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diff --git a/40173-8.txt b/40173-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index ab801b6..0000000 --- a/40173-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,7728 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's The Literature of the Old Testament, by George Foot Moore - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: The Literature of the Old Testament - -Author: George Foot Moore - -Release Date: July 8, 2012 [EBook #40173] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITERATURE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT *** - - - - -Produced by Delphine Lettau, Julia Neufeld and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - -Transcriber's note: - -Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). - -Text enclosed by equal signs is in bold face (=bold=). - -Small capital text has been replaced with all capitals. - -The carat character (^) indicates that the following letter or number -is superscripted (example: 15^b-18^a). - -[=e] represents "e" with a macon over it. - - - - - HOME UNIVERSITY LIBRARY - OF MODERN KNOWLEDGE - THE LITERATURE OF THE - OLD TESTAMENT - - BY - GEORGE FOOT MOORE, M.A., D.D., LL.D. - - LONDON - WILLIAMS & NORGATE - - HENRY HOLT & Co., NEW YORK - CANADA: WM. BRIGGS, TORONTO - INDIA: R. & T. WASHBOURNE, LTD. - - - - -[Illustration: - -HOME -UNIVERSITY -LIBRARY -OF -MODERN KNOWLEDGE - -_Editors_: - -HERBERT FISHER, M.A., F.B.A., LL.D. -PROF. GILBERT MURRAY, D.LITT., LL.D., F.B.A. -PROF. J. ARTHUR THOMSON, M.A., LL.D. -PROF. WILLIAM T. BREWSTER, M.A. -(COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, U.S.A.) - -NEW YORK -HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY] - - - - -[Illustration: - -THE -LITERATURE -OF THE -OLD TESTAMENT - -BY -GEORGE FOOT MOORE -M.A., D.D., LL.D. - -Professor in Harvard University; Editor of the -Harvard Theological Review; Author -of "Commentary on Judges," etc. - -LONDON -WILLIAMS AND NORGATE] - - - - -The following volumes of kindred interest have already been published -in the Home University Library:-- - - VOL. 56.--THE MAKING OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. By PROF. B. W. - BACON, LL.D., D.D.Vol. - - VOL. 68.--COMPARATIVE RELIGION. By PRINCIPAL J. ESTLIN - CARPENTER, D.Litt. - - VOL. 15.--MOHAMMEDANISM. By PROF. D. S. MARGOLIOUTH, M.A., - D.Litt. - - VOL. 47.--BUDDHISM. By MRS. RHYS DAVIDS, M.A. - - VOL. 54.--ETHICS. By G. E. MOORE, M.A. - - - - -CONTENTS - - - CHAPTER PAGE - - I THE CANON OF THE OLD TESTAMENT 7 - - II THE OLD TESTAMENT AS A NATIONAL - LITERATURE 25 - - III THE PENTATEUCH 29 - - IV CHARACTER OF THE SOURCES. GENESIS 33 - - V EXODUS, LEVITICUS, NUMBERS 47 - - VI DEUTERONOMY 58 - - VII AGE OF THE SOURCES. COMPOSITION OF THE - PENTATEUCH 65 - - VIII JOSHUA 73 - - IX JUDGES 81 - - X SAMUEL 91 - - XI KINGS 100 - - XII CHRONICLES 118 - - XIII EZRA AND NEHEMIAH 128 - - XIV STORY BOOKS: ESTHER, RUTH, JONAH 134 - - XV THE PROPHETS 144 - - XVI ISAIAH 147 - - XVII JEREMIAH 164 - - