xxxviii. 18.
CONTINUED EXISTENCE AFTER DEATH. 325
Sheol. 1 At any rate, Sheol is " the lowest part of the
earth " 2 into which one descends. 3 And the description of
it is intended to be in sharp contrast to " the land of life." 4
It is the everlasting house, the house of meeting for all
living ; 5 the land of destruction, 6 of darkness, 7 of disorder, 8
of forgetfulness ; 9 the land where one neither praises God nor
remembers Him, nor waits for His mercy ; the land therefore
of hopelessness/ where God doeth no wonders, 11 although,
according to the grand conception of a late Psalm, God is
thought of as being equally present there, and equally active. 12
Those who dwell there are, at any rate, thought of as
shadowy. True, there is no clear distinction drawn between
body and soul. Both are thought of as being together, although
unsubstantial. 13 But the dwellers in this realm are repre
sented as unnoticed by God and heedless of what goes
on in the upper world, feeling only their own dull misery. 11
On the one hand, they are pictured as being all equally
at rest, servant and master, bond and free, king and vassal. 15
On the other hand, in accordance with the elasticity of
the whole conception, we still find, as is natural, a certain
resemblance to the circumstances of the upper world. Even
there kings are thought of as sitting on thrones. 10 And when
1 Jobxvii. 13, 16, xxi. 26.
2 Ps. Ixxxviii. 6f.; Ezek. xxxi. 10, 15 f., 18, xxxii. 18, 21, 24, 26, 28 f.; Job
xxvi. 5 ; 13. J. xiv. 9, 15 (under the sea and its inhabitants).
3 Job xi. 8 ; Dent, xxxii. 22 ; Ps. Iv. 16, xxx. 4, 10 ; Isa. xxxviii. 18 (Ps.
cxv. 17).
4 Ezek. xxxii. 23 if., 32 ; Job xxviii. 13 ; Ps. xxvii. 13, lii. 7, cxvi. 9, cxlii.
6 (Ivi. 14) ; Isa. xxxviii. 11 ; B. J. liii. 8.
5 Job xxx. 23.
6 fn^N, often personified also as quite jtarallrl 1o ^IXJ^, -lob xxvi. 6, xxviii.
22, xxxi. 12 ; Ps. Ixxxviii. 12 ; Prov. xxvii. 20.
7 Job x. 21 ; Ps. Ixxxviii. 13 (HDH, Ps. cxv. 17) ; Ps. cxliii. 3.
8 Job x. 22. a nEa Ps- Ixxxviii. 13.
10 Ps. vi. 6, xxx. 10 ; Isa. xxxviii. 11, 18, 19 (Ps. cxv. 17, Ixxxviii. 6, 12),
11 Ps. Ixxxviii. 11, 13 12 Ps. cxxxix. 8.
13 Job. xiv. 22. u Job. vii. 7-10, xiv. 21, xxi. 21.
16 Job iii. 3 if., 13 ff., 21 f.; Ps. xlix. 11, 15.
16 B. J. xiv. 9.
326 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
a new potentate arrives, there passes through the ranks of
the shades, according to the picturesque description of the
exilic prophet, a thrill of scorn and astonishment. 1 Even
phrases, like " to be gathered to his fathers," " to his tribes,"
show traces of this idea. Such is the condition in which the
dead are represented to be. 2 Their proper designation is
Eephaim. In my opinion this word, connected as it is
with the kindred verb, "to be flaccid," means the pithless
shades. 3 That it is also the name for an extinct race of
reputed giants, originally inhabiting the country to the east of
Jordan, is easily explained, 4 if the name of that people be really
of Semitic origin, from the connection between being flaccid,
and being " stretched out," and so becoming " long." 5
2. Consequently a continued existence after death must
have been a common belief among the early Hebrews.
To prove this, we certainly do not require to depend on
1 B. J. xiv. 9ff.; Ezek. xxxii. 21, 24 (Job xxvi. 5).
2 Isa. viii. 19 ; Ps. cxv. 17, Ixxxviii. 11, 13 (ver. 5, ^K"^M "133). Most
strongly materialistic, Ps. xxx. 10, ~i2y.
3 HDI, D^tfSn, B. J. xiv. 9, xxvi. 14; Prov. ii. 18 (xxi. 16); Job xxvi. 5,
illca^a.. (It is also found in the epitaph of Eshmunazar).
4 So Gen. xiv. 5, xv. 20 ; Deut. ii. 11, 20, iii. 11, 13 ; Josh. xiii. 12, xvii. 15 ;
2 Sam. v. 18, 22.
5 The way in which Stade finds the central thought of the popular religion of
the Hebrews which was overthrown by the worship of Jehovah in these ideas,
and in the worship, by the several tribes, of their dead ancestors beside their
graves, which is naturally connected with them, certainly seems to me to go far
beyond the inferences warranted by the Old Testament data. It is rather the
case that errors of this kind are always looked on as due to the adoption of
Canaan itish customs. In other respects, however, Stade s description of the
popular view is probably correct when he says : "To continue to live beside or
in the grave is to live on in Sheol. The dead man appears by night in dreams,
speaks and acts as before, knows, when seen in a dream, the most secret thoughts
of the dreamer, whom he threatens, comforts, counsels. He is thought of as
continuing to exist just as he was when he died. Therefore. (?) Saul and
Abimelech commit suicide. Sheol is a mythologising combination of several
graves. Hence the importance of a family tomb (2 Sam. xix. 37 if.). To
remain unburied is the worst of curses. Probably it was thought that an
imburied person did not get into Sheol, but had to wander about or get into
some corner with the servants (Ezek. xxviii. 10, xxxi. 17, xxxii. 19) (stones on
Absalom s grave)." With less reason he says : "To be put out of the family
grave is to be put out of the family connection, a sacris interdict."
BELIEF IN A FUTUJJE LIFE OF NO KELIGIOUS IMPORTANCE. 327
passages that have been wrongly quoted in this connection
e.g. Gen. iv. 10,xxii. 5, xlvii. 9, not to speak of Num. xxiii.
10, where there is nothing more expressed than the thought
that God s favourites may expect, not only a happy life but
also an enviably happy end. But in this continuance of
existence there is nothing at all to further either religion
or morality. In spite of it one can say quite well, "the
man is no more," " his place knows him no more." For
the place which he occupied, what gave existence its value,
the excitement, the desires, and the joys of life, are all gone.
It is certain this was the view ordinarily held in Israel.
The burial occupies the foreground. 1 It is, as it were, the
last joy and honour that can be given. After it, comes the
monotony of Sheol. Even the pious look forward with
inconsolable bitterness to the fate of death. 2 To die early,
to be prematurely snatched away out of the land of the
living, is a dreaded doom. And the reward of faithfully
keeping the law is, " long life in the land which God giveth,"
and the hope of escaping " death ; " that is death as a judgment
that may be speedily executed at any moment.
The Old Testament horizon, like that of the nations of
classical antiquity, lies wholly on this side the grave.
What is really looked forward to with joyous longing is, not
one s own existence in the world below, but continued ex
istence in one s children and children s children. 3 On this
view of the world, in fact, the whole of Israel s consciousness
of salvation is based. On earthly soil, and with earthly
forms, a kingdom of God is to be set up by earthly means
for earthly ends. And one cannot make a greater mistake
as to the essence of the Old Testament religion than by
trying to discover behind this earthly view of the world,
1 Gen. xlix. 30, 1. 12; cf. xlvii. 30, 1. 4f., 24 ; Ex. xiii. 19.
2 2 Sam. xiv. 14.
3 E.g. Gen. xvii. 4ff. ; cf. xv. 2 if. "The condition of death is withdrawal
from the highest good. Satisfaction is on this side the grave, in living on in
one s children. The godless, God does not allow to prosper in the land " (Stade).
328 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
which Moses held, an esoteric teaching, having as its centre
future retribution and a true everlasting life. Of an im
mortality for the individual in which each was to get his
due, it is impossible to discover, in the Mosaic period, a single
trace. Nor is it otherwise even in the prophetic age.
Continued existence after death has, in itself, no religious
element of consolation or strength. Of course, when con
trasted with severe earthly suffering, with the oppression
endured by the poor and needy, even a life in the under
world may appear a goal to be yearned after, a rest to be
desired. 1 In this peaceful refuge God may graciously shelter
the pious from the storms of time. 2 But in itself it is just
a state of death, an impairing of life which may also be
quite correctly described as non-existence. 3 And in all ages
burial is represented as that which most concerns the
dead. 4 This shadowy existence of theirs offers no com
pensation for the sufferings endured here, and no blessed life
in God. Nothing could dispel the cheerlessness of this
view save the hope that this state of death would be
followed by another and a better life : that the godly
would one day be delivered out of Sheol, or in other
words, would rise again. Whether, and how far this hope
was entertained by Old Testament saints, are questions that
can be settled only in connection with the future of salvation.
For it would, indeed, be one of the blessings to be enjoyed in
the last days by the members of the kingdom of God. Nothing
more can be asserted here than that such a resurrection is,
at any rate, not represented as somethiug certain and natural
for man as man. As a rule, the declaration holds good :
" As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away,
So he that goeth down to Sheol shall come up no more." 5
1 Job iii. 12 ff., 21 f., vi. 8. 2 B. J. Ivii. 2. 3 E.g. Ps. xxxix. 14.
4 1 Kings xiii, 22, xiv. 11 ; 2 Kings ix. 34 ff.; Jer. xvi. 4 ; B. J. xiv. 18 ft .,
Ixvi. 24 ; Ezek. xxix. 5, xxxi, 15.
5 Job vii. 8-10, xiv. 7-12, xvi. 22.
BELIEF IN A FUTURE LIFE OF NO RELIGIOUS IMPORTANCE. 329
And it is only as a beautiful dream, at variance, however,
with the reality, that the idea presents itself to the soul of
the pious, that God might for a time shelter man in the
realm of the dead, in order to prove him afterwards, and
raise him once more to life. 1
It would be different if the saints who lived subsequent
to the eighth century, had cherished the belief, at least in
exceptional cases, that they would be ushered by death not into
that kingdom of the dead, but into a spiritual communion with
God, whicli would compensate them for all the sufferings of
their earthly life. But that must be distinctly denied. Pas
sages such as Ps. xvii., xlix., Ixxiii., would at the most promise
a future redemption out of Sheol. Ps. xvi., if it is to be
put to any dogmatic use at all, speaks at any rate of a com
plete escape from bodily death. Nothing in the shape of
proof can be got from the fact that individual saints like Elijah
are taken home to God without dying, because they are excep
tions to the rule, and because in these cases death does not
occur at all. The same would hold good of Ps. xcix. 6 f.,
if, as seems to me impossible, this late Psalm were, accord
ing to Hitzig s exposition, understood to say of men like
Samuel, Moses, and Aaron, that they stood and made
intercession before God. Lastly, when the psalmist-poet in
xxxi. 6, commends his spirit into the hands of God, that
simply means that he entrusts his life to the protection of
God.
The one passage which is cited, with any appearance of
justification, in support of the belief in an immediate and
blessed union witli God after death, is the difficult and
obscure passage in Job xix. 25 ff. T have discussed it
more fully in another place, and may refer for details to that
exposition. 2 Every fresh examination of this passage, as well
1 Job xiv. 13 ff. (19).
" Voraussetzungen dtr christlichen Lehre von der UnsLerblichke.it, Gottingeu
1S61, pp. 219-223. In addition to the literature mentioned there, cf. Kostlin.
330 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
as of the objections brought against my explanation, while
making me more and more convinced that the passage is almost
inextricably involved and obscure, and that the text can hardly
be considered correct, has at the same time convinced me
that, at least in comparison with the other interpretations in
vogue, on the supposition of the present text being accurate,
my own is burdened with comparatively few difficulties, either
internal or external. I frankly acknowledge that even it
would not be quite fair to the actual words, if we had to treat
them as simple prose. But the words are so unusual, that
we must either admit that the text is incurably corrupt, or
agree that in this case the ordinary laws of Hebrew idiom
are not to be strictly applied.
The view that in these words the suffering saint sees
opening up before him a spiritual life of blessedness after
death is, I am still convinced, even after reading Dillmann s
charming essay, conclusively refuted by the following con
siderations. So thorough a contradiction of the view which
Job expresses so clearly elsewhere l cannot be thought of as
possible without a distinct intimation that the hero s con
victions have changed. Neither Job himself nor his friends
ever refer, in the speeches that follow, to any such complete
transformation of the question at issue. 2 And, lastly, the
speech in chap. xix. is clearly just a resumS on a higher
spiritual key of what lias been said in chap. xvi. Conse
quently, unless we are to despair of any interpretation at all,
or find in the words a hope of some earthly recompense in
the hour of death, a hope not at all in keeping with the
general development of the speeches, and one besides scarcely
De immortalitntis spe, quae in libro Jobi apparere dicitur, 1846 ; also the com
mentaries of Delitzsch and Dillmann on the passage. Droste (Zeitschr. fur alt-
test. Wissensch, 1884, 4, 107 ff.)-
1 Job iii. 13, vii. 21, 7, x. 21 f., xiv. 10 f. From xiv. 14 it is evident that,
were Job to attain to the hope of a blessed renewal of his life, he would feel
satisfied, and bring his complaint to an end.
2 Job xxi. 26. xxx. 23.
BELIEF IN A FUTURE LIFE NOT IMPORTANT FOR RELIGION. 331
justifiable on linguistic grounds, there remains only the
following interpretation.
Job despairs of succeeding in his contest with his merciless
friends. He sees no deliverance anywhere from the suffer
ing by which he is being consumed. But in the midst of
this despair he gets hold of the belief that the very God who
is making war against him in the guise of an enemy is his
only Helper, who will stand by him in his innocence as the
upright friend of truth and piety, and will avenge him,
as an avenger of blood does who stands on the grave of his
friend, and vows to avenge him. 1 This God Job sees, in the
only way He can be seen, with the spiritual eye, as his
blood-avenger, "his Backer," standing upon his grave, after his
body has been wholly destroyed by disease. Hence he wishes
his blood to cry up unchecked to this highest of blood-aven
gers. And being certain of His help, he bids his pitiless
friends beware of this avenger s sword. He sees this God on
his side, 2 and no longer, as now, estranged and hostile. And
in ecstasy over this new-won assurance that God will stand
by him, and help him, his very heart melts within him, and
he exclaims :
" But I know that my avenger liveth,
And a blood-avenger will arise over the dust :
And after this skin of mine has been destroyed,
And I am stripped of flesh,
Then 1 see God (viz., as a blood -avenger standing over my dust)
Him whom I see on my side (fighting for me),
And mine eyes behold Him no longer hostile.
My reins are consumed within me. :!
If ye say, How we will persecute him !
And that the root of the matter is found in me ;
Be ye afraid of the sword :
For wrath bringeth the punishment of the sword,
That ye may know (the Almighty)." 4
1 i?JO Num. xxxv. 12 ; Job xix. 25 ; cf. xvi. 19, 21, xvii. 3 (iy, inC )-
- (leu. xxxi. 42. 3 & p s . Ixxiii. 2G.
1 The translation that seems the next best would be, "An avenger will stand
upon the dust, and that, too, after this skin of mine is devoured ; and without my
332 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
If this translation be considered absolutely impossible on
the ground that ntriN can be understood here only as a future,
we have still the possible interpretation that Job hopes, when
in Sheol, to live to see his cause triumph, and to witness this
brought about by some divine revelation. At all events, even
in this passage we find no anticipation of a blessed immortality
which escapes Sheol. What all anticipate in common is
primarily a condition of death, without any of the blessedness
of life.
3. Nevertheless, according to the faith of the Old Testa
ment, death is by no means the same thing for all. The
difference is in the way in which men meet death, as well as
in the way in which death conies to them. In this consists
the judgment of death. The patriarchs of Israel die old and
full of days, with words of prophecy on their lips, 1 which fix
the destinies of their descendants. And even a heathen
exclaims, " Let my soul die the death of the righteous, and let
my last end be like theirs." 2 There is a great difference
between the wicked man who is cut off by a premature and
miserable death, 3 and the godly man who, even in death, holds
fast to his trust in God, 4 or the poor man whom death beckons
to a peaceful rest. 5 Even where there is as yet no idea of a
resurrection, there is a happy and an unhappy way of dying.
flesh, i.e. in spiritual ecstasy, I see God," etc. That the expression is unusual
and strange cannot be denied ; but it is equally so, whatever explanation be
adopted. Droste translates, "Othat my destiny were recorded, that it were
written in a book, then I, even I, would know that my Helper liveth " (xiv.
13-17).
1 Gen. xlix.; cf. xxv. 8, xxvii. 27 ff., xlviii. 14 ff.
2 Num. xxiii. 10. 3 Ps. xlix. 13, 15, xcii. 8 ff.; Job xi. 20, xxvii. 8 f.
4 Job vi. 9f., xix. 25 f., xxii. 18; B. J. Ivii. 2; Ps. xcii. 13 ff. (Prov. xi.
7, xiv. 32, xxiii. 18, xxiv. 14).
5 Job iii. 13 ff.
THE MOSAIC EXPECTATION OF A COMPLETE SALVATION. 333
(c) The Hope of Israel.
CHAPTER XVIIL
THE OUTLOOK OF THE MOSAIC AGE FOR A COMPLETE SALVATION,
LITERATURE. J. J. Stahelin, Die messianischen Weissagun-
gen des Alien Testamentes, 1847. Baur, Geschichte der alttes-
tamentlichen Weissagung, vol. i. Giessen 1860. Ed. Eiehm,
" Entwicklung der messianischen Weissagung " (Theol. Stud,
u. Krit. 1865, 1, 2,1869; 1). Eevised and issued as a
separate treatise under the title, Die messianische Weissagung,
Hire Enstehung, ihr zeitgeschichtlicher Character und ihr Ver-
haltniss zu der neutestamentliclien Erfullung, Goth a, 2nd ed.
1885. Translated by Eev. Lewis Muirhead, and published
by Messrs. T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh 1891. Hofmann,
Weissagung und Erfullung, 1841; 44. Schrifibeweis, 2nd
ed. 1859, vol. 2a. Hengstenberg, Christologie des Alien
Testamentes, 2nd ed. vol. i. 249 ff. Translated by the Eev.
Theodore Meyer, and published by Messrs. T. & T. Clark,
Edinburgh 1878. Auberlen, "Die messianischen Weis-
sagungen der mosaischen Zeit " (JahrHb. f. deutsche Tkeol.
iii. 4, p. 778 f.). Storr, Opuscula theologica, ii. Herder, Brief e
uber das Studium der Tlieologie, vol. ii. 225. Eedepenning,
Commentarius in locos Veteris Testamenti Messianos (Parts
1 and 2, Easter 1840, Christmas 1843). Maurice Vernes,
Histoire des id^es messianiques, Paris 1874. Eudolf Anger,
Vorlesungen uber die Geschiclite der messianischen Idee (1873,
ed. Krenkel). James Drummond, The Jewish Messiah (Post-
Maccabean). C. v. Orelli, Die alttestamentliche Weissagung
von der Vollendung des Gottesreiches in Hirer geschichtlichen
Entwicklung dargestellt. 1882. On the way in which the
Church has dealt with the question of Messianic prophecy :
Ernesti, Narratio critica de interpretation prophetiarum Mes-
334 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
sianarum in ecclcsia Christiana (Opuscula, 495 f.) ; and Diestel,
(reschichtc des Alien Testamcntes. On the blessing of Jacob :
the treatises of Wagenseil and Deyling, in Ugolino, Thesaurus
antiq. sacr. vol. xxvi. Jaq. Altirig, Groningen 1659. J. J.
Stahelin, Animadversioncs qucedam in Jacob i vaticinium.
Friedrich, Breslau 1811; Keinke, Minister 1849; Diestel,
1853; Land, Disputatio de carmine Jacobi, Gen. xlix., Speci
men Academicum pro Gradu Doctoris Theol. Lugd.-Bat.
1858. Ewald, "Ueher die kiinstliche Weissagung in der
Bibel" (Jakrbl. f. biblische Wisscnschaft, xii. 2, 187 ff.,
1861-65), Gescliiclitc dcs Vollccs Israel, ii. 371. For the rest
cf. Baur, I.e., i. pp. 216, 227. On the blessing of Noah:
Ewald, GeschwJite dcs Volkes Israel, iii. 598; Jahrbb. /.
biblische Wissenscliaft, ix. 25. On the oracles of Balaam, cf.
the literature in Baur, I.e. i. p. 329.
1. In general the thoughts of Israel previous to the eighth
century are exclusively directed to the present life. It is not
merely individuals who put existence after death quite into the
background, as compared with this earthly life, with its joys
and sorrows, its rights and duties. The people does so too. The
consciousness of victory in the age of the conquest, and the
sunny splendour of the kingdom under David and Solomon, gave
no occasion for looking forward with longing desire to a better
future. And during the period of the Judges, national perils
made the people strain all their energies to reach the im
mediate goal. Nothing but the collapse of the nation could
intensify the yearning for a future and complete salvation.
And only a more spiritually developed conception of salva
tion could make this people fully conscious that the goal of
God s ways must be something different, nobler, and more
perfect. Still it was never quite without hopeful thoughts.
What we call " Messianic views " necessarily belonged in a
certain sense to the very essence of this religion. Since the
God of heaven and earth is the covenant God of Israel, this
people cannot but be confident that its God and its salvation
THE BLESSING OF JACOB. 335
must he everywhere victorious and be revealed before the
world as the God and the salvation. Consequently the Mes
sianic idea, in its widest sense that is, belief in the victory of
the people of Jehovah is, from the very first, part and parcel
of Israel s religion. But the ways which lead to this goal,
and the particular form in which it will present itself, are
only gradually disclosed to the prophetic eye, and that too
as a result of the historical surroundings of the people.
2. The oldest written testimony we have of such hopes of
victory is probably the beautiful piece of popular poetry
which has come down to us as Jacob s blessing. Not, indeed,
as if this was actually a product of the patriarchal age,
dictated by one of the nation s ancestors. It is impossible
that a series of songs, consisting of a number of loosely
connected oracles, of almost no importance for most of
the tribes, should have held its ground for centuries,
during the utter darkness of the sojourn in Egypt itself a
period without a history during the heroic age of Moses
and Joshua, and during all the confusion of the age of the
Judges, till about the time of David. It is impossible that the
separate tribes should have, for seven centuries, accurately pre
served each its own particular prophecy, and these, prophecies
without any important bearing on the present or the future
of most of the tribes that Asher, for instance, will inherit
a fat land ; Benjamin become noted for ferocity in war ;
and Issachar prove a feeble, dishonourable tribe. Must
Keuben, Simeon, and Levi have faithfully preserved the
record of their own shame, as is elsewhere done only in those
satirical songs, with which one people is wont to express its
contempt for another ? Furthermore, it is impossible, even
on the most high-strung theory of soothsaying, that such
revelations about the future should have been made to the
national ancestor. Had it been given to an ancestor of
Israel s to discern, by miraculous illumination, the future of
his posterity, what scenes would have passed before him !
336 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
The oppression in Egypt, the great deliverance, Zion with
its house of God, the prophets and the priests, the Davidic
king ! That would have been a real glimpse into the
future. And yet all that together would not be so un
natural and incomprehensible as these trivial geographico-
statistical notices, which are a mere description of the
map of conquered Canaan, and of the relations of the
several tribes to each other, as these developed during
the period of the Judges. To specify, several centuries
beforehand, the boundaries of these little tribes, their
historical peculiarities, their honour, and their shame, would
certainly be the very strangest miracle of knowledge. And
no one who understands the essence of true prophecy will
have a moment s doubt as to the character of the sayings
under consideration.
The piece is, as Land has shown to be probable, a song com
posed of several different national songs and proverbs. While
much the larger part of it belongs to the latest period of the
Judges, its closing stanzas date from about the commence
ment of the Davidic era. Words are put into the mouth of
Israel s dying ancestor about the future of the several
tribes. Their present sufferi^is and joys, as well as their
hopes, are turned into prophecies. This is a dress of which
the Old Testament is particularly fond, and one which we still
find in Deuteronomy. Job, and the prophecies of Balaam, in
Daniel, Ecclesiastes, Enoch, Ezra IV., etc. The real prophecy
in this piece is not what is said about the tribes and their
condition in Canaan. But the ideal hopes connected with
Joseph and Judah are prophecies in the strict sense. For
Joseph no hope is expressed, which would be of any special
significance for the history of the chosen people, as such. In
similes of matchless beauty he is promised warlike renown,
glory, a large and fertile land, and princely rank among his
brethren. On the other hand, the figure of Judah is brought
into connection with the future of the whole people. On
TILE BLESSING OF JACOB. 337
him depends the hope that the kingdom of God will be
triumphant.
This tribe is undoubtedly promised supremacy over its
brethren. Its warlike prowess and glory are specially
extolled. Then the metaphor of a ravening lion of resistless
strength is beautifully exchanged for one of a peaceful
character, representing Judah in the full enjoyment of every
thing good, with abundance of wine and milk, the very
picture of undisturbed prosperity. Hence, as the leader of
Israel all through the nation s period of struggle, Judah is
undoubtedly to enjoy a season of undisturbed and glorious
peace.
The only thing doubtful is whether the words of the
difficult tenth verse are meant to add anything special to this
idea. They run as follows, "The sceptre will not depart
from Judah, nor the ruler s staff from between his feet"
DW nnjp< ify nk )B> Nh; ^ ny. The picture shows us Judah as
a judge in Israel, with the ruler s staff in his hand, 1 as in the
poetry of later times Judah is himself described as just such
a ruler s staff in the hand of God. 2 This staff rests between
the feet of him who sits on the throne, as we often see in the
relievos of Nineveh, which represent a king seated on his throne.
It was also a Greek custom. 3 This state of royal, judicial
dignity is not to cease till a still more perfect condition
arises; in other words, is not to cease at all, but simply to
develop into a glorious kingdom of perfect peace. 4
The last words are obviously meant to express some kind
of limitation to this hegemony of Judah. But the difficulty
1 Num. xxi. 18 ; Judg. v. 14. 2 Ps. Ix. 9, cviii. 9.
3 Pausauius ix. 406.
4 It is well known that here the early Christian school of interpretation, e.g.
Justin, ed. Otto i. 204, laid much stress upon the fact that with the coming of
Shiloh that is to say, the Messiah the ruler s staff was to depart from
Judah, i.e. the land was to lose its independence. Even Alting proves in vol.
iv., that in Israel the distinction between the tribes and " the succession of
teaching " ceased with the advent of Jesus. That all this is quite foreign to the
meaning of the words requires no further proof.
VOL. II. Y
338 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
of explaining the word Shiloh is so great that it might well
occur to one to take the whole half-verse as a half-understood
gloss, did not the whole construction and rhythm of the
verse militate against such a view.
The most obvious interpretation is, without question, to
refer the word rbw, or, as it is perhaps better to read it,
following the versions, rfe, to the well-known Ephraimitish
town which was, from the time of Joshua, the chief centre of
political unity, and, till the disastrous war against the Philis
tines in Eli s days, the national sanctuary, and which, from
that date, disappears from the history of Israel. 1 In that
case one would naturally translate " until he comes to
Shiloh," that is, until the rights of leadership, which he
exercised during the wilderness journey, come to an end with
the conquest of the country. But this reference seems to me
absolutely impossible. To come to Shiloh cannot possibly
mean, simply as it stands, to take part in the first parliament
under Joshua. All the other tribes are described according
to the circumstances in which they were when Canaan was
already in their possession. Why, in the case of Judah alone,
should attention be directed to him only down to this period ?
Besides, during the journey through the wilderness, and while
the conquest was going on, Judah was no doubt one of the
chief fighting tribes. But a sceptre it did not possess, least
of all over its brethren. If a ruling tribe could be spoken of
at all during that period, it was Levi, the tribe of Moses, and
then Ephraim, the tribe of Joshua. Finally, with the parlia
ment in Shiloh, Judah does not begin to get the " obedience
of the peoples," no matter whether these "peoples" be taken
to mean the tribes of Israel or foreign nations.
Wuile giving the same translation, Ewald and Dillmann
interpret somewhat differently, as follows : " Judah is the
, Judg. xviii. 31 ; 1 Sam. i. 3, iv. 3 f. ; Ps. Ixxviii. 60 ;
Jer. vii. 12, 14. For this place, the present Seilun, cf. Robinson and Smith,
Travels, iii. 305 ; Furrer, p. 226. The phrase, n^ W occurs in 1 Sam. iv. 12.
THE BLESSING OF JACOB. 339
strong and successful leader of the people until he comes to
Shiloh, and receives the obedience of the nations, i.e. until he
has subdued the Canaanites, and can then think of peace in
the fertile land." They remind us that Judah was the last
to get settled, and that, as leader in the earliest times, he
appears to have done the most to make Israel a nation. But
this view is conclusively disproved by the one circumstance
that, if we give up the reference to that first parliament,
Judah did not come to Shiloh at all. Shiloh is a city of
Epliraim, and it is simply impossible that " to come to
Shiloh " can be the standing expression by which another
tribe fixes the date of its own successful settlement.
Similar objections are conclusive also against Land s view.
He translates " a ruler (sceptre ? ? according to the Septuagint)
will not depart from Judah, in other words, David will not
lose the hegemony over Judah until he (David) comes to
Shiloh, i.e. until he brings Ephraim also under his sway, and
with Ephraim all the tribes, after which the reign of peace
will come." Land holds that it is a prophecy of blessing
which David got while reigning at Hebron. But apart from
the fact that here, where tribes are spoken of all through, the
ruler s staff can scarcely indicate a king, even though the
peoples be taken to mean, as is certainly possible linguisti
cally, 1 the tribes of Israel, it tells against this interpretation,
that Shiloh, at that time, at any rate, was no longer the site
of the sanctuary and therefore, no longer a symbol, as it
were, of the national unity, and that Ishbosheth reigned at
Mahanaim.
Consequently, those who hold by the place Shiloh, have to
translate " so long as one comes to Shiloh," i.e. for all time.
But the passages which prove that *W has the meaning
" while still," " during," 2 do not, in my opinion, despite the
1 Gen. xlviii. 4 (though there in a poetic passage) ; Deut. xxxii. 8 (doubtful),
xxxiii. 3 ; Isa. iii. 13 (doubtful) ; most clearly in Lev. vii. 20 ; Hos. x. 14.
2 Judg. iii. 26 ; Cant. i. 12 (& iy).
340 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
confident assertion of Baur, justify the translation of ^""W by
f so long as." I also doubt, despite Jer. vii. 12, whether the
phrase " so long as one comes to Shiloh," was a proverbial
expression for " continually." Obviously, then, the " coming
to Shiloh " is meant to be a limit of time, and the only
possible subject to Nhj is either Judah or Shiloh.
Hence all reference to the city of Shiloh must be given up.
By doing so, however, we launch out into the open sea of
doubtful conjecture. It seems suitable to take Shiloh as a
shortened form of the noun Shilon, which would thus be a
proper name/ signifying " the man of peace," and then to
translate " until the peaceful one comes." In that case it
would be, to use Hengstenberg s phrase, " the first name of
the Redeemer." But how should this word suddenly start
up here like a mysterious phantom, to disappear again as
suddenly ? The poet should surely have said 2 " till the
king come whose name is Shiloh." Others, changing the
pronunciation of the word, give it the meaning of rest,
resting-place, safety, and translate " until Judah comes to
the resting - place, to peace." But how singularly liable
to misapprehension would this idea have been when ex
pressed by so very unusual a word, and by the accusative
of direction, too !
I must frankly confess that I have not been able to
make up my mind very clearly about these words. 3 It
1 ffpW (just as in the name of the city the fi is still heard in Seilun). Heng-
stenberg is right in withdrawing, at Tucli s instance, the suggested connection
with the formation "ID^p. The name would be from r\?W n?W and practically
the same as the proper name nbfe
" nb^> i"6tJ> > c f- i ]1 Knobel O^CS Ps. xxx. 7 ; cf. nif>K>, P S - cxxii. 7 ; Prov.
i. 32, xvii. 1 ; Jer. xxii. 21 ; Ezek. xvi. 49, etc. 1^, Job xvi. 12, xx. 20,
xxi. 23; Ezek. xxiii. 42; Ps. Ixxiii. 12, etc.). (Explanations such as "his
child," after Dent, xxviii. 57, I naturally pass over in silence.)
3 For the sake of completeness I mention Seineke s view (Gesch. d. V. Isr.
Th. I. 1876, pp. 55, 56), wlio conjectures here an intentional mutilation of the
word by the omission of the in, " and understands Shalem = Jerusalem. (In like
manner, we should have Chirah Chiram, Onan=Amnon, Shela=Shelomoh.
THE BLESSING OF JACOB. 341
seems to me most probable that n^ is the original reading, 1
while rb*& represents, perhaps, a play of cabalistic ingenuity
with the word Messiah, 2 and that the word is composed of
"i ^K and r6, which stands for ih, according to the style of this
piece. 3 Similar combinations and & for ">^N are elsewhere
very old, 4 and need not excite surprise in a piece marked by
such linguistic peculiarities. A passage in Ezekiel already
alludes in an unmistakable way to this meaning of these
words ; 5 and the versions themselves undoubtedly point to
some sucli interpretation. 6 The verse would then run, " The
sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler s staff from
between his feet, until He comes to whom it belongs ; and
unto Him shall the obedience of the peoples be." In this
case, we are shown as the goal of Judah s victorious career
as premier tribe, the kingdom of David reducing the peoples
to subjection, for here, in contrast with " his brethren," " the
sons of his father," the peoples are no doubt the heathen,
and bringing in a time of peace and abundant prosperity.
If the piece was finished under the impression made by
the rise of the youthful David, such a reference to
him and such a forecast of his grand achievements need
excite no surprise.
In this way, the hope of a golden age of peace and the
thought of the kingdom of God being finally established, in
other words, the Messianic idea in its simplest form, would
be connected with the Davidic kingdom that was to come
Kaysor s explanation might have a better claim for consideration : &QI 13 iy
when booty is brought, ^^ , it is his spoil, etc.; and most of all, Lagarde s
conjecture n^NC (Onoin. ii. 96), he for whom Judah longs."
1 Samar. Sept. Aquila, 25 Codd. of Kennicott, 13 of de Kossi, etc.
- ifaw frO 11 is = 358 = rPWQ-
3 Archaic form of in , - ( J- twice in ver 11. 4 .Tudg. v. 7, Wiy.
5 Ezek. xxi. 32 (Eng^Bib. ver. 27), LJS^H ^"TiTK Kl iy.
G Sept. TO, Kvoxtipiva. auTu. Aquila, u a,Kox<7<ra.i ffxvrpov. Everything would
certainly be very much simplified if, with Wellhausen and Stade, we might
take 171 as a gloss intended to explain the unusual form i"6&^, " until he comes
whom the peoples obey," but the rhythm is against this explanation.
342 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
forth out of Judah and conquer the nations. 1 In any case,
the hope of an age of victory and of happy peace is connected
with Judah.
And to David, the man who was destined to realise to the
people of God the idea of the kingdom, the assurance was
clearly vouchsafed, not only by the prophetic words with
which he was heralded, but also by the feeling of divine
favour awakened within his own breast, that the kingdom
founded by him would result in a sovereignty that would
continually aim at a higher and nobler development, full of
divine blessing and undreamt-of grandeur. True, one may
justly doubt if Nathan s words to David in 2 Sam. vii. 4 ff.,
and the king s reply, have not been put into a more definite
form, in reference to David s famous son, Solomon, the builder
of the temple, than they historically had. But, in my
opinion, all the rules of sound criticism warrant us in believ
ing that Psalm xviii. and the last words of David in 2 Sam.
xxiii. 1-8 are authentic.
It may be that the ideas of a later age are expressed
when Nathan promises the king that his house, and Solomon
in particular, the builder of the temple, will be specially
favoured by God ; that to him will belong, in a very special
sense, the dignity of Israel as the Son of God ; and that,
consequently, to this royal house the sacred vocation of
Israel will be specially delegated. And when the prophecy
goes on to promise this house that, if it fall into sin, it will
suffer chastisement, but not rejection, like Saul s family ; that
it will endure for ever, not, of course, in the metaphysical
sense, as if any of its individual members would live " for
ever," but in the sense in which this word is applied elsewhere
to rulers and ruling houses, 2 viz. that there will be no sudden
end, no break in the regular line of family descent ; when, in
a word, the complete establishment of the kingdom of God
1 It seems to be already so interpreted in 1 Chron. v. 2.
2 Cf. e.g. I Sara. i. 22, xiii. 13, 1 Kings i. 31.
DAVIDIC HOPES. 343
on earth is directly connected with this Davidic house which
God loves, all this is, perhaps, a hope of later times. To these
times also may be due the saying ascribed to David, when,
with humble gratitude, he replies to this promise in the
words : " Such favour is almost too much. Is this a way to
deal with men, 1 that God should not only give them assur
ances for themselves but permit them to see the development
of their race in later ages ? " Now in his last words, with
their genuinely antique diction, 2 David certainly speaks of
God s sure and everlasting covenant with the house of David.
And in Psalm xviii. he extols the God who giveth great
deliverance to His king, and showeth lovingkindness to His
anointed, to David and to his seed for evermore. 3 In fact, it
was only on the basis of such assurance that the larger
hopes could be afterwards built. Hence it was on the kings
of David s house that the pious Israelite of later times centred
all those hopes, of which the royal psalms are full, 4 victory,
dominion, life, and sonship with God.
4. Of quite a different character from this purely political
and national hope is the outlook into the future found in
the descriptions given by B and C of the early ages. The
very beginning of the narrative regarding human sin and
death opens with a grand glimpse of complete salvation. In
pronouncing sentence on the tempter, 6 God says, " I will put
enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed
and her seed ; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise
1 Such is my interpretation, in 2 Sam. vii. 19, of DTNil mfa JIKTIj Is tbis
man s way ? is this how it is wont to be done by man or towards man ?
, etc. Thenius differently, "And thus after
the manner of men," etc. Thou hast spoken as one man to another. Ewald
and Bertheau would read after Chronicles, flilT "OfcOPII (1 Chron. xvii. 17).
- The utterance of David, the son of Jesse, the utterance of the man who was
highly exalted, the anointed of the God of Jacob and the sweet psalmist of
Israel (2 Sam. xxiii. 1).
s Ps. xviii. 51 (2 Sam. xxii. 51). 4 Ps. ii., xx., xxi., xlv., ex.
Gen. iii. 15.
344 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
his heel." 1 Since early days the seed of the woman has
been understood to be the Messiah. But the term " seed,"
when it stands without any defining word, cannot well mean
anything but posterity as such. It is true an individual
may also be spoken of as " the seed of Abraham," etc., but
in that case this narrower signification must be made quite
plain. When the seed of the first woman, the mother of
mankind, is spoken of, the only possible meaning is the
human race in general, and any one of its members only as
a member of the human family. Least of all is it permissible
to understand by this " seed of the woman " a specially
developed race of men in contrast to another race. No doubt
one particular line of a man s descendants may be called his
" seed," in other words, a particular branch of his descendants
may be singled out from the rest, who are not made his heirs
in the strict sense, and do not continue his family along the
legitimate line. But in that case it must be expressly said,
which line of his descendants is chosen, and why it is to be
reckoned as " his seed," to the exclusion of the others.
Where this is not done, all his children are his seed. Now in
the case before us, the matter does not admit of doubt. It is
impossible that one part of the human race should be " the
seed of the serpent," and another "the seed of the woman."
Why, for instance, should Cain, the woman s firstborn, not be
called " the seed of the woman " ? The woman is certainly not
the representative of one race among mankind, the race that
is to be saved, so that the children of salvation would
be her children, as believers are, according to Paul, the
children of Abraham. The woman is the sinful, natural
mother of sinful, natural, redeemable humanity. Here, where
the narrative is dealing with the very first beginnings of
1 The rare word tfity might in itself be quite well used in two different mean
ings, "to bruise" and "to snap at" (parallel with P|KI^*j cf. Job ix. 17 ; Dill-
mann). In this case the author would have intentionally played on the double
meaning of the word. For our purpose it is a matter of no moment.
MORAL AND RELIGIOUS PROPHECY IN B. 345
history, the human race is still included in the one common
mother.
That there is a seed of the serpent hostile to this seed of
the woman is indeed a plain inference from the whole pur
pose of the narrator. The woman and the serpent are
hereditary foes. Their progeny are also to continue irrecon
cilably hostile. As a blood feud starts afresh with eacli new
generation, so is this ancient struggle to be kept up for ever
and ever. The narrative itself certainly does not require us
to treat the seed of the serpent as a definite and clear concep
tion. But if one must give a more definite explanation, the
term is, at any rate, not to be understood as meaning the
devil, and still less men who make themselves " children of
the evil one." It is rather the self-generating power of
temptation and sin in its individual manifestations.
Mankind must never make peace with this power of
temptation and sin which has caused it to fall ; in other
words, with the sensual, selfish development of the animal
life. Man must never feel content to remain an animal.
The first triumph of temptation must result in a hereditary
struggle, the moral struggle of humanity, which gives birth
to all the higher life of mankind. This can never be a joyous,
painless struggle. As the serpent pierces with its poison-fang
the heel that crushes it, so man, in spite of painful wounds,
must grapple with temptation. But the struggle will end in
victory. Man will plant his foot on the venomous head of
the serpent, temptation, and crush it to death.
Here, therefore, we have in very truth a Protevangelium.
Whoever treats the Bible narrative with the justice which
would never be denied to a Greek or an Egyptian myth, and
takes the words not in their mere literal sense, 1 but, as the
nature of a myth demands, in their deep moral and religious
1 In that case it would simply be a question of the instinctive hatred which
forces men and serpents into an irreconcilable struggle for mutual exter
mination.
346 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
significance, will acknowledge that our interpretation is not
put into the words, but is taken out of them. Men have
their task of salvation assigned them, with its pain and
suffering, but also with the hope of victory in view. And it
is most appropriate that, at the very threshold of human
history, universal humanity should appear as victor in this
battle, including, as it still does, in its own unity, every
individual instrument of that victory, even the highest. How
this victory is to be achieved, which race of mankind is to be
chosen to lead the van in the battle, and what forms and phe
nomena of life will then come under review, all this can be
only gradually unfolded, as the whole plan of the narrative
shows.
To entrust the sacred line of Shem with the task of saving
humanity is the main purpose of the short section known as
the blessing of Noah. 1 Ham, who has shamelessly dis
honoured his father, is cursed in the person of his son
Canaan. 2 Japheth and Shem are both blessed, though in
different ways. While the wish is expressed that God should
enlarge Japheth, that is, give him success and free development,
it is said of Shem, the first-born, " Blessed be Jehovah, the
God of Shem." 3 Hence Shem is to be the people of Jehovah,
the people of the true God and the true religion. Consequently,
as the first-born of this line, Abraham is, in the ordinary
course of things, the bearer of the true religion.
For our purpose the meaning of this utterance is not really
altered, whether the phrase in verse 27, " and let him dwell in
the tents of Shem," be referred to Jehovah or to Japheth.
For Jehovah s special relation to Shem is the main fact, and
is not altered by either rendering. But, so far as this question
1 Gen. ix. 25-27.
2 Undoubtedly the narrative originally spoke not of Ham but of Canaan as
Noah s son.
3 "When an account is being given of the great happiness or special glory of
any person, the pious ejaculation of the ancient Hebrew is, "Blessed be the
God of that person " (Gen. xxiv. 27).
MORAL AND RELIGIOUS PROPHECY IN B. 347
itself is concerned, I am still of opinion that the reference to
Jehovah is the more natural, 1 and that the author means to say
that God will be one of Shem s household will " dwell in
the midst of him." 2 That Japheth (the Assyrian ?) is meant
to dwell with Shem as his guest, and destroy the Canaanite, is
neither a natural interpretation of the words before us, nor in
accordance with the circumstances of the time, to which B
belongs. That Elohim stands here, and not Jehovah, is no
argument against the view we are advocating. The former
name of God had to be used in connection with Japheth ; and
if Jehovah had been repeated in place of it, then it would have
seemed as if some contrast between Elohim and Jehovah were
intended. Nor do I think it conclusive that the 1 standing-
alone should not be taken as antithetical. There is no real
antithesis between Japheth and Shem ; both are blessed,
although in different degrees. The main objection against the
usual interpretation is, that one people cannot dwell in the
tents of another, except as a conqueror, 3 a thought which, in
this case cannot, of course, be entertained. Besides, it is quite
natural that the recipient of the chief blessing should encroach
even on his brother s blessing, just as the curse on Canaan is,
in fact, repeated after the manner of a refrain. 4
Within the family of Shem the work of salvation is now
entrusted to Abraham, and to that part of his posterity which
forms the holy line of Israel. To show these their work of
salvation, and the hope of its perfect fulfilment, is the common
object of the blessings communicated in B and C to the
ancestors of Israel. It is certain they are assured by prophecy
of a numerous and happy progeny, which will prove them to
be the blessed of God on earth. It is certain they are
promised the land of their sojournings, in its ideal extent,
1 As e.g. v. Hofmann, i. 182. 2 Of. e.g. Num. xxxv. 34 ; Ps. xlvi. 6.
3 So e.g. 1 Chron. v. 10 (so Justin, ed. Otto, ii. 454).
4 The translation, " And let him (Japheth) dwell in tents of renown " (after
vi. 4, xi. 4), may be set aside, because in this context no one who did not intend
to mislead the reader would use D> except of Noah s son.
348 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
" from the river of Egypt even to the Euphrates." They are,
therefore, represented as the blessed among mankind.
But these passages were also meant, according to the old
view, to declare that in Abraham and his descendants all
peoples would be blessed, since by him and his seed after him
the true religion would be communicated to every nation. In
that case we should see opening up before us the prospect of
a universal salvation, and should be brought back from the
line of Shem and Abraham, as the instruments of that salva
tion, to the mankind of the Protevangelium, with our minds
enriched by new insight into the historical ways that lead to
this goal of humanity. Nor would there be anything strange
in this, considering how wide is the horizon of B.
But the words cannot bear this interpretation. If the
Niphal of the verb had been used throughout, then, possibly, the
passive meaning " be blessed " might be defended, although,
even in the Niphal, by far the most common meaning is the
reflexive or medial. 1 But in several of the passages under
consideration the Hithpael alternates with the Niphal. 2
Beyond all doubt, therefore, the meaning is " to bless one
another mutually." And of the passages in which the
Hithpael occurs, one at least is certainly from B. 3 Conse
quently, the interchange of the two conjugations is a proof
that here even the Niphal cannot have a purely passive
meaning. Moreover, the expression " in thee " alternates with
" in thy seed," or, " in thee and in thy seed." Most decisive
of all, however, are the numerous similar phrases in the Old
Testament, in which, without exception, a man is called a
blessing, in the sense that, whenever one intends to pronounce
a blessing, one quotes him as a visible proof of divine blessing :
" God make thee as Abraham and as his seed." *
1 Ewald, Gram. 123a; cf. 133a.
2 Niphal, Gen. xii. 3, xviii. 18, xxviii. 14 ; Hithpael, Gen. xxii. 18, xxvi. 4.
3 Gen. xxvi. 4.
4 Gen, xlviii. 20. "In thee let Israel bless, saying, God make thee as
Ephraim and as Manasseh " ; *Q "OTDJV parallel to IT-TTl , J er - i y 2 ; simi-
THE PROPHECY OF BALAAM. 349
In Abraham (and in his seed) all nations are to receive
blessing, or bless themselves ; in other words, wherever, among
the nations of the world, a blessing is pronounced or received,
there Abraham and his posterity are to be mentioned as the
ideal of divine blessing. It is the promise of an unprecedented
blessing which is to result from Abraham s blameless fidelity
and devoted piety, 1 and be transmitted by him to all his
descendants through endless generations, a blessing which
certainly implies, according to the universal view of the ancient
world, the indirect acknowledgment that the God of this
family is also the true God of salvation.
And when it is said that God will bless those who bless the
family of Abraham, and curse those who curse it, 2 the words
imply that the people which saves mankind is also the people
which condemns it, the stone on which one stumbles and
by which one lifts oneself up. This thought, the full
development of which is the doctrine that the Son of Man and
His disciples are to judge the world, appears here in its first
and, as yet, material form.
5. As for the ideas contained in Num. xxiv. 17-19 of a
victorious future for Israel, the date of their origin cannot be
fixed with any certainty, and they are not in themselves of
any particular importance. The heathen seer, Balaam, 3 cer
tainly a famous figure in Palestinian legend, appears as the
hero of a little religious poem, the main thought of which is
that, in the case of a people blessed of God, every evil design
of its foes must eventuate in blessing. He has, against his
will, to bless Israel and express the hopes which fill the
larly Fs. Ixxii. 17 (to immO); cf. Mai. iii. 12. So a man becomes "a
blessing," as, on the other hand, he becomes "a curse," when it is said, "God
destroy thee like him," Jer. xxix. 22 ; Dent, xxviii. 37 ; Ps. xliv. 15, Ixix. 12 ;
1 Kings ix. 7 ; cf. Zecli. viii. 13 ; Jer. xlii. 18, xliv. 8, 12 ; Ezek. xxxiv. 26 ;
<-,f. Ps. xxi. 7 ; Num. v. 21 ; Job xvii. 6, xxx. 9 (rfe, rtm feb, r6x). The
nearest to our phrase is B. J. Ixv. 16.
1 Gen. xxii. 18, xxvi. 5. 2 Gen. xii. 0.
3 In Num. xxxi. 8, 16 ; Josh. xiii. 22 (A) his figure is sketched with bitter
hostility.
350 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
breast of the poet. In religious import these go in no respect
beyond what is contained in Jacob s blessing. Balaam points
to the kingdom of Israel which will triumphantly destroy the
surrounding nations. Probably this refers, in the first in
stance, to some historical king (David). But we may agree
that hope is here soaring beyond the present. And the whole
form of the purposely dark utterance regarding " the Star
which, in the distant future, is to come out of Jacob," as well
as the reference to the roar of great national storms, makes
Balaam s words specially suitable as a foundation for further
musings on the last age of man.
In the Mosaic age, therefore, as regards express and
definite words, we meet merely with the first and simplest
mode of anticipating the accomplishment of salvation. The
prophecy begins with the external hope of national triumph
and of Israel s supremacy in the land of his fathers, the hope
of an age of peace after a glorious struggle, of a Davidic
kingdom with its everlasting covenant of grace, its grand
and splendid aims and its sonship to God. With this is
connected, but in a more sporadic fashion, the hope of the
moral triumph of mankind and its religious development,
the main instruments of which are Abraham and his de
scendants. How old these Messianic hopes in their first
national form are, we see from the fact that even Amos has
to contend against the fleshly and immoral hopes with which
the people thought of the " day of the Lord," that is to say, of
history being triumphantly changed into victory for the king
dom of God. 1
6. In addition to these glimpses into the future of which
the people were conscious, prior to the age of the great pro
phets, a historical inquiry may also be permitted to allude in
a few words to the signs by which at that time Israel s figure
i Amos v. 18 ff. If Joel s prophecy dated from the ninth century, then i. 15,
ii. 1 ff., would prove that even then " the day of God " was a constant element
in the popular views.
REAL PROPHECIES OF THE MOSAIC AGE. 351
and history gave indications, not noted by contemporaries, of
a higher development, and thus enabled later ages to under
stand the goal. Such signs could not but exist among a
people which had, while in an imperfect stage of development,
to represent the purposes of God with man.
The covenant fellowship of Israel with God is not based
upon the people s conduct, but upon God s mercy and thoughts
of love. Hence it cannot be conceived of as weak or transient
or destined to imperfect expression. God s plans cannot be
frustrated by man s weakness. Consequently, this covenant
requires an unchecked and triumphant unfolding of God s
purposes of love with Israel. Being a covenant of the God
of all the earth with His own people, it requires that all
resistance on the part of the world should be rendered of no
avail, and that God should prove Himself the Lord of the
whole world. "All the earth must become full of His
glory." And since His name and His honour are bound up
with this people, it, too, must be made manifest as glorious,
triumphant, world-subduing.
Even the way in which this world-conquest is to be
brought about, is foreshadowed in the legend and history of
Mosaism. Out of the holy family God develops a holy
people. He gives His people a country as " the natural
basis of its national spirit," the land of their fathers Canaan.
Thus God plants His salvation in the earthly soil of the life
of a people which is developing into an independent state.
This implies that salvation must be developed within a state
whose king is God and whose statutes are heavenly, divine.
And against the commonwealth of this state all the hostility
of the world shall prove of no avail. For the power at
work within it is the power of the God who rules the world,
doing wonders. Thus the victories of Israel s youth are
prophecies of the final victory of the kingdom of God over
the whole earth. Thus the wonders of the Exodus and the
deliverance from Egyptian oppression and bondage foretell
352 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
the wonderful deliverance of the growing kingdom of God
out of every trouble and humiliation which the world can
cause. To this kingdom the world must submit, or be
ground to powder.
But the generation that Moses called out of Egypt did not
enter the land of promise. The salvation itself they could
not, it is true, make of none effect by their unbelief. But
they made it of none effect for themselves. And during the
period of the Judges the people, by falling away from God,
brought upon themselves sore distress. These judgments
foretell that the accomplishment of salvation must, at the same
time, be a judgment against unbelief and uncleanness in the
sacred community. Only a remnant inherits salvation.
And when the flood sweeps away sinful humanity, when
Sodom is destroyed by the fire of God, when Canaan, having
defiled the land by following the shameless conduct of his
ancestor, has to be destroyed from off its sacred soil with a
terrible destruction, when the kingdom of God is established
only by the condemnation and destruction of Egypt and
Canaan, powers that contend with God, all this is but a
prophecy that the divine plans imply a judicial power on
which life and death depend, and that whatsoever sets itself
against God must go down before Him.
Moreover, sacred legend and history point to a mysterious
and incomprehensible law of divine love and wisdom the
suffering of the best. Abel, who pleased God, dies by the
murderous hand of Cain. Isaac, the son of promise, must
lie on the altar ready to be offered up, while his father
endures the most terrible of agonies in surrendering his only
son. A fugitive and an exile, Moses must ripen into the
man of salvation. In slavery, at the risk of his life, and in
prison, Joseph must become the saviour of Israel. David,
the great hero-king, must sojourn as a hunted outlaw and
robber in the deserts and caves of Judah, till he becomes the
deliverer of Israel. The heralds of salvation, the bearers
REAL PROPHECIES OF THE MOSAIC AGE. 353
of God s mercy, have to pass through suffering and death
before they win salvation for themselves and others.
Salvation is not born save by the travail which the best
endure. Indeed, the people itself in its bondage in Egypt is
a type, as the community in Babylon was afterwards, of the
suffering servant of God, and points to a mystery of divine
wisdom.
Finally, the figures by which salvation is historically con
ditioned present themselves to the spirit by an inner necessity
as conditions also of its fulfilment. When the prophets saw in
vision the picture of this fulfilment, these figures naturally pre
sented themselves as types of the instruments of this perfect
salvation. In this sense Moses the prophet is the first type
of the Mediator. By his side stands Aaron the priest, who
connects the people with God, and consecrates it. This he
certainly does in such a way that on the one hand this figure had
but little significance for the prophets, and on the other there
existed alongside of it a freer and more popular priesthood,
which never quite disappeared from the horizon of the people. 1
But, from the time of David, both these figures pale in the
imagination of the people before the picture of the Davidic
king. His is the figure which appears the most indispensable
condition of all true happiness for Israel. David is the third
and by far the most important type of the Consummate.
Thus the prophets found in history itself the features,
which they worked into their picture of the future. Their
prophecy is their faith s interpretation of these features.
Even the holy place with its local limitations, the closely-shut
Holy of Holies, the shedding of animal blood, in a word,
the whole earthly array of sacred forms prophesied of spir
itual realities of which it was but an imperfect expression. 2
" Moses," too, prophesied of Christ, as every transient form is
a proof and prophecy of the Eternal.
1 Gen. xiv. 18ff.; Ps. ex. 4 (2 Sain, vi.; 1 Cliron. xv. 27).
2 Ex. xxv. 40 ; 1 Kings viii. 13, 27 (B. J. liii.; Heb. viii. 5, ix. 8, 13).
VOL. II. Z
354 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
THE HOPE OF THE PROPHETIC PERIOD.
(a) .Future Salvation as an Act of God.
CHAPTER XIX.
THE DIVINE ADVENT AND THE DAY OF THE LOKD.
1. From the eighth century onwards the attention of the
prophets had been more and more directed to the inevitable
destruction of the outward glory of salvation as it first took
shape. But it was impossible for them to think that the
history of the kingdom of God in Israel could be ended by
that destruction. Before their spiritual eye there rose from
the ruins of their people s ancient glory a higher and more
perfect form of the kingdom of God. When other peoples
are in a state of decay, their spiritual representatives are
wont to give expression to the sense of frailty and hopeless
weakness ; but here we see the very prophets who are laying
Israel in the grave, and standing as mourners by the bier,
declaring their unwavering conviction that this people s
vocation is everlasting, and that in it salvation will come
to full fruition.
The salvation of the future, like that of the past, can be
brought about only by an act of God Himself. What Israel
attempts without Him is travail without fruit. 1 However
many the instruments of His salvation, God Himself is the
really efficient cause of deliverance; and what He has been in
the past, He will be in the future. Thus, from Amos down to
the prophets of the Exile, the hope lives on that God in
His unchangeable love to Israel will rescue, ransom, and
redeem His people anew and for ever, grant them light and
1 According to the figure of the late prophet, B. J. xxvi. 17 if.
THE DAY OF THE LORD. 355
judgment, plead their cause, 1 and avert their suffering, so that
Isrjiul may, without money and without price, obtain the
coming salvation. 2
This hope is presented under the figure of a new, incom
parable coming of God to His people in His full glory as king
of all the earth. The beautiful figures of the old poetic
imagery become instinct with life. We see God coming from
His holy mountain in all the glory and majesty of the
tempest. We see Him like a lion marching before His
people. 3 But, above all, stress is laid on this, that He, the great
King of all the earth, who possesses all nations, 4 will come to
dwell on Zion, to set up His royal throne there over the whole
earth, and manifest His glory, 5 so that all the heathen may
know that He is King for ever and ever. 6 Many Psalms
announce that God is King, and call upon all the world
to do obeisance unto Him, and exult before the Lord, for
He cometh
" For He cometh to judge the earth,
To judge the world with righteousness,
And the peoples with His truth." 7
The end and aim of the kingdom of God is to reveal
the God of Israel as the God of the whole earth. For
such a salvation all the prophets hope. But their ideas of
the degree of judgment and of the nature of the deliverance
vary with the circumstances of their age and their personal
character. Isaiah hopes that the punishment will leave a rem
nant ; Micah foresees the destruction of the temple. Habakkuk
1 Hos. vii. 1, xiii. 14 ; Isa. viii. 22 f., xxx. 18, 26, xxxi. 4f., xxxiii. 5, 21 ;
Micah vii. 8 ; Zech. x. 6 ; B. J. xxxiv. 8, xxxv. 4, 10, xliii. 3, 4, 15, xlv. 17,
Ix. 1 ff.
- The figure is from B. J. Iv. 1 ff.
3 E.g. Amos i. 2 ; Hos. xi. 10 ; B. J. xl. 3, 9.
4 Ps. xlvii. 3, 8, Ixxxii. 8.
5 B. J. xl. 5, lix. 19 i ., lii. 7, Iviii. 8, Ix. 1 f. ; Micah iv. 7 ; Zech. xiv. 9.
Ps. lix. 14.
7 E.ff. Ps. ix. 8f., 20, xxii. 29, xlvii. 9, Ivii. 12, Ixviii. 30 ff., Ixxv. 8ff.,
Ixxvi. 9f., xciii. 1, xciv. 1, xcvi. 10, 13, xcix. 1, xcvii. 1, xcviii. 9, ciii. 19,
cxlvi. 10, cxlviii., cxlix.
356 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
and the author of Zechariah xii. think only of a severe chastise
ment of the holy city, while Jeremiah sees that any attempt
to defend the city will but end in complete destruction.
2. This coming of God is the change from the old to the
new age, from the time of growth to that of completion. It
is the greatest turning-point in the world s history, when
heaven and earth are finally set in motion, when all relations
are completely changed. 1 Hence, among all the days of time,
this is the day which God has and creates for Himself, for
His great work, 2 of which He speaks, 3 and in which He is
glorified. 4 It is the day of the Lord, 5 or, as it is called with
solemn emphasis, that day, 6 that time 7 (also absolutely the
time or the day 8 ) in short, as all these freely interchangeable
expressions are meant to imply, that point of time in the
future which is distinguished from all ordinary portions of
time as the day of judgment, the day of God s decisive act. 9
Originally the notion of this critical time was quite
simple and uniform. In contrast with the times of long-
suffering it was conceived of as a single day of divine revela
tion. But this judgment day developed into a series of
divine acts, of times of judgment, which retained the single
comprehensive name, " the day of the Lord."
The day of the Lord is a day of terrible wonders. God shows
wonders and signs in the heavens, blood and fire and pillars of
1 Isa. xxix. 17-24 ; Hagg. ii. 6, 22.
2 Isa. ii. 12 ; Ezek. xxx. 3 ; Zech. xiv. 1 ; Zeph. iii. 8 (Mai. iii. 17).
3 Ezek. xxxix. 8. 4 Ezek. xxxix. 13.
5 mil 1 " DV, e.g. Amos ii. 4 ; Zeph. i. 10, 14 ; B. J. xiii. 6 ; Ezek. xiii. 5,
xxx. 3 ; Joel i. 15, ii. 1, 11, iv. 14 ; Obad. 15.
6 Ninn DI Hj an expression which of course is in itself quite general, and on later
is applied quite as well to the judgment as to the deliverance ; cf. , e.g., Isa. iii. 1 f.,
xvii. 7, xxx. 7 f., xxviii. 5, xxix. 17 ; Hos. ii. 23 ; Micahii. 4, iv. 6, v. 9, iii. 4,
vii. 11 ; Zech. ix. 16, xiv. 4, 6, 9 ; Ezek. xxxviii. 18 ; B. J. xxiv. 21, Iii. 6, etc.
7 fcOnn nyn, Jer. xxxi. 1, xxxiii. 15, 1. 4 ; Joel iv. 1 ; Zeph. iii. 19 f t
DHH D*D s n, Jer. xxxi. 29, xxxiii. 15 f., 1. 4 (D^J njj, Ezek. xxx. 3.)
8 D1 s n, DJjn, Ezek. vii. 10, 12. That the day of the Lord must have been,
even in the time of Amos, an idea well known to the people for a very long time,
and cherished by them, has been pointed out above.
9 Ezek. xxx. 9 ; Isa. v. 19, x. 25 ; B. J. xxvi. 21.
THE DAY OF THE LORD. 357
smoke. 1 He comes in His terrible glory and majesty, and
arises to affright the earth. 2 Darkness and gloom herald His
approach; the sun itself is darkened; the stars withhold their
light ; the moon is changed into blood. Beneath the blows of
an angry God the earth rocks like a hammock, staggers like a
drunken man ; the destroying floods burst in. 3 In short, all
the figures depicting violent interruptions of the ordinary
course of nature, from the flood down to the earthquake in
the time of Uzziah, are gathered together into one sublime
and awful picture, the details of which the prophets work out
with a full consciousness of poetic freedom. 4
When this day will come, is a secret even to prophecy ; and
in reply to all the murmurs of the people the prophets
declare that the delay in its coming need mislead no one as to
the certainty of divine judgment. 5 Sometimes it is said " the
time is distant"; 6 sometimes, and of course especially during
the Exile and after it, " the day of the Lord is near." 7 But the
coming of this day is invariably connected with definite his
torical events or circumstances in the then present. Natural
phenomena of a terrible character as in Joel, drought and a
plague of locusts, 8 or historical events like the threatened
approach of great conquerors, such as the Scythians, Assyrians,
Chaldeans, and Medes, are the signs of the time with which the
prophets associate the coming of the great day. The only one
who knows of a human forerunner, who is to herald this day
and prepare for it, is Malachi, 9 who takes for granted that
the appearance of Elijah is a condition of the judgment day.
3. The day of God as such was of course for Israel
1 Amos viii. 8ff.; Joel iii. 3. 2 Lsa. ii. 19 f.
" Amos viii. 8f., ix. 5 ; Zwh. xiv. 4; B. J. xiii. 10, 13, xxiv. IS -20, 23,
x\xiv. 1-5 ; Joel ii. 2, 10, iii. 4, iv. 15.
1 Amos viii. 8tt ., ix. 5; Micah i, 3f.; Hab. iii. 3 ft .; Nahum i. 4 tf. : Kzek.
x-sxviii. 19 ff, ; Joel ii. 10.
5 Isa. v. 19. f> Isa. x. 3 ; Micah vii. 11 ff.; Hab. ii. 3.
7 Zeph. i. 14; Ezek. xii. 28, xxx. 3, xxxvi. 7 ff. ; B. J. xiii. G, 9, 1. 8 ; Joel
i. 15, ii. 2, 11, iv. 14.
8 Joel i. 4ff., 17ff. Mal. iii. 2311 .
358 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
originally a day of salvation and joy. And the frivolous
populace, led astray by false prophets, liked to speak of it
as something which should be wistfully looked for. But, in
contrast to such immoral levity, the true men of God
emphasise, in the most express terms, the seriousness of this
day. Every decision by which the establishment of God s
kingdom is to be brought about must also be a sifting for
those who think that, in their outward form, they actually repre
sent this kingdom of God. Hence, the day of the Lord is a day
of judgment even for the people, a day of visitation, of storm, of
clouds and mist, when God brings ruin and judgment upon
the whole land. 1 And even where the punishment of the
enemies of Israel is the main subject, it can also be said,
" Howl ye ! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as destruc
tion from the Almighty it cometh ; all hearts quake it is a
cruel day, a day of rage and wrath and fury." 2
Hence the men of God advise the wanton masses of the
people not to wish for the day of the Lord, which will be a
terrible day, a day of God s vengeance. 3 They shall say on
that day, " Ye mountains, Fall on us ; ye hills, Cover us." 4
Whatever in Israel is but dirt and dross will be swept
away without mercy. God refines His people by the spirit of
judgment and of fire. 5 All that is high and trusts in its own
strength will be broken down/ 5 It is a day of death, of dis
persion and destruction, especially for Israel. 7 False leaders
1 Amos ii. 4 ; Micah i. 5, ii. 3 ; Isa. x. 3, 6, 23, xxii. 2, 5, xxviii. 21 f. ; B. J.
xiii. 11 ; Zepli. i. 15 IT. ; Joel ii. 2 ; Ezek. xxxiv. 10 ; Mai. iii. Iff.
2 Hab. iii. 16 ; Joel i. 15, ii. 11 ; B. J. xiii. 6, 9, 14, xxiv. 16 ff.
3 Amos v. 18-20 ; Zepli. i. 18, ii. 2 f. ; Jer. xxx. 7 ; Mai. iii. 2, 19, 23 ; cf.
Hos. viii. 13, ix. 7 ; Isa. iii. 13, xxix. 1 fF. 6 ; Lam. ii. 21 ff. ; B. J. Ii. 12 ff.,
Iviii. 2. This is not yet the rest, Micah ii. 10. Cf. the terrible threaten ings in
Lev. xxvi., Dcut. xxviii.
4 Hos. x. S ; Amos ii. 13 ff., iii. 11 ff., iv. 3, v. 2, 27, vi. Off., 11, vii. 1C IK,
viii. lOff., ix. Iff.
5 Isa. i. 25 ff., 31, iii. 1 f., iv. 5 ; B. J. xlviii. 10. Isa. ii. 12 ff.
7 E.f/. Amos ii. 4-0; Hos. iv. 16 IK, v. 8 IK, viii. Iff., 13, ix. 211 .; Micah
i. G 11 ., iii. 12, iv. 10 ; Zeph. i. 18, iii. 1 ff.; Zech. x. 2 ; Jer. ix. 11 K, x. 7, 22,
xi. 11 ff., xiii. 19, 24, xiv. 18 ; Ezek. xxii. 15 ; Isa. x. 5, 23 ; xxxii. 9 ff.; Joel
i. 15 ; Zech. xiv. 2 (cf. Micah v. 2), is peculiar, for there the holy city is half-
THE DAY OF THE LOUD. 359
and rich debauchees come to nothing, the rams are separated
from the flock. 1 All the bands of order snap, everything is
reduced to chaos ; and no one will undertake to rule. 2 Only
the elect are saved ; only a remnant remains and is con
verted; only the tenth part of the people a holy stock of
the once green tree remains as a seed for the better future. 3
As is natural, this dark side of the final age does not get
the same attention from all the prophets. In fact, the same
prophet may understand and emphasise it differently at
different periods of his life. 4 It is the keynote of those who,
immediately before the Exile, see the divine punishment
drawing terribly near to the people, and have to declare that
Israel by breaking the covenant has divested itself of covenant
rights, and incurred the wrath of God. 5 In happier times and
especially at the return from the Exile, it becomes much less
prominent. Nevertheless even in times like these, as a com
parison of the passages already quoted will show, this aspect
is by no means forgotten by the prophets. In fact the
words of the exilic prophet, from whom the later descriptions
of hell are borrowed, are originally applied to the apostate
members of the people who are to lie, as an everlasting example
of what all God-fearing men should abhor, before the gates
of the new Jerusalem, putrefying and burning everlastingly.
destroyed before; deliverance comes. Ezekiel, too, prophesies with special
emphasis the utter destruction oi all who still remained in Judah, xxxiii. 26 If.
1 E.g. Hos. v. 1 ; Amos vi. 4ff., ix. 10 ; Isa. i. 2811 ., iii. 1611 ., v. 8 IF., 2:5,
xxix. 20, xxxiii. 14, xxviii. 16 ff.; Jer. xxiii. Iff., xxx. 23; Zech. x. 3, 5,
xi. 16 f., xiii. 7; Ezek. xxxiv. Iff., 15 IF., etc.
- Isa. iii. 5 ff.
} Isa. vi. 13 ("And (the people) returns ; and it is destroyed like the tere
binths and oaks of which, when they are Felled, a stock remains " ; in other
words, it is not destroyed without a prospect of fresh growth. Hence the tenth
p.irt is not to be thought of as burned a second lime ; Zech. xiii. 9 If. it is Irne,
and K/rk. v. 1 If. even more strongly, think of a double pnrilieation) ; cf. Isa.
vii. :;. x. 2011 ., .\i. 10 f., xxviii. f. ; .Irr. iv. 27, v. IS, vi. 9; K/.ok. v. :)ff., Id,
i.v. -1 IF. ; Amos iii. 12, v. :} ; Zeeh. xiii. 81 ., B. J. Ixv. 12, Ixvi. 6, 14-16, 2f>,
xliv. 15 ; Joel iv. ." (xX /iroi).
4 For Jeremiah ef. Guthe, I.e., p. 38 f.
3 Jer. ii. 23, v. 10, xi. 11, 16. 6 L5. J. Ixvi. 24.
360 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
And Jeremiah actually makes it the sign of a false prophet
to announce nothing but peace, for that can only produce a false
security. 1 The true prophetic message must be moral. It
must not conjure up a phantom in order to foster the national
vanity and the sense of outward security. The picture of the
last day must be a sermon urging to repentance, even to the
dividing asunder of the joints and marrow. Though the
prophets know that the end of all these judgments will be the
salvation of Zion, they must also know that the day of God
will be a day of violent shaking, and that against everything
having fellowship with ungodliness in Israel the judgment of
God draweth nigh. 2 The salvation of the new era comes only
after sore travail. 3 The burden of all true prophecy is : " To
day, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts." 4 The
judgment is meant to impart a knowledge of God, to refine
and sift, so that there will be a hungering after the word of God. 5
4. But, for the true Israel which survives the sore time of
judgment, joy and hope are the chief characteristics of the
last day. God cannot be so angry with His people as to
reject them utterly; He is Israel s blood-avenger, and pleads his
cause. 6 The times of anger against Israel, the pains of
travail, come to an end : God heals the hurt of His people. 7
The day of the Lord becomes a day of vengeance against Israel s
enemies and oppressors, a day of retribution for all nations. 8
The despots who oppressed Israel more than they ought, so
1 Jer. xxiii. 22, xxviii. 8 ; Ezek. xiii. 22. Thus Micah ii. 12 f. represents the
false prophets as uttering true prophecies, but dwelling only upon the favourable
half of them. The remnant," Jer. iv. 27, v. 10, 18, viii. 3, xxx. 11, xlvi. 28.
2 B. J. xxiv. 16 ff.; Joel ii. 15 ff. ; Hagg. ii. 6, 21 f.
3 Micah. iv. 14, v. 2 ; B. J. xxvi. 20. (Hence probably the n^ Err^n).
4 Ps. xcv. 7, 11.
5 Amos viii. 11, ix. 9 ; Ezek. xii. 15 f., 20, xxii. 14 f., 18 ff., xxxiii. 29, xxxiv.
27, 30, xxxvi. 11, xxxvii. 6, 13, xxxix. 22, 28.
6 Amos ix. 8ff.; Jer. 1. 34, Ii. 36 ; Ezek. xxxiv. 11 ff.
7 Isa. xxx. 26 ; B. J. xxvi. 20, Ii. 12 ff., liv. 7 f.
8 Isa. xxx. 25 ; Hab. iii. 13 ff. ; Deut. xxx. 7 ; Obad. 15; Jer. xxv. 29, xxx.
16 ff.; Ezek. xxxii. 1 ff.; B. J. xxxiv. 8, xlvii. 3, Ixi. 2, Ixiii. 4 (of. Jer. xlvi. 10,
1. 15, 28, Ii. 6, 11, 14, 36, 56, etc.).
THE JUDGMENT. 361
that he received double for all his sins, 1 are broken like worn-
out tools and thrown aside. 2 The bondage of the people is
at an end, and words of consolation are addressed to them. 3
Hence Israel s yearning cry : " Oh that Thou wouldest rend the
heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains
might flow down at Thy presence ! " 4 The earthly power
which rises against Israel, the great mountain in Israel s
way, is shattered by the blows of God on the day of the great
battle, when the towers fall, when God in the fierceness of
His anger makes bare His arm against the heathen. 5 Yea,
even the supramundane powers are overthrown, which warred
along with the nations of earth against the kingdom of God. 6
It is, of course, perfectly impossible to give, from a scientific
point of view, a coherent picture of final judgment, and of
divine deliverance, that will combine every prophetic feature.
Whoever undertook such a task, would have to deal with
each individual prophet, in chronological order, and state
his particular view of this critical time, and show how much
he owes to his predecessors and to the circumstances of his
age. In fact, the picture changes, according as Judah and
Jerusalem are still in existence, or are already destroyed ;
according as Assyria, Babylon, or Persia, oppresses the people ;
according to the relation of the people to God at the particu
lar moment ; or according as the prophet in question belongs
to the northern kingdom, or to the southern. It nowhere con
tains mere soothsaying, but is a poetic picture sketched with
the freedom characteristic of poetry. And, even as regards
1 In this sense B. J. xl. 2 is to be understood, for in the context it cannot
mean "she must receive double for her sufferings," and it cannot, from a
religious standpoint, be meant that God has punished His people wrongly ;
it certainly does not receive its proper meaning till it is referred to Jer. xvi.
18. What is there threatened, is now fulfilled.
3 Lsa. x. 5, 15. xxx. 27 ff., xxxi. 8, xxxiii. 1 ; Jer. xxx. Hi, -JO ; B. J. xxvii. 1,
xlvii. Off., xlix. 26 5 Zeoh, i. 15, ii. 4, 13.
3 Lsa, ix. 3, x. 27, xxix. 22 f. ; Zech, x, 11; Nalmm i. 13; Jer. xxx, 8;
Exck. xxxiv. 27 ; B. J. xl. 1 tf.
1 B. J. Ixiv. 1 11 . 5 Isa. ii. 10, 11, 17, 19, 21, xxx. 25 II .; Zech. iv. 7.
G B. J. xxiv. 21.
362 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
what is religiously and morally important and true, an Ezekiel s
hopes are not to be compared with those of Jeremiah, or a
Zechariah s witli those of Isaiah. But certainly everything
having an important bearing on religion itself appears to be
essentially the same from Amos to Malachi.
The terrors of nature are depicted again and again by
almost all the prophets, and in a style marked by the
utmost poetic freedom. 1 The idea is frequent that the
turning-point of Israel s destiny will occur at the very moment
when the pride of his enemies, and their assurance of victory,
are at their very highest. When the enemy has his arm up
lifted to deal the final blow ; 2 indeed, according to the second
Zechariah, when he is already in possession of the holy place,
so that the people flee through the miraculously created gorge
which cleft in two the Mount of Olives ; 3 or when the hosts
of the nations are on the march for the last war against the
holy people, 4 according to Ezekiel, against the people already
restored by the Messiah, 5 then it is that God strikes. Some
times it is God alone who, with miraculous might, shatters the
foe, and avenges Himself with keen satisfaction on those who
hate Him, while the people look on expectantly. 6 Sometimes
it is the people who, in God s Spirit and might, with the
Messiah at their head, break off the yoke. 7 Sometimes it is
the inhabitants of the land, compelled to fight in the
ranks of the foe against their own countrymen, who begin
the war of extermination. 8 But the enemy is invariably
represented as stunned and dismayed by some act of God. 9
They are as one who has, in a dream, been eating and drinking,
and who on awaking finds himself hungry and thirsty. 10
1 CK v.f/. also E/ek. xxxi. 15 ff., xxxii. 7 IK, xxxviii. 19 IK
- Isa, x. 28-33 ; of. xvii. m., xviii. 4 IK; Zt-cli. xii. 1 IK; I?. J. xiv. 2fc.
:; Ze.-h. xiv. 2 ; c-f. 4 f. 4 E.<j. Joel iv. 11 f.
r> E/:ck. xxxviii. SfK. xxxix. 8 (Gog and Magog).
G Isa. xxx. 29, xxxi. 8 ; Zech. xiv. 3 (Hos. i. 7).
7 Micali iv. 13 ; Zech. ix. 13, x. 5, 7 ; Joel iii. 1, iv. 10 (Isa. ix. 3, 5).
8 Zech. xii. 4-7. 9 E.y. Zech. xii. 4 ff. lu Isa. xxix. 8 ff.
THE DELIVERANCE. 363
Furthermore, since the commencement of Israel s dispersion,
it is a fixed idea that the people, in so far as it has fallen a
prey to the heathen world, is to return. God brings the
captive ones of His people home. 1 He delivers anew, 2
redeems once more 3 the remnant of His people ; releases,
because of the blood of the covenant, " the prisoners of hope,"
those, that is, who are not in bondage for ever. 4 It is a redemp
tion without money, 5 by the great and mighty deeds of God,
by His uplifted arm, as of yore He smote Egypt or Midian. 6
The son Lo-Ammi changes into " the children of the living
God. 7 " The God who brought out of Egypt, becomes
the God who brings out of Chaldea. 8 Or, it is also said
in the exilic prophet : As ransom for His captive
people, God gives the most distant and most powerful
lands, Egypt and Ethiopia, to the hero whom He summons
to the rescue. 9
Thus Israel obtains salvation and splendour, and comes
back from its grave, inspired with new life by the living Spirit
of God. 10 Then follows a wonderful home-coming, more
glorious still than that in the time of Moses. Everything is
!,}&. It seems to me from the interchange with l^ H, Jer. xxxiii. 7,
11; Ezek. xvi. 53, xxxix. 25; Lain. ii. 14, to be beyond all doubt that even
in Jer. xxix. 14, xxx. 3, 18, xxxi. 23, xxxiii, 2(5 ; Hos. vi. 11 ; Joel. iv. 2;
Amos ix. 14 ; Zeph. ii. 7, iii. 20 ; Dent. xxx. 3 ; Ps. xiv. 7, liii. 8, Ixxxv. 2,
where it is used of Israel, and in Jer. xlviii. 47, xlix. (3, 11, 39, where it is used
of foreign nations, the root -meaning is "to lot captivity return" ( = <l 2i^)
i.e. to let the captives return. With this it was certainly easy to connect the
more general meaning, to change "the condition of captivity," i.e. of misery, as
in Job xlii. 10. That DT^VIN 2\W is interchangeable with nn^ 3\& in Ps.
cxxvi. 1, cf. 4, merely proves, in connection with the late date of the Psalm,
that the phrase was used very freely and arbitrarily, and was altered to suit the
assonance.
2 ^53, ma, B. J. xxxv. 10, Ii. 11 ; Ps. cxi. 9, cxxx. 8; cf. P>. ,T. Ixii. 12;
Ps. cvii. 2.
: -rop, i.sa. xi. 11 ir. * /cv.h. ix. 11 1 ., x. ioir.
5 I ,. ,1. xlv. 13, Hi. 3.
" L,a. ix. 3 I., x. 24, 20, \i. 15f.; 15. ,1. xiii. l>, xliii. 17, lii. 10, hv. !-, hni.
11 (I 1 ., 19, Ixii. 3, xxvii. 12 IV.
7 Hos. ii. 1 ; of. 23. Jer. xvi. 15 If., xxiii. 7 ft. :) B. J. xliii. 3 1.
10 Ezek. xxxvii. 12-14 ; 15. J. xlvi. 13.
364 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
made level and smooth for the people ; the wilderness
becomes like Eden. 1 According to a much rarer view, the
people is to go into the wilderness, as formerly in the exodus
from Egypt, that they may there receive instruction and be
purified. 2 Everything is to be still grander and nobler than
in the wonderful patriarchal days. People will speak no
more of the deliverance out of Egypt ; but the song which
once resounded by the Eed Sea is to be sung, in new and
higher strains, in praise of the new thing which God has done, 3
a pleasant fruit of the lips which God creates. 4 And this
new salvation is never again to give place to new fear or to new
wrath on the part of God. A new judgment of God is no
more likely to recur than a new flood. 5 Thus suffering is
transformed. Out of Israel s deepest distress and affliction,
the terrors of the day of the Lord bring forth an enduring,
yea an everlasting, salvation.
CHALTEB XX.
THE LAST AGE AND ITS BLESSINGS.
When God shows Himself graciously inclined toward His
people, then is the time when He may bo found, then is the
acceptable time ! 6 But when the day of the Lord and its judg
ments have brought about a condition of things which is no
longer imperfect, and admits of no further change, then is
come " the end of the days," the last age. 7 The expression is
1 B. J. xxxv., xliii. 2, xlviii. 21, xlix. 10 ff., lii. llff. (cf. Ex. xv.), li. 3, 11,
Iv. 12, Ivii. 14, Ixii. 10-12 ; cf. Jer. xxxi. 2, 8, 21 (xxiv. 5 IF., xxix. 10) ; Zech.
x. 10-12.
- Ezek. xx. 35 ; cf. Hos. ii. 14, 16, 17.
- Isa. xii. : B, J, xxvi. Iff,, xlii. 10, xliii, 17; Jer. xxiii. 7 f., xvi, 14 f,
xxxi. 22 f.
4 B. J. Ivii. 19. 5 B. J. liv. 9. 6 B. J. xlix. 8, Iv. 6, Ixi. 2.
7 D^*n rvnnx (Q^Sn, B. J. xxvii. 6). The phrase is already found in Gen.
xlix. 1, Num. xxiv. 14, Hos. iii. 5, Mioah iv. 1, Isa. ii. 2, Ezek. xxxviii. 8, etc.
THE LAST AGE AND ITS BLESSINGS. 365
used by the prophets in quite a general sense, as describing
the latest conceivable age, that which has no new change to
fear. It denotes both the period of suffering and the
judgments, in so far as these belong to the latest period of
development. 1 Taken strictly, however, it denotes the time of
blessedness, the result of those judgments. We must not
think, however, that the finer distinctions regarding this last
age were drawn by all the prophets. Thus it is some
times taken for granted that the Messiah Himself ushers in
this era ; 2 sometimes, that He makes His appearance during
the course of it. 3 It is not contrasted with the world to
come, as the closing epoch of the present world, 4 but is itself
the permanent, transfigured development of earthly conditions.
The last age a glorified replica of the creation-epoch, so
that the beginning and the end complete the circle is the
golden age where there is no more imperfection and no more
sorrow, where outward lot and worth are no longer at variance,
where the God of the world is no longer known and wor
shipped by a mere handful, where, therefore, the followers of
this God reap the full advantage of belonging to Him who is
omnipotent.
This conception of the closing era determines the way in
which it is depicted. We nowhere find prophecies of indi
vidual future events. Everything is purely poetical and
ideal. In contrast to the wants and woes of the actual
world there is painted, on a ground of gold, the bright
picture of an ideal world. All the glorious days of splendour
which the past had known, and which posterity saw with the
halo that memory cast around them all that imagination had
ever desired for the people of God as a recompense for the
1 Deut. iv. 30, xxxii. 29 ; Jer. xxx. 24.
2 Isa. ix. 1 if., xi. 1 ff. ; Micah v. 1.
3 E.g. Zech. xii. 8f.; Jer. xxxiii. 15 f.
4 As i<r%a.rov ruv wpipuv rouruv, which still belongs to the aluv OVTO;, and does
not form part of the aluv fti*.Xuv, according to the doctrine of the Scribes, on
which Hebrews i. 1 is founded.
366 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
misery of the present, all this was formed into one bright
picture, ever-changing and full of charm. Things which, in
the world of experience, are mutually exclusive, are put by
the different prophets side by side. Every attention is given
to depicting the essentials of an age of bliss, but none at all
to details. Every feature of importance in the picture is
already to be found in Amos, Hosea, and Isaiah, although
here, as is natural, the exilic prophets have used the richest
and grandest colours.
1. The Israel of the last days is a holy remnant, a purified
people, a nation of God-fearing men. 1 Its unworthy members
have been cut off; the goats have been separated from the
sheep. 2 There is no more unfaithfulness, no worship of idols. 3
It thus enjoys complete salvation. God will dwell in Zion
in real fellowship with His people, such as never before
existed. 4 He is Zion s ornament and glory, its judgment and
strength. 5 To the people, He is both sun and moon ; 6 to the
sanctuary, a pillar of fire and cloud a pavilion in sunshine and
storm. 7 To the holy people He is betrothed by an ever
lasting betrothal. 8 They become, in the true sense, a people
of God. 9
From the time of Josiah this new relation to God is repre
sented as a new and higher covenant of God with Israel that
is, as a new religion. The old covenant was written on stone.
It stood before man as an external command ; and accordingly
it was not observed. 10 But God will make a new covenant with
1 Isa. i. 26, vi. 13, x. 20 ff. ; Mai. iii. 16, 17, 20.
- Ezek. xxxiv. 17, 20 f. (Zeph. i. 2ff., iii. 11 f . ; Zech. xiii. 9).
:i Isa. xxx. 22, xxxi. 7; Hos. ii. 18 ff.; Zech. xiii. 2; Ezek. vi. 8f., xi. 18 f.
4 Micah iv. 7 ; Hos. xiv. 5 ; Isa. iv. 2 f. ; Dent, xxviii. 9 ; Jer. xxxi. 3 ; cf.
viii. 19 ; B. J. xxv. 6 ff. ; Joel iv. 21. Connected in a more external way with the
temple in Ezek. xliii. 2, 4, xliv. 4 ; in Zech. ii. 10-13, viii. 3 ; and in Mai.
iii. 1 ff.
5 Isa. xxviii. 5. 6 B. J. Ix. 19 ; cf. xxiv. 23.
7 Isa. iv. 5. 8 Hos. ii. 19 ff.
9 Jer. xxx. 22, xxxi. 1, xxxii. 38 ; Ezek. xi. 20, xiv. 11, xxxiv. 24, xxxvi. 28,
xxxvii. 23, 27 ; Zech. viii. 7, xiii 9.
10 Jer. xxxi. 32.
RELIGIOUS AND MORAL PERFECTION. 367
Israel, which is written OH the heart that is, has the motive,
power of a new life. 1 Instead of the heart of stone, He gives
them a new heart of flesh, a new spirit by which to love
Him with their whole heart. 2 This new covenant is an ever
lasting covenant, like the great ordinances of nature, 3 an unalter
able pardon, a covenant of peace, which makes its members sure
of being heard by God before they ask. 4 All will be taught of
God. 5 The divine Spirit, which now influences prophets only,
will then be poured out on all alike, on young and old, on
bond and free. 6 The blind will see, the deaf hear, and the
lame become fleet-footed. 7 God exults in His people. 8 Thus
Jeremiah, for instance, thinks more of direct moral and
religious perfection ; Ezekiel, more of Israel s perfect sanctity.
It is always his own conception of Israel s ideal life that
determines the individual prophet s ideal of the future.
From this there results a righteousness which covers the
whole earth, as the waters cover the sea. 9 No one acts
wickedly any more, for the earth is full of the knowledge of
God. 10 Into the new city of God there comes a righteous
people which keeps its troth. 11 The land is full of humble,
believing souls who loathe their sins, 12 and lead virtuous
and honourable lives. 13 The thirsty obtain water, milk,
and wine ; yea, living water from the spring which
flows from Zion, without money and without price. 14 The
heavens drop down, the earth brings forth, salvation and
1 Jer. xxxi. 31 ff.; cf. xxxii. 40, li. 19 ; Ezek. xi. 16 if., xvi. 60. (In B. J.
xlii. 6, xlix. 8, the servant of Jehovah is "the covenant of the people").
2 Ezek. xi. 19 f. (Deut. xxx. 6); cf. Ezek. xxxvi. 25 ff., 33, xxxvii. 23,
xxxix. 29.
8 Jer. xxxiii. 20 ff.; B. J. lix. 21, Ixi. 8. 4 B. J. liv. 10, 13, Ixv. 24.
5 Jer. xxxi. 31 (B. J. iv. 13).
Isa. xxxii. 15 ; B. J. xliv. 3, lix. 21 ; Joel iii. 11 ff. (Zech. vi. 8).
7 B. J. xxxv. 5 ff. Zeph. iii. 17.
9 Jer. xxxii. 39 f.; Ezek. xi. 17-21. 10 Isa. xi. 9.
11 B. J. xxvi. 2, 7 ; cf. Ix. 21 ; Isa. xxxii. 1-5, 16-18, xxxiii. 5f.; Jer. xxiv.
5 If.
12 Zeph. iii. 13, 11 ; Isa. xxix. 19 ; Ezek. xxxvi. 31.
1:1 E.g. Isa. i. 26 ff., xxix. 20 f. ; Zech. xii. 10, Ezek. xi. 17-21.
14 B. J. Iv. Iff.; cf. Joel iv. 18.
368 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
righteousness. 1 On the other hand, everything is conceived
of as thoroughly human and earthly. The community in
habits the earthly Zion. In fact, even sin can still be
committed in the New Jerusalem, though not sin that
entails judgment. 2 For the people that dwells in Zion is
free from guilt ; its sin is forgiven. 3 Its treasure is the fear
of God. 4 It receives a new and holy name, while the name
of the old sinful people becomes a term of execration. 5
In this new fellowship with God even the holy things of
His ancient people undergo a change. True, it is only
the later prophets who take an interest in sacred things of
an external kind, and even in their case this interest varies
very much according to their individual temperaments. In
Ezekiel s representation the temple of Israel develops into
an ideal sanctuary of undreamt-of splendour, 6 while it is
still said in Jeremiah that, in the full presence of God, the
pledges of the old historical salvation may vanish. 7 The
sacrifices of Israel become acceptable to God, when offered in
the right spirit. 8 Jerusalem will be a holy city, no longer
desecrated by anything unholy. 9 Her walls are salvation, and
her gates praise. 10 She is given a new name ; she is called the
faithful city. 11 She is to be inhabited as villages are, because
1 B. J. xlv. 8. 2 B. J. Ixv. 20.
3 Isa. xxxiii. 24 ; Jer. xxxi. 34, xxxiii. 8, 1. 20 ; Ezek. xvi. 63 ; Zecli. iii. 9,
v. i. 6 if.
4 In Isa. xxxiii. 5, xxxii., xxxiii. 17 ff., Israel s righteousness is described.
Justice, righteousness, and compassion are already mentioned in Hos. ii. 21 as
the chief characteristics of the Messianic community.
5 B. J. Ixv. 15 ; cf. Isa. i. 26.
6 Ezek. xl. ff. (B. J. Ix. 13), is certainly meant as an actual law for the
golden age (cf. e.g. xliii. 18 ff.).
7 Jer. iii. 16 (no ark of the covenant). Perhaps Jeremiah, who generally
contends so very strongly against the exaggerated importance assigned to sacred
form, is not thinking at all definitely, in spite of xxx. 18, of a special temple
in the New Jerusalem, but of the holy city as a whole, being the place, of sacrifice
(iii. 16 f. , xxxi. 38).
8 Jer. xxxi. 14, 18 ; Ps. li. 21 ; Ezek. xx. 40 (emphasising of the bloodless
sacrifices); cf. xliv. 29, xlv. 13, xlvi. 4ff.; Mai. iii. 3f.
9 Zech. xiv. 21 ; Ezek. xliv. 9 ; B. J. Iii. 1 ; Joel iv. 17.
10 B. J. Ix. 18. n Isa. i. 26 ; B. J. Ix. 14, Ixii. 2ff.; Zech. viii. 3.
NATIONAL GL011Y. 369
of the multitude of her children ; and God will be unto her a
wall of lire round about, and the glory in the midst of her. 1
Indeed, special dedication, either of men or vessels, to the
service of the sanctuary will be no longer necessary. For
everything will be holy, even to the bells of the horses ;
every pot in Jerusalem may be used for holy purposes. 2 And
all who are left in Zion, written unto life in Jerusalem, will
be holy. 8
Thus what the old covenant, according to the conception
of the prophetic writers, aimed at in vain, is to be actually
realised the creating of a priestly nation, 4 in which the
reconciling and redeeming God is truly at one with man.
The watchmen of the new Zion praise God without ceasing ; 5
and before the elders of Israel there will be glory as of yore, 6
in the wonderful days of Moses, when the glory of God
appeared unto them.
2. Accordingly this Israel of God obtains the fulfilment of
all the ancient blessings. Above all, it is again united into
one unmaimed nationality. Not only will the dispersed and
scattered members of Judah return home from all the ends of
the earth the heathen guiding them back, and vying with
each other in kindness and attention to them 7 but even
Ephraim unites with Judah, Ephraim of whom Jeremiah
has already more hope than of Judah. 8 The ancient wound of
the people is healed in concord and love. 9 The watchmen of
Ephraim will be heard proclaiming a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. 10
The boundaries of this re-established people will then be
1 Isa. iv. 5 ; Zecli. ii. 3-9.
2 Zech. xiv. 20. Hence, too, no trader is any longer needed in the house of
God (Zech. xiv. 21, the purification of the temple).
3 Isa. iv. 3 (Joel iv. 17 ; Ezek. xliv. 9 ; Zech. xiv. 11 ; B. J. xxxv. 8).
4 B. J. Ixi. 6. & B. J. Ixii. 6. 6 B. J. xxiv. 23.
T Amos ix. 14 f. ; Micali iv. 6, v. 2 ; Isa. xi. 11 ff. ; B. Zech. x. 8, 10 ; Jer. xxxi.
10, xxxii. 37 ; B. J. xiv. 2, xxvii. 12 ff., xliii. 5 tf.; xlix. 18, 22, Ix. 4, Ixvi. 20;
Ezek. xxxvi. 24, xxxix. 27 fF. ; Zech. viii. 7.
8 Jer. iii. lift ., xxxi. 5-21.
9 Hos. ii. 2 ; Isa. xi. 13 ; Jer. iii. 18 ; Ezek. xxxvii. 17, 19, 22.
10 Jer. xxxi. 6.
VOL. II. 2 A
370 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
those of the Canaan promised in prophecy, 1 to the fathers
from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. 2
Consequently, the lands which were already called by the name
of God, 3 Edom, Ammon, Moab, Philistia, and the desert tribes,
must be brought into subjection. 4 The Philistines must, as it
is once said, be incorporated in the community as slaves, like
the Jebusites of old. 5 Thus Israel will " possess the nations." 6
But this political frontier does not describe Israel s real
power. All the tribes of earth will stream to this kingly
people, full of gratitude, and eager for instruction. Every one
will desire to belong to it. 7 Israel s King will show Himself up
right and glorious. 8 Jerusalem s gates will stand open day and
night to receive the fulness of the heathen. 9 Then the heathen
will bring tribute to the sovereign people. Their choicest
treasure will be Israel s for the services of the sanctuary. 10
Their princes will send presents to the people, and be their
nursing fathers. 11 In fact, the idea occurs that the heathen
in order to render unto Israel double for his sufferings are
to become Israel s bondmen, like the Gibeonites of old, that
the priestly nation may serve its God, untroubled by earthly
cares. 12 Worldly weapons are used no more. For to the
law that goeth forth from Zion all the nations submit without
demur, so that war can no longer be thought of. 18
1 Gen. xv. 1 8 ff.
2 Zech. ix. 7, 10 ; Amos ix. 12 ; Micah iv. 8 ; Isa. xxxiii. 17, xi. 14 ; Obad.
18-20 ; Ps. Ixxii. 8. The Mediterranean and the Dead Sea, the Euphrates and
the pathless deserts of Arabia as the frontier of the inhabited country ; cf. Deut.
xi. 24 ; Ezek. xlvii. 15 ff. Elsewhere the Wilderness, Lebanon, the Euphrates,
and the Mediterranean [Josh. i. 4], or the brook of Egypt (Wady el-Arish),
and the Euphrates [Gen. xv. 18].
8 Amos ix. 12. 4 Isa. xi. 14 ; Obad. 18 ff.
5 Zech. ix. 7. 6 B. J. Hv. 3, Iv. 4 f.
7 B. J. xliv. 5 ; cf. B. J. xiv. 1 (Ps. Ixxii. 10 f.), ^ HDD3, *?$ ni^-
8 Isa. xi. 10, xxxii. 1, xxxiii. 17. 9 B. J. Ix. 11.
10 Isa. xviii. 7 (DJJD is to be read in accordance with the parallelism), xxiii.
18 ; Zeph. iii. 10 ; B. J. Ix. 5-7, Ixvi. 12.
11 B. J. xlix. 23, Ix. 10 f., 16.
12 B. J. xiv. 2. Ix. 7, 10, 12, Ixi. 5f., Ixvi. 20 (Zech. ix. 11).
13 Isa. ii. 3f.; Micah iv. 3 ; cf. Micah v. 9 ; Zech. ix. 10.
NATIONAL GLORY. 37l
Accordingly, Israel stands there as God s pleasant vineyard, 1
as the flock whose good shepherd is God, 2 whose reward is
with Him. 3 He gives to Israel and to all peoples, on the
holy mountain, the splendid royal feast of blessedness. 4 The
people dwells in safety under trusty guardians. God is unto
it a wall and pillar of fire. 5 The land produces in luxuriant
abundance. 6 With the wild beasts, with every hostile power,
God makes a covenant that they do no harm. 7 As in the
happy reign of Solomon, they will dwell in peace, every man
under his vine and under his fig-tree. 8 Early death will no
more threaten the happy. 9 In fact, according to a still
higher view, there is no more death, and God wipes away all
tears from their faces. 10
Jerusalem, in her wondrous splendour, 11 is now called " the
city of solemn assemblies," " The Lord is there," :: fear thou
not." 12 The whole city is thus, as it were, a place of holy
festivity. In the middle, according to Ezekiel s hope, the
temple rises, and round about it are the abodes of the Prince,
the Priests and the Levites. 13 The whole land is become a
plain ; Jerusalem alone remains exalted. 14 Her streets are
thronged with joyous crowds. 15 Marriages there are all fruit
ful. 16 In short, she is the City of the Blest.
1 B. J. xxvii. 2 ff. 2 B. J. xl. 11 ; Ezek. xxxiv. 11.
3 B. J. xl. 10. 4 B. J. xxv. 6 ff.
5 Isa. iv. 6ff.; Ezek. xxxiv. 25, xxxvii. 26 ; B. J. Ixii. 8 ff . (Jcr. iii. 15 ; B. J.
Ix. 17).
6 We have the safety and peaceful enjoyment of the land described most
simply in Amos ix. 13 ff. and Hos. ii. 2011 ., xiv. 6 ff. More ideally in Zoch.
viii. 12, ix. 17, x. 1, xiv. 8 ; Isa. xxxii. 16-20 ; Jer. xxxi. 12 ; Ezek. xxxiv. 26;
B. J. xxxv. 1 ff., Ixv. 16ff.; Joel iv. 18.
7 Hos. ii. 20.
8 Micah iv. 4 ; B. J. Ixv. 20 ; Zccli. iii. 10 (1 Kings iv. 25 ; cf. Jer. xxx. 10,
xxxi. 27, xxxii. 43 ff., xxxiii. 12 I .).
9 B. J. Ixv. 20 ; Zech. viii. 4. ln B. J. xxv. 8. " B. J. liv. 11 ff.
12 Isa. xxxiii. 20 ff., Ezek. xlviii. 35 ; Zepli. iii. 16.
1:5 Ezek. xiv. 1 ff., xlviii. 7 ff . 14 Zech. xiv. 10.
10 Jer. xxx. 19, xxxi. 4f., 7, 12 f., xxxiii. 15 f.; Ezek. xxxvi. 10, 38, xxxvii.
26 ; B. J. xlix. 19 ff., liv. Iff., Ix. 22.
16 Jer. iii. 16 ; Zech. viii. 5.
372 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
Even external nature will then put on Sabbath attire, and
will be free from evil, strife, and destruction. The whole
world is to rejoice at the redemption of Israel. 1 From the
house of God healing waters flow forth over the whole
land of Canaan, quickening all they touch ; and beside
them trees grow whose leaves never wither ; their fruits
serve for food, their leaves for healing. 2 Thus the garden of
Eden is again set up in Canaan. The very wilderness be
comes a garden of the Lord. 3 A new heaven and a new earth
receive the happy commonwealth of God. 4 The host of
heaven is condemned. 5 Then begins a wonderful unchanging
day. 6 The moon shines like the sun, and the sun as the
light of seven days. 7 It is even said that God Himself is to
His people both sun and moon. 8 The wild beasts will
feed on grass like the tame, and the poisonous will do harm
no more, 9 or, as it is said in a like sense, " no poisonous
or ravenous beast will be found there." 10
And this transformation in the description of which, as is
natural, the imagery of spiritual things shades off, without
any distinct line of demarcation, into actual sketches of
nature is not to undergo any new change. 11 Like the new
ordinances of nature, the seed of Israel is also to be for ever
before God. 12 The grand features of this picture of blessed
ness, especially as drawn by the exilic prophets, have largely
influenced the Christian picture of the future. They corre-
1 B. J. xliv. 23, xlix. 13, Iv. 12 (Rom. viii. 19).
2 Ezek. xlvii. 1-10, 12 f.; of. Zecli. xiv. 8 (Joel iv. 18).
3 Isa. xxxii. 15 (xxx. 23 f.); B. J. xxxv. Iff., xli. 17 ff., xlii. 15 fF., xliii.
19, xliv. 3, 27, li. 3, Iv. 13 (of course often merely a picture of spiritual
occurrences).
4 B. J. Ixv. 17, Ixvi. 22. 5 B. J. xxiv. 21.
6 Zech. xiv. 6 f. 7 Isa. xxx. 26.
8 B. J. lx. 19 f. Isa. xi. 6ff. (R J. Ixv. 25).
10 B. J. xxxv. 9 ; Ezek. xxxiv. 25 (where certainly the simile of the flock is
still discernible).
11 Amos ix, 15 ; Zech. viii. 14 f.
. 12 Jer. xxxi. 36 f., xxxiii. 25 f.; B. J. Ixvi. 22, liv. 9f.
THE WORLD HOSTILE TO THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 373
spond to the description of " the first resurrection and the
millennium," during which the commonwealth of God, con
sisting both of those who are still alive and of those who have
risen, dwells on the rejuvenated earth.
CHAPTEK XXL
THE HEATHEN NATIONS IN THE LAST DAYS.
1. From one point of view, the heathen world is regarded
by the religion of Israel as the power which sets itself
deliberately to oppose the kingdom of God, and toward
which the kingdom of God must in turn assume a defensive
and offensive attitude. The world is, then, the haughty, self-
sufficient power which forgets God, 1 which, in the pride of its
heart, expects " to ascend into heaven, to exalt its throne
above the stars of God, to sit on the mount of assembly in the
furthest North (the Asiatic Olympus), to ascend above the
heights of the clouds, and be like the Eternal." 2 It is the
unfriendly nation, 3 which, from being a rod for the punish
ment of Israel s sins, has become a cruel, pitiless tormentor,
or a spectator maliciously gloating over his misfortunes. 4 It
then embodies in itself the idea of " the world," that is, of
antagonism to the divine order of things. 5
In every age, of course, it is the political situation that deter
mines which particular people stands before the eye of the
prophets as the representative of this world-power. Almost all
the nations that ever came into historical contact with Israel
1 Ps. ix. 18 ; Jer. xlviii. 26, 42, xlix. 16 ; Obad. 3, etc.
2 B. J. xiv. 13 ; cf. Isa. x. 8 ff. ; Jer. 1. 11, 24, 31, li. 7, 34, 53 ; Ezek. xxv. 8.
3 Ps. xliii. 1.
4 Isa. x. 5-12 ; Zech. i. 15 ff.; cf. Amos. i. 3-13 ; Nahum i. 9, iii. 19 ; Obad.
10-12 ; Ezek. xxv. 3, 6, 12, 15, xxvi. 6, xxxv. 5, 12 11 ., xxxvi. 2, 5 ; Zeph.
ii. 8f.; Lam. ii. 16 ; B. J. xlvii. 6 f.; Joel iv. 2ff., 19.
B. J. Ixiii. 5, 6.
374 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
are at some time or other so represented, although at other
times they are more mildly judged. Sometimes it is Canaan,
sometimes Egypt, 1 Syria, 2 Kedar, 8 Phoenicia, 4 Greece, 5 or
Hiilistia. 6 For a very long time it is Assyria and Babylon.
In Ezekiel s sketch of the future, it is Gog and Magog. 7 In
the Maccabean age it is the kingdom of the SeleucidaB ; in the
Christian era it is Home, the modern Babylon. But those who
are most strongly and constantly represented in this light are the
petty neighbouring peoples which, although in some instances
closely akin to Israel, were filled with the most bitter and
bloodthirsty hatred, and were always on the watch for an
opportunity to injure, viz. Edom, Moab, and Ammon, 8 and
partly also Philistia. In later days this whole conception is
summed up in Antichrist.
The heathen world, understood in this sense, coincides with
the enemies of God and the faithless in Israel. The godly
must hate both as the enemies of God, must turn away from
them with loathing, long for divine judgment upon them, and
hail it with joy. 9 This is the healthy religious kernel in
those Psalms in which the wicked are cursed. It is not so
much the injury done to his individual self that excites the
hatred of the godly as the sin committed against the king
dom of God. But it is quite in the nature of things that
this justifiable starting-point should allow human passion to
1 In B and C, cf. Isa. xviii. ff.; Jer. xliii., xliv., xlvi. 2 ff. ; Ezek. xxix.-xxxii.,
Joel iv. 19.
2 Amos i. 3 ; Jer. xlix. 23.
3 Jer. xlix. 28.
4 Amos i. 9 ; Ezek. xxvi. 1-xxviii. 9 (20-26) ; Joel iv. 4.
6 Zech. ix. 13.
6 Amos i. 6ff.; Ezek. xxv. 15; Zeph. ii. 4ff.j Jer. xlvii. 1; B. J. xiv. 29 ff.;
Joel. iv. 4.
7 Ezek. xxxviii., xxxix.
8 Isa. xv., xvi. ; Amos i. 11 ff., ii. 1 ff. ; Zeph. ii. 8 ff. ; Deut. xxiii. 3 ff. ; B. J.
xxv. 10 ff., xxxiv., Ixiii. Iff.; Jer. xlviii., xlix.; Lam. iv. 21; Ezek. xxv.
1 ff., xxi. 28 ff., xxxv.; Joel iv. 19.
9 Ps. xxxv. Iff., xl. 15, Iviii. 11, Ixiv. 11, Ixix. 23 f., cix. 6ff., v. 11,
xli. 11, ix., xx., cxxxvii. 7 ; cf. Jer. x. 25, xv. 15 ff., xvii. 17 f., xviii. 21 ff.,
xlviii. 10.
THE WORLD HOSTILE TO THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 375
come into play. The way in which the enemies of Israel
and the enemies of the godly in Israel are spoken of,
especially after the time of Ezra and under the impressions pro
duced by religious oppression, cannot but be considered, from
the standpoint of Christian morality, as conduct still tinged
with human passion, and not up to the standard of Christ
ianity. But after all it is the nobler side to which pro
minence is most frequently given : zeal for the house of the
Lord, moral indignation at hostility to God, whether within
Israel or beyond its bounds, a feeling which will never be
extinguished as long as there exists true and genuine love for
salvation and goodness. Such love ranks higher than that
easy-going indifference to the growth of evil which cha
racterises a weak moral nature. 1
In so far as the heathen appear as representative of the
world at enmity with God, they are threatened with the same
fate as the wicked in Israel. The strokes of God will break
them in pieces. In the last days God gathers them together,
like " sheaves of the threshing-floor," for one final conflict
with His people. In terrible confusion and ignominious ruin
they perish, 2 according to Joel s description, in the Valley
of Jehoshaphat. 3 Their weapons of war are broken and
burned, their fortresses laid in ruins ; their carcases are food
for birds of prey and wild beasts. 4 For every people that
will not serve God shall perish. 5 In this picture of the
judgment there occur, since the sixth century, certain pro
minent features which have served as types for the later
descriptions of hell. We see the land of Edom burning, as of
yore Sodom and Gomorrha burned. 6 We see the valley of the
son of Hinnom in which the great statue of Moloch stood
1 E.g. Isa. x. 33 ff.; Hosea ii. 3 ; Micah iv. 12, vii. 16 if. ; Hagg. ii. 22 f.
2 Zech. xii. 4 f.
3 Joel iv. 2, 12.
4 Nahum iii. 1 ff.; Obad. 2 ff. ; Isa. xv. 1 ; B. J. xiii. 19 f., xxi. 9, xlvii. Iff.;
Jer. 1. 45 f. ; Ezek. xxxix. 3 ff., 9 ff.
5 B. J. Ix. 12. e B. J. xx.xiv. 9 f.
376 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
become a field ghastly with corpses. 1 The curse-laden plain of
the Dead Sea becomes " the valley of Gog s multitudes," where
the shattered hosts of that tyrant lie. 2 The hostile army is
depicted to us, as it perishes in horrible, living corruption. 3
And the close of the exilic book of Isaiah gives us a glimpse
into a dreadful valley full of corpses, where the enemies of
God, the slain of the Lord, endure damnation everlasting
putrefaction, the unquenchable flame of the funeral-pile
which perhaps implies that damnation is felt as a sort of
dull pain. 4 This is the destiny of those who hate God.
They must perish, that their pride may be humbled and
the friends of God may triumph.
2. But the heathen are not enemies of the kingdom of
God simply because they are heathen. Although shut out
as non-Israelites from the kingdom of God, the majority of
them are not hostile to it. Thus patriarchal legend in B, C,
knows of a heathen world, which is rather friendly to the
kingdom of God. Heathens enter into alliance with the
patriarchs. The Egypt of Joseph is a friendly country. 6
And in both the accounts of the origin of man all nations are
represented as being of one blood. Consequently the idea of
humanity is looked at by this religion as one based on
objective facts. In like manner Phoenicia is in later times
friendly rather than hostile. 6 Egypt, and even Edom, Deutero
nomy will not shut out absolutely from the commonwealth
of God. Indeed, its presentation of history is remarkably
favourable to Edom and Moab. 7 The Persians are for the
1 Jer. vii. 31 f., xix. 2, 6, xxxii. 35 (2 Kings xxiii. 10). D3!Y"^3 ^ or
D3iTp fcOJ* yvva ; the valley which shuts Jerusalem in on the south-west.
2 Ezek. xxxix. 11, 15 (cf. the poetic word, Joel ii. 20).
3 Zech. xiv. 12-15.
4 B. J. Ixvi. 16, 24 (cf. Isa. xxx. 33 ; Jer. vii. 33, viii. 1 ff., xii. 17, xxv. 33).
The worm that dieth not (DDV^ID) is, we may be sure, the " worm of putre
faction," (nft~l) and the fire that is not quenched, (D$K) } the fire that consumes
the corpse.
5 Gen. xiv. 13 f., xxi. 22 IF., xxvi. 26 ff., xlv. 16 ff.
6 1 Kings v. 1 ff., 12. 7 Deut. xxiii. 7 (ii. 5, 8, 29).
THE HEATHEN AS NON-ISRAELITES. 377
prophets of the Exile in a special manner, the servants of God
and the friends of His people. 1 Consequently there is a
heathen world which does not oppose the kingdom of God.
Israel is indeed God s first-born son ; but this very expression
implies that the other nations are also in a position to be
loved by God. 2 But naturally, according to the changes of
history, the several heathen nations are in this respect very
differently judged. The same nation may, as was the case
with Edom, Egypt, and Phoenicia, be reckoned at different
times, as belonging to both kinds of heathendom.
Now it is not at all the view of the prophets, from Isaiah
onwards, that this heathen world is doomed to destruction in
the last days. The prophet of the Exile actually rises to the
grand conception that it is waiting eagerly, though uncon
sciously, for God and His salvation. 3 A heathen world, it is
true, in the modern sense of the word, which implies idolatry,
it cannot remain. The earth is to be filled with the know
ledge of the glory of God, as the waters cover the sea ; the
Lord shall be one, and His name one ; He has sworn by
Himself that to Him every knee shall bow. 4 But when it
has learned from the divine judgments that Israel s God is
the God of all the earth and it is for this purpose God sends
His judgments 5 then it may quite well remain a heathen
world in the ancient sense, a world of nations in the full
enjoyment of prosperity and free to follow their own lines
of national development. In fact, even the peoples hostile
to God are never looked upon as so utterly hostile, that it is
impossible to expect that among them, as among sinful Israel,
judgment will leave a remnant which will produce an after
growth of converts. 6 Thus we have a picture of the people
1 B. J. xlv. 1 ff. 2 Ex. iv. 22 ; Jer. xxxi. 9.
3 B. J. xlii. 4, li. 5.
4 Hab. ii. 14 ; Zech. xiv. 9 ; B. J. xlv. 23.
5 Ezek. xxv. 5, 7, 11, 17, xxvi. 6, xxviii. 22, 23, 26, xxix. 6, 9, 16, 21, xxx.
8, 19, 25 f., xxxii. 15.
(i Isa. xix., xxiii. ; Jer. xlviii. 47, xlix. 6, 11, 39 ; Ezek. xxix. 13 f.
378 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
of God surrounded by a world of converted nations. The
Old Testament salvation broadens into universalism.
This world of nations is thought of as being converted in a
variety of ways. The prophets mostly think of the judgments
of God in which His almighty power is revealed. 1 The
heathen then acknowledge that their " no-gods " are of no
avail, that only in Jehovah is deliverance to be found. 2 This
is presented in a particularly instructive way in Isaiah s
prophecy of the conversion of Egypt. 3 Egypt trembles, as of
old in the time of Moses, at the mere mention of the name
" Judah." Through the plagues with which God threatens it,
it learns to know God. But it acknowledges Him at the
same time through His people. There are in Egypt five cities
which speak the Jewish language and worship Jehovah; there
is thus a Jewish colony, as formerly there was in Goshen. An
altar is erected in the land, and a pillar at its frontier, as a sign
that this land is dedicated to God, and that He will protect
His people from all oppression. Then the Egyptians are
converted. God heals them ; they bring Him offerings and
vows, and become, along with Assyria and Judah, a people of
God. In like manner Zephaniah also considers conversion
a result of God s judgments. But he ascribes it more
directly to God s own act, who gives the heathen a pure
language, that they may call upon His name together, and
form a commonwealth of God. 4 The exilic Isaiah hopes
that the successes of Cyrus will convert unto Jehovah first
the conqueror himself, and then all the nations that are
subject to him. 6
Along with this there goes the hope that the glory, with
which the people of God shines, will convince the heathen
that only in this God is true salvation to be found. This
1 Isa. xix., xxiii. ; Zech. ix. 7 j B. J. xxv. 3, xlv. 6, 16, 20 ; Ezek. xxxviii.
23, xxxix. 6.
2 Jer. xvi. 19 ; B. J. xlv. 21 ff. 3 Isa. xix. 17-25.
4 Zeph.iii. 9 f . 6 B. J. xlv. 4 ff.
THE HEATHEN AS NON-ISRAELITES. 3*79
thought, which is already implied in the patriarchal pro
phecies, often rings through the utterances of the prophets, 1
and also the still higher thought that the moral beauty of
Israel s laws 2 and the righteousness of the Messianic king ::
will draw to them the eyes of the heathen.
But, of course, the conversion of the nations is only con
ceivable through their coming into some kind of relation to
the people which possesses the revelation of this true God.
Only on rare occasions does the thought occur that those of
the Gentile nations, who escape the great overthrow, will
themselves carry the gospel of God s mighty deeds to the
most distant heathen lands. 4 In most cases, Israel itself is
the messenger and servant of God, who preaches God to
the heathen, and lets his song of deliverance re-echo to the
ends of the earth. The conversion of the heathen is con
nected with Israel s public worship. 6 It is to Mount Zion that
the people will come as pilgrims to learn the righteous
ness and the law of God. 6 And the exilic prophet specially
presents to us the Israel of prophecy as mission -preacher,
that Israel which, as the servant of Jehovah, forms a striking
contrast to the Israel of actual history. It is not enough that
this Israel is the servant of Jehovah to bring back the tribes
of Jacob. God means to make him a light to the heathen
also, who wait for His salvation. 7 But it is deeds, divine
acts, that are needed, not words and learned proofs of the
truth of Old Testament doctrine. When the foes of God are
seen in their weakness and misery, and the kingdom of God
1 Micah iv. Iff., vii. 16 ; Jer. xii. 15 ff., iii. 17, xvi. 19 ; Ezek. xxxvi. 23, 36,
xxxvii. 28; Zech. viii. 21-23; B. J. xxv. 3, Ixi. 9, Ixvi. 18 (Ps. xxii. 28 f.,
Ixvii. 3 ; 1 Kings viii. 60).
2 Deut. iv. 6ff.; cf. Isa. ii. 2ff.; B. J. Ix. 3. 3 Isa. xi. 10.
4 B. J. Ixvi. 19. The messengers sent to Ethiopia (Ezek. xxx. 9) are, pro
bably, to be taken in another sense.
5 B. J. xlii. 19, xlviii. 20 (Micah v. 6 ?). Is the dew only thought of as the
symbol of an innumerable multitude, or as a refreshing and vivifying power ?
6 Isa. ii. 2-4 (Micah iv.) : cf. B. J. li. 4.
7 B. J. xlii. 4, 7ff., xlix. 6.
380 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
in its moral beauty and blessedness, their conversion is effected
by the voice of truth that is inwardly audible to all men, and
by the yearning of the human heart for true happiness.
All the prophets assign to Israel a privileged position as
ruler over the converted heathen world. Even the nations
that are not regarded as incorporated with the people of God,
like the inhabitants of the Messianic Canaan in the strict
sense, are, nevertheless, represented as subject to the Messianic
kingdom, like those dependencies of the great Asiatic empires
which enjoyed internal self-government, so that the king of
Israel becomes king of kings or suzerain. 1 They make yearly
pilgrimages to Jerusalem in order to worship there and cele
brate the feast of tabernacles. 2 Indeed, by a greater hyper
bole still, the multitude of the Gentiles comes to a solemn
service on Zion every Sabbath and every new moon. 3 Their
treasures serve to beautify the public worship of God and to
maintain the nation of priests that dwells before Him. 4 In
fact, we not infrequently find, in vivid pictures of this hope,
the relations of these peoples to Israel described by expres
sions borrowed from the slavish vassals of Asiatic empires. 5
Nevertheless, in the most of the utterances regarding the
last age, the real purport is as grandly universalist as is at all
consistent with the belief that Israel is specially favoured as
regards salvation. And not a few of the most beautiful pass
ages put this nationalism into the background in a way that
is already almost Christian. The prayer in 1 Kings viii. 41 ff.
is marked by a noble spirit of universalism. According to
Isaiah, Assyria, Egypt, and Israel enter into alliance on equal
terms as peoples who serve God, although in the prophecy
itself God s special love for Israel does find expression. 6 In
1 For these expressions cf. Isa. xxxvi. 4 ; Ezek. xxvi. 7 ; Ezra vii. 12 ; Dan.
ii. 37.
2 Zech. xiv. 16. 3 B. J. Ixvi. 23.
4 Isa. xxiii. 18; cf. xviii. 7; B. J. Ix. 5-7, Ixi. 6; Hagg. ii. 8.
5 E.g. B. J. xiv. 2, xlix. 22 f., Ix. 10, 12, Ixi. 5.
6 Isa. xix. 23-25.
THE HEATHEN AS NON-ISRAELITES. 381
Jeremiah, it is said that, after the judgment, the heathen are
to find mercy and be planted in the midst of Israel. 1 In
Ezekiel, in the age of fulfilment, " the strangers " receive as
large a share of the land as the Israelites. 2 But it is chiefly
the prophets at the close of the Exile who burst the barriers of
nationality. The strangers who love and serve God and keep
the Sabbath, along with the maimed who as yet have no rights
in the commonwealth, are to have full and equal rights, and
to enjoy the same respect and happiness as the children of
Israel whom they join. No external blemish, therefore,
whether in nationality or in physique, is to prove a hindrance
to salvation. The house of God is to be a house of prayer
for all peoples. 3 The royal feast on Zion, represented under
the form of a thanksgiving feast, is made for all nations.
God destroys the veil of mourning that is spread over all
nations alike. 4 Zion, as the holy city, becomes the spiritual
centre of the whole world. 5 In short, the earth becomes a
kingdom of God, the members of which enjoy on all essential
matters equal rights and privileges.
The passsage which would go furthest in this direction
would be B. J. Ixvi. 21, were it understood as a prophecy of
the admission of the heathen even to the Levitical priesthood.
But in view of the position taken elsewhere in the book, this
is impossible. 6 Probably it refers to the children of Israel
returning home from the Dispersion, in contrast to the real
community of Zion in Babylon. Eather, Israel s prerogative
over the Gentiles is thought of as resembling Levi s preroga
tive over the other tribes. It is, therefore, a prerogative
of special election, which does not injure the relation of the
other peoples to salvation. All nations are, in the liturgical
Psalms of the latest age, summoned as a holy choir to cele-
1 Jcr. xii. 15-17 ; of. xvi. 19-21 ; Zeph. iii. 9.
2 E/ok. xlvii. 22. a B. J. Ivi. 3-8.
4 B. J. xxv. 6 if. 5 B. J. xxv. 8. xxvi. 15, etc.
6 E.IJ. B. J. Ix. 7, 10, 12, Ixi. 5f. Also in ver. 22, it is just the special
position of Israel that is emphasised (Ivi. 7V
382 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
brate the praises of God. 1 God s own people is represented
as surrounded by a galaxy of peoples who " fear the Lord."
Consequently, the prophetic age did not think that the
admission of the heathen into the kingdom of God depended
on their being "Judaised." Naturally Jerusalem, with its
public worship of God, its Sabbath festivals, and its freedom
from abominations, is to be the common sanctuary of all
nations. But of circumcision, and the other customs of the
Israelitish people, the prophets are not even thinking. Their
hope is for national conversions to the kingdom of God on a
grand scale, not for individual " converts " to the common
wealth of Israel. In this respect Paul has shown the true
tendency of the prophetic teaching.
CHAPTEE XXIL
THE RESURRECTION.
1. As man in union with God has the feeling of an eternal
life proof against death, so, in its covenant-fellowship with
God, Israel is conscious of an imperishable national life. In
both cases, owing to sin and grace, everlasting life changes
into death and resurrection.
The death of the holy people is a standing feature in the
picture of the future, as drawn by the prophets of the eighth
and seventh centuries. Even by prophets who, like Amos,
Isaiah, and Hosea, usually teach that, at least for Judah, there
will only be a sifting, Ephraim s death is taken for granted.
In Micah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, the death of Judah also is
distinctly affirmed. When Israel offended in Baal, he also
died that is, he became subject to death. In the Exile, of
course, that is no longer prophecy but fact. The Exile in
Babylon is the death of the people, and the end of it is the
1 E.g. Ps. Ixvii. 4ff., cxvii. 1, cxlviii. 1-3, 11-15, cl. 6.
THE KESUKKECTION OF THE PEOPLE. 383
people s resurrection. Those who return home regard death
as something that lies behind them, and feel the new life of
their people to be eternal. 1 It is only in the Levitical period,
when the people is steadily going from bad to worse, that the
prophets see that before the actual advent of salvation a new
judgment is inevitable. 2
In keeping with the metaphor of Israel s death, its deliver
ance is naturally spoken of as a resurrection. This expression,
it is true, is not very frequent. The bringing back of the
captives, the gathering of the dispersed, the rebuilding of
Jerusalem, the restoring of Israel to his rest, 3 these are all
phrases of much more common occurrence. But the thought
of a resurrection has a specially far-reaching significance, and,
therefore, deserves special consideration.
Already, in Hosea, it is said, "After two days will God
revive us ; on the third day He will raise us up, and we shall
live before Him." He will rescue from the power of the grave,
and deliver from death. Death will be annihilated. "
death, where are thy plagues ? grave, where is thy destruc
tion ? 4 " In other words, when the God of life appears, death
must quit his hold of what he has already seized.
This and nothing else is the meaning also of Ezekiel s
famous vision in which he sees a valley full of dry bones. 5
The only possible reference is to Israel, the people ; and, in fact,
it is mainly to the long-dead ten tribes as contrasted with the
people of Judah. 6 These are represented as a heap of dry
bones. Death took place long ago. The question being put
to the prophet, Can these bones live ? he replies, "Lord, Thou
iHagg. i. 4ff., 14 ff., ii. 6 if.; Zech. i. 12-21, iii., iv., v., viii. 3 if.; B. J,
liv. 9 ; Ezek. xxxvi. 2 if.
2 Mal.ii. 12, iii. 1, 5, 19, 23 ff.
3 The word nni3O for Canaan (Dent. xii. 9 ; Ps. xcv. 11). In Micali ii. 10,
the phrase, "This is not your rest," is probably not a pitiless declaration of the
brother-people to the fugitives (Hitzig) but God s sentence against Judah. In
the future it is said, " To thy rest, Israel ! " (Jer. xxxi. 2).
4 Hos. vi. 1 ff. , xiii. 14. 6 Ezek. xxxvii.
6 Vers. 11, 17 ; cf. chap, xxxviii.
384 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
knowest." In other words, he has to acknowledge that, so far
as man can judge, there is no hope of Israel awaking to new
life. He leaves the matter with God, for whom nothing is
impossible. Then he sees how the breath of God blows over
this field of the dead. 1 The dry bones become living bodies.
He receives the prophetic assurance, which is also specially
explained to him in vers. 12-14, that Israel is to rise to a new
life with all the freshness of youth.
This thought is expressed in a particularly affecting way by
the author of B. J. xxiv. xxvii. The people must go into its
chamber, till the times of trouble are overpast. 2 Then there
await it a new resurrection-life and the feast of fat things,
which God will give unto all peoples upon Mount Zion. 3
The life to which the people is raised up is an everlasting life.
Individuals, it is true, are promised in that golden age nothing
more than a long life, which is never to be prematurely cut short
by a mournful death. 4 But of the people itself the prophets of
the Exile declare that it will live for ever, crowned with joy
and gladness ; 6 that it will bloom and flourish in imperishable
freshness ; 6 that, living in everlasting bliss on a new earth
under a new heaven, it is to witness how everything hostile to
God is handed over for ever to the powers of death in the
valley of judgment. 7 The prophecy in B. J. xxv. 8 goes
farthest of all in promising that death will be altogether
abolished in the time of consummation, so that the risen
people and its then living members will enjoy an everlasting
life of blessednesss.
1 The "Spirit" of God, according to the double meaning of the word, made
perceptible to the senses as storm.
3 B. J. xxvi. 20 f.
3 B. J. xxvi. 6 ff. This little book is the original of many of the Jewish figures
in the New Testament. The "travail of the Messiah," the "marriage
supper," the " marriage of the Lamb," the "destruction of death for evermore,"
arc still heard echoing through New Testament prophecy. We may even say
that the blessedness of the first-born, the millennium, and the new Jerusalem,
are probably to be found here in their earliest and simplest features.
4 B. J. Ixv. 20 ; Zech. viii. 4. 5 B. J. xxxv. 10.
6 B. J. Ixv. 18-23. 7 B. J. Ixvi. 22 f.
THE RESURRECTION OF THE INDIVIDUAL. 385
2. It came naturally within the religious scope of the
thought last expounded to include in Israel s resurrection
from the dead the individual also, in so far as he is a member
of the holy nation. Consequently, it would not surprise us,
were we to find, any time after Hosea, a doctrine of the
resurrection of the godly children of Israel. If, on the
contrary, Israel awoke to the consciousness of such a hope
only at a late period, and very gradually, this is explained by
the fact that the personality of the individual is invariably
put in the background by the collective personality of the
people. In Hosea, chap, vi., there is no reference to a
resurrection of individual members of the holy nation already
dead. And I must make a similar assertion about Ezekiel
xxxvii. Undoubtedly the real reference of this passage is to
the people of Israel. Some might, indeed, find in the very
simile used by the prophet, a proof that a resurrection of the
dead was a thought with which pious minds were then
familiar. But it seems to me to prove the very opposite.
If the belief in a resurrection of individuals had been known to
the prophet, then his reply to the question " Will these live ? "
must surely have been, " Certainly, Lord ! " And in that
case, this whole vision would be no longer a si<m. The field
O O
full of dead men s bones would no longer be an emblem of a
hopelessness too great for human thought to overcome, nor
the raising of the bones a miracle of miracles. On the
contrary, the bones would of themselves be a sign of hope ;
and their being raised would be an event to be expected as a
matter of course. Instead of a miraculous pledge of some
thing otherwise incredible, we should have a rather weak
parable : " As certainly as these corpses will rise again, so
certainly will dead Israel also be raised from the dead."
Consequently this passage was well suited to arouse in the
reader a belief in the resurrection of individuals also. But a
proof that such a belief already existed, it most assuredly is
not. B. J. xxxv. 10, Ixv. 20; and Zech. viii. 4, do not
VOL. IT. 2 B
386 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
assume, that even in the time of consummation, the godly will
be perfectly free from death or sin. Zech. iii. 7 has absolutely
nothing to do with the question before us, but is simply a
symbolical promise to the high priest of Israel, as the
representative of his people, that he will constantly enjoy
free access to God, and be graciously received.
On the other hand, there are certainly two passages in the
book of Isaiah where we meet with the thought of the
resurrection of the godly. Let us first take the famous passage
about the suffering servant of Jehovah in B. J. liii. 1 ff.
There is here, of course, no doctrine of the resurrection of the
dead. The servant of Jehovah is not, in the strict sense,
an individual person, although a very vivid and concrete
personification. And, at any rate, he is meant to be
something absolutely extraordinary ; and his resurrection can
no more prove the belief in a general resurrection than
the instance of Enoch is a proof that all men escape death.
Still we have here quite distinctly the thought of a blessed
and endless life, to which the righteous rises after he has
died, and been buried, a step, therefore, towards a real hope
of resurrection. 1
The hope in B. J. xxiv. xxvii. goes still further. Here,
also, it is true, it is only the resurrection of the people that
is primarily kept in view throughout. It is the people that
is addressed. And in reference to individual men we get,
speaking generally, only the hopeless utterance, " Dead men
do not live again, shades do not rise." 2 But the prophet
expects primarily, at least for those who share in the age of
consummation, perfect freedom from death. 3 And when, in
glancing at the final era, he remembers those who died
before salvation actually arrived, it is at first but an eager
wish which rises within him, " May thy dead live, may my
1 In B. J. Ivii. ] f., death is spoken of "as a shelter from wickedness," but
without any clear hint of restoration to real life.
- B. J. xxvi. 14 (doubtless of Israel s enemies). 3 B. J. xxv. 8.
THE IIESUIUIECTION OF THE INDIVIDUAL. 387
corpses arise," 1 a wish, full both of earnest longing and of
resignation, like the exclamation of Jol>, " Oh that a clean
one might come out of the unclean." But to the prophetic
eye this wish becomes a joyous hope :
"Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust :
For thy dew is as the dew of light,
And the earth will bring forth shades." 2
Thus it is only towards the close of the Exile that prophecy
shows traces of a resurrection hope, and even these are
always given with the indefmiteness characteristic of poetry,
and are very far indeed from being a distinct doctrine. They
rather hint at a belief in process of formation than formulate
one already held. And the Psalms, from which it is thought
that a more definite hope of salvation can be proved, really
carry us no further than do the passages previously cited.
Since Ps. xvi. and xvii. have been already discussed, the only
others bearing on the question are Ps. xlix., Ixxiii., and cxxxix.,
all of them late. 3 The singer of Psalm xlix. announces in a
significant introduction, 4 replete with promises, that he wishes
to solve, in accordance with divine wisdom, a question of
moment for all the question, how is the prosperity of the
wicked compatible with divine Providence ? the same question
which rings throughout the book of Job. He solves it in
two equal strophes, containing eight verses each. 5 The
first strophe deals with the lot of men in general. Since rich
and poor must go down to Sheol, since riches do not ransom,
and no one takes them with him, what matters it that a
wicked man is rich and powerful ? He is fleeting, evanescent,
yea, a nothing. But the second strophe goes further. It is
not merely that men are alike, that riches and power make
no real difference in the final destiny ; but the fools whom
1 B. J. xxvi. 19 Cpri, ^rj). 2 B. J. xxvi. 19.
3 The text of these Psalms, nearly all through, is so m HUT lain, and so far from
leaving the impression of originality, that they are, from this one fact, quite
unsuitable as proof-passages.
4 Ps. xlix. 2-5. 5 Ps. xlix. 6-13 and 14-21.
388 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
men praise must away to the under world, while God delivers
the godly. 1 Hence it is foolish to be afraid of the wicked,
whose power and riches soon fall a prey to destruction. 2
The line of thought in both strophes, beautifully emphasised
as it is by the refrain, with its significant changes, is on all
essential points above doubt. The only disputable and, for
our question, important passage is Ha. (1416 inclusive).
The words run as follows :
"This is the way of them that are stubborn :
And after them follow those Avho delight in their sayings :
Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol ;
Death is their shepherd :
And the upright trample upon them ;
Right soon must their form wither away :
Sheol is the dwelling-place for them. 3
]>ut God redeems my soul from the power of Sheol :
For He keeps hold of me. " 4
Here there is certainly nothing about a resurrection of the
godly, or about a life exempt from death. For death in the
abstract is thought of as the common lot of all (vers. 1 1 and 13);
and redemption from the hand of Sheol, which is already laying
hold of the godly, is, as ver. 8 clearly shows, merely an expres
sion meaning " to protect from death," and that, of course,
not from death absolutely, but (as is proved by a host of
similar expressions), 5 from the penal death of the wicked.
The death of the fool, of which the last strophe speaks, is the
antithesis, not of the immortality of the godly, but of their confi
dence and rest in God. This would indeed preclude the punish-
1 Vers. 14-16. 2 Vers. 17-21.
3 Death watches the wicked as they lie massed together like a flock. The
upright triumph. Towards morning, i.e. suddenly, as the night vanishes, their
form must wither (read nv3? = n/P). Hades is their dwelling-place (^O-ftD
according to the Massoretes, is probably to be taken : "it (their bodily form)
will be without a dwelling," but that is meaningless ; PDTD must be a rare
nominal formation for 7QT } B. J. Ixiii. 15).
Or else, " when it lays hold of me," clutches at me. God takes hold of the
upright, and thus snatches him away from the threatening violence of death.
5 E.g. Jonah ii. 3, 7 ; Ps. ix. 14, Ixxxvi. 13, Ixxxix. 49, ciii. 4, cxxxviii. 7.
THE HESUKUECTION OF THE INDIVIDUAL. 389
ment of an early death, but not a normal end to life. Finally,
" He keeps hold of me," in ver. 1 6, is not at all synonymous
with " He awakes me," or such like, but means, He lays
hold of me, and so snatches me away, i.e. in the given case,
from the hand with which death was clutching at me.
In Ps. Ixxiii. a godly man is busying himself still more dis
tinctly and clearly with the problem of the prosperity of the
wicked. He thinks it completely solved by the joyous
belief that the apparent happiness of the wicked must give
place to sudden destruction, and that God, on the other hand,
raises the godly to honour. Here, too, in my opinion, there is
no reference to any recompense in the world to come. The
experience which gives the psalmist his solution of the
problem is confined to this life ; he feels happy in God, and
sees the downfall of the wicked whom once he envied.
The line of thought in the Psalm is as follows Vers. 1-3 :
Now I know of a truth that God is good to the pious, although
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked, I had almost sinned
against God, and had nearly become wicked myself. Vers.
4-15 incl. : For I found that the wicked, in spite of the most
insane pride and arrogance toward God, continued unpunished
and happy, while nothing but suffering fell to the lot of the
godly ; and so 1 had almost slipped. But now I have found
the right standpoint. Vers. 16-20 incl.:
" When I thought how I might know this,
It was labour in mine eyes ;
Until I went into the sanctuaries x of God,
And considered their (wicked men s) latter end.
Surely Thou settest them in slippery places :
Thou castest them down as ruins.
How are they become a desolation in a moment !
They are utterly consumed with terrors. -
As a dream when one awaketh,
So Thou, Loid, when Thou awakest, shalt despise their image.
1 Represented as local: the place where one findsCii.nl, i.e. His secrets, the
true meaning of God s plans.
Sc. killed by terror.
390 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
Vers. 21, 22 : Hence I was a fool, to get angry at the
prosperity of the wicked.
Vers. 23-28 inch:
" And as for me, I am continually with Thee :
Thou hast holden my right hand.
By Thy counsel thou guidest me,
And that I may obtain glory, Thou dost keep hold of me.
Whom have I in heaven but Thee ?
And apart from Thee I have no pleasure on earth. 2
Though my flesh and my heart failetb,
God is the rock of my heart and my portion for ever. 5
For, lo, they that are far from Thee shall perish :
Thou destroyest every one that goeth a whoring from Thee.
And as for me, nearness to God is my happiness. 4
I have made the Lord God my refuge.
That I may tell of all Thy works."
Let a reader do justice to the poetic cast of this Psalmist s
phraseology, bear in mind how often similar hyperbolical
expressions are used, and notice how, even in the most crucial
parts of the Psalm, e.g. vers. 26-28, 1820, the sole emphasis is
laid on the judgment by which the wicked is swept off the face
of the earth, and how the closing stanza still speaks throughout
only of earthly happiness, and lie will be convinced that here
also the poet means his question to be solved, not by resur-
1 Ver. 23 is neither a hope nor a resolution, but an account of his experience.
God guides him in his counsel, i.e. wisely, and keeps hold of him that he may
obtain glory, as the phrase according to Zech. ii. 12 [Eng. ii. 8] undoubtedly
means. In other words, "Thou leadest me wisely, so that the end may be
glory, not shame." Another rendering- might be, " And, after that, glory will
receive me," which also need not refer to any thing more than the goal of earthly
life. "Thou wilt receive me into glory," would require either YQSp or
11333-
2 Thus God is his highest good (cf. Ps. xvi. 2). The *]fty (like the -p^y of
P.s. xvi. 2), means along with Thee, apart from Thee. In other words, apart
from God he has no happiness either in heaven or on earth.
3 Even when in the greatest danger of death, he puts his trust in God ; for
he knows that the wicked perish, and that the pious enjoy the favour of God.
The reasoning in ver. 27 makes it clear that in ver. 26 IIP cannot be speaking of
death, but only of danger of death.
4 To be near to God, that is, that I may cleave to Him (B. J. Iviii. 2) is
butlicient happiness for me.
THE RESURRECTION OF THE INDIVIDUAL. 391
rection after death, but by the rest, blessedness, and security
of earthly life.
Psalm cxxxix. is still clearer. There the literal meaning
must be thoroughly distorted before any reference to the
resurrection can be discovered. The poet has constructed his
Psalm as follows 1-6 incl. : God, Thou hast, in Thine
unsearchable greatness surrounded me everywhere with Thy
wisdom and Thy power. 712 incl.: Nowhere can one hide
from Thee : since for Thee darkness is not. Were I to say,
" Let utter darkness enshroud me, and the light about me
become night," even darkness would not be dark for Thee, but
night would be light as day, and darkness be as light.
1 31 6 incl. : For Thou hast known me, even in the darkness
of the womb ; I give thanks unto Thee, for I am fearfully
and wonderfully made : wonderful are Thy works ; and that
my soul knoweth right well." 1 . . . " Thine eyes saw me as
an embryo, and in Thy book were they all written, even the
days which were ordained, when as yet there was none of them." 2
17, 18 : All this I can neither understand nor express "How
precious also are Thy thoughts unto me, God ! how great is
the sum of them ! If I should count them, they are more in
number than the sand ; I awake, so am I still with Thee." 3
In other words, whether I wake or sleep, I am constantly
under the mighty influence of Thy wonderful works. If 1
fall asleep while pondering their inexhaustible variety, still
they occupy my dreams. 19-22 incl.: O God, destroy the
1 Ver. 13. " Before God the darkness is as light, for He has seen even that
which is hidden deepest." Ver. 14. " Come into being in a way as astonishing
as it is remarkable." (Hitzig : " Thou hast shown Thyself astonishingly won
derful." Sept. Syr. nj&DJ.)
3 D7J probably better "embryo" than "the threads of life, thought of as
still in a skein." Q ri, Hitzig : " And for it (i.e. for his birth into the world)
there was one of them."
s Meditation that does not cease even in dream: . Otherwise we might think
of "the waking heart," Song of Sol. v. 2 ; Job iv. 13 ; Jer. xxxi. 26. There
cannot possibly be a reference to the resurrection : (1) because death has not been
even mentioned ; (2) because, in that case, "Hiy could not be used, for only then
would he be really with God, and that, too, in quite a different sense.
392 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
wicked, whom I hate as being Thine enemies ! 23, 24 :
Prove me, and lead me to salvation.
Consequently, these Psalms contribute nothing towards a
doctrine of the resurrection. And it is hardly possible that
any one would, in sober earnest, interpret the exclamation of
God in Ps. xc. 3, " Return, ye children of men," as a sum
moning of men to a resurrection life. 1 The Levitical age
was the first to produce a clear and positive doctrine of the
resurrection. 2 The book of Daniel knows of a resurrection of
many, that is, of a resurrection which does not result from
the circumstances of mankind in general, from the natural
constitution, so to speak, of a human being, but is connected
with the perfecting of Israel at the end of the days. 3 This
resurrection also presupposes a judgment that is, the prophet
expects a resurrection even of the wicked in Israel. Those
sleeping in the dust of the earth awake, some to everlasting
life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. 4 Hence all
Israel is probably included in this hope, so that the resurrec
tion brings to the members of this people both purification and
judgment. But this book nowhere gives us any warrant for
going beyond Israel.
This doctrine was, it is true, not accepted by Israel without
discussion, a clear proof that it was a doctrine of the
schools, founded on the teaching of the scribes. The book of
1 It simply corresponds to
2 Whether the Persian doctrine of resurrection has had any influence, cannot
be of essential interest to us, since it would, at any rate, only be a question as
to strengthening an element already in existence. This point will be the more
difficult to decide, the more uncertain it becomes how far this doctrine, the
principal witness to which is Bundehesh, was really old Persian.
8 Dan. xii. 2. The " many " is probably not used as an antithesis to "all,"
but is meant simply to express, as in Rom. v. 15, that a large number, a
majority, will share in it. In my opinion, ver. 13 also refers to this idea, as is
shown by the phrase, "at the end of the days." The verse runs thus, "And
go thou to the goal," that is, finish thy course, " and rest (in death) and stand
in thy lot," that is, receive the portion destined for thee at the end of
the time.
4 Dan. xii. 2, then in ver. G, "the teachers/ are thought of as specially
honoured.
THE RESURRECTION. 393
Ecclesiastes still holds by the older Israelitish view, and
that too in its most negative aspect. For this book it is a very
doubtful matter whether there is any existence after death
worth speaking of. It is doubtful whether a human life, on
account of its personal communion with God, will be taken up
by Him after its death ; l while the life of an animal, being
connected with nature, returns to that out of which it came.
And even if one assumes this, as soon as God takes back the
living spirit which He has lent to man, there remain only
" the dead," the shades in Sheol, who are without feeling,
without hope. 2 The living know that they must die ; the dead
know nothing. A dead lion is worse than a living dog. 3
There is a place to which all go, an eternal home. 4 The dust
returns to the earth, and the spirit to Him who gave it, and
who, whenever He pleases, can take it back. 5
Now, many expositors have, it is true, taken this "living
spirit " to mean man s personal conscious life, and have thus
found in the book the doctrine that the spiritual part of man,
his true Ego, enters at death into (blessed) fellowship with
God. 6 They were confirmed in this by the book speaking of
all men being inevitably judged by God, of an account that
must be given to Him, and of an eternity which He has put
in the heart of man. 7 Were this interpretation right, the
last sections of the book must have been written from a stand
point quite different from that of the rest of the book. They
must either indicate a complete triumph of faith, for which
nothing in the tone of the book gives any warrant ; or they
must come from a different author, who wished to soften
what was objectionable in the book, a view against which thu
similarity of diction and the coherence of the argument are
conclusive. But the living spirit is here, as everywhere else
1 Eccles. iii. ISff.j cf. xii. 7. 2 Eccles. iii. 20, viii. 8, xii. 7, ix. 3.
3 Eccles. ix. 3-10. < Eccles. iii. 20, vi. 6.
5 Eccles. xii. 7, viii. 8. G Eccles. xii. 7.
7 Eccles. iii. 11, 17, xi. 9 (xii. 14, Kalile).
394 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
in the Old Testament, not the personal, conscious, spiritual
side of man the soul but the vital force common to all
living beings, the condition of earthly life for man and beast,
of which it is said, " were He to withdraw their breath, they
would crumble into dust." 1 And the judgment is, as is so
frequently the case, the judgment in this world which God
passes 011 man by his lot in life, and above all by his death.
Otherwise this judgment could not be mentioned for the
purpose of exhorting readers to rejoice in their youth. In that
case it would have had to run : " Enjoy youth, but don t forget
the judgment." Here, as elsewhere in the book, the author
means, by this mention of the inevitable doom of death, to
exhort to a cheerful, thankful enjoyment, as in the sight of
God, of life and its pleasures in a pure sense. 2
This double-sided view of the final destiny of man is still
more strongly marked in the apocryphal books. The second
book of Maccabees deals with the subject quite in the fashion
of Daniel. For its author the resurrection is a dogma suffi
ciently important to make him give prominence to the fact
that even Judas Maccabeus acknowledged his belief in it by
offering sacrifices for the dead. 3 All Israelites, even the
wicked, 4 whom of course judgment awaits, will rise out of
Hades. The deatli of the body is, it is true, constantly
regarded as a punishment for sin. 5 But God, from whom no
one can escape, will raise up the bodies of the true children
of Israel. 6 The only thing that admits of doubt is whether
the book includes non- Israelites in the resurrection. It
might seem so, since the heathen tyrant is threatened with
terrible retribution because of his outrageous conduct against
God. 7 But since in this case the retribution is to be inflicted
1 Of. Ps. i. 5, vii. 7, xxxvii. 37, ix. 5, 8 ; Gen. xviii. 25 ; Ezek. xviii. 30.
Eccles. xi. 9 f. ; cf. iii. 22 (cf. the well known Egyptian custom of showing
at I heir feasts a dead man s head).
;; 2 Mace. xii. 43 f. 4 2 Mace. xii. 43 f. ; cf. vi. 26.
5 2 Mace. vii. 18, 32, 38. 2 Mace. vi. 26, vii. 9, 14, 23, 36.
7 2 Mace. vii. 17, 19, 31, 35, 36.
THE SESURRECTION. 395
on the descendants as well, since "the issue" is to confirm
the threat, 1 and since the only menace addressed to the
tyrant himself is, that he will not enjoy a resurrection unto
life, 2 it is hardly to be supposed that a resurrection to ever
lasting punishment is thought of ; probably all that is meant
is a resurrection of the members of the holy, national body,
corresponding to " the first resurrection " of the New Testa
ment. The book of Judith, on the other hand, following B. J.
Ixvi. 24, holds that the heathen hostile to God will have to
live in a sort of hell of conscious torment. 3
In the book of Enoch the doctrine of the resurrection is
worked out still more fully on these lines. In addition
to the righteous who, like Enoch and Elijah, are already
living in the north in blessed communion with God, in the
holy place of the great King, 4 there are also dead men, in
separate divisions of Sheol till the judgment, in very different
conditions, ranging from misery to blessedness. 5 On the day
of judgment the pious take the reins of government, and, as
destroyers of the wicked, enjoy u long life of blessedness and
joy upon earth, upon a new earth under a new heaven. 6 The
elect rise to blessedness and sinlessness. 7 But all must rise :
for none perish or can perish before God. 8 Thou heaven and
hell are the alternatives. 9 A description of them, of the tree
of life, and the tree of knowledge, or of the eschatological
monsters Leviathan and Behemoth, and such like, is not a
part of our task. 10 In Ezra iv., in the Jewish Sibyl, and
in the Psalms of Solomon, there is likewise found the doctrine
of the resurrection of the godly. 11
I 2 Mace. vii. 17, ix. 5 IF. - 2 Mace. vii. 14. 3 JuJ. xvi. 20 IF.
4 Enoch xxxvii. 4, xxv. 5, Ix.v. 1, 4, Ixxxix. f>2. r> Enoch xxii. 3 11 .
(i Enoch xcviii. 12 F., v. 9, x. 17 IF., Iviii., xxv. 0, Lxxii. 1, xci. 10.
Enoch xci. It), J \ 17, v. 8. s Enoch It. I it ., Ixi. 5.
* Enoch cviii. 4 IT.
" Cf. e.fj. Enoch Ixvii. 4fY., Ixviii. f>, xci. 15, xc. 26, x. 12, Ix. 7 IF., Ixxx,
2 IF., xxiv., xxv., xxxii. 3 IF.
II Ps. iii. 13 IF., xiii. 9, xiv. 2. The book, Ezra iv., clearly presupposes the
destruction oF the wicked. Their wicked acts have etlects even aiter the death
396 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
This view of the last things was adopted by the sect of the
Pharisees, and by the pious among the people whose religious
development was mainly due to their influence. 1 If Josephus
has not somewhat modified the teaching of the Pharisees in
a sense friendly to Greek philosophy, there were at work, in
the sect itself, influences of a more spiritualistic character;
for they were not kept together by a rigid uniformity of
dogma so much as by exact conformity to the legal regula
tions of practical life. In that case they would have
accepted a natural immortality of the soul, and retribution
immediately after death, and would have expected none but
the blessed to obtain a new body. 2 But on such points
Josephus is a witness not at all above suspicion. 3
On the other hand, there appears in the book of Baruch, 4
and in Jesus the son of Sirach, just the old Mosaic view of death
and the condition after death, without any reference to the
prophetic elements which point to the vanquishing of death.
The latter book, undoubtedly, assumes a continued existence in
Sheol and the possibility of influencing the course of events, 5
even while there ; and it as good as takes for granted not only
the possibility of being miraculously preserved from death, but
also the possibility of being miraculously brought back from
Sheol. 6 In several passages, one might infer a final judgment
on the wicked in the other world. 7 But this is only spoken of
in connection with some histories of the Old Testament, e.g.
of the body. The multitude "born without an object" (ix. 22, xiii. 9,
xiv. 6, xv. 11), is destroyed, while the pious, hidden in the womb of Sheol
(iv. 35), are then born of it anew unto life (iv. 41, v. 37, xiv. 31, x. 16,
vii. 32, viii. 54). Ezra himself, and those like him, pass, it is true, without
dying, into life eternal (vi. 26, viii. 52, xiv. 9). The description of the final
judgment (vii. 33 ff.), does not exclude the idea of a judgment day in this world
(xv. 13).
1 E.g. Acts xxiii. 6, xxiv. Iii, xxvi. 8 ; John v. 28, vi. 44, ,\i. 24.
2 Joseph. DC Bell Jud. ii. 8, 14 : Ant. xviii. 1, 3.
3 His own view is still more platonising, De Bell. Jud. iii. S, 5.
4 Bar. ii. 17 ; cf. iii. 10, 11, 19. 5 Ecclus. xlvi. 20,
(i Ecclus. xliv. 16, xlviii. 5, 10, 12, 14.
7 Ecclus. i. la, ii. 18, vii. 36 ff., xli. 12.
THE HESUURECTION. 397
Enoch, Elijah, and Samuel. The general conception of the book
however makes it clear that judgment just consists in death
itself, 1 in the way in which it befalls the individual, in post
humous fame, 2 and in the lot of one s posterity ; 3 while death,
in itself, is represented as a misfortune common to all, 4 and as
the end of all joy and pleasure, of all distinction and all
decision. 5 The passages which go beyond this are probably,
like several statements about " wisdom," the work of the trans
lator who was naturally under the influence of the religious
philosophy of the Egyptian Jews. The view in Tobit, and in
the first book of the Maccabees, appears to be similar, although
this conclusion can lie drawn only from their silence as to
any opposing view. 6 This was certainly the position which
the party of the Sadducees took up in regard to the matter.
They can hardly have denied the existence of the dead in
Sheol, which is, indeed, a matter of complete religious in
difference. But they certainly denied the doctrine of
immortality and of a resurrection, that is to say, the pro
phetic hope of the Israelites. 7
In the last pre-Christian age there occurs yet a third
view of man s destiny after the death of the body which,
under the guidance of the spiritualistic philosophy of that
period, goes quite beyond the Old Testament doctrine of death
and of the condition after death. It is really founded on a
belief in the divine nature of the human soul, and in its pre-
existence, from which it follows as a matter of course that
only on the dissolution of the body is the soul restored to
its true mode of life. Of the Apocrypha proper, the book
of Wisdom shows traces of this view. True, the view of
1 Ecclus. xiv. 20, xxxviii. 22, xli. 2 f.
2 Ecclus. xl. 9f., xli. Iff., li. 8 if.
Ecclus. xi. 29, xv. 17, xxiii. 21, 35, xxx. 4f., xli. 5f.
4 Ecclus. x. 11 f,, xiv. 17, xvii. 25, xxii. 9, xxxviii. 16f.
5 Ecclus x. 12, xiv. 13 ff., xvii. 22 ff., xviii. 22, xli. off.
6 Cf. 1 Mace. xiv. 31 ; Tub. iii. 6, 10 (otherwise in the redacted Tobit).
7 Matt. xxii. 23 ; Acts xxiii. S ; Joseph. De Bell. Jud. ii. 8, 14 ; Ant. xviii.
1, 4.
398 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
this book is still in very close accordance with the Old
Testament pre-suppositions. With the support of Scripture
it teaches that God did not create death, that the original
sources of the world are permanent, with no poison of
destruction in them, Hades having no throne on earth ; 1 that
the wicked called death in, and that, while God had created
man for immortality, death came in through the envy of the
devil. 2 The book speaks of a day of judgment when the
righteous are the judges, and of the miserable end of the
wicked. 3 Nevertheless, there are clear enough indications
of that other view. For the godly death is happiness and
a gift from God. 4 Their soul is, by nature, immortal; 5 and,
even before the judgment, it is in a state of blessedness. 6 The
resurrection of the body is never taken into consideration. 7
The thought of an everlasting existence in Hades is wicked
and foolish. 8 It is quite in harmony with this that, along with
the ordinary view of man s development, 9 it is clearly enough
assumed that every soul has already a good or an evil bias
before it is put into the earthen vessel of the body that,
of course, being good or bad according to the nature of the
soul. 10 This view appears to have been that of the Essenes,
who spoke simply of " the immortality of the soul." n It is
stated, in all its peculiarities, by Philo, who holds that the
soul is an imperishable principle, 12 and that death is a release
from the bonds of the body. 13
1 Wisd. Sol. i. 12 ff. a Wisd. Sol. ii. 23 ff.
3 Wisd. Sol. iii. 8, 10, 19, iv. 19. 4 Wisd. Sol. iii. 6, iv. 9-14.
5 Wisd. Sol. iii. 1, 4 ff., iv. 7, v. 15 f., xvi. 14.
6 Wisd. Sol. ii. 22, iii. 1 ff., iv. 7. 7 Wisd. Sol. iii. 1 ff., iv. 7.
8 Wisd. Sol. ii. 1 ff., v. 1 ff. 9 Wisd. Sol. vii. 1 ff.
10 Wisd. Sol. viii. 19 f., ix. 15. u Joseph. Ant. xviii. 1, 5.
12 Philo 131 E, 216 B, 345 C, 466 C, 585 E, 586 D ; cf. 31 A, D, 33 D, 47 C,
D, 171 D, 172 B, 300 B.
13 Thilo 59 D, 700, 728, 1090 D ; cf. 216 B, 345 C, 586 C, 1153 C.
THE DAVIDIC KING IN THE LAST AGE. 399
(7)) Tlic Hinnn.ii Instruments for Establishing the
Kingdom of God.
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE DAVIDIC KING IN THE LAST AGE.
1. All that we have hitherto said regarding the future
of salvation, which the prophets expected, has pointed solely
to God Himself as the author of its fulfilment. As the
beginnings of that salvation are due to God, so also is its
completion. And this is the characteristic feature, all
through, of the prophecies and the songs of the Old Testa
ment. All second causes, and all created instruments, the
divine omnipotence casts wholly into the shade. But this
divine causality is, in itself, in no way exclusive of human
instrumentality. Even in early days God had made a
covenant, but through Moses and Aaron. He had delivered
His people, but by the hand of David, His anointed. He
had spoken, but by the mouth of the men of God the
prophets. God comes to man by equipping men to spread
abroad His Spirit, to speak His words, to do His deeds.
Hence, the future salvation is likewise represented as brought
about by the human instruments God employs.
True, the prophets do not all speak of the future
salvation being effected by this human instrumentality,
at least not in the fragments of their preaching that
have come down to us. In Nahum, Habakkuk, 1 Zephaniah,
B. J. xiii., xiv., and xxiv.-xxvii., Joel, and Obadiah, we do
not find a hint of it, a proof that hope s religious centre
of gravity does not lie in the personality of this
mediator. No doubt, the most of the prophets, and the
1 For the Messiah of Hab. iii. 13 is the people itself.
400 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
most important of them too, regard the future of salvation
as bound up with special human activity, and with outstanding
human personages. God is the Saviour of Israel, when He
raises up for him a Saviour, a Deliverer who champions and
delivers like Moses of old. 1 And those human figures, which
had acquired a typical significance for the history of salva
tion, naturally stood before the eye of the prophets as
patterns.
The most important of these figures is the Davidic king,
the real representative of independent nationality in Israel,
the kingdom of God. At first it is, for the prophets, a
question merely of the kingdom as such. But ere long it
is a particular king, clearly depicted as a person whom they
expect at the end of the ages. And this personage towers
so high above all the other figures of that closing era, that
the name " Messiah " could become the technical term for
the whole hope of Israel.
Here the Davidic kingdom alone is taken into considera
tion. By the eighth century the prophets have long ago
ceased to know anything of that first antagonism to the
house of David, which had resulted in the disruption of the
kingdom. Compared with the grand figure of David, and the
divine promises relating to his house, the rulers of Ephraim are
represented as ungodly kings, as instruments of punishment in
the hand of God. Even in the northern kingdom itself,
and as a citizen of it, Hosea points to " king David," that is,
to the reigning house of David, to whom, as well as to
their God, the ten tribes must return. 2 And the Judean
Amos, who had migrated from his ruined home into the
haughty splendour of the northern kingdom, is sure that the
fallen tabernacle of David s house is to be again set up, and
that it will then effect salvation. 3 Even during Israel s
worst days the memory of the everlasting mercies of David
that is, of the divine blessing that rests on his house, is still
1 Isa. xix. 20. 2 Hos. iii. 5. 3 Amos ix. 11.
GOD AND THE MESSIAH. 401
cherished by the people, and continues to be the lending idea
in the prayers offered by the godly. 1
The figure of the Davidic king of the last days is not
equally prominent in every age. It does not stand before the
spirit of the prophets as supernaturally ready and complete,
nor does it develop, as an idea does, growing gradually clearer
and clearer. Its form is largely determined by history, and
shares in its mutations. At one time it steps to the front,
strikingly beautiful and glorious; at another, it draws back
into the shade, or grows faint and pale. This fact is,
of course, also connected with the spiritual life of the
prophets, a factor beyond the reach of examination. But in
the main it can be understood in the light of history.
Hosea and Amos give prominence to the house of David,
simply because of the contrast it affords to the wild dynastic
confusion in Ephraim. It is as a glorious personality that
the son of David appears in Isaiah, Micah, and Zechariah
ix.-xi. Probably the hopes that centred on Hezekiah as the
successor of the profligate Ahaz, encouraged such thoughts.
In Jeremiah, Zechariah xii. xiv., and Ezekiel, the picture of
the coming Davidic king is faithfully retained. But it is
much less ideal than before ; it is rather only a single feat
ure in the picture of the nation s hope. These men make
righteousness and moral worth the main traits of the
Messiah s character, a true expression of those ages when
the outward splendour of the Davidic house had suffered
so ignominious a collapse, because its inner worth was
utterly gone. In the time of the Exile the Davidic king is
kept quite in the shade. The royal house, sunk as it was
in the depths of disgrace, is no longer the centre of the
religious hope of the nation. Quite a different figure now
steps to the front, the Israel of prophecy which, by suffering
and detith, accomplishes the will of its God. The Persian
monarch is here called "the Messiah of God." The truo
1 Ps. Ixxxix., cxxxii.
VOL. 11. 2 (j
402 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
Saviour of Israel lives on earth, while a stranger as king of
the world must help forward the purposes of God. But when
the congregation of Israel returned home under Zerubbabel,
a son of David, the figure of the king once more got its due.
In the person of its leader the people had a pledge, a man
who was himself a sign, that the great Davidic " sprout " of
the future was about to come. It is in this sense that the
prophets of the new Jerusalem, Haggai and Zechariah, point
to the Prince. But in Malachi s days the figure of the
Davidic king had again lost its significance for religious life
in Israel.
2. Like Amos and Hosea, Isaiah also spoke in the second
half of his career, not so much of a single divine Son of
David as of the time when the royal house, being trans
figured like Israel in general, would reign over the people in
the splendour of wisdom and righteousness. 1 But in the
prophecies of his youth he not only promised that a future
Deliverer would arise from the house of David, but also de
picted him in the most glowing colours.
The Messiah first appears in Isa. ix. 5, 6. To the sorely
oppressed and plundered people of northern Israel, the people
that sit in darkness, Isaiah promises the rise of a great light,
the dawn of a new day of hope and joy. They are to see the
yoke of Assyria broken, and the conqueror s terrible accoutre
ments of war burned with fire. 8 This hope is based on the
certainty that a Son of David is given to the people as a
Saviour and Eedeemer. The prophet here speaks without
hesitation of a King about to come. The perfect expresses
what has been finally determined in the counsel of God,
although for human history it is still future. 3 To the eye of
the prophet, indeed, this future is close at hand.
The Deliverer whom Isaiah foretells, " the Son," " the Child,"
1 Isa. xxviii.-xxxiii. (xxxii. 1, xxxiii. 17). 2 viii. 23 f., ix. 1-4.
3 Ewald, Gram. 135c. The reference to Hezekiah himself (Rob. Grot,
Gesen.} is therefore inadmissible.
ISAIAH. 403
is anything but a God in the metaphysical sense of the word.
God gives him to the people, lends him to them for a definite
purpose. 1 The jealous love for Israel of the great God, who
cannot bear that His own peculiar people should be profaned
by strangers, sends him. 2 The purpose of God is that this
Child should extend his sway, and make an unending peace,
and that, being exalted to the throne of David, he should
establish it on righteousness and judgment, that is, give it
true and permanent strength, by making righteousness the
foundation of his government.
He is primarily a Child, a Son, as the context shows, of
David, 3 on whose shoulders rests " the government," that is,
the government in the kingdom of God, 4 a God-given King,
who gives the kingdom of Israel new splendour and new
power, and, at the same time, the immovable foundation of
true righteousness. But this King is an everlasting King. 5
True, the word " everlasting " has, in the Old Testament, any
thing but a definite signification, and is not infrequently used,
especially in connection with human governments, as a
hyperbolical expression for long duration. 6 But in this
instance, when the final era is being dealt with, in which the
natural surroundings are to become as glorious as those of
paradise, and after which assuredly no new transformation is
expected, there is no reason to doubt that Isaiah really speaks
of the Messianic ruler as everlasting. At least it is said that
his government, that is to say, the dynasty proceeding from
him, is to continue in undisputed possession of the throne to
the end.
Consequently, names are ascribed to this king which raise
him, in dignity and position, far above all comparison with
anything human. They are to be taken just as the name
1 Isa. ix. 5. - ix. (5; cf. Ps. Ixix. 10, cxix. 130. :; <Jf. ix. G.
4 The deiinite article denotes sovereignty as sur-h, i>. the Messianic.
ix. 6, D7iy~*iyi nnVD ; cf. Kzek. xxxvii. 25.
; K.IJ. P.s. xlv. 7, Ixxii. 5, ex. 4; Dan. ii. 4, iii. 9, vi. G, 21 ; <! . P.s. Ixi.
7 IV. : xxii. 27.
404 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
" Elohim " is elsewhere also applied to men, to describe them
according to their position and dignity in the kingdom of
God. 1 They are here meant to indicate how unique is the
glory and dignity God bestows on this King. The names in
their connection correspond to the predicate Oebs, and exalt
the Messiah to the position of " One who reigns and rules in
the name and with the dignity of God."
The names are, " Wonderful Counsellor," 2 i.e. incomparable
in guiding the destiny of the people ; " divine Hero," 3 i.e. a
warrior going forth in the strength of God, so that in him the
qualities of a true King both in war and peace are found
gloriously combined ; " Father of Spoil," i.e. he who brings his
people victory and success in war ; * " Prince of Peace," i.e. he
who makes peace not by declining to fight, but by invincible
and victorious prowess. 5
Thus the Messiah appears as the perfect King, who repre
sents in himself the power and greatness of Israel s real
King, in whom is present all the glory which the people of
1 Cf. my essay on Rom. ix. 5 (Jahrbiicher fur deutsche Theologie, 1868, 3.
501 ff.).
2 PJWJOEJ is quite as much a compound title as the double words that follow,
"a marvel of a Counsellor" (Gen. xvi. 12 ; Prov. xxi. 20 ; Ewald Gram. 287gr).
The nSJJ K^BH of Isa. xxviii. 29.
3 TI2l!l"bx quite as naturally of God (x. 21 ; Deut. x. 17) as of heroes possessed
of divine strength Ezek. xxxii. 21 (Zech. xii. 8 f . ). Still it could not be used
here close to x. 21, if Isaiah were not thinking of the divine strength revealing
itself in this Son of Man.
4 1J?~ I| 3K. Formerly I considered this translation too meaningless to be pre
ferred to the other, vr/.. "Everlasting Father," i.e. He who takes care of His
people for ever. But, on the one hand, " Father of Spoil" harmonises splen
didly with "Prince of Peace," and is on the same plane of dignity. On the
other hand, I now doubt whether, considering the way in which 13^ is used in
Hebrew and Arabic, the phrase could have any other meaning than " the
begetter of eternity," or "one to whom eternity belongs as an inalienable attri
bute," both of which meanings are absolutely unsuitable to the context. Nor
is it decisive against this view that 3X appears elsewhere as a title of tho ruler
(Isa. xxii. 21 ; of. Job xxix. 16), or that *]]] as genitive, after words like
mountains," "years," denotes their unchanging duration (Gen. xlix. 26; C.
J. xlv. 17, Ivii. 15 ; Hab. iii. 6).
Micah v. 4. Probably an allusion to Solomon.
ISAIAH. 405
God expect in their King, pray for in his behalf, or
even ascribe to him in eulogies uttered in moments of
inspiration.
We get a beautiful supplement to this passage in Isa. xi.
15. Here, too, the appearance of the Messiah is brought
into connection with the fall of Assyria. 1 A scion of David s
house springs, like a sprout of a noble stock, 2 from the
ancient house, after it has, by the miseries of the present and
the judgments of the future, 3 been cut down to the root. 4
The fulfilment of Israel s everlasting destiny, and the estab
lishment of a kingdom of peace botli among men and in
nature, depend on his appearance. 5 But the personal charac
teristic emphasised in this passage is rather the moral and
religious sublimity by which that appearance is distinguished.
His divine capacity for the office of King, depicted in chap, ix.,
is here traced back to its deepest foundation, to the Spirit of
God which dwells in this man without measure.
The Spirit of God rests, that is, descends once for all,
upon the Messiah ; and this Spirit is, according to its effects,
described in three double expressions. There is mention not
of seven spirits, but of one Spirit, the working of which is
manifested in six important ways. This Spirit works in the
Messiah (1) as the spirit of wisdom and knowledge, 6 i.e. of
religious and moral intelligence and of spiritual clearness of
perception; (2) as the spirit of a wise and brave ruler; 7
(3) as the spirit of religious knowledge and of pious devotion
to God. 8 Thus He is perfect alike as Sage, King, and
Saint, Hence He shows Himself the friend of the pious,
the righteous Judge. His joy is in the fear of God. 9 This
i Isa. x. 33 ff. 2 -U3P,, -^ x i. i.
3 As they are foretold in vii. 17 ff., ix. 17 11 ., x. 12 ff., 28 ff.
4 xi. 1 (yn, D Bhp). 5 xi. 6 i\ .
6 xi. 2 (nm ntt^n). 7 xi. 2 ; cf. ix. 5 f. (mn^ TO).
8 mrp-nar^ nyn.
9 HIPP ntfTQ irTnn, v. 3. Many translate "His breath, the element in
which He lives is the fear of God." But here Isaiah is obviously referring
406 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
accords with His disposition. He does not, therefore, judge
after the outward appearance, according to show and station,
which allure the eye, but He allows the very persons who can
make no display of any kind, the poor and the oppressed, to
share in the benefits of His righteousness. The wicked, 1 on
the other hand, He will destroy with this same righteousness,
with the rod of His mouth, with the breath of His lips; 2 that
is, by His sentence of judgment, which carries with it as an
unalterable result death and life. 3 Thus equity and absolute
faithfulness 4 will be His equipment for action and conflict. 5
He will be the banner around which all peoples will rally
for counsel and guidance ; 6 so that the splendour and
authority it derives from Him will make the place of His
rest, the royal city Jerusalem, beautiful and glorious. 7
A replica of this prophecy, but from the altered circum
stances of the time without such definite personal features, is
found in Isa. xxviii. 6, where it is said that, in the last days, God
Himself will be to the judges in Israel a spirit of judgment,
and to the warriors a spirit of heroic strength. This also ex
plains ver. 16, where "the tried precious Corner-stone of surest
foundation," which God will lay in Zion, seems to be not the
personal Messiah, for in that case it would probably have
been " he that believeth on Him," not " he that belie veth,"-
but rather the new Messianic constitution of the state,
founded on judgment and righteousness (ver. 17). Whoever
to the effects of this Spirit which has been bestowed on the Messiah, to His
manner of ruling. Besides 3 rTnn denotes "an inhaling with satisfaction,"
" a sucking in as of sacrificial incense, and therefore satisfaction with something
coming from without to the person in question" (Lev. xxvi. 31 ; Amos v. 21).
1 JJ5n> from which later theology has developed the personal Antichrist
(2 Thess. ii. 8) is in Isaiah collective, and gives to the word "land," which is
in itself indifferent, its nearer definition.
2 For the further development, cf. Kev. xix. 15.
3 Prov. xvi. 14, xx. 8 ; cf. Heb. iv. 10. 4 Ver. 5, p1 and rmK.
5 The girdle of His loins, i.e. what makes a man ready for marching and fight
ing, expeditus (1 Sam. ii. 4 ; Ps. xviii. 33, cix. 19).
6 Ver. 10. The ?K t^"H reminds one of the phrase for asking oracles,
7 The niTOD is Canaan in general and Jerusalem in particular.
ISAIAH. 407
waits trustfully for this act of God will weather the storms of
the troublous time. But the result will bring to naught
the deceitful hopes of the wicked. And Isa. xxxii. 1--8 and
xxxiii. 17 are also meant in quite a similar sense, for there it
is a question, not of the personal Messiah, but of the king
dom in Israel after the deliverance, which, by its righteous
ness and renown, is to the people a pledge of a happy time.
The other passages from Isaiah s genuine writings, which
are applied to the Messiah, I am unable to regard as
rightly interpreted. Of these Isa. iv. 2 is the first to claim
attention. This passage undoubtedly speaks of the Messianic
age. But " the sprout of the Lord " of whom it speaks
cannot be the Messiah, so that He would be described as
He whom God causes to sprout forth (sc. for David). The
term " sprout," viz. the sprout of David that God causes to
grow, is in later times, it is true, not an unusual title of the
Messiah. 1 But (1) in every instance where it is so, the word
is explained in a way absolutely unambiguous, or else is con
nected with some idiorn already established, but here it would
be quite unintelligible; (2) Parallel with this expression stands
the other, " the fruit of the land," which cannot in any case
be understood of the Messiah ; (3) We should have expected
a prophecy of the Messiah s coming, not a simple and direct
statement of what will happen to Him. As applied to the
people, the word could only be understood if the new Zion
were contrasted with the returning ten tribes, which is not
probable. Most expositors now understand it to mean the
blessings of nature. But, on the one hand, the emphasis which
is laid on the word appears too strong for this meaning ; and, on
the other, I do not think the expression in that case sufficiently
intelligible. It should be taken as describing the spiritual
fruit of the land, the life of those last days which springs
from God, and is to be the glory of the Israelites. The people
is no longer to delight in the idols and the false civilisation of
1 Jer. xxiii. 5, xxxiii. 15 ; cf. Zedi. iii. 8, vi. 12.
408 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY,
foreign nations, but is to seek its honour in what God Himself
makes to sprout in Israel, and in what the land itself produces,
in the national and spiritual possessions of God s people. 1
In the famous passage, Isa. vii. 14 it, the child Iinmanuel,
whose birth the prophet contrives to make into a miraculous
sign for the unbelieving Ahaz, might with a greater show
of truth be taken to mean the Messiah, so that He would
be described as " the Son of the virgin." King Ahaz, terri
fied by the invasion of the allied forces of the Syrians
and the Ephraimites, receives from Isaiah the assurance
that this attack will do him no harm, and also the offer
to confirm this assurance by any sign he may choose to
ask. When Ahaz hypocritically declines to ask the sign,
letting it be seen that it is not merely from the human
prophet but even from God Himself, that he declines to
receive instruction, 2 a sign is given him unasked, which is a
visible pledge, not only of the promise already made, but
likewise of the heavy punishment rendered necessary by his
unbelief, and his reliance on the world. This sign in itself
need not be anything miraculous. Indeed, it is inherently
unlikely that a miracle would be granted to unbelief ; 3 and
Isaiah, in a similar connection, speaks of the names and per
sons of his own family circle as " signs and wonders for the
people." 4 It should simply be a material pledge of future,
that is, of invisible things. It is certain that this sign must
be a visible one, which was fulfilled before the eyes of the
people, and that, too, before the end of the war then going on.
The boy whose name and destiny are to constitute this sign,
is represented as a child when Syria and Ephraim are
defeated, as a growing lad when the chastisement by
Assyria overtakes Judah. 5 Consequently, it is impossible
1 Cf. Isa. ii. 6 ff.; Hos. x. 12 f.; B. J. xlv. 8, Ixi. 11 ; Ps. Ixxxv. 12 ; Detit.
xviii.
2 Isa. vii. 13, to weary God, 8 Matt. xii. 38ft ., xvi. 1 ff.
4 E.g. viii. 3, 18, xx. 3 ; 2 Kings xix. 29.
5 Isa. vii. 15, 16, 21, 22.
1SAIAT1. 409
that the whole prophecy should refer to a remote future, which
could not itself be grasped except by faith. A sign is a
visible pledge, and cannot possibly be itself such as to require
another pledge. 1
The " virgin," - whose son is to indicate by his name and
lot the destiny of the people, must in any case, at the time
of the prophecy, have been already a grown-up woman, no
matter whether the prophet pointed to her ; or whether the
hearers were able to recognise her, from the mere allusion, as
a relative of Isaiah himself, or as a virgin of the house of
David ; or whether the prophet merely spoke of any woman, to
whom the specified dates and the various other circumstances
might apply. When it is said of her " Behold she is with child,
and beareth a son," it is probable, from the ordinary idiom,
and from Gen. xvi. 11, a passage obviously used as a parallel,
that she should be thought of as already pregnant, so that it
is only the birth of the son and his name which belong to
the future and constitute the sign. If so, it is self-evident
that the name " virgin ; is used in the general sense of
" young woman." Or the whole phrase may be taken as
1 One might meet this argument by pointing to Ex. iii. 12 (C) where, as a sign
that God had really sent him, Moses is given another prophecy, "that Israel
will worship God on Horeb." But, apart from the fact that there a historian
is speaking, who naturally connects what is later or earlier in a different way
from a, prophet, who speaks from the standpoint of the present, this prophecy
does refer to something which Moses himself is to experience, something,
therefore, which may still really give him a sensible pledge of his divine mission.
But in the passage in Isaiah, that which was the higher and more remote would
be the pledge of that which was the nearer and easier.
2 HlD^yn. That the etymological meaning of the word is simply "a
woman in the bloom of youth," not, like PlTirQ, an unmarried woman, is
beyond question ; cf. the Dictionaries. Still the word is certainly applied, by
the usage of the language, to unmarried persons ; Gen. xxiv. 43 ; Ex. ii. 8 ;
Ps. Ixviii. 26 ; Song i. 3, vi. 8. The most doubtful passage is IVov. xxx. 19,
where, perhaps, the reference may be to adultery. At any rate, when H pirQ
itself is used in poetry of a married woman (Joel i. S ; cf. Jud. xvi. 7) there
can be no doubt that n9y may be so used. But when the context does not
prove the opposite, the probability is certainly all in favour of an unmarried
person being meant.
410 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
future, as in Judges xiii. 3, 5, where a wife is similarly described,
who has as yet no prospect of bearing a child. 1 In this case
the word " virgin " might be taken in the strictest sense, but,
if so, since the opposite is not expressly stated, it is perfectly
evident that she is meant to bear this child by getting
married. 2 So far as the significance of the sign is concerned,
the difference between these two interpretations is but slight.
By the first the dates are brought a little closer to the utter
ance of the prophecy than by the second. But in the birth
itself and its connection with the word " virgin," there is
nothing miraculous, and nothing that is part of the sign. It
is solely with the name and the destiny of the child that the
sign is connected. All else is mere introductory matter
necessary, no doubt, but without any bearing on the sign itself.
Accordingly, the sign is as follows. The prophet points the
people to a young woman of his own time. This woman is to
bear a son ; and it matters little whether it is a promise to
one, still a virgin, that she will marry and bear a son, or, as
is more probable, to one already looking forward to the birth
of a child, that it will be a son. This son she is to call
Immanuel, 3 as Hagar is ordered to call her son Ishmael,
not as if God was to be in a special sense with the boy, and,
least of all, as if the boy were to be a God living with the
people ; but she is, by the name of the child, to give the
people a pledge that God will not desert them. 4 Con
sequently, it is the name of the child which gives the sign
the appearance of being a comforting prophecy. But the way
in which this prophecy is to be fulfilled, is vouched for by
1 Of. Gen. xx. 3.
2 Hitzig, "When it is said, a blind man is seeing, it is perfectly evident that
the man is, in that case, no longer blind. "
3 iwiEJjJ, vii. 14 ; cf. viii. 10.
4 Hence used quite as a motto, viii. 10. Similarly, Isaiah s children are
called Shear -jashub and Maher-shalal-hashbaz. Such is, in fact, generally the
meaning of names like Ishmael, Jotham, Joram, Zedekiah, and a hundred
others.
ISAIAH. 411
what is said about the destiny of the child. ?>y the time 1 he
knows how to distinguish good from evil in other words, when
he is a growing lad, 2 he will eat curdled milk and honey that
is, the produce of a land in which wine-growing and husbandry
are impossible, a land which has become pastoral and desert. 3
And, even before the infant has become a boy that is, in a
very short time the land, " before whose two kings Ahaz
stands dismayed," viz. Syria and Ephraim, shall be forsaken.
Consequently, in the lot of this boy, the people receive a
pledge that the present distress will indeed pass over
quickly and lightly, of which viii. 14 is also a sign and
pledge, 4 but that, after that, their pretended friend will cause
them times of very sore affliction and national distress. In
the name of this child they have the assurance that, beyond
all this suffering, there awaits Israel an eternal future of
salvation, for " God is with us."
It is perfectly clear that with this interpretation the view
of the early Church, that the prophecy refers to the Messiah
being born of a virgin, is irreconcilable. For the meaning is
not that the mother is to remain a virgin ; nor is it the birth
of the child that constitutes the sign, but his name and his lot
in life. The child must certainly be thought of as born before
the retreat of the Syrians and the Ephraimites.
But, great as is the certainty with which this negative
judgment can be given, equally great is the uncertainty
which hangs over the more definite, positive interpreta-
1 ^j, cf. Ewald, Gram. 2176.
2 For the phrase, cf. Dent. i. 39 ; Jonah iv. 11 (Odyss. xviii. 227 f., xx. 309),
the best parallel of all is 2 Sam. xix. 35, where the reference is to an old man,
losing the sense of taste. On the other hand, in 1 Kings iii. 9, the phrase means
the capacity for administering justice. The time-limit, as is natural, is not
definitely fixed, but is, as such a prophecy requires, elastic. Probably from three
to four years may be meant. Still shorter is the interval in viii. 4, when the
crisis has come even nearer, " before the boy can cry My father ! my mother ! "
3 The proof of this meaning is in vers. 21 and 22 (cf. Job xx. 17 ; Ex.
iii. 17, etc.).
4 The passage is almost a commentary upon ours ; similar, also, is Isa. xxxvii.
30 (2 Kings xix. 29).
412 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
tion of this much-discussed passage. 1 Not a few scholars,
who are right in all essential points in their interpretation of
the historical connection of the passage, have, nevertheless,
in a variety of ways, taken Immanuel to mean the Messiah. 2
Isaiah must, in that case, have understood by the " virgin " a
daughter of the house of David, and have expected the
Messiah to be born in the very midst of the troubles of the
impending crisis, to share with His people the miseries
of Assyrian rule, and after a terrible battle to break, like a
second Gideon, the power of the oppressors. Certainly
Isaiah and Micah connected the advent of the Messiah with
the overthrow of the Assyrian supremacy. 3 But the fact that
Judah is called the land of Immanuel 4 is no proof of
Immanuers royal rank. It is a common enough expression
for a man s native land. 5 And nowhere, not even where
it would seem most natural, 6 is the royal dignity of this
child ever mentioned. Not one of the indisputably Messianic
passages in Isaiah makes any reference to the name Immanuel.
The bare designation, " the virgin," scarcely seems a suitable
one to apply to a lady of royal birth. And that the sign
would be connected with the house of a mocking king
like Ahaz, who, so far as the giving of the name was
concerned, could easily prevent its fulfilment, is hard to
1 Not merely Nagelsbach s rash exposition, but even Bredenkamp s latest
attempt at Messianic interpretation, must leave every unprejudiced reader
more strongly convinced than before, of the impossibility of such explana
tions ; cf. Giescbrecht, "Die Immanuel- Weissagung " (Theol. Stud. u. Krit.
1888, 2).
2 Ewald, Bertheau (Jahrbb. f. deutsche TheoL iv. 4), Easter, p. 104, Dclitzsch,
Cheyne. W. Schultz (iiber Immanuel , Stud. u. Krit. 1861, 4, 713ff.) combines
in a curious way the Messianic interpretation and that which we are to
mention next (the family of David, not through a king, but through a virgin,
that is to say, when the family is still only a stump. The Messiah, and she
who bears Him, are connected with their typical foreshadowings and begin
nings down to the time of Ahaz. . . .).
3 Isa. ix. 11 ; Micah v. 4 ff.
4 Isa. viii. 8, even if the word in question is here actually connected with
what precedes.
5 E.g. Gen. xii. 1. 6 So vii. 22.
ISAIAH. 413
believe. Hence this interpretation, too, which would, besides,
add absolutely nothing to what is said in chapters ix. and
xi., is scarcely probable. Immanuel must be a child of the
people.
Still more untenable is the view which can be already
noticed in Br. Bauer, 1 and which is more fully worked out by
v. Hofmann. 2 It takes " the virgin " to mean the whole class
of virgins. 3 The emphasis lies on the three things to which
prominence is given, as being specially striking (1) Concep
tion by a virgin; (2) The name God with us; (3) The
eating of milk and honey. The sign is intended to indicate
that the chosen people will develop out of Israel, not by
natural evolution, but in a way as miraculous as it would be
for a virgin to conceive and bear. This people will know to
choose good rather than evil. But before Israel attains such
knowledge, the punishment already due overtakes him. After
the most terrible oppression by Assyria, it is to become the
land of Immanuel a chosen people, yet living a life full of
privation. It is easy to see how attractive this exposition is.
But (1) what we should then have would not be a sign, but
a prophecy delivered in the form of a parable ; (2) All the
striking resemblance to viii. 1-4, 18, must be arbitrarily dis
regarded ; (3) to distinguish between good and evil is for men,
as we know them, a pure question of time, as in viii. 4 ; the
point emphasised is certainly not the growth of moral con
sciousness ; (4) There is nowhere in the text any mention of a
miraculous birth from one who still remains a virgin ; (5) The
son of the virgin is to be a pledge to the people of its destiny
and its hope ; it is, therefore, impossible to interpret the passage
so that, in the first instance, the virgin should be the type of
the people, and then her son the type of the new penitent
people ; (6) The whole; reference to the Syro-Ephraimitish
1 Vol. ii. 397, " In the virgin the prophet personifies the pure receptivity of
the people.
- I. IS . I 1 ., ii/;, S51F. a Like f*-ufuv, -Matt. xiii. 3.
414 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
war is, on this theory, utterly swept away. The main
historical point in the narrative is therefore wholly over
looked.
Now since the statement of the prophet is far too indefinite
to warrant our understanding by the Almah a particular
person present among the multitude, there are only two
attempts at interpretation which appear to me to stand
the test of examination. Either the prophet is speaking
quite generally, " A young woman (any one you like) who is
now expecting the birth of a son will, when she bears him
call him Immanuel, as a sign that the present danger is no
longer pressing ; and the people will then experience during
the lifetime of this child what his lot in life exemplifies."
Or else he means his own wife whom, in viii. 3, 18 in quite
a similar connection, he sets before the people as a sign. If
so, Immanuel would be the younger brother of Shear-jashub
and older than Maher-shalal-hashbaz, and the whole narra
tive would belong to that branch of typology which makes
use of the prophet s family history, and of which he says,
" Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me
are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the Lord of
Hosts." In my opinion the latter interpretation is the more
probable because it is the more concrete, and because it
belongs to the above-mentioned class of symbols. And if it
appears strange that the name Almah should be applied to
the mother of a boy already able to accompany his father, it
must be remembered that a wife of eighteen (nud the mother
of Shear-jashub need not have been more) could quite well
be so described.
Isaiah s contemporary, Micah of Moresheth, also speaks in
the most sublime language of the Messianic king. 1 After he
1 The recent attempts to take the sections in question from Micah, and
assign them to a late prophet who imitates him, do not seem to me at all con
vincing. Were they correct, we should have an artificial repetition of Isaianic
thoughts, without the development of the Messianic hope being thereby essen
tially altered.
MIC AH. 415
has spoken of Israel s distress and deliverance, and of the
final overthrow of God s heathen enemies, 1 he continues : " Out
of little Bethlehem Ephratah will God arouse Him who is to
be Euler in Israel ; whose goings forth are from of old, from
ancient days." 2 When she who travaileth hath brought Him
forth, the time of Israel s subjection to his enemies, the time
of dispersion shall be at an end. 8 And the Messiah shall
feed Israel in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the
name of Jehovah his God ; being feared upon earth, so that
His flock can dwell in peace. 4 He will be Israel s peace-
bringer, 5 who will triumphantly repel Assyria, as soon as she
attempts anew to trouble Israel, and will bring her into
subjection. 6
Thus the Messiah is primarily to be a son of David ; His
family birth-place, the ancient city of David, Bethlehem-
small in extent, but great through its importance for the
kingdom of God. 7 The words do not necessarily imply that
He must be born just in this city, and that the house of
David is thought of as no longer ruling in Jerusalem.
Bethlehem is named simply as being the original seat of His
family, so that He is thereby described as a son of David.
Still iii. 12 and iv. 9, 14, make it at any rate probable that
Micah thinks of the house of David as completely stripped of
its power, and perhaps as living in peaceful obscurity at the
old family seat.
The goings forth of the Messiah that is, the starting-points
to which His pedigree leads up are to be " from of old, from
the earliest days." 8 It is impossible for this to mean an
1 Micah iv. 9 ff. 2 Micah v. 1. 3 Micah v. 2.
4 Micah v. 3. yr6N miT DP jiwa run* rjn.
5 Micah v. 4. Cfe HT rPil. 6 Micah v. 4 f.
7 The niTr? after TJJV has obviously got into the text owing to the nvrp
of the following line.
8 The niX WO are the various starting-points to which a genealogical tal lie-
leads up. It is quite absurd to think of different goings forth," i.e. of a
gradual coming of the Messiah, as it were, in typical personages.
416 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
eternal, superhuman origin, which went along with His
earthly Davidic origin as a supplement to it. Against this
view the usage of the language is conclusive. For wherever
B- iy and B"li? are used by writers of this age in reference to the
past, they always denote a mere historical primitive age for
example, the age of Davidic splendour, or of Moses, or of the
early prophets, or of the ancient national history in general.
It is exactly what we express by " from of old." l But, above
till, it is refuted by the position which Micah ascribes to the
Messiah in relation to God. God is his God. He acts in the
strength of God. God s glorious name serves him as ornament
O o
and honour. He is a man, a servant of God, as every saint is,
only glorified by the favour of God, who allows the splendour
of His own majestic name to stream upon him.
The advent of this Messiah is the crisis in Israel s destiny.
The " travailing of her who travaileth," in which there is no
reference at all to any miraculous birth, is, as it were, the end
of the sorrows of the people of God in general. Israel has a
sure refuge for all time in the warlike vigour and splendour
of this King. " He is peace," that is, He protects from all
assault and oppression, even when these proceed from a
power like Assyria.
To the picture of the Messiah, as drawn by these two
prophets of the Assyrian age, the anonymous author of
Zechariah ix.-xi., probably a Judean who had been an eye
witness of the full of the northern kingdom, adds some signi
ficant traits. This prophet, it is true, generally represents God
Himself as the redeemer and Ruler of the people, who leads
them in battle, so that against the enthusiasm of God s people
the devastating waves of the world-power dash themselves in
Micah vii. 1-1 f., 20 ; Amos ix. 11; Isa. xix. 11, xxxvii. 2t> ; of.
generally Ps. xxiv. 7, . , Ivxvii. (J, Ixxviii. 2, xliv. 2 ; Job xxii. 15, xxix. 2 ;
Lam. i. 7, ii. 17, v. 21, iii. 6; Gen. vi. 4; Dent, xxxii. 7, xxxiii. 15;
.losh. xxiv. 2 ; 1 Sam. xxvii. 8 ; Jer. ii. 20, v. 15, vi. 16, xviii. 15 (cf. Graf on
i his passage), xxx. 20, xlvi. 26; B. J. xlii. 14, xliv. 7, xlv. 21, xlvi. 9 f.,
Ii. 9, Iviii. 12, Ixi. 4, Ixiii. 9, 11, 10, Ixiv. 3 f.; Mai. iii. 4,
JEREMIAH. ZECHARIAH XII.-XIV. 417
vaiu. 1 But the Messiah is represented beside Him as a second
Solomon, a Prince of Peace. As chariots, horses, and bows
are to disappear out of both the kingdoms of Israel, 2 so the
King also is " just and saved by God " ; 3 " lowly," that is,
without overweening confidence in his own might, 4 " riding
upon an ass," 5 not as a proud warrior, but in the simplicity
of ancient custom, as Israel knew it before they introduced
foreign weapons and resorted to the evil practices of war. 6
The kingdom of this new Solomon embraces Canaan in its
ideal extent. And he " speaks peace to the heathen," 7 that
is, his word of power commanding peace and making war
unnecessary, is to be law to all the nations of the world.
o. This trilogy of Messianic prophecy in the Assyrian
period is never again equalled in after days. Never again
did the prophets see so clearly the significance of a powerful
kingdom as amid the dangers of the Assyrian period, and in
view of a figure like that of Hezekiah. True, the picture of
a Messianic king is still connected with the hope of com
plete deliverance. But other figures stand out more pro
minently. Jeremiah prophesies that the people " will serve
David their king whom God will raise up," meaning that a
ruler as glorious as David will be raised up by God out of
the ancient royal house. 8 Not till day and night cease, will
David want a descendant to sit on the throne of Israel. 9
Otherwise there is little of importance said about him.
Jeremiah has more interest in the kingdom itself than in the
1 Zech. ix. 10-16. 2 Zech. ix. 9 f.
3 J/C^I p^^ supported, i.e. protected by God, on account of his righteous
ness, that is to say, sure of victory (victorious) ; cf. Dent, xxxiii. 29. In
keeping with this is the expression applied to God, y<W\ty\ pi ntf ; B. J. xlv. 21.
4 i)]j in the religious sense.
5 The mention of two animals is, of course, merely due to the poetic parallel
ism ; in reality only one is meant.
6 Gen. xlix. 11 ; Judg. v. 10, x. 4, xii. 14 ; 2 Sam. xiii. 29, xviii. 9 ;
1 Kings i. 33 (the horse as the animal used in war, Isa. ii. 7, xxx. 16 ; Dent,
xvii. 1C).
7 Zech. ix. 10. D" 1 ^ Dlfe "131-
8 Jer. xxx. 9 ; cf. xxxiii. 15, 17. 9 Jer. xxxiii. 17, 20, 22, 26.
VOL. II. 2 D
418 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
personality of an individual king. But this he insists on again
and again, that the king will be righteous, 1 a righteous and
prudent shoot of David, through whom safety and salvation
will come to Israel. 2
The name " God our Kighteousness " 3 is generally regarded
as a designation given by Jeremiah to this Davidic king.
Were that correct, the name would, of course, say nothing as
to the character of the Messiah, or even as to His divinity.
The mother who calls her son Zedekiah, Jotham, Joram,
Immanuel, or Ishmael does not mean thereby to describe that
son as a righteous, gracious, exalted God, or as a God who
lives with men and hears them ; but she testifies by that name
to her own belief that God is righteous, gracious, exalted, etc.
In like manner this name of the Messiah would express the
belief that God is His people s righteousness, is He who
procures justice for them, and is their Helper. But it is not at
all certain that this name is applied to the Messiah. Accord
ing to Jer. xxiii. 6, that would, it is true, be the best explanation
of it. But from a comparison of the perfectly similar passage
in xxxiii. 15, 16, in which the Messiah is also spoken of, and
where nevertheless this same name is applied to the people, as
is clear from the suffix being feminine, it seems probable that
even in the first passage, in spite of the suffix being masculine,
the meaning is : the people, which will, through the advent
of the Messiah, be happy and secure, shall be called " God
our Kighteousness." The old name, Israel, is to give way to
tins new religious name. 4
Still more important is what the author of Zech. xii.-xiv.,
who is evidently a contemporary of Jeremiah, says about the
Messiah. According to him, indeed, neither the Davidic
king, nor Jerusalem itself, is to have the real honour of
1 Jer. xxiii. 5, xxxiii. 15, 17. 2 Jer. xxiii. 6.
3 "Op"?!? mrT 1 , xxiii. 6 ; cf. xxxiii. 15 f.
4 Of course, tins argument would fall to the ground, were the passage,
xxxiii. 14-26, not Jeremiah s own, for which certainly many reasons can be
adduced.
ZECHARIAH XII.-XIV. 419
dolivoring Judah, lost their arrogance should become too groat.
The deliverance is effected by the country people of Judea, 1
while as yet the inhabitants of Jerusalem remain quietly
within Jerusalem. 2 But when the final .struggle begins and
the crisis comes, then every one, even the weakest, will show
himself a hero, a hero like David, 3 and the house of David
shall be at their head as God, as an angel of the Lord ; 4
in other words, as God or His angel went of old before the
army of Israel at the Exodus, so will the house of David lead
the hosts of the holy people. By the explanatory addition,
" as an angel of the Lord," this comparison with God is
saved from every possibility of metaphysical misconception.
It simply refers to the ability of the Davidic king in war,
and to his glory as commander-in-chief. And he is not even
represented as a person, but simply as a member of his house,
of that very house whose pride is censured, and in whose case
the necessity of repentance for past misdeeds is presupposed.
But, all the same, the dignity of this Messianic house is extolled
in an ideal fashion, and to it the name of God is assigned.
In a beautiful supplement it is declared by the same prophet
that for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem
there will then be a fountain of reconciliation, so that all un
godliness may be washed away, 5 that God will pour upon
this house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the
spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they may mourn
along with the whole people over the murder of the man of
God. 6 Thus the glory of the Messiah is based on repentance
and reconciliation. He is not represented as exempt from the
1 Zech. xii. 4-8.
- That is the meaning of the sentence, D lT 1 ! STTinn TlJJ
Ex. xvi. 29. The usual explanation, "Jerusalem shall remain undestroyed,"
contradicts the Tiy, and is, in the context, pointless and weak.
3 Zech. xii. 8. 4 Qmai iTirp~]i6:] &rb*& (cf. Isa. vii. 13).
5 xiii. 1. In this nnS3 "llpD we have perhaps the passage to which Jesus
referred, when he said that in order "to fulfil all righteousness," the Messiah
must submit to John s baptism of repentance.
xii. 10 (D ounrvi ;n nn).
420 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
sin of the people, because He is included in the " proud "
house of David.
What Ezekiel says of the Messianic king is essentially
on the same plane. After the shoot of the vine (Zedekiah)
has been torn out, he prophesies that of the cedar, the real
old house of David represented by the line of Jehoiakin, God
will again plant on the holy mountain a tender twig, so that
it will grow into a cedar, under the shadow of which fowl
of every wing will lodge. 1 Ezekiel promises that He will
come to whom the right belongs that is, He who practises
righteousness, and to whom God entrusts judgment. 2 He
declares that in a short time a time so short that the
prophet hopes in consequence thereof to exercise his calling
more freely himself God will raise up a horn for Israel, 3 that
He will in the last days set over them " His servant David," 4
by whom Ezekiel, no more than Jeremiah, understands the
historical David, but a shoot of the ancient royal house like
unto him. God appoints him Shepherd over the whole flock
of Israel, Prince over both the peoples whose God is Jehovah ;
and, as the new Jerusalem is everlasting, so its King shall
reign for evermore. 5
It is doubtful whether Ezekiel in this last declaration was
thinking of the personal immortality of the Messiah, or of the
everlasting duration of the dynasty. If the former be the
case, he changed his opinion, at any rate, in other and later
periods of his prophetic career, arid turned his eye away from
the personal Messiah to a Messianic dynasty. When he speaks
of the rights and duties of " the Prince in Israel," he never
has a particular individual in view. Occasionally, indeed, he
speaks of " princes " in the plural. 6 The prince has the right
to pass through the holy door of the temple, which is other
wise kept shut on working days, and to partake of the
1 Ezek. xvii. 22 ff. 2 Ezek. xxi. 32 (Eng. 27). 3 Ezek. xxix. 21.
* Ezek. xxxiv. 23 ff., xxxvii. 22, 24, 25. 5 Ezek. xxxvii. 25.
e Ezek. xlv. 8, 9 (xlviii. 21 ?).
EZEK1EL. THE EXILIC ISAIAH. 421
thank-offering before God. 1 His inheritance lies quite close
to the sanctuary. He can leave it by law only to his sons.
But on this account he must not oppress the people, or appro
priate by violence another s inheritance. 2 As the representative
of Israel, he must worship in the sanctuary on the Sabbaths and
the new moons, 3 and must provide the public sacrifices in the
temple. For this he receives a stated income. 4 In short, he
has almost the position of a king, who has also priestly dignity.
4. The figure of the Messiah, which is already somewhat
shadowy for these last-named prophets, is in the exilic passages
of the book of Isaiah put wholly into the background. Every
where it is God Himself who is represented as being glorified
in Israel in His own power and majesty. And really it is
Cyrus, the victorious king of Persia, who stands forth as the
anointed of God, the Messiah. 5
The only passage that might be referred to the Davidic
king of the future is B. J. Iv. 3, 4. When it is said: "I
make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies
of David ; behold, I have given Him for a witness to the
people, for a Prince and Commander to the peoples/ one
might take the perfect as that of fixed resolution, and under
stand by David, " the David who is to be raised up," But
the following verses show that to the people, as such, is
promised what was promised of old to David tho individual,
viz. " sovereign power over the heathen." The historical
David is meant simply as a point of comparison for the glory
promised to the people. Consequently this passage is in
reality a significant proof of how completely the idea of a
future Davidic king has given way in this book to that of
the suffering servant of Jehovah. 6
It is different in the community that rebuilt Jerusalem.
1 E-ek, >:liv. 3,
- Iv:o.k. xlv. 7, xlviii. 21 ; cf, xlvi, 16, 18, J E>:ek, xlvu 3,
1 Kzck. xlv. 9, 16, 17, xlvi. 4. fi IJ. J. xlv 1.
6 It is an allusion to Ps. xviii. 44 f. In like manner the people appeals also
in Ps. Ixxxix. 36 ff., cxxii. 5, to God s covenant with David. (From B. J.
422 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
It was led by a son of David, who was, it is true, merely an
official of the imperial power, but still in a sort of way a
ruler, and one personally, as it appears, well fitted to repre
sent the ancient and venerated royal family. With Zerub-
babel the thought of a Messianic king is immediately brought
once more to the front.
Haggai saw in this man himself the bringer of the final
salvation. He promises to him personally the fulfilment of
his wishes and hopes, the favour of God, and independent
sovereignty. 1 Zechariah, at least as his book now lies before
us, no longer shared this hope. 2 His prophetic eye glances at
Zerubbabel and his companions, only to be directed past him
to a far more exalted personage. The leaders of that little
band are men " of portent," 3 pledges that God will send His
servant "the Sprout," 4 as, after Jeremiah s example, this prophet,
who is learned in the Scriptures, calls the Messiah. The Sprout
(of David) will come, and under Him things will sprout; in other
words, there will be clear signs of happiness and prosperity. 5
When He comes, then there will be found in Israel the stone
on which are engraved (or " directed " ?), seven eyes, the
symbol of divine intelligence, probably the copestone of
the temple, as the object of God s special care. 6 Then
lix. 16-20, Ixiii. 1-6, K\vald would actually infer that God, after having- in vain
sought for a man to help Him to establish this salvation in Israel that is, for
the Messiah now declares His willingness to do it alone. But certainly all
that is meant in Ixiii. 3 is that the hopes originally connected with Cyrus and
the Persians were beginning to end in disappointment ; and. in lix. 16, that
the people was morally incapable of undertaking in a spirit of faith the duties
which the return from Exile would lay upon it.
1 Hagg. ii. 22 f. (Zerubbabel is expressly described, after the final judgment
of the nations, as the servant of God in whom He delights, and whom He will
use as a signet-ring).
2 The conjecture of Stade that in vi. 13, 1XD!D~?V should be read instead of
WD^y, so that Zechariah crowned Zerubbabel himself as the Zemach, is at
once refuted by the fact that any such symbolical act was impossible under
the political circumstances then existing.
3 Zech. iii. 8.
4 n)OV K*N, iii. 8, vi. 12 (Jer. xxiii. 5, xxxiii. 15). 5 vi. 12
G Zech. iii. 8 f. ; of. iv. 10. The figure betrays Persian influences.
ZECHAKIAH. 423
all the old glory will return ; " He will build the temple and
enjoy princely honours, and sit and rule upon His throne. " 1
There is still another passage worthy of notice, viz. Zech.
vi. 1 1 ff., where the relations existing between the royal
dignity of " the Sprout " and the high priesthood are touched
upon. According to the existing text, a crown of consecrated
gold 2 is to be placed on the head of Joshua the high priest,
but only symbolically, as a pledge of the Messiah s advent ;
on which account it is then to be preserved in the temple as
a sacred memorial. And it is said, " The Messiah will, as
prince, build the temple, . . . and a priest will be on his
throne ; and the council of peace will be between them both.
Thus, in the last days, the high priesthood is represented as
connected with the Messianic kingdom not, it is true, in one
person, but certainly in the most perfect official unity, as
indeed in the time of the prophet the harmony of these
two powers was the condition most indispensable to the
success of the new settlement. The full unity of person in
the two offices, which would follow from the translation,
" And He (the Messiah) will be Priest upon His throne," is
made quite impossible by the phrase, " peace between them
both." Besides, that would be a threat against Joshua and
his house, which in this case cannot possibly be intended.
Ewald thinks that the text must be supplemented by " and
on the head of Zerubbabel," so that both of the people s
representatives, the prince and the priest, would, as types of
the future, be adorned with the regalia of power. But, how
ever attractive this suggestion is, it is perfectly certain that
it is not only arbitrary as textual criticism, but false in itself.
In the then existing circumstances no solemn assembly could
Imve set a crown upon the head of Zerubbabel. A crown
is the symluil ul independent princely authority. Had the
1 Zech. vi. 13.
" nnDJJ, according to the text and the iem. sing, in ver. 14, a crown made
out of several rin< r .s of gold.
424 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
Persian governor put on a crown he would have proclaimed
himself a rebel, and have inevitably caused the ruin of his
whole enterprise. But a priest whose sphere of rule came
nowhere into contact with that of the great king could, with
out scruple, take part in such a symbolical act.
Malachi does not speak, in my opinion, of a human Saviour.
For although " the angel of the covenant," who is promised,
might, as such, well be, according to the usage of the
language in that age, a human ambassador empowered to
make a new covenant, 1 so that " the Lord " 2 would be God
Himself, and the angel of the covenant the Messiah, still, it
is more in accordance with the laws of parallelism to suppose
that the two expressions are meant to be synonymous. 3 As in
the earliest days God, or the angel of His presence, the angel
of the Lord, led Israel, so also, in the last days, God will
come, or, what is the same thing, the angel of His covenant.
CHAPTEE XXIV.
SUPPLEMENTARY FEATUPtES OF THE MESSIANIC PICTURE.
1. Considering the unusually great importance of prophecy
from the eighth century onwards, it is, at the first glance,
strange that in the last days it gives way so completely to
the kingdom. Still the explanation is obvious : the future
kingdom implies a king. And the last days are to bring
about a universal outpouring of the prophetic spirit of
God. 4 All are to be taught of God, and are no longer to
need instruction. 5 Thus the special function of the prophet
ceases to be a necessity. Indeed, the Davidic king himself is
represented as permanently filled, in a special manner, with
1 Mai. iii. 1 ; cf. ii. 7
- ;nsn. 3 Cf. Zech. xii. 8.
4 Zech. xiii. 211 .; Num. xi. 29 ; Joel iii. Iff. 6 Jer. xxxi. 34.
THE PEOPHET. 425
the Spirit of God, 1 so that he has, as it were, absorbed into
himself the figure of the prophet. It may also have con
tributed to this result, that the deterioration of professional
prophecy made it more likely that the prophetic office would
cease altogether than that it would, in the last days, acquire
special prominence. 2
Still the figure of the prophet does not disappear from
the picture given us of the closing era. And certainly it
always becomes prominent whenever the splendour of the
kingdom pales, or is regarded with suspicion. It receives
special attention in the celebrated passage, Deut. xviii. 15 ff. 3
The prophetic law promises that God will not leave His people
in the dark, so that they must needs have recourse to the
foolish superstition of heathen soothsaying. God the Lord
will raise up to them from among themselves " prophets " like
unto Moses. These will, therefore, without superstition and
folly, get to know the divine will clearly and fully by the
help of the Spirit of God. These the people are to hear.
True, I cannot see in this passage a prophecy of a (Messianic)
prophet of the last days, nor even a promise of " the ideal
prophet, of whom Moses knew that he would culminate in an
actual person, Christ." The context and the contrast with
heathen soothsaying absolutely require us to understand it of
the prophets as a class. God will always "raise up a prophet"
at the right time. This is made particularly clear in ver. 20,
which presupposes the possibility of a prophet misusing his
position, and specifies the means by which to distinguish
false prophets from true. Now this is certainly an indirect
declaration, that in Israel a class of trustworthy clear
headed prophets, devoted to God, will never cease, and that
it is impossible to imagine a perfect Israel without them.
Hence, in this passage, there was full justification for Israel,
in later times when left without prophets, waiting with
1 Isa. xi. 2. - Ztrh. xiii. 4.
3 For the special literature-, d . Bauer, p. o49.
426 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
confidence for the trustworthy prophet, the prophet like unto
Moses.
We should have a similar prophecy in Joel ii. 23, if that
passage really spoke of a " teacher of righteousness," whom
God promises to the people. One might, then, with Merx
find in it, on account of the article and the n P7VK an allu
sion to the teacher foretold in Isa. xxx. 19, whom Malachi
afterwards directly describes as Elijah. But although in
itself the word nnto may mean a teacher, 1 it is, no doubt, the
other signification of the word, viz. " early rain," that is here
intended. 2 The word is used in this sense immediately after.
It is natural phenomena of which the context speaks ; and
the result of the Moreh being sent is that the land becomes
fruitful. The definite article also tells in favour of this
interpretation. Hence the reference here is simply to the
needful " early rain in due measure," which is to make good
the injury done to the land.
In the second half of Isaiah, chaps, xl.-lxvi., on the con
trary, the figure of the prophet is given the utmost promin
ence, while the picture of the Davidic king becomes quite
indistinct. True, even here no individual prophet is primarily
meant. Every individual personality is cast completely into
the shade by the servant of Jehovah, the prophetic people.
But inasmuch as the prophet s own self-consciousness echoes
through this general category, this servant becomes a
personal being. The prophetic Israel, to the desires of
whose soul the prophet himself gives voice, is not only to
lead the tribes of Israel to God, but is to become a light to
the Gentiles. 3 The Spirit of the Lord is upon him to proclaim
liberty to the captives and the acceptable year of the Lord. 4
Ho is to be God s chief instrument in guiding the destiny of
1 E.g. Isa. ix. 15 ; 2 Kings xvii. 28 ; Hab. ii. 18, ")p ; miD would in that
case be the direct opposite of Joel s expression.
- Ci . miD, DKO in the same verse ; Dent. xi. 14, my. Also iu Ps. Ixxxiv. 7
this meaning seems to be indisputable.
3 B. J. xlix. 6. B. J. Ixi. 1 f.
THE PltlEST. 427
the world, an arrow kept safe in God s quiver, His mes
senger to whom He gives the tongue of a disciple. 1 The most
active influences at work in the last era are the prophetic
office and the prophetic function.
Prophecy, in the person of its great hero Elijah, the fore
runner of the last day, has been given by Malachi very special
importance as the human means of bringing about that salva
tion of the future, which God reserves to Himself the right of
making a reality. 2 Elijah is to come preaching repentance
and producing unity of disposition in Israel. Now this Elijah
might quite well be meant as a symbol for a preacher of
repentance without any personal reference. But since he is
not thought of as in Sheol, but as living and in attendance
upon God, 8 it is much more natural to think of an actual
return of this great prophet as a salutary means of pre
paring the people for the last judgment, for the sifting which
will take place at the coming of the Lord.
2. In the picture of the final era, the figure of the priest
is the least significant of all. In the last days all Israel is
to be a nation of priests ; and everything in it must be holy.
Consequently the thought of special mediators of an official
character had already to be kept very much in the background.
And in connection with the redemption of the people the
greatest prophets attach very little importance to either priest
hood or public worship. Still the figure of the priest is not
altogether awanting in the final era, and is several times
suggestively connected with the picture of the king, as in the
priestly figure of a Melchisedek. In the earlier prophets,
certainly, we do not find it. But not only does Jeremiah
see the Levitical priests offering up their sacrifices in the temple
for evermore, as long as day and night return, 4 but according
to xxx. 21, he clearly promised the David ic. king himself the
right of drawing near to God without, dying.
1 n. .T. 1. -i, xlix. 2. 2 Mai. iii. 23.
;i E.<j. Ecclu-s. xlviii. 10. 4 Jer. xxxiii. IX, 2U1I ., 26.
428 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
And although it is not improbable that here Jeremiah is,
in accordance with his general view, thinking of the king
having fellowship with God, just as a prophet has, that is
certainly not the case with Ezekiel. In accordance with the
whole bent of his nature, Ezekiel makes the Aaronic priesthood
a most prominent feature of the time of consummation. In his
ideal temple he draws a sharp distinction between the ordinary
Levites who, on account of their sins, are to be only attendants
and servants in the temple, and the real priests of the family
of Zadok. 1 He fixes with great exactness the duties, rights,
and incomes of these priests, 2 represents them as teachers of
the people, 3 and as judges 4 of high position, so that to bring
them gifts brings a blessing upon a house. 5 God is their
inheritance. 6 And along with this, as lias been shown, he sees
the kingdom also in close relation with the sanctuary. The
" holy " priestly character is for him by far the most important.
For A, Aaron s priesthood is an everlasting ordinance, one there
fore in force even during the final era. 7 But it is only in the
second Jerusalem that the priest is given the very first place.
In Zechariah the high priest Joshua is at least as prominent
a figure as Zerubbabel. 8 Although the Messiah is not exactly
thought of as taking the high priest s seat Himself, still there
is to be between the two of them a fellowship of peace and
love, they being, as it were, a second pair of brothers, like
Aaron and Moses. 9 Besides, Joshua is represented as a man
of " portent," a man who is a sign of the coming of the
" Sprout," 10 so that the offices of king and priest are clearly
represented as in close connection in the final era. Malachi
sees the purified Levites fulfilling the ancient covenant of
peace and life which God had made with Levi, teaching the
1 Kzek. xliv. 10-15, xliii. 19, xlviii. 11.
54 Ezek. xliv. 20 ff., 29 f., xlv, 4. 3 Ezek. xliv. 23. 4 Ezek. xliv, 24.
6 Ezek. xliv, -30. 6 Ezek. xliv. 28,
7 Ex. xxix. 9, xl. IH. R Zcch. iii, 1 ff., vi. 11 ff.
9 Zech. vi. 11 ff. (of. also the lijjuru in iv. 14).
10 Zech. iii. 8 f .
THE SERVANT OF JEIIOVAIT. 429
people wisely, and spreading abroad a knowledge of God,
whereas the priests of his own age are censured. 1 The priests
of the final era, as God s messengers, avert guilt from num. 2
The Davidic kingdom is thus the central figure in the picture
of the future. It is only to the figure of the king that the
prophets give distinctly personal traits. Prophecy and priest
hood stand by to help and to consecrate. And as prophecy on
its side finds expression in the God-inspired son of David, in
like manner the figure of the king is full of priestly consecra
tion. Hence Ps. ex. solemnly extols the king to whom it is
dedicated, as king and priest after the order of Melchisedek.
3. Of all the figures in the Old Testament the deepest and
most significant is the suffering servant of Jehovah. We saw
how this figure is at first identified with Israel, the people
of salvation, and with their sufferings, and how it is then, in
consequence of the actual Israel failing to fulfil its vocation,
restricted to the prophetic Israel that remains loyal to its God,
the Israel out of whose heart and mouth the prophet himself is
speaking. This Israel, whose vocation it is to save not only its
own people but also the heathen world, suffers in the punish
ment and death of Israel ; yea, it suffers double. And yet it
has no share in the people s sin, but suffers in accordance
with a mysterious decree of God, whose final object is to save
the world. We need only indicate how, from its very signi
ficance, this figure necessarily became typical. It necessarily
pointed every one who read the Scriptures with real intelli
gence to a mystery in the ways of God, who reveals His own
thoughts of love in the substitutionary sufferings of the best,
of those who bring about salvation. Consequently the
mournful notes in the Passion Psalms, the noble figures
in B. J. xl.-lxvi., and even Job himself had to point the
believer of later times, who understands the Scriptures,
to such a secret, and thus they became types and actual
prophecies.
1 Mai. ii. 3 f., 6 f., iii. 3 f. ; cf. i. 6 ff., ii. 1 ff., 8 ff. a Mai. ii. 6 f.
430 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
That the figure of the suffering servant of God has this
typical significance there can be no doubt. But it is a ques
tion whether the prophets of this age were conscious that
it was a prophecy. In reply to tin s question I willingly
acquiesce in giving, in a certain sense, a verdict of " not
proven. 3 In consequence of the peculiarly mystic character,
as well as the obscurity of the chief passages, it can hardly be
determined, with absolute certainty, how far it is pure typology,
and how far there is already in it a conscious reference to the
future, and especially to a single individual person. At all
events, what is sure and certain is the typical significance
of this figure. To the saints who saw most deeply into the
meaning of Scripture at the time of Christ, this picture of the
suffering servant of God necessarily disclosed the innermost
secret of the divine ways of salvation.
In the closing sections of the exilic Isaiah, we often find the
thought clearly presented that, in the last days, the truly pious
Israel, which has patiently endured the chastisement of its
God, will enter on its glorious vocation as the messenger and
instrument of salvation, not only to Israel but to the whole
world. But all the while when the prophet is not speaking
in his own person there is never any allusion to a definite
individual personality, and least of all to a future one ; and
the suffering endured by the servant of God is nowhere
represented as having a redemptive and atoning character, as
the purchase price of the new glory of God s people. It is
not represented as something future, but as something past
and present. It is represented rather as an inevitable, pre
mature darkening of the glory which is destined for the true
Israel. Anything more than this no expositor can find any
where, except in the famous passage, B. J. lii. 13-liii. 12.
In its present content this passage is a very peculiar one,
and has many striking features ; and it is not without reason
that many modern expositors have conjectured that it is not
an original part of our prophet s work at all, but a fragment
PROPHECIES CONCERNING THE SERVANT OF JEHOVAH. 431
taken by him from an older prophecy. If so, one might very
readily see in this servant of Jehovah the figure of an actual
martyr, some innocent person executed under Mariasseh
(Ewald). But even supposing this conjecture were right, the
fragment must still have been appropriated and altered by
the prophet. For, as we now have it, it certainly cannot
refer to any historical personage. What is said of the
death, the resurrection, and the final destiny of the servant of
Jehovah, does not brook the limitations of a purely historical
interpretation. We must, therefore, still ask what meaning
the prophet himself attached to this fragment, in connection
with his own prophecy in which it has been inserted as
an organic part.
In my opinion it cannot refer to the people of Israel as such.
One might perhaps take liii. 1 if., as a speech by the kings of
the heathen, who are astonished at the glory of the people they
once despised, and who in their astonishment proclaim in
enthusiastic words " that which they now hear." Even the W
of ver. 8 mi^ht be taken either as a wrong or as a somewhat
O O
rare form of the plural, so that the servant of God would be
represented as suffering " for the transgression of the peoples
the stroke which was their due." But what is said of His
burial does not suit a personified people (ver. 9). And the
absolute denial of all guilt on the part of the servant of Jehovah
is irreconcilable with what the same prophet says so repeatedly
and expressly of Israel s sin. 1
One might think much more readily of the prophetic Israel,
out of whose consciousness the prophet himself speaks. " The
world and the people shall then understand His worth and
His glory in the eyes of God. The true cause of His sufferings
shall then be clear." Indeed, in its individual members, this
Israel was in many respects a striking type of what is here
depicted. The simile of the lamb that is led to the slaughter
is taken from Jeremiah, although with a somewhat different
] B. J. xlviii. 1-8, xlvi. 8, 12. 1. 1, etc.
432 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
application. 1 Without guilt of its own this Israel is involved
in the fate of the apostates, is buried with the godless in a
strange land. And although the individual members perish,
it is sure of eternal life for itself, and is a pledge of the
triumphant future in store for Israel and for the true religion.
Beyond all doubt, the glance of the seer starts from this
prophetic Israel, as embodied in the suffering saints of
Israel s times of sore affliction. Still it seems to me that
even this theory does not exhaust the full meaning of the
passage. The description is so concrete and personally vivid
that the theory of a mere collective does not do it justice.
At any rate, this collective would be personified in the most
vivid manner into an ideal picture of the future. And since,
in liii. 1, it is the prophet and the pious in Israel that speak,
while in ver. 4 the servant of Jehovah is distinguished from
these speakers, as He who has suffered and died for them,
one must, in my opinion, see in Him something that can
be thought of as objective even to the prophetic Israel of the
prophet s own age, and distinguished from it.
True, I willingly acknowledge that my view of this passage
has been determined not so much by any particular features
in the prophecy as by the general impression which it makes.
But I am convinced that one will never do it full justice until
one rises above the idea of the people, and particularly of the
pious prophetic people, to an ideal picture of the pious Israel
of the last days conceived of as a person whose features
certainly have been taken from the experience of history.
The prophet did not mean to speak of an individual of the
future. The figure from which he starts is the actual
historical figure of which he has so often spoken. But he is
raised above himself. The figure which he beholds is embodied
for him in an ideal figure, in which he sees salvation accom
plished and all the riddles of the present solved. If it is true
anywhere in the history of poetry and prophecy, it is true here
1 Jer. xi. 19.
PROPHECIES CONCERNING THE -SERVANT OF JEHOVAH. 433
that the writer, being full of the Spirit, lias said more than he
himself meant to say and more than he himself understood.
The suffering servant of God is perfectly free from guilt.
He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His
mouth. 1 His suffering was borne voluntarily in patient love.
Like a lamb led to the slaughter, he opened not His mouth ; 2
He gave His life as a guilt-offering 3 suffered voluntarily
what force was wont to make animal victims suffer in spite of
themselves. His suffering is decreed by God to atone for
Israel s sins. For the people s sake, it pleased God to bruise
Him. 4 It was for Israel s weal that He was chastised. 5 By
His wounds the people are healed. 6 The guilt of all who are
lost in error, God laid upon Him. 7 The blow which ought to
have fallen on the people because of their sin, fell on Him. 8
It was Israel s sicknesses and sorrows that He bore. 9 Hence
His suffering was not a sign that God was angry with Him.
But in order that Israel might be redeemed, in order that
God might receive them back again into His love, the Servant
of Jehovah took all their suffering upon Himself. Out of
divine compassion He, as an atoning Saviour, endured it all in
order to secure the salvation of Israel.
The Servant of Jehovah had to suffer contumely and the
1 liii. 9.
2 liii. 7. (In Jeremiah it is merely the figure of one ignorant of his fate.)
3 liii. 10 (the Q^TI prohahly spoken by God, so that the construction is
broken oil . It certainly does not mean " Surely God will not give up His soul
as a guilt- offering no "... (Scholtcn). The Dt?&$ is to be understood in the
sense it has, not in the sacrificial law, hut in the prophets (2 Sam. xxi. 1 ff.). It
is quite synonymous with "1B3. And in like manner the "bearing" is not used
in the legal but in the moral sense, of the sacrifice of a guiltless one who, by
entering into the pains of the guilty, takes away their curse (Ezek. iv. 4,5).
Elsewhere simply of the bearing of what is due to the guilt, either of the person
himself or of others (Ezek. xviii. 19, xxiii. 35 ; Lam. v. 7 ; Lev. v. 1, 17 ;
Num. v. 31.)
Miiu 0. 5 liii. 5 (UDI^ 1D11D). liii. 5.
7 liii. 0.
8 1D^ JJM ^y J?B>31D lor the sius of my people (the peoples?), the .stroke
destined for them.
9 liii. 4 ; cf. 12.
VOL. II. 2 E
434 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
death of shame. Like a badly-thriving plant, without form
or comeliness, 1 with an appearance betokening superhuman
misery, 2 despised by all as one smitten of God and a sinner, 3
what a lot in life was His ! And His death was that of
a lamb which is led to the slaughter. 4 From prison and from
judgment He was hurried off to a violent death. 6 None of
His contemporaries bethought themselves that it was solely
on behalf of the people that He bore this suffering. 6 As a
malefactor he was buried with malefactors. 7
Such is the suffering of the Servant of God, and such the
true inward cause of this suffering. What Israel suffered
among the nations because of its calling unto salvation, what
prophetic Israel and its individual members endured because
they refused to forsake the people they loved, because they
chose disgrace and death that there might remain in Israel a
seed of a better future, what meets our eyes in the figure of
Job, the suffering friend of God, and what is borne in upon
our ears from the Psalms of the persecuted servants of God,
is all gathered together here in the ideal figure of the suffering
Servant of Jehovah in the epoch of redemption.
Wonderful for the Sufferer, as for the people, is the result
of all this suffering. The Sufferer Himself having been mir
aculously raised from the dead enjoys a long life, and is
blessed with many descendants. 8 He is indeed exalted very
high, 9 and makes peoples and kings rise from their places in
reverential silence. 10 He divides the spoil with the strong
1 liii. 2. 2 lii. 14. 3 liii. 4, 12. * liii. 7.
e liii. 8 (n[-v he was snatched away). 6 liii. 8.
7 liii. 9 (p^ y or JT) ""KJy or }1fi D^p^y.) The simple parallelism of wicked and
rich is not permissible, nor is the nearer definition "with the rich by their
murders " endurable. The VflfD^ is probably his " mound " corresponding to
Y"Qp, for one must not forget that, in a level country like Chaldea, funeral
mounds play a very different role from what they do in a rocky land like
Canaan (Job xxi. 32.)
8 liii. 10. 9 lii. 13.
10 lii. 15 (rpf, not of sprinkling with the blood of a sacrifice, in which case
py w r ould be necessary, but "to cause to leap up," a gesture of astonishment
and reverence, like "laying the hand upon the mouth."
PROPHECIES CONCERNING THE SERVANT OK JEHOVAH. 435
in other words, He is equal in rank and in power to the great
of the earth. 1 Thus His picture grows into that of a King.
And for the world He becomes the instrument by which the
work of God is successfully accomplished. 2 By His knowledge
of God, He makes many righteous. 8 Consequently, after He
has died for the sins of the people and presented His soul as
an offering for sin, 4 He lives again for the justification of His
people. 5 Thus this wonderful figure combines in itself the
figure of the Priest who offers Himself up as a sacrifice for
the world, the figure of the Prophet who by His knowledge
of God brings justification, and the figure of the King who,
transfigured and blessed, enjoys the fruit of His sufferings.
The glory which Israel expects for itself, the salvation which
it hopes to work out for the other nations of the world, the
glorification which awaits the true Israel in the last days, and
the blissful influences which are to flow from it, are here
embodied in an ideal figure. As in the book of Job, the pious
sufferer is at last crowned with glory and, by his intercession,
atones for the sins of his hostile friends, so the Servant of
Jehovah stands before our gaze, in the age of consummation,
delivered from suffering and from death.
4. If our exposition is correct, this passage is absolutely
unique in the Old Testament. It is certain that Zech. xii.
10 ff. was not intended as a prophecy of the murder of a
coming ambassador of God. It describes how God will
bestow upon the Messianic people, after it has won a glorious
victory, under the leadership of the Messiah, the spirit of grace
and of supplication. The people and the Messiah will look
upon Him whom they have pierced, and mourn for Him as
one mourneth for the loss of an only child, of a first-born. 6
The whole land is to be in universal mourning, and then
1 liii. 12. a liii. 10.
4 liii. 10, 12. B Rom. iv. 25.
The passage is of importance for tliu history of the Asiatic nature-
religions.
436 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
there shall be a fountain opened to the Messianic royal house
and to the people for sin and for uncleanness.
According to the Massoretic text, it is true, God would say,
" And they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced."
But that cannot be the meaning of the prophet. For it
cannot be a case of pure derision and contempt of God.
The same word pi?}) is used, in xiii. 3, of bodily injury, and
the mourning could not be compared with that for an only
child, or for a first-born, unless the reference were to one
actually slain. Nor can one imagine that, if an ambassador of
God had been murdered, the prophet would really call that a
murder of God. On account of the parallel lyj;, I have always
thought the simplest thing would be to change vK into 1yK,
although the following nK would, in the context, be by no means
good syntax. The other ways out of the difficulty, "My
heroes * see Him whom they have slain," etc., and " They will
look, with their faces turned to Me, on Him whom they have
pierced," I do not think probable, the first on account of the
meaning, the second on account of the construction. Here,
at any rate, a historical Servant of God is meant, who fell a
sacrifice, not so much to the heathen ns to the great in Jeru
salem. For the whole way in which the family of David,
with its pride, repentance, and expiation, 2 is spoken of, points
most naturally to some grievous blood- guiltiness resting on
the ruling classes in Judah itself. This murdered One is to
be mourned as a martyr of the closing era, so that the crime
perpetrated against him is to be atoned for by repentance
and contrition. But neither the figure nor the death of the
martyr is thought of as future, nor is his doom represented
as a condition of salvation. Only it is expected that the
wickedness perpetrated against him will be atoned for in the
time of deliverance, which is thought of as very near at hand.
Still less can Zech. xiii. 7 bo understood of the death of
the Messiah. For the words spoken by God include a
1 vN, Jb xli. 17 (Hofmann). 2 Zech. xii. 7, xiii. 1.
THE PROPHECY OF DANIEL. 437
punishment of wrath against the Shepherd, who, consequently,
though in rank a Shepherd and " Fellow " of God, must in
reality be a wicked Shepherd. The words are immediately
connected, as Ewald has rightly seen, with xi. 17, and contain
a threat of punishment against the wicked, flock-destroying
king of Ephraim, to whom in His wrath God hands over the
people, after His own pastoral care, exercised through the
prophets and ungratefully despised, has proved unsuccessful.
Not until a much later age do we find an echo of this
prophecy of the suffering righteous Man probably due in
part to the influence of Plato 1 in the Wisdom of Solomon,
ii. 12 ff. The figure of the righteous Man is personified; and
it is said that the multitude of those hostile to God despise
Him, taunt Him, and hurry Him off to a shameful death,
because He makes Himself the Son of God and is obnoxious
to the frivolous, until, having conquered death, He rises in
triumph and shames His opponents into silence.
CHAPTEK XXV.
MESSIANIC PROPHECY AS DEVELOPED BY THE SCRIBES.
1. Prophecy produced by art begins with the book of Daniel,
and gets its final form from the same book. The picture of
the future, from which it starts, is Jeremiah s prophecy of the
seventy years of Exile. Instead of the glorious fulfilment
expected at the end of these seventy years, a state of things
had arisen very far indeed from perfect ; and this, instead of
improving with the centuries, had become always worse and
worse. The seer s own generation seemed to have reached
the very lowest depth of humiliation. In the holy place there
stood a foreign altar, " the abomination of desolation/ 2 The
religion and the national customs of Israel were treated with
1 Plato, Rep. 2. v. 2 Of. 1 Mace. i. 54, vi. 7.
438 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
contempt by Antiochus Epiphanes. Consequently the seer
had to extend the years of prophecy. As the apocryphal
letter of Jeremiah changes the seventy years into seven genera
tions, and the book of Enoch makes them seventy reigns, so
Daniel changes the seventy years into seventy year-weeks. 1
From this point of view, the book lets the past defile before
the seer in the form of visions, in order to embody it in the
final age of blessedness. The contending empires are first
represented as a statue. Its head of gold is Nebuchadnezzar ;
its breast and arms of silver, Belshazzar ; its belly and loins
of brass, Medo-Persia ; its legs of iron, Alexander ; and its feet
of iron and clay, the rival Greek powers in Egypt and Syria. 2
But, at last, a stone is cut out without hands in other words,
is set in motion by God. It breaks the feet of the statue in
pieces, and thus destroys for ever the supremacy of heathen
dom. It grows to be a rock which fills the whole earth, and
becomes the kingdom of the Messiah, 3 an everlasting kingdom
which no destruction shall ever menace.
Under another figure, in which, quite in keeping with the
freedom of such descriptions, many of the features are different,
Daniel sees the world monarchies as four beasts, which come
up out of the abyss as beings " from beneath." 4 Their
attributes make them recognisable as Chaldea, Media, Persia,
and Greece ; and in the chapter immediately following, the
reference to the struggle between Persia and Greece, to
the division of Alexander s empire, and to the wickedness of
Antiochus Epiphanes, is so plain that this interpretation
is absolutely beyond doubt, especially since chaps, xi. and xii.
practically throw off all disguise. 5
After ten Greek kings, a horn (king), quite insignificant at
first, attains to great power by destroying three horns that
were before him. This is Antiochus Epiphanes, who speaks
1 Dan. ix. 2, 24 ff. 2 Dan. ii. 31 ff. (Hitzig).
3 Dan. ii. 33 ff., 44. 4 Dan. vii. 3, 7, 21, 25.
5 Of. Dan. viii. 4-6, 20-24.
THE PROPHECY OF DANIEL. 439
words of blasphemy against the Most High, who succeeds in
conquering the people in three and a half years, and who re
solves to change the public worship of God and the feast days
in short, the religion of Israel. At last, however, God sets
Himself along with His saints for judgment ; and before Him
there appears in the clouds of heaven, that is, as one having
His origin not in the abyss but in heaven, the Eepresentative
of the people of the saints, " One like unto a Son of Man."
He appears, as is natural, on the earth, where the judgment
of the world goes on in His presence. The clouds bear Him,
not up, but down. To Him is given dominion for ever and
ever, after the kingdom of the Seleucidse is overthrown and
the other heathen kingdoms are rendered harmless.
It is, therefore, certain that the prophecy connects the
destruction of Antiochus with the advent of the final era of
blessedness, and of the Messianic kingdom of the saints. It is
only a question whether, in the last-mentioned picture, the "Son
of Man " is meant to denote the king of the empire, viz. the
Messiah, or merely the people itself personified. A definite
decision can scarcely be reached. Although I do not by any
means overlook the weighty reasons which can be adduced in
favour of the latter view, e.g. the comparison with the world-
empires which are represented as beasts, and the non-appear
ance of a Messiah anywhere else, while the kingdom is given
"to the people of the saints," 1 still, I incline to take the former.
The whole way in which the coming of the Son of man is
mentioned, the saints in conflict with Antiochus 2 being spoken
of in the vision quite differently, seems to me to point to a new,
and that too a definite, personality. Besides, the beasts in the
vision are not peoples but monarchies, to which, therefore, a
new monarchy corresponds. Hence Daniel probably thinks of
the Messiah as descending in the last days from heaven where
He dwells with God, and revealing Himself in a heavenly
form like one of the angel-princes whom the book is else-
1 Dan. vii. 18, 22, 27. 2 Dan. vii. 25.
440 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
where accustomed to describe as " like unto a Son of Man." l
The passage, therefore, shows how the teaching of the scribes,
as might be expected from its nature, made the conception
of the Messiah more metaphysical and mystic, so that He had
His roots no longer in Israel but in the other world. Still,
it must never be overlooked that, perhaps even for Daniel, as
well as for his imitators, the doctrine of the pre-existence of
souls afforded a simple and natural foundation for this idea. 2
In addition to this passage, many expositors also refer
ix. 25 f. to the Messiah, where Daniel, on the basis of
Jeremiah s prophecy of seventy years, calculates the duration
of Israel s time of suffering and of redemption. From the
stand -point of Christian fulfilment it is very natural for
them to do so. For it was possible to find, in this passage, a
prophecy of the Messiah s death, and of Jerusalem being laid
waste in consequence of it. Now, this chapter belongs to
the parts of the book which are by far the most difficult to
explain historically. If it is taken for granted that the author s
chronology must coincide with that of historical research,
an exact interpretation becomes almost an impossibility. If
one explains "the prophecy as to rebuilding Jerusalem,"
(ix. 2), as is most natural, by Jer. xxv. 1, that is to say,
about 6065 B.C., then the seven year- weeks would certainly
reach about as far as Cyrus, who would in that case be the
first anointed, who is at the same time prince. But the
following sixty- two year - weeks would bring us to about
123 B.C., that is, to a time at which the last year- week
of utter destruction under Antiochus, and the deliverance
cannot, in any case, begin. Least of all can one, with
Wieseler, make up the interval out of seventy years (not
year- weeks), and seventy weeks (i.e. one year and a-third),
or put the first seven year-weeks last, and thus reckon up
62 + 14-7, so that the anointed at the end of the seven
weeks would be the ideal Messiah. To think of the seven
1 Dan. viii. 15, x. 5, 16. 2 Cf. below.
THE PROPHECY OF DANIEL. 441
weeks as running parallel with the sixty - two, as Bosch
would do, is forbidden by the unity of the number 70.
Any other arrangement than 7 + 62 + 1 = 70 year-weeks is
absolutely unnatural. And this can be got into the actual
history only by supposing that the " prophecy as to rebuilding
Jerusalem," which Daniel meant, must refer to the prophecy
of Deutero-Isaiah, that Daniel therefore took this prophet to
be Isaiah, and placed his final prophecies in the reign of
Manasseh (655 B.C.). If so, the seven year-weeks would end
with 606-5 B.C. (Nebuchadnezzar); the sixty-two year- weeks
would come down to 172-1 B.C. (the murder of Seleucus
Philopator) ; and the last week, in which the prophet stands,
would be reckoned as the week of oppression, which ends in
deliverance. But the reference elsewhere to Jeremiah, and
the arbitrariness of the starting-point, are against this. Con
sequently one would, with Eeichel, have to regard the seventy
weeks as not exactly chronological, but as symbolical, which
is, however, contrary to Daniel s mode of reckoning. Or,
lastly, one must simply suppose that Daniel had in view a
different chronology from ours ; 1 that he reckoned the seven
year-weeks correctly from 606-5 B.C. to Cyrus the first
anointed prince, the second sixty - two wrongly (probably
simply according to reigns), from Cyrus to the death of
Onias III., who is also, in xi. 22, the prince of the covenant,
and who is here called the anointed who is not a prince.
From this date onwards Daniel reckons his last week in
which the prince, who is not anointed (Antiochus Epiphanes)
in alliance with the - Grsecizing party, destroys the holy city
by storming and sacking it, abolishes the sacred customs, 2
and desecrates the temple until the deliverance comes.
The difficulty of this interpretation we have neither con-
1 Cf. Theol. Stud. u. Kril. 1873, ii. 169 If., where we loam that the Jews
in the Crimea have adhered to a chronology from the Assyrian Exile, which
differs very considerably from the one usually adopted.
2 Dan. xi. 2 Iff.
442 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
cealed nor minimised ; perhaps the passage still awaits the
right solution. But that this historical method of inter
pretation, as it is still shown in 1 Mace. i. 54 (Sept. at
ver. 26), is on the whole right, as against the Messianic,
is not made a whit more doubtful by the uncertainty
in which the details of it are involved. For even apart
from the fact that the latter would presuppose a magical
soothsaying, such as prophecy knows nothing of, and that
the chronology even on that view, especially when compared
with ix. 2, is, in the highest degree, arbitrary and uncertain, 1
there is a host of details utterly irreconcilable with it. The
stopping of the sacrifices is represented in Daniel as the
most shameful of acts. 2 Consequently, it is impossible to
regard it as an act of the Messiah. The death, with
out heirs (v ptf) and successors, of the person murdered,
can only refer to the extinction of a ruling family. The
anointed who is slain can, from the context, be identical
with the one who is to come, only on the supposition that
he is also identical with the one named before the sixty-two
year-weeks. Either they are all three one person, which
does not suit even the Messianic interpretation, or there
are three persons whose advent and fate mark the great
turning-points of the epoch. The anointing of the most
holy that is, the reconsecration of the temple, is represented
as the end of the whole epoch. The sixty-two weeks are
mentioned as the period during which the holy city was
rebuilt, though in troublous times, which evidently means
the comparatively undisturbed yet unhappy years of the
Persian and Ptolemaic supremacies. The making of sacrifice
to cease is clearly not effected " during the first half of the
week" (i.e. by the death of Jesus), but is thought of as
1 Hengstenberg s explanation is still the best. He reckons from the edict
of Artaxerxes sixty-nine year-weeks to 28 A.D., i.e. three and a-half years before
the crucifixion of Jesus.
2 Dan. vii. 25, viii. 11, xi. 31, xii. 11. To understand the book as a whole,
one must start from chaps, xi. and xii.
PROPHECY AFTEPt DANIEL. 441 )
continuing all through this half week, that is, until the temple
is reconsecrated. In short, the Messianic interpretation is
marked all through by stiffness and contradiction. In this
chapter, therefore, we have simply an apocalyptic way of
connecting the destruction of Antiochus Epiphanes with the
close of Israel s seventy years of exile, and the advent of its
age of blessedness.
2. In the Apocrypha of the Old Testament, properly so
called, there is scarcely a single allusion to the Messianic
age, and none at all to a personal Messiah. Any one, judging
from these alone, would come to the conclusion that the
features of the Messiah s figure must have grown pale and
dim in the age after Daniel, which was wholly taken up
with priestly legalism, and that Jesus Himself had revived
this Messianic idea, just in consequence of His own conscious
ness that He was the Son of God. In like manner the
Alexandrian bias in Philo indicates absolute indifference to
the hope of a Messiah. As Philo s whole system is almost
exclusively connected with Moses, his eschatology, too, is
based simply on Deut. xxviii. The superhuman figure, which
leads Israel to its rest, is the Logos ; but certainly he is not
thought of as incarnate. And the incidental mention of a
future king and commander - in - chief is wholly without
religious significance. 1
Nevertheless I am of opinion that those scholars are wrong
who assume that the picture of the Messiah had faded from
the memory of Israel in the age immediately before Jesus
appeared. Daniel and the apocryphal books written in imita
tion of it were certainly much more read in Israel than the other
moralising but somewhat insipid books of the Apocrypha.
Doubtless the down -trodden people cherished with ever-
1 J. G. Miiller (Die messianischen Erwartunyen des Juden Philo, Programm.
1870), refers to a future king not merely iu De Prcemiis et Poenis, p. 915, but
also in De Execrationibus, p. 937. But in the last passage the parallel with the
"Angel of God" is so manifest that, according to Philo s whole mode of
expression, nothing but a manifestation of the Logos can be meant.
444 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
growing ardour the glorious picture of the Davidic King. In
the synagogues it was not only Moses but the Prophets that
were read ; and they could never allow the picture of the
Messianic King to grow faint and pale. Indeed, according to
the natural law that governs all learning like that of the
scribes, we might rather anticipate that the colours would be
brightened by the intermixture of supernatural elements.
The Solomonic Psalms, written after the death of Pompey,
show a simple but very vivid hope of a Messiah. They
know of King Messiah, 1 the sinless saint, whose words are
better than fine gold, who will purify and liberate Israel, 2
smite the wicked with the rod of His mouth, and subdue
the heathen. 3 As the son of David, He will feed Israel
like a shepherd in His kingdom of the elect. 4 Here, it is
true, we find no new idea, but certainly also no waning of
the prophetic hope. And though the Jewish Sibyl usually
speaks of the people of the Jews as such, 5 and, although
the " Davidic sprout " 6 is probably Zerubbabel, and the
peace-bringing king from the east is Cyrus, 7 she nevertheless
hopes for " the Holy Euler " who will come to His everlasting
kingdom as soon as Rome rules in Egypt too. 8 The oldest
Targums begin to identify the Logos with the Servant of
Jehovah, that is, to prepare the way for combining theological
speculation as to the Logos (the ideal man), with the hope
of a Kedeemer appearing in the form of man. 9 This is still
more distinct in the Apocalypses of Enoch and of Ezra.
True, the most important passages in the former book, in
connection with this question, do not occur in its earliest
part, and Ezra brings us down to the end of the first
1 Ps. xvii. 35 f., 38, 47, xviii. 6, 8.
2 Ps. xvii. 27-29, 31, 33, 35-37, 40 f., 44, 48.
3 Ps. xvii. 27, 32, 34, 39, xviii. 8. 4 Ps. xvii. 5, 23, 44, 50, 45, xviii. 6.
5 B. iii. 217 ff., 702 ff. (in ver. 775, "Son of God" is certainly a Christian
addition).
6 iii. 286. 7 iii. 652. 8 iii. 49.
9 Targum on Ex. xxiii. 20; Num. ix. 18; Dcut. i. 30; Isa. Ixiii. 14; Jer.
xxxi. 2 ; cf. Isa. xlii. 1, xlix. 5; Hos. xi. 19.
PKOPHECY AFTER DANIEL. 445
century after Christ. But I have no doubt that even the
later parts of Enoch are pre-Christian, or were written, at
any rate, prior to the apostolic literature, and that even the
original kernel of Ezra is wholly Jewish, and altogether
uninfluenced by Christianity. 1
According to Enoch the Messiah is the Righteous One, whose
chief attribute is righteousness. He reveals all the treasures
of that which is hidden, because the Lord of the spirits has
chosen Him, because His lot before the Lord of the spirits has,
on account of His righteousness, surpassed from all eternity all
the other spirits in glory. 2 He is the Elect One, 3 the Son of
man, 4 the Anointed, the Son of the woman. 5 Ere the sun was
created, His name was named in the presence of the Lord of
the Spirits. 6 He is chosen and hidden before the creation of
the world ; He dwells among the blessed. 7 He appears, there
fore, as the ruler and judge of the world, 8 and is worshipped. 9
Perhaps, indeed, the " hidden name " itself, i.e. Jehovah, is used
as His name. 10 It is only after the liberation and the judg
ment that He appears as " the white bull " that governs all. 11
In Ezra the Son of Man fights, as a lion, with the eagle of
the Roman empire. 12 With Him comes the bride, the new
Jerusalem. 13 This Son of God rales for four hundred years
with His own followers. 14 Then He dies ; and seven days of a
new chaos begin, out of which, after the final judgment, a new
world emerges. 15 Fur the present He is preserved in paradise,
1 The question ;is t<> E/ra iv. would be materially simplified if, even in the
revelation of John, we; have to suppose a Jewish document revised by a
Christian editor. (Cf. Die Ojfenbarung Johannis, eine jiidische Apocalypse
in christlicher Bearbeitung, von Eberhard Vischer, Leipzig 1886).
- Dillmann s translation, xxxviii. 2, liii. 6, xlvi. 3.
3 xlv. 3ff., xiix. 2, li. ;;r., iv. 4.
4 xlvi. 1, Ixii. 9, 14, Ixiii. 11, Ixix. 26 f., 29. 5 lii. 4, Ixv. 5
(i xlviii. 2 IK.
7 xlviii. 6, Ixii. Of.; of. xlv. !, Ixi. 4.
s xlv. 3, xlvi. .1 IK., xlviii. 7 I ., xlix. 4, Ixi. 8, Ixii. 1 11 ., 9, Ixix. 27 (Iv. 9).
" xlviii. 5. lu Ixix. 26. Jl xe. 37 If.
12 Ezra xi. 37, xiii. 3. VA E/ra vii. 26 11 ., xiii. 35 if.
14 Ezra vii. 28, xiii. 37. 13 E/ni vii. 28 IK., 34 if.
446 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
along with Enoch, Ezra, and others. 1 Then He is revealed for
judgment, and slays the world-power with the flame that
issues forth from His lips. 2 Here, then, the pre-existence of
the Messiah, which is hut darkly hinted at in Daniel, is quite
clearly taken for granted. But it is equally clear that it rests
on the foundation of the universal pre-existence of souls.
Consequently, its starting-point is not the pre-existence " of
the divine " in Christ, but the pre-existence of His soul
among the other souls. God chose it from among the rest in
order, by means of it, to accomplish His great work. He
hides it until the time to reveal it arrives. That which
modern philosophy calls the existence of the idea in God, as
distinguished from its historical reality, is here conceived as
actual bodiless pre-existence, as Origen still conceives it.
3. The scribes, properly so-called, also created an eschato-
logy of their own, by means, however, not of prophecy but of
exposition, viz. the secondary meaning of Scripture. 3
At the first glance, it seems contrary to all the best estab
lished principles of exposition, to speak of certain passages
having a second meaning. For most assuredly every word
in its context, and in the intention of its author, admits of
only one interpretation. And this rule is in no way to be
tampered with, even by this theory of ours, as to a second
meaning. We do not doubt that the writers of the Old
Testament put only one meaning into their words, and that
this is to be ascertained only by grammatical and historical
exposition. We merely assert that various passages, in con
sequence of the use which congregations of believers, under
the guidance of their teachers, made of them, and in con-
1 Ezra vii. 28, xiii. 26, 51, xiv. 9 (xii. 31 f.)
2 Ezra xiii. 5, 9, 11, 37. The signs of the last age, Ezra v. 1 ff., vi. 20 ff.,
ix. 3 it, xiii. 29, and the distinction between the aluv oSros which is appointed
for the many who are created (Ezra viii. 1, 3), and the x luv pixxav which is
appointed for the lew who are chosen (Ezra vii. 12, 13, 31), point directly to the
early Christian view.
3 Cf. my article on "The Double Meaning of Scripture" (Theol. Stud. u. Kr it.
13G1, 1).
THE SECONDARY MEANING OF SCRIPTU11E. 447
sequence of the thoughts which they, from their own point
of view necessarily connected with them, have acquired in
the consciousness of the people a wider meaning than they at
first had. And we think that this meaning, having become
historical, contributed of necessity to the development of
Old Testament religion, and was of great significance for
the picture of the future with which the people familiarised
themselves.
No one who looks with unprejudiced eyes at such Psalms
as ii., ex., Ixxii., can doubt that originally these cannot possibly
have referred to anything but the circumstances of the time
in which they arose. The singers announce to a king of their
own day their wishes, promises, and vows. Upon his head
they lay those grand ideal hopes which belong, in a peculiar
sense, to the kingdom of this people, and with perfect right,
since every king of Israel, for the time being, personifies
and represents the kingdom of Israel in its great ideals and
hopes. But it is in the nature of such songs to say all this
in a higher and more exalted strain than would be either
proper or permissible in ordinary prose.
Now, as soon as such songs came to be used in the public
worship of God, and that, too, among a people absolutely
ignorant of grammatical and historical exposition, and whose
knowledge of the Scriptures followed quite different laws
when these were reverently used as the holy oracles of God,
to which, from the very first, men were fond of giving
a miraculous mysterious meaning, in keeping with their
importance then this people could no longer believe that
the kings, of whom these songs spoke, were nothing more than
those long since departed kings to whom they were formerly
addressed. As these had long ago been stripped by death of
kingly glory, the Psalms no longer suited them. As little could
Israel, in times when there was no actual kingdom capable of
being idealised, apply these Psalms to any living prince. None
could be thought of as the subject of such songs but one, the
448 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
King who was to unite in His own person all the grand
thoughts ever entertained regarding the kingdom in Israel, the
Messiah for whom the people were waiting in hope, and on
whom the scribes were continually musing. Thus, in conse
quence of their contents and the actual conditions of their
interpretation, these Psalms necessarily became Messianic.
They were accepted as prophecies regarding the Eedeemer.
It was not the authors of the Psalms that prophesied of Him.
The first historical meaning of these Psalms refers to Him at
the most in a typical sort of way. But from the way in
which the believing people applied, and necessarily applied,
these Psalms, it prophesied through them of the Messiah.
The secondary meaning of these Psalms, which grew up his
torically among the people, is Messianic. 1 Such Psalms,
therefore, as dealt with a king of their own day, but so as to
ascribe to him the ideal Messianic thoughts connected with
the kingdom in Israel, came to be Psalms in honour of the
Messianic King : Ps. ii. (xlv.), Ixxii., ex. (xx., xxi.). And on
the same principle, when Psalms treated of a saint of the then
present, and of his joys and sorrows, but in such a way that
men s hopes of the age of consummation were associated with
him, that his piety was represented as a victory over death,
and his relation to God set in an ideal light, or that the hope
of the world becoming perfect, and of the heathen being con
verted, was connected with his sufferings and his victory over
them then all such Psalms became of necessity Messianic.
We see this in the case of Ps. viii. and xvi.; 2 and if this was
not so generally admitted in regard to Ps. xxii. (or Ixix.), it
1 PL-gel, Rdig.-PhiL ii. 265. It has been proved that several quotations by
Christ from the Old Testament are wrong, in this respect, that the inference
drawn from them is riot founded on the direct meaning of the words. ... It
is plain from this that the congregation as such deduces this doctrine, in other
words, that the inference is dne, not to the words of the I ible, but to the
congregation.
2 Naturally many details contributed, in a variety of ways, to this result
details which were understood in the fashion then in vogue with the scribes,
e.y. the "Son of Man" (Ps. viii., etc.).
THE SECONDARY MEANING OF SCKIPTURE. 449
was simply because the necessary progress of development
was prevented by the natural preference of the people for the
picture of a glorious and powerful future ruler, and by their
placing in the background the nobler picture of the suffering
saint. It was, therefore, solely due to the hardness of the
people s heart ; and this want Christianity hastened to supply,
In like manner there grew up a Messianic interpretation of
several of the more difficult passages in the prophets, such as
Isa. vii., Hos. vi., xi., etc. In all these cases the eschatology
is due to the teaching of the scribes. We have before us an
expectation regarding the future, based no longer on the
religious assurance of the individual author as to the develop
ment of God s thoughts regarding Israel, but on a definite
mode of interpreting the sacred words of Scripture.
Along such lines, it is true, no really new element could
be introduced into eschatology, just as a mere knowledge of
Scripture is never able to contribute anything new to religion.
For the " Messianic " import of these Psalms was in fact
entirely due to the already existing ideals which prophecy
had fashioned. Nevertheless, this secondary sense of Scrip
ture worked out the details of this picture of the future in a
great variety of ways. The song, as such, is fond of hyper
bolical expressions ; and when an anxious and prosaic scribe,
full of holy reverence for the letter, treats these expressions
dogmatically, the picture transcends the human. Poetry is fond
of rare expressions ; and these, too, if half understood, seem to
a later age mysterious hints. The tendency to a metaphysical
exaltation of the Messiah s figure, natural to a discontented
age of Epigoni, necessarily received special stimulus from such
songs and obscure prophetic utterances.
Thus, from the frequent poetic use of the word " ever
lasting," the reign of the Messiah came to be regarded, even
more than in the Prophets, as an " everlasting " reign, free
from all limitations of time. 1 Thus, too, the predicate " God,"
1 Ps. Ixxii. 17, ex. 4.
VOL. II. 2 F
450 OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.
was applied to the Messiah in a sense quite different from
what it had when predicated of an ancient king. 1 The con
ception involved in the expression " Son of God," " the begotten
of God," was given a much more mystic signification. 2 The
Messiah was thought of as sitting at the right hand of God,
sharing in the honour of His sovereignty, 3 a royal Priest
after the order of Melchisedek. 4 His marriage with the
Church might be already found in a mystic sense in the
Old Testament. 5 His resurrection, 6 and His being born of a
virgin/ could be taught as dogmas. To Him was ascribed
the rule over all things after He had been made " for a little
while " lower than the angels. 8
Thus this secondary meaning of Scripture gave the picture
of Christ a much more vivid and popular character, and
at the same time contributed largely to the superhuman and
metaphysical view of His exaltation and glorification. And it
is just to this part of prophecy that the Christian Church has
turned with special delight, in order to discover there predic
tions of her Lord s sufferings, and of the glory that should
follow.
1 Ps. xlv. 7. 2 Ps. ii. 7.
8 Ps. ex. 1 (1 Kings ii. 19). 4 Ps. ex. 4.
5 Ps. xlv., perhaps also in the allegorical interpretation of the Song of
Songs.
B. J. liii. 12 ; Ps. xvi. 10 ; Hos. vi. 2.
7 Isa. viL 14. 8 Ps. viii. 6.
INDEX OF SUBJECTS.
A, SYMBOL, i. 64.
Abib, i. 363.
Abraham, i. 94, 97, 108.
Accadian, i. 101.
Accommodation, i. 13.
Adler, i. 367.
Adonai, ii. 129.
Adultery, ii. 51.
Advent of God, ii. 354 ff.
Alexandrians, i. 425, 433.
Allegory, i. 421.
Altar consecration, i. 401.
Anger of God, i. 187, 388, 393 ;
174 ff.
Anthropomorphism, i. 185 ; ii.
107, 143.
Anthropopathy, ii. 108-110.
Antichrist, ii. 374.
Antiochus Epiphanes, ii. 440.
Apocalyptic, i. 421.
Archaeology, i. 9.
Ark, i. 306, 357 ; ii. 87 ff.
Aryan religion, i. 45, 46.
Ascarah, i. 374.
Asham, ii. 307.
Asherah, i. 207, 210.
Assyrians, i. 69, 220 ff.
Atheism, ii. 102.
Atonement, conditions of, ii. 99 f.
consciousness of, ii. 99 f.
day of, i. 367.
grounds of, ii. 92 ff.
limits of, ii. 291.
Autenrieth, i. 12.
Azazel, i. 403 ff. ; ii. 271.
B.
B, SYMBOL, i. 64.
1>. J. symbol, i. 75.
Baal, i. 148.
Babylon, i. 106, 107.
Bachmann, i. 6.
Bsethgen, ii. 128.
ii. 5,
103,
Balaam, ii. 349 f.
Ban, i. 390 ; ii. 87.
v. Baudissin, i. 178, 179, 424 ; ii.
135.
Bauer, Bruno, i. 39.
Bauer, Lorenz, i. 82.
Baumgarten-Crusius, i. 1, 3, 34, 84 ;
ii. 278.
Baur, i. 40 ; ii. 292.
Belial, ii. 281.
Benjamin, i. 28.
Bertheau, i. 291.
Bethel, i. 120, 208.
Biblical Theology, meaning of, i. 1 ff.,
10 ff.
Billroth, i. 41.
Blessedness, ii. 65 ff.
Blessing of Jacob, ii. 335 ff.
of Noah, ii. 346 ff.
Blood, i. 374, 379, 380, 383, 385,
393 ff. ; ii. 6, 50, 247.
Blood-avenging, i. 92 ; ii. 50.
Bb hme, i. 1 ; ii. 18.
Braniss, i. 42.
Budde, i. 30 ; ii. 315.
Buddhism, i. 50.
Burnt-offering, i. 189, 375, 386 f.
C.
C, SYMBOL, i. 67.
Candlestick, i. 355.
Ceremonial Law, i. 188 ; ii. 65 ff.
Chaldeans, i. 69, 329.
Chaos, ii. 189.
Chastisement, ii. 87 ff., 212, 292 fl .
Cherubim, i. 185, 352, 354 ; ii. 229 if.
Child-bearing, ii. 70.
Christianity, Old Testament, i. 51-60.
Chronicles, i. 77, 202, 209; ii. 18,
278.
Circumcision, i. 192 If. ; ii. 7, 70.
Cities of refuge, ii. 88.
v. Colin, i. 3, 83.
Coming of God (Advent), ii. 354 if.
Conscience, ii. 248.
451
452
1NDKX UK SUBJECTS.
Consciousness of sin, ii. 43, 306 If.
Covenant, i. 353 ; ii. 1 ff.
blood of, i. 196 ; ii. 91.
love, ii. 90.
make a, ii. 2.
new, ii. 366f.
sign of, ii. 6.
supper, i. 196.
Cover, i. 385 f., 397 ff.
Covetousness, ii. 52.
Creation, ii. 180ff.
Creationism, ii. 182, 190.
Cruelty, i. 218.
Cyrus, i. 288, 324.
D.
DANIEL, i. 291, 407, 432.
David, i. 153, 166 ; ii. 341 ff.
Day of God, ii. 356 ff.
Dead, i. 346 ; ii. 71 tf.
worship of, i. 123 if., 162 ; ii. 73.
Death, ii. 254, 313 ff.
Debauchery, i. 217.
Deborah, i. 148, 239.
Decalogue, i. 210, 219 ; ii. 47 tf.
Delitzsch, i. 382.
Demons, ii. 271, 280.
Deserts, ii. 34 f.
Deuteronomy, i. 71, 302.
Diaspora, i. 334, 423.
Diestel, i. 80, 291 ; ii. 169.
Dispersion, i. 334, 423.
Doubt, ii. 206, 213.
Dozy, i. 275.
Dream, i. 186, 276 ff., 285.
Drunkenness, i. 214, 217.
Duhm, i. 84, 156, 221, 261, 306, 308 ;
ii. 16, 292.
E.
ECSTASY, i. 254, 274 ff.
Egypt i. 128.
El, ii. 128 f.
Elijah i. 241, 242, 297.
Elisha, i. 241, 243, 297.
Elohim, i. 121, 169, 185 ; ii. 126,
215 ff.
Elyon, ii. 129.
Enemy, hatred of, ii. 61 f.
love of, ii. 60 f.
Knoch, book of, i. 41., ; ii. ,>95, ii. 445.
Ephod, i. 149, 212, 284.
Ephraim, i. 147, 157.
Kpigoni, i. 327, 331 ff.
Essenes, i. 410, 433 ; ii. 398.
Esther, i. 78 ; ii. 19.
Eternity, ii. 142, 147.
Eudsemonism, ii. 65.
Evil, ii. 269 ff., 318.
Ewald, i. 8, 84, 98, 126, 127, 265, and
often.
Exile, i. 224.
Existence of God, ii. lOOff.
Ezekiel, i. 322.
F.
FACE OF GOD, ii. 143, 220.
Faith, ii. 31 ff., 98.
Faithfulness, i. 215 ; ii. 156.
Fall, ii. 299 ff.
Fasts, i. 372, 402, 431.
Fat, i. 379.
Father, God the, ii. ] 38.
Fathers of Israel, ii. 6, 91.
Favour, i. 176 ; ii. 90.
Fear of God, i. 187.
Feasts, i. 189, 202 ff., 359 ff.
Feuerbach, i. 37.
First-born, ii. 10.
Firstling, i. 189, 202 f. ; ii. 10.
Flesh, i. 399; ii. 112, 242ff., 300 f.,
314 f.
eating of, i. 356, 375 ; ii. 76.
Folly, ii. 284.
Food, laws of, i. 190; ii. 75 ff.
Foreign elements, i. 437 f.
Foreigners, i. 144 ; ii. 18, 60 ff.
Freedom, ii. 197.
(J.
GABLER, i. 80.
Gad, i. 114.
Gazer, i. 268.
Geflken, ii. 177.
Gehenna, ii. 376.
Generation, ii. 70.
Gesenius, i. 382.
Gnostics, i. 33.
God, ii. 79 ff., 100 ff.
Being of, ii. 100 ff .
glory of, ii. 168 ff.
names of, i, 102, ii. 116, 122 ff.
people of, ii. 365.
Servant of, i. 267, 301, 310 ff ; ii. 96.
Son of, ii. 9, 115, 342.
to see, ii. 81, 121 f.
(In Goeje, i. 227.
Goodness, i. 215.
Grace, ii. 90, 178 f.
Grau, i. 98.
Guilt, ii. 306 ff.
INDEX OF SUBJECTS.
453
II.
HANANIAH, i. OS.
Hand, lilliiig of, i. 198.
llaud, laying on of, i. 391.
ILaran, i. 98.
Hardening of heart, i. 293 ; ii. 205,
207.
Haughtiness, ii. 286, 373.
Havernick, i. 84.
Heart, ii. 248.
Heathen, ii. 297, 373 fF.
Conversion of, ii. 376 IF.
Hebrews, i. 99, 110.
Hedjaz, i. 98, 101.
Hegel, i. 38.
Hell, ii. 375 f.
Hellenists, i. 412.
Hengstenberg, i. 290 ; ii. 442.
Herder, i. 80.
Hereditary guilt, ii. 244, 297 IF.
Hezekiah, i. 230 IF.
High places, i. 121, 206 fF.
High Priest, i. 334,
Hitzig, i. 101, 417 ; ii. 267, 300, etc.
Hoekstra, i. 319.
HofFmann, i. 265, 276, 279.
v. Hofinann, i. 57 ; ii. 323.
Holiness, ii. 368 f.
Holiness of God, i. 400 ; ii. 131, 166 fF.,
196.
Holy, i. 375 ; ii. 227.
of Holies, i. 351 IF.
Place, i. 205 fF. ; ii. 368 f.
Hope, i. 325 ; ii. 36.
Hosts ii. 140.
Huldali, i. 246, 345 f., 41 If.
Ilumanisation, ii. 104.
Humanity, ii. 376.
Hyssop, i. 372.
I.
IDOLATRY, i. 145, 160, 178, 222, 291.
303, 324 ; ii. 12, 286.
Idols, i. 207 ; ii. 257.
Sons of the Gods, i. 184 ; ii. 217.
Image of God, i. 209 ; ii. 257.
linages of God, i. 149 f. ; ii. 48, 112.
Immannel, ii. 408 fF.
Immorality, ii. 287.
Immortality, ii. 82 f., 260 f., 264 ff.,
326 ff.
Immutability, ii. 147.
Impurity, ii. 285.
Incense, i. 190, 356, 373 f.
Incest, i. 302.
Inheritance, ii. 8.
Insanity, i. 254.
Inspiration, i. 4 JO ; ii. 204.
Intercession, i. 268 ; ii. 227.
JAIIVK, ii. 181 ff.
Zidkenu, ii. 418.
Jealousy, ii. 173 f., 177.
Jehoiachin, i. 305.
Jehu, i. 159.
Jephthah, i. 114.
Jeremiah, i. 75, 249, 267, 30S, 318.
Jerubbaal, i. 148.
Jerusalem, i. 154 fF., 306 fF., 325 fF.
ii. 39.
New, ii. 328, 371 f.
Jcshurun, ii. 29.
Jews, i. 331.
Joel, i. 70, 297.
Jonah, i. 75.
Joshua, i. 141, 320.
Josiah, i. 302.
Jubilee, i. 362 f.
Judges, i. 143.
Judith, ii. 21, 45.
K.
KAISER, i. 13, 83.
Kalil, i. 376.
Kant, i. 35.
Keil, i. 393.
King, i. 163 fF. ; ii. 418 f.
Kingdom of God, ii. 7, 19711 ., 354 IF.
Knowledge of God, ii. 118fF.
Kohen, i. 343.
Konig, i. 240.
Kb ppen, i. 42.
Rosters, i. 330 ; ii. 215, 217, 232.
Kuenen, i. 84, 138, 159, 178, 265, etc
L.
LAND, i. 122, 135, 265.
Lane, i. 275.
Lassen, i. 98.
Law, i. 176, 188, 321, 32S, 333 f. : ii.
37, 80, 84.
Leaven, i. 365 f., 374.
Legend, i. 18, 185.
Leo, i. 98.
Leprosy, ii. 73.
Lessing, i. 181.
Levi, i. 145, 149, 197, 328.
Levites, i. 337 ff.
454
INDEX OF SUBJECTS.
Life, ii. 82 f., 316fF.
God of, ii. 112, 130.
Tree of, ii. 261.
Lisch, ii. 231.
Logos, ii. 165 if.
Lot, i. 284.
l.ot/o, i. 4 J.
Love of God, i. 187 ; ii. 157 ff.
to God, ii. 12.
Lustrations, i. 187, 372.
Lutz, i. 3, 84 ; ii. 25.
Lying, ii. 284.
M.
MACCABEES, ii. Book of, ii. 394.
Madmen, i. 254, 276.
Madness (ecstatic), i. 254, 275.
Malach, ii. 218 fF.
Malachi, ii. 19.
Man, ii. 241 if.
Son of, ii. 439 f.
Manasseh, i. 233.
Manna, ii. 216.
Marriage, i. 215 ; ii. 51, 260, 263.
Matter, ii. 185.
Mazzebah, i. 210.
Mazzoth, i. 366.
Meehonah, ii. 233.
Mediator, ii. 91 f.
Menken, ii. 168.
Merits, ii. 34 f.
Messiah, ii. 337 ff., 399 ff.
Messianic hope i. 168 f., 223, 230,
321 if.
kingdom, ii. 369 f.
Micah, i. 70.
Miracle, i. 297 IT. ; ii. 115, 145, 192 fF.
Moloch, i. 233 f.
Monolatry, i. 178.
Monotheism, i. 34 f., 101, 175f., 226 ff..
276.
Moral Law, i. 219 ff.
Morality, i. 147 ff., 213 ff. ; ii. 52 ff.
Moses, i. 125 ff., 164.
Work of, i. 63, 131 ff.
Miiller, J. G., ii. 443.
Max, i. 23, 98.
Murder, ii. 88.
Music, i. 243.
Mutilation, ii. 74.
Myth, i. 17 ff., 113 fF., 185.
N.
NABI, i. 240 ff., 264 f.
Name (new), ii. 368.
Nature, order of, ii. ISOff., 191 ff.
Nature religions, i. 42 fF.
sympathy with, i. 58 f. ; ii. 74
Na/Jrite, i. 16 Iff., 401.
Necromancy, i. 253.
Nehemiah/i. 331.
Nehushtan, i. 93, 150.
Nethinim, i. 343.
N"ew moon, i. 204, 244.
New year, i. 363, 368.
Nisan, i. 363.
Nob, i. 212.
0.
OATH, ii. 70.
Obadiah, i. 71.
Obed-Edom, i. 114.
Oehler, i. 81, 85, and often,
Offering, i. 373ff.
Omnipotence, ii. 151.
Omnipresence, ii. 149.
Omniscience, ii. 149.
Oracle, i. 212.
(Massa), i. 266.
Ordinances, i. 329.
Original sin, ii. 292 ff.
P.
PARABLE, i. 276 f.
Particularism, i. 177 ff.; ii. 13 ff.
Passover, i. 197, 203, 363 fF.
Patriarchal age, i. 60, 86 fF.
prophecies, ii. 347.
Patriarchs, ii. 6, 91.
Pentateuch, i. 64, 72.
Pentecost, i. 366 f.
Persian influences, i. 329.
period, i. 69.
religion, i. 47 fF.
Personality, i. 306.
of God, ii. 100 ff.
Pharisees, i. 409, 433 ; ii. 396.
Philo, ii. 443.
Philosophy, ii. 83.
Pietism, i. 1, 328.
Poverty, i. 58.
Prayer, i. 371 f.
Pro-existence, ii. 250 fF.
of Christ, ii. 440, 446.
Presence of God, i. 353 fF.
Preservation, ii. 189 f.
Priestly consecration, i. 399.
Priests, i. 186, 190 f., 197 ff., 222,
307 ff. ; ii. 10, 93, 427.
Primeval condition, ii. 258 f.
Prophets, i. 151 ff. 186, 221 fF.,
235-300, 412; ii. 424 fF.
INDEX OF SUBJECTS.
455
Prophets, calling of, i. 250 ff.
duties of, i. 266 ff.
false, i. 232 ff., 307.
names of, i. 264 ff.
persecutions of, i. 270 f.
religion of, i. 228, 243 ff.
schools of, i. 240 ff .
speech of, i. 272 ff.
writings of, i. 280.
Proselytes, i. 425.
Protevangelium, ii. 343.
Proverbs, i. 279.
Providence, ii. 191 ff.
belief in, ii. 200 ff.
Psalms, i. 71, 74, 429, 435 ; ii. 393.
of ascent, i. 328.
Solomonic, ii. 444.
Pure, ii. 168.
Purifications, i. 187 f., 372 f.; ii. 60.
Q.
QOHELETH, i. 78, 432.
Qorban, i. 374.
R.
RAINBOW, ii. 6.
Ransom, i. 389, 392.
Rapture, i. 254, 274 ff.
Rechabite.s, i. 91, 159, 163.
Reconciliation, i. 306, 357 ; ii. 87 ff.
conditions of, ii. 99 f.
consciousness of, ii. 99 f.
grounds of, ii. 92 ff.
limits of, ii. 291.
Redemption, ii. 29, 361.
Reichel, ii. 441.
Religious community, i. 326 ff.
instruction, i. 174 ff.
Renan, i. 37, 97.
Repentance, ii. 96.
of God, ii. 109.
Rephaim, ii. 326.
Restoration of Israel, ii. 363.
Resurrection, i. 330 ; ii. 320 ff, 329 ff.
of individuals, ii. 384 ff.
of Israel, ii. 382 ff.
Retribution, ii. 198, 207.
Revelation, i. 109, 182 f.; ii. 118 f.,
223 ff.
Riehm, i. 25, 274, 290, 382, 396 ; ii.
230.
Righteousness, ii. 22 ff., 367 ff.
of the Law, ii. 38 ff.
Rink, i. 382.
Rock, i. 240, 264.
R ontsch, i. 98.
Rusch, ii. 441.
Rust, i. 40.
Ruth, i. 75 ; ii. 18.
S.
SABBATH, i. 204 f., 244, 326, 360 ff.;
ii. 6, 49.
Sabbatical year, i. 336.
Sacrifice, i. 92, 188 ff ., 376 ff.; ii. 87.
cycle of, i. 400 ff.
human, i. 191 f., 385 f., 394.
law of, i. 188 ff.; ii. 87 ff.
Sadducees, i. 410, 433 ; ii. 399.
Salt, i. 374; ii. 3, 72.
Samaritan, i. 327, 331 ; ii. 17.
Samson, i. 114.
Samuel, i. lolff., 239, 244.
Sanctuary, i. 205 ff. ; ii. 369 ff.
Satan, i. 330 ; ii. 275 ff.
Satyrs, ii. 271.
Saul, i. 153, 166, 239, 242.
Scepticism, ii. 213.
Schelling, i. 40 f.
Schleiermacher, i. 33, 282.
Schmidt, i. 81.
Schrader, i. 90, 326 ; ii. 1 85.
Scoffing, ii. 284, 290.
Scribe, i. 331, 413ff.
Scripture, i. 328 f., 406 ff, 418 ff.
double sense of, ii. 446 ff.
Sects, i. 432 ff.
Seer, i. 268.
Seineke, i. 319.
Self-righteousness, i. 328 f.
Semites, i. 44 f., 97 ff.
Semler, i. 33, 80.
Seraphim, i. 185 ; ii. 238.
Serpent, i. 231 ; ii. 272 ff.
seed of, ii. 343 ff.
i Serving-woman, i. 342.
j Shaddai, ii. 130.
| Shamelessness, ii. 290 f.
Shechern, i. 145.
Shem, ii. 346 if.
Sheol, ii. 321 ff.
Shepherds, i. 269.
i Shewbread, i. 213, 355.
Shiloh, i. 147, 212 f.; ii. 337 ff.
Shoot, ii. 420.
Sibyl, ii. 444.
Sickness, ii. 73.
Sign, i. 185 ff, 276 f., 298 f.; ii. 195 ff.
Sin, ii. 281 ff.
consciousness of, ii. 43, 306 ff.
universality of, ii. 292 ff.
Sinai, i. 121, 128, 130, 185, 207.
Sinlessness, ii. 24, 292.
Sin-offering, i. 380.
456
INDEX OF SUBJECTS.
Slavery, ii. 11.
Smend, i. 206.
Smith, Robertson, i. 102, 386.
Solomon, i. 154 IF.
Soothsaying, i. 250 if., 281 ff., 283 IV.
Soul, ii. 246 ff.
Spencer, i. 33, 284.
Spirit of God, ii. ISO If., 189 ff., 202 If.,
218 If., 270, 405 f.
Holy, ii. Ill, 121.
Spirituality, ii. HOff.
Sprout, ii. 422.
Stade, i. 9, 122, 178, 194 ; ii. 134,
326, 327.
Star- worship, ii. 217, 227 if.
Statutes, ii. 64.
Stein, i. 81.
Steinthal, i. 98.
Steudel, i. 84, 131.
Stone-worship, i. 120, 207 ff.
Strauss, i. 37.
Stuhr, i. 42.
Substitution, i. 318, 387 ff.; ii. 213.
Sufferings of the righteous, i. 232, 305,
310 ff.; ii. 96, 352.
Suicide, i. 218.
Swear, i. 304.
Symbol, i. 276, 279.
Sympathy, i. 58 f.; ii. 74.
Synagogue, i. 428 ff.
T.
TABERNACLE, i. 211, 349 ff.
feast of, i. 336.
Targurn, ii. 444.
Temple, i. 156ff., 333 f., 428.
Temptation, ii. 272 ff.
Teraphim, i. 93, 119, 149, 284.
Thank offering, i. 378 ff.
Theocracy, i. 136.
Theodicy, ii. 205 ff.
Theophany, i. 186 f., 278 ; ii. 105 ff.
Toleration, i. 180.
Traducianism, ii. 182.
Transcendentalism, ii. 114 ff.
Transfiguration, i. 276.
Tree-worship, i. 120, 207, 208.
Trial, ii. 21 If.
Trustworthiness, i. 215 ; ii. 156.
Truthfulness, ii. 52, 156.
Type, ii. 353.
Typology, i. 350.
U.
UNBELIEF, ii. 290.
Unchastity, ii. 288.
Univcrsalism, ii. 20, 376 ff., 380.
Unnatural unions, ii. 74.
Urof the Chaldees, i. 106.
Uriah, i. 308.
Urim, i. 128. 284, 346, 411.
V.
VATKE, i. 39, 83, 141.
Virtues, i. 214ff.
Vision, i. 277.
Vow, i. 191 f., 371 f.
W.
WASHINGS, i. 372.
Watchman, i. 268 f.
Water, pouring out of, i. 189, 372.
Weiss, i. 79.
Welcker, i. 23, 113.
Wellhausen, i. 9, 131, 164, 190, 410,
etc.
Wcndt, ii. 246, 248, 315.
de Wette, i. 12, 34; ii. 112, 154.
Wieseler, ii. 440.
Wine, i. 163.
Wisdom, i. 216; ii. 83 ff., 121.
of God, ii. 161f.
of Solomon, ii. 398.
Woman, ii. 305.
seed of, ii. 343 ff.
Women employed in worship, i. 342.
Wonder, i. 297 ff.; ii. 115, 145, 192 ff.
Word of God, ii. 118 ff., 165, 184 ff.
Works, righteousness by, i. 225 f. ; ii.
34, 38.
World, government of, ii. 198.
Worship, i. 102 ff., 158, 174 ff., 187 ff.,
OOO if
law of, i. 188, 333 ff.
places of, i. 188, 205 ff., 302.
Wurster, i. 73.
Y.
YEAR-WEEK, ii. 440.
Z.
ZACHAKI^E, i. 82.
Zechariah, i. 70, 249.
Zedekiah, i. 307.
Zerubbabel, i. 326 ff.
INDEX OF HEBREW WORDS AND PHRASES.
Abaddon, destruction, . . . ii. 325.
Father of Spoil ii. 404.
S needy, ii. 298.
T3X strong, ...... ii. 129.
mighty, ii. 129.
man, Adam, . . i. 115.
also in ]>lur. D OIX, Lord, . . i. 122.
tent of testimony, .... i. 351.
3itf soothsayer, ventriloquist, . . i. 250, 258.
D HIS Light and Perfection, . . . i. 284.
nix sign, miracle, ..... i. 260, ii. 195.
remembrance, i. 355.
Job, the persecuted, . . . i. 319.
D S *N wild beasts of desert, . . . ii. 275.
nW silliness, ii. 284.
!>N El, God, ii. 128.
TV") la ^N Covenant God, . ., . . i. 145.
Divine Hero, ii. 404.
Most Hisl1 God iif 129>
El Shaddai, God Almighty, . . ii. 130.
plur. D^K, Elohim, God, . . i. 170, ii. 126f.
No-gods, idols, . . . i. 304.
anger, . ii. 174.
long-suffering,. . . ii. 178.
sacrifice by fire, . . . . i. 373, 375.
458 INDEX OF HEBREW WORDS AND PHRASES.
3
First- fruits, ..... i. 367,
nothing, ..... ii. 183.
worth] essness, ..... ii. 281.
n3 High riace, ..... i. 207.
|3 son, ...... ii. 216.
\33 sons of God, ..... i. 115.
"33 worthless fellows, .... ii. 281.
^3 wicked persons, . . . . ii. 281.
(jya Plur. D^ys, Master, Lord, . . i. 148.
f>y3 dreamer, interpreter of dreams, . i. 252, 304.
D^T* 13 clean-handed, ..... ii. 23.
tf-13 create, form, ..... ii. 185.
JV 55^03 in the beginning, . . . . ii. 185.
H313 blessing, ...... ii. 317.
^ T ;
flesh, ...... ii. 242, 314 f.
shame, ...... i. 148, 304.
virgin, ...... ii. 409.
3
JTS2 majesty, glory, . . . . ii. 125.
f>K3 reclaim, redeem, . . . . ii. 27.
JJT3 shoot, ...... ii. 405.
Dlin~|3 N^S Gehenna (valley of son of Hinnom), ii. 376.
fcOa Valley of Vision, i. 241.
)jf?Z wheel ...... ii. 233.
S logs, idols, ..... i. 304.
D^h embryo, ...... ii. 391.
H-l Proselytes proper, . . . i. 427.
n
Holy of Holies, . . . . i. 351.
q silence, ii. 325.
crushed, meek, . , . . ii. 298.
blood, i. 385.
INDEX OF 1IERUEW WORDS AND PHRASES. 459
likeness, ...... ii. 257.
stillness (a voice of stillness), . . i. 186, ii. 1<>6.
rbK urn practising necromancy, i, 258.
n
n wind (of idols), . i. 304.
rt palace, temple, . . . i. 212.
the Levitical priests, i. 337.
T
POT slaughter, sacrifice, i. 374.
3HT gold, ...... i. 364.
|il3t memorial, ..... i. 196.
elders, ...... i. 164.
T
n
an feast, ...... i. 203, 361.
jn Feast of Ingathering, i. 368.
jn Feast of Unleavened Bread, . . i. 366.
jn Feast of Booths, i. 368.
nth seer, prophet, ..... i. 264, 276.
riddle, ...... i. 276.
mercy, grace, ..... i. 214, ii. 23.
sin, ....... i. 380, ii. 28
shoot, ... . ii. 405.
wise, ...... i. 250.
plur. Dtan, Wisdom, . ii. 86.
j?n fat, .... i. 379.
n^n to smooth the face of, . . i. 387.
DE>n wickedness, ..... ii. 281.
T T
|p| mercy, merciful, ... ii. 178.
5]3n impious, .... . ii. 285.
"1DH senseless, ...... ii. 284.
"ixn court of the tabernacle, i. 356.
- -:
in aner ... ii. 174.
a banning, ban, i- 391, 393.
|{j ; n High Priest s breast-plate, . . i. 346.
4GO INDEX OF HEBREW WORDS AND PHRASES.
"1PIL3 purify, ...... i. .300.
unclean, ...... fi. 166.
Dn" 1 marry deceased brother s childless
wife, ...... ii. 63.
jn 11 wizard, . . , . . i. 250.
ini Jews, ...... i. 331.
^3it Jubilee, . . . . i. 363.
JTIIT Jahve, Jehovah, . . . . ii. 13, 131 if.
mrr Jehovah of Hosts, .... ii. 139.
niir Jehovah our Righteousness, . . ii. 418.
Di 11 The day of the Lord, . . . ii. 356.
3 {l He who sits upon the Cherubim, . ii. 230.
"1C" upright, righteous, . . , . ii. 23.
it," 1 Jeshurun, ..... ii. 29.
3
"1133 glory, ...... ii. 125.
D33 to wash clean, . . . . . ii. 99.
JH3 priest, .... . i. 127, 202, 343.
^3 whole burnt- offering, i. 375, 376.
np33 synagogue, ..... i. 429.
nD3 cover up, ..... ii. 99.
^D3, t^D3 headstrong folly, foolish, . . ii. 284.
C|D3 silver, ...... i. 376.
1Q3, "153 to cover, atone, atonement, . . i. 389, 398.
m B3 covering, mercy-seat, i. 354.
DUTI3 Cherubim, ..... | j- 185, 3 52, 354.
heart, mind, ..... ii. 252.
clothe, ...... i. 266.
Levites, ...... i. 337, 426.
INDEX OF IJEKREW WORDS AND P11KASES. 461
Dr6 food of sacrifice by fire, . i. 373.
Dr6 shewbread (bread of the face), . i. 355.
* scorner, ...... ii. 284.
D
"I DID correction, instruction, . . . ii. 298.
remarkable occurrence, miracle, . ii. 195.
fixed time, appointed feast, . . i. 361.
goings forth, issues, . . . ii. 415.
Moses (derivation of), . . i. 125.
(1) teacher, (2) early rain, . . ii. 426.
altar, ...... i. 356, 375.
Remembrancer, Recorder, . . i. 413.
crafty thoughts, . . , . ii. 162.
a base, ...... ii. 233.
to follow fully after Jehovah, . . ii. 32.
nil"! 11 7]xbE> Angel of Jehovah, . . . . ii. 419.
rfe word, ...... ii. 349.
D^^O interpreters, prophets, . . i. 268.
niTJIp meal-offering, ..... i. 374.
3HT mbJD golden candlestick, i. 355.
TT - :
flto unleavened cakes, i. 366.
Bhjj &OJ5D a holy assembly, . i. 369.
JVinE interest, usury, . . . . ii. 58.
nJD"l)D deceit, ...... ii. 284.
T :
TUT 131 K&p oracle of the word of Jehovah, . i. 266.
the dwelling-place of the testimony, i. 351.
a proverb, taunt-song, . . . i. 279.
3
a whispered utterance of Jehovah, . i. 266.
prudent, ...... ii. 23.
folly, ...... ii. 284.
corpse, ...... ii. 72.
prophet, ...... i. 240, 259, 264.
462 INDEX OF HEBREW WORDS AND PHRASES.
|O3 established, sure, sincere, . . ii. 32.
3 persons given, also D O TO, . . i. 343.
i} free-will offering, . i. 378.
T!-? vow ...... * 162 > 371 -
"lt;j a crown, ...... i. 162.
Nehushtan, ..... i. 150.
wonders, miracles, . . . . ii. 195.
Bfca soul, person, ..... i. 385, ii. 314.
HV3 f r ever , ..... . ii. 266.
*j?3 innocent, . . . . . ii. 307.
|^j3J innocence, ..... ii. 98.
K&J to bear iniquity, . . . . ii. 89, 99, 307.
rulers, ...... i. 164.
2 3 forgetfulnesd, ..... ii. 325.
usury, ...... ii. 58.
a breath, ...... ii. 253.
D
JTI3D name of Assyrian war-god Adar, " He
who cuts off the head," . . i. 90.
ni3D booths, ...... i. 368.
s
-|2D scribe, ...... i. 413.
Trip "IBD ready writer, ..... i. 413.
rebellious, ..... ii. 286.
y
servant of Jehovah, . . . . i. 266, 311.
wrath, ...... ii. 174.
y congregation, ..... ii. 8.
burnt-offering, i. 356, 375.
TDP1 J"6iy continual burnt-offering, . . i. 377.
jiy perversity, iniquity, . . . ii. 306.
f>TOT ..... i403ff.
1TV a helpmeet, . . . . . ii. 51.
crowns, ..... ii. 410.
marriageable woman, . . - ii. 409 ff.
INDEX Oi< HEBREW WORDS AND PHRASES. 463
jpjpy secret sins, ..... ii. 283.
)0y burden, sorrow, . . . . ii. 285.
Immanuel, ..... ii. 410.
H3y to afflict the soul, . . . i. 67, 402.
perverse, ..... ii. 284.
oppression, ..... ii. 285.
redeem, ...... i. 136, 392, ii. 27.
a wonder, ..... ii. 195, 404.
face, ...... ii. 220.
Passover, ...... i. 365.
open-eyed, ..... i. 313.
veil, ..... i. 354.
TIQ Plur. a^ns, simple, credulous, . ii. 283.
interpretation, . . . . i. 252.
NI^Host, ... . ii. 139 ff.
just, . . ii- 152.
wild beasts of desert, . . . ii. 275.
likeness, ...... i. 90.
sprout, ... . ii. 422.
and Part. Piel nBX, watchman, . i. 269.
cnirp ^01 manes;, ....
P
i. ZiU<J.
holy,
i. 271.
of old, ......
i. 259.
sanctify, ......
i. 399.
Holy of Holies, ....
i. 351.
assembly, ecclesia, .
i. 399.
Qoheleth, Ecclesiastes, .
i. 78, 432.
a dirge, plur. nfa l| p " Lamentations,"
incense, , .....
i. 279.
464 INDEX OF HKBUEYV \VOil US AND 1 llllASES.
l3Dn mbp incense of sweet spices, .
nivp curse, .....
. i. 356.
ii 317
T T ;
,13 p to purchase, ....
. i. 136, 332, ii. 27.
DDp a diviner, ....
. i. 258.
D s t3H "VXp wheat-harvest,
. i. 367.
13*115 gift,
. i. 364, 374.
nsh seer, prophet, ....
. i. 240.
3m pride,
. ii. 280.
QVorn mercy, .....
. ii. 157.
ni"V3 n*n sweet-smelling savour,
. i. 189, 373.
ncn worm, .....
. ii. 376.
JTEH treachery, ....
. ii. 284.
b tn creeping thing,
. ii. 77.
D^an The Shades, ....
. ii. 326.
|iV) favour, acceptance, .
. i. 189.
T
vuh wicked,
ii. 22.
Satan, Adversary, . . . .
Hiph. ^3J^n> to view attentively,
act wisely, i. 417, ii. 305.
Satyrs, ii. 271.
princes, ...... i. 164.
Prince of Peace, . . . . ii. 404.
Sheol, the under- world, . . . ii. 325.
in Niph. ys.n swear, . . . i. 266.
weeks, ...... i. 367.
Sabbath, i. 205, 362, ii. 284.
inadvertence, i. 389, ii. 89.
error, ii. 283.
demons, ... . ii- 275.
oppression, ii. 285.
y vanity, i. 261, 304.
to turn captivity, . . . ii. 363.
INDEX OF HEBREW WORDS AND PHRASES. 465
my crying, ..... i. 317.
the shoulder of the heave- offer ing, . i. 379.
act corruptly, ..... ii. 286.
Shiloh, .... . ii. 338 ff.
Thank-offerings, . . . . i. 378.
release, ...... ii. 11.
abomination, ..... i. 304, ii. 78.
deceit, ...... i. 304, ii. 284.
stubbornness, ..... ii. 286.
to minister, Part. mt^b, i 212.
understanding, . . . . ii. 162.
chaos, ...... i. 304.
praise, ...... i. 378.
instruction, law, Thorah, . . i. 188, 321.
nnrrin, nnain rebuke, ...... ii. 298.
worm, ...... ii. 376.
abomination, ..... i. 304, ii. 78.
sound wisdom, success, . . . ii. 80, 86.
wave- offering, ..... i. 379.
circuit, course, i. 368.
heave- offering, i. 398.
under, instead of, i. 387.
perfect, ...... ii. 23
VOL. n. 2 a
INDEX OF TEXTS.
GENESIS.
iv. 24 ff.
i. 117, 18S. xix. 2. . .
i. 138.
i. 128.
xx. 5
i. 234.
!:> ..:
. ii. 183ff.
v. 7, . . .
i. 92.
xxi. 6, . .
i. 373.
ii.-iii., .
. ii. 258 if.
vi. 3, . .
ii. 123,136.
xxii. 24,
ii. 74.
i. 29, .
. ii. 76.
vii. 1, . .
ii. 127.
xxiii. 8,
i. 309.
iii. 15, .
. ii. 343 ff.
vii. 16, . .
i. 128.
xxvii. 26, .
i. 372.
iv. 1, .
. ii. 27.
x. 3,. . .
i. 128.
iv. 26, .
. i. 88.
xiii. 17,
i. 137.
vi. 1-3, .
. i. 114 ff. ;
xiv. . . .
i. 201.
NUMBERS.
ii. 269 ff.
xv. 18, . .
ii. 8.
vi. 1-4, .
. ii. 31 4 f.
xviii. 19, .
i. 136.
iii. 20, . .
i. 126.
ix. 1, .
. i. 88.
xix ff. , . .
i. 67.
vi. 1, . .
i. 161.
ix. 4,
. i. 385.
xix. 5, . .
i. 138.
xii. 3, . .
i. 140.
ix. 4-7,
. ii. 6.
xx. 10, . .
i. 205.
xii. 6, . .
i. 131.
ix. 25-27,
. ii. 316.
xx. 19, . .
i. 131.
xii. 6, . .
i. 238.
xi. 30, .
. i. 94.
xxxii., . .
i. 92.
xii. 7, . .
ii. 8.
xii. 1-4,
. ii. 33.
xxxiii. 7, .
ii. 143.
xii. 8, . .
i. 276.
xiv. 13,
. ii. 3.
xxxiv. 10 if.,
i. 219.
xiv. 9, . .
i. 179.
xv. 6, .
. i. 52.
xv. 3, . .
i. 375.
xv. 18, .
. ii. 2.
xv. 30, . .
ii. 88.
xx. 7, .
. i. 237.
LEVITICUS.
xv. 40, . .
i. 138.
xx. 12, .
. i. 192.
xvi. 1, .
i. 140.
xxiv. 9,
. i. 195.
i. 9, . . .
i. 373.
xxi. 14,
i. 62.
xxvi. 7,
. i. 89.
ii. 13, . .
i. 374.
xxii. 8, . .
i. 276.
xxvi. 28,
. ii. 4.
iii. 11, . .
i. 373.
xxiii. 10, .
ii. 317.
xxviii. 20,
. i. 179.
iv. 24, . .
i. 380.
xxiv. 4,
i. 254.
xxx. 18,
. i. 217.
v. 1-13, .
i. 380 f.
xxiv. 24, .
i. 65.
xxxii. 24,
. i. 117.
vi. 10, . .
i. 380.
xxvii. 21, .
i. 284.
xxxii. 25,
i. 55.
vi. 14, . .
i. 375.
xxx. 2, . .
i. 372.
xxxv. 14,
. i. 120.
vi. 20, . .
i. 384.
xxx. 14,
i. 372.
xlix.,
. ii. 124,
vii. 7, . .
i. 380.
xxxi. 8-16,
i. 255.
335 ff.
vii. 16, . .
i. 378.
xxxiii. 38, .
i. 283.
xlix. 5, .
. i. 200.
viii. 28, .
i. 373.
xlix. 10,
. ii. 337 ff.
x. 9, . . .
ii. 75.
x. 12, . .
i. 375.
DEUTERONOMY.
x. 16, . .
ii. 239.
EXODUS.
xi. 45, . .
i. 138.
v. 1, . .
i. 132.
xvi. 7-28, .
i. 403 ff.
v. 14, . .
i. 426.
ii. 21, .
. i. 92.
xvi. 28,. .
i. 396.
vi. 4, . .
i. 34.
iii. 14, .
. ii. 138.
xvi. 29, . .
i. 402.
vii. 7, . .
ii. 30.
iii. 18, .
. i. 128.
xvii ff. , . .
i. 73.
vii. 22, . .
i. 144.
iv. 16, .
. ii. 127.
xvii. 10, 11,
i. 385.
xi. 10-17, .
ii. 35.
iv. 22, .
. ii. 9. xviii. 21, .
i. 234. xiii. 2ff., .
i. 256.
INDEX OF TEXTS.
467
xiii. 3, . .
i. 260.
RUTH.
2 KINGS.
xiv. 29,
i. 426.
xviii. 9
i. 259.
i 4 .
. i. 144.
i. 2, 33, . i. 122, 285.
xviii. 11, .
ii. 322.
i. 16, .
. i. 216.
ii. 12, . . i. 271.
xviii. lf, .
ii. 425 f.
ii. 2, .
. i. 150.
iii. 26, . . i. 192.
xviii. 20, .
i. 260.
iv. 3-14,
. i. 285.
iv. 13, . . i. 155.
xxi. 1 it 1 ., .
i. 398.
iv. 5,
. ii. 63.
iv. 42, . . i. 242.
xxii. 5, . .
ii. 74.
iv. 18-22
, . ii. 18.
v. 15, . . i. 178.
xxiv. 19, .
i. 426.
viii. 10, . i. 251.
xxvii. 5,
i. 209.
xiii. 14, . i. 271.
xxxii. 8, 9,
i. 227.
1
SAMUEL.
xvii. 11, . i. 233.
xxxii. 15, .
ii. 29.
xviii. 3, . i. 231.
xxxii. 43, .
i. 397.
i. 1, . .
. i. 151.
xxiii. 26, . i. 78.
xxxiii. 5, .
i. 136 ; ii.
i. 13, .
. i. 378.
29.
ii. 1-10,
. i. 64.
xxxiii. 8, .
i. 199.
ii. 15, .
. i. 379.
1 CHRONICLES.
xxxiii. 19, .
i. 157.
vii. 6, .
. i. 189, 374.
xxxiv. 10, .
i. 131.
viii. 6, .
. i. 165.
vi. 28, . . i. 151.
viii. 7, .
. i. 136.
xvi. 36, . i. 143.
ix. 9, .
. i. 240.
xvi. 40, . i. 377.
JOSHUA.
ix. 24, .
. i. 379.
xviii. 17, . i. 202.
x. 12, .
. i. 241.
i. 8, . . .
i. 142.
xiv. 3, .
. i. 150, 284.
iv. 4, . .
i. 196.
xiv. 32,
. ii. 72.
2 CHRONICLES.
v. 9,
i. 193.
xvi. 16,
. i. 243.
x. 13, . .
i. 62.
xix. 13,
. i. 119.
ii. 17, i. 143.
xi. 17, . .
i. 114.
xix. 19.
. i. 241 ; ii. xi. 15, . . ii. 278.
xiii 13
i 143
205.
xxiii., . . i. 77.
xiv. 7,
i. 266.
XV. 1.
. i. 41.
xxiv. 20, . i. 266.
xiv. 14,
i. 426. xxvi. 19,
. i. 302.
xxxiii. 11, . i. 234.
xv. 63, . .
i. 143.
xviii. 1,
i. 147.
xxii. ,
i. 209.
2
SAMUEL.
EZRA.
xxiv. 2, 3, .
i. 95. 97.
xxiv, 23, .
i. 112.
i. 18, .
. i. 62.
ii. 63, . . i. 411.
iii. 27, .
. i. 150.
iii. 2, . . i. 416.
vi. 2, .
ii. 177.
iv. 2, . . ii. 17.
JuJ
)GES.
vii. 1, .
. i. 270.
vi. 18, . . i. 416.
. i. 212.
vi. 21, . . i. 427.
i. 21, . .
i. 142.
vii. 23, .
. i. 228.
vii. 6, 10, . i. 414, 419.
iii. 15, . .
i. 26.
xvi. 23,
. i. 285.
viii. 15, . i. 416.
iv. 4,
i. 206.
xix. 21,
. i. 28.
iv. 11-17, .
i. 91, 201. xx. 18, .
. i. 146.
v. 20, . .
ii. 194. i xxiii. 11,
. i. 201.
NEHEMIAII.
v. 23, . .
i. 137. xxiii. 14,
. i. 386.
vi. 18, . .
i. 190.
ii. 13, . . i. 206.
vi. 28, . .
i. 183.
ii. 18, . . i. 415.
vii. 13, . .
i. 252.
]
KINGS.
vi. 7, 10, . i. 412.
viii. 22,
i. 136.
vii. 65, . . i. 411.
viii. 23, .
i. 148.
iv. 2, 5,
. . 202.
viii. 1, . . i. 415.
ix. 13, . .
i. 121.
ix. 11, .
. . 156.
x. 20, . . i. 427.
ix. 28, . .
i. 144.
ix. 20, .
. . 143.
xii. 13, . . i. 76.
xi. 35, . .
i 191.
x. 9,
. . 178.
xii. 1, . .
i. 147.
xii. 10, .
. 156.
xvii. 6, . .
i. 167.
xiii. 1, 32, . . 288.
ESTHER.
xvii. 7,8, 11
, i. 67.
xviii. 30,
. . 157.
xviii. 5-14,
i. 119.
xix. 12,.
. . 186.
iv. 3, . . ii. 42.
xix. 16,
i. 26.
xix. 19, .
. . 241.
viii. 11, . . ii. 17.
xix. 46,
i. 145.
xxi. 3, .
. ii. 11.
ix. 1-16, . ii. 19.
xx. 13, . .
ii. 281. xxii. 21,
. ii. 205.
ix. 19, . . ii. 42.
468
INDEX OF TEXTS.
JOB.
Ixiii. 2, . .
ii. 243.
ECCLESTASTKS.
Ixix., . .
ii. 448 ff.
i.,
. i. 275 ff.
Ixxii., .
i. 168; ii
i. 1. 2 .
i 435 f
** >
i. 5, . .
. ii. 69.
370.
iii
ii. 398.
i. 21, .
. ii. 251.
Ixxiii., . .
ii. 389 f.
iii. 1-9,
i. 435.
iii. 8, .
. i. 185.
Ixxiv., . .
i. 406, 413,
iv. 10, . .
ii. 115.
iv. 13, .
. i. 275, 277.
429.
v 5
i 269
iv. 18, .
. ii. 227.
xc. 3, . .
ii. 392.
vii. 16, . .
ii. 43.
v. 6, .
. ii. 209.
xcii. 6, . .
ii. 86.
vii. 20, . .
ii. 24.
ix. 9, .
. i. 185.
civ. 5, . .
ii. 229.
vii. 29, . .
ii. 258.
x. 4, .
. ii. 244.
civ. 16,
i. 208.
viii. 8, . .
ii. 398.
xi. 10, .
. ii. 202.
cv. 1, . .
i. 78.
ix. 3-10, .
ii. 393.
xii. 5, .
. ii. 211.
cv. 15, . .
ii. 16.
xi. 9, . .
i. 437.
xv. 4, .
. ii. 85.
ex. 1, . .
ii. 429, 450.
xii. 7, . .
ii. 245, 393.
xvii. 8f.,
. ii. 211.
ex. 2, 4, .
i. 137, 168,
xii. 12, . .
i. 417.
xix. 25 ff.,
. ii. 329 ff.
169.
xii. 14, . .
i. 437.
xx vi. 121.
, i. 227.
cxv. 11,
i. 427.
xxxi. 1,
. ii. 3.
cxxv. 3,
ii. 26.
xxxi. 33,
. ii. 261.
cxxxvii., .
ii. 17.
ISAIAH.
xxxiii. 15,
. i. 277.
cxxxix. 2, .
ii. 9, 139,
xxxiii. 23,
. i. 268.
391 ff.
i. 9, . . .
i. 222.
xxxiii. 26,
. i. 371.
cxxxix. 15,
ii. 251 ff.
ii. 6, . .
i. 259.
xxxviii. 3,
. i. 185.
cxli. 5, . .
ii. 299.
iv 9
IV. 4 } . .
ii. 407.
xxxviii. 7,
. ii. 140, 228.
cxlviii. 6 ; .
ii. 192.
vi. 1, . .
ii. 106.
xxxviii. 38-41, ii. 191.
cxlviii. 8, .
ii. 229.
vi. 1-6, . .
ii. 237 11*.
vi. 13, . .
ii. 359.
vii. 8, . .
i. 288.
PllOVERBS.
vii. 14 ff., .
ii. 408-414.
PSALMS.
vii. 17, . .
i. 225 ; ii.
ii. 7, . .
ii. 80.
449.
ii. 4, .
. i. 137.
iii. 18, . .
i. 66.
viii. 10,
ii. 410.
vi. 2, .
. ii. 175.
vii. 14, . .
i. 379.
viii. 19,
i. 253, 259.
vi. 9, .
. il 289.
viii. 22-23,
ii. 181.
ix. 5 ft .,
ii. 402 ff.
vii. 10, .
. ii. 152.
ix. 12, . .
ii. 310.
x. 14, 19, .
i. 259.
viii.,
. i. 64 ; ii.
xi. 16, . .
i. 155.
xi. 1-3, . .
ii. 405 ff.
101, 255.
xi. 25, . .
i. 151.
xiii. 10,
ii. 357.
xvi. ,
. ii. 265 ff.
xi. 30, . .
i. 66.
xiv. 9, . .
ii. 326.
xvii. 15,
. ii. 81, 122,
xii. 4, . .
i. 155.
xvi. 14,
i. 287.
267 ff.
xii. 10, . .
i. 214.
xix. 3, . .
i. 259.
xviii. , .
. i. 64.
xiii. 12,
i. 66. xx. 2, . .
i. 266.
xviii. 25,
. ii. 23.
xiv. 28,
i. 167.
xxi. 11,
i. 268.
xviii. 36,
. ii. 159.
xv. 8, . .
i. 371.
xxi. 16,
i. 287.
xix.,
. i. 265.
xv. 33, . .
ii. 298.
xxiii. 29, .
i. 263.
xx. 4, .
. i. 189.
xvi. 4, . .
ii. 157.
xxv. 3, . .
ii. 378.
xxii. ,
. ii. 448 f.
xvi. 10,
i. 167.
xxv. 8, . .
ii. 384.
xxii. 2, .
. i. 317.
xviii. 5,
i. 151, 214.
xxvi. 15, .
ii. 38].
xxvii. 6,
. i. 378.
xviii. 12, .
i. 214.
xxvi. 17, .
ii. 354.
xxix., .
. i. 64; ii.
xix. 14,
i. 155.
xxvi. 19, .
ii. 387.
101.
xix. 17,
i. 151, 214.
xxviii. 9, .
i. 249, 263.
xxxvi. 7,
. i. 208.
xix. 26, .
i. 214.
xxviii.15,18,
i. 269 ; ii.
xxxix. 13,
. ii. 15.
xx. 8, . ,
i. 167.
406 f.
xlv., .
. i. 168, 389 ;
xx. 10, . .
i. 151.
xxx. 19,
ii. 426.
ii. 114, 448.
xxi. 4, . .
i. 214. xxxi. 3,
ii. 244.
xlviii. 15,
. i. 170.
xxi. 13,
i. 151.
xxxii. 1-8, .
ii. 407.
xlix., .
. ii. 387 ff.
xxi. 18, .
i. 390.
xxxv. 10, .
ii. 385 f.
xlix. 7, 8,
. i. 392.
xxii. 4, . .
i. 214.
xxxvi. 10, .
i. 229.
1. 5, . .
. ii. 14.
xxii. 9, . .
i. 151. xl. 2, . .
ii. 361.
Ii., . .
. ii. 311.
xxii. 11,
i. 167. ixlii. 19, .
ii. 379.
Ii. 18, .
. ii. 94.
xxvii. 19, .
ii. 300. xliii. 3,4,28,
i. 115, 173;
Iviii. 4, .
. ii. 297.
xxxi., . .
ii. 53. i
ii. 92.
INDEX OF TEXTS.
469
xliv. 5, . .
ii. 370.
iii. 24, . .
ii. 79.
HOSEA.
xlv. 8, 23, .
ii. 368,377.
iii. 27-30, .
ii. 213.
xlviii. 16, .
i. 265.
iii. 31, . .
ii. 179.
i. 4, . .
. i. 159.
xlix. 1,2,.
i. 267 ; ii.
iv. 20, . .
i. 172.
i. 7, . .
. i. 160.
427.
ii. 2, . .
. i. 160.
lii.13-liii.12,
ii. 430-435,
ii. 7, 11,
. i. 203.
450.
EZEKIEL.
iii. 4, .
. i. 119.
liv. 6, . .
ii. 90, 250.
iv. 7, .
. i. 73.
Iv. 10, . .
ii. 193.
i., ...
ii. 232 ff.
iv. 8, .
. i. 389.
Ivi. 10, . .
i. 261.
iii. 17, . .
i. 268.
v. 6,. .
. i. 371.
Ixiii. 8, . .
ii. 29.
iv. 4, . .
i. 388.
v. 10, .
. i. 171.
Ixiii. 10, .
ii. 111.
iv. 5, . .
i. 288.
vi. 1, .
. ii. 383.
Ixv, 11, 20,
i. 114; ii.
vii. 26, . .
i. 261.
vi. 5, .
. i. 274.
368,3851 .
viii. 1, . .
i. 428.
vii. 12, .
. i. 73.
Ixvi. 1. . .
i. 209.
viii. 3, . .
i. 266.
viii. 5, .
. i. 221 ; ii.
Ixvi. 21, 23,
ii. 380 f.
xi. 5, . .
ii. 245.
98.
xiii. 2, . .
i. 261.
ix. 7, 8,
. i. 247.
xiii. 9, . .
i. 260.
xi. 1, .
. ii. 9.
JEREMIAH.
xvi. 20,
i. 207.
xi. 8, .
. i. 66.
xvii. 22, .
ii. 420.
xi. 9, .
. ii. 172.
ii. 19, . .
i. 189.
xviii. 10-13,
ii. 310.
xii. 4, .
. i. 66, 118.
ii. 30, . .
i 273.
xx. 8, . .
i. 140.
xii. 5, .
. i. 187.
iii. 16, . .
ii. 368.
xx. 16, . .
i. 90.
xii. 11, .
. i. 279.
v. 13, . .
i. 286.
xx. 25, . .
ii. 56.
xii. 14, .
. i. 138.
vii 25
i 239.
xx. 30, . .
i. 234.
xiii. 14, .
. i. 229 ; ii.
vii. 31, . .
ii. 376.
xxi. 26,
i. 119.
383.
viii. 8, . .
i. 413.
xxi. 32,
ii. 420.
xiv. 10,.
. ii. 153.
ix. 25, . .
i. 193.
xxiii. 3,
i. 140.
x. 5, . . .
i. 90.
xx vii. 23, .
ii. 230.
xi. 19, . .
i. 240.
xxix. 21, .
ii. 420.
JOEL.
xiii 1
i 279
xxxii. 19, .
i. 193.
xiii. 3, . .
i. 173.
xxxiv. 23, .
ii. 420.
i. 15, .
. i. 287.
xv. 4,
i. 78.
xxxvii. ,
ii. 383 11 .
ii. 1,. .
i. 287.
xv. 10, . .
i. 249.
xliii. 26, .
i. 198.
ii. 11, .
. ii. 192.
xvii. 16,
i. 274.
xliv., . .
ii. 428.
ii. 12, .
. ii. 295.
xvii. 19, .
i. 273.
xlv. 8, . .
ii. 420.
ii. 18, .
. ii. 179.
xxiii. 6,
ii. 418.
ii. 21, .
. ii. 195.
xxvi. 2,
i. 273.
ii. 23, .
. ii. 426.
xxviii. 6, .
i. 274.
DANIEL.
iii. 1, .
. i. 277.
xxix. 22, .
i. 78.
iv. 2, 12,
. ii. 375.
xxx. 2, . .
i. 280.
i. 8, . . .
ii. 64.
xxxi. 29, .
ii. 207.
i. 17, . .
i. 413.
xxxi. 34, .
ii. 424.
ii. 33, . .
ii. 438.
AMOS.
xxxii. 18, .
ii. 141.
iii. 18, . .
ii. 42.
xxxiii.14-26,
ii. 418.
v. 11, . .
i. 413.
i. 1, . .
. i. J47.
XXXV., . .
i. 91.
vii. 3, . .
ii. 438.
ii. 1,
. i. 66.
xxxv. 2,
i. 163.
vii. 18, . .
ii. 439.
ii. 1, .
. i. 22!.
xxxvi. 19, .
i. 249.
vii. 25, . .
ii. 439.
ii. 4, .
. ii. 366.
xxxvi. 26, .
i. 413.
viii. 4. 6, .
ii. 438.
ii. 10, .
. i. 66.
xliv. 15, 29,
i. 299, 301.
viii. 10,
ii. 16.
ii. 12, .
. i. 162.
1.2,. . .
i. 285.
viii. 15,
ii. 240.
ii. 12, .
. i. 247.
1. 28, . .
i. 75.
ix. 2, . .
i. 417.
ii. 12, .
. i. 286.
Ii. 11-51, .
i. 75.
ix. _5,
ii. 438.
iii. 1,
. i. 66.
ix. 21, . .
ii. 226.
iii. 6, .
. Li. 197.
ix. 24, . .
i. 397.
iv. 3, .
. i. 160.
LAMENTATIONS.
ix. 25 f., .
ii. 440 ff.
iv. 5,
. i. 75.
x. 7,. . .
i. 413.
iv. 5, .
. i. 221.
ii. 9, ...
i. 172.
xii. 1, . .
ii. 240.
iv. 10, .
. ii. 56.
ii. 9, 14, .
i. 277. xii. 2, .
ii. 392.
iv. 11. .
. i. 66.
ii. 14, . .
i. 262. xii. 3, . .
i. 417.
v. 2, .
. i. 204.
470
INDEX OF TEXTS.
v. 2,
. . i. 226.
HABAKKUK.
xvi. 7, . . i. 419.
v. 21,
. . i. 204.
xvii. 14, . ii. 20.
v. 22,
. . i. 73.
i. 1, . . . i. 269.
xxxviii. 24, i. 418.
v. 25,
. . i. 66.
ii. 2, . . i. 273.
xl. 1, . . ii. 251.
v. 26,
. . i. 90.
ii. 3, . . i. 287.
1., . . . i. 412 ; ii.
vii. 10,
. . i. 202.
ii. 4, . . ii. 35.
17.
vii. 13,
. . i. 247.
iii. 2, . . ii. 179.
vii. 14,
. . i. 221.
vii. 14,
. . i. 243.
WISDOM OF SOLOMON. 
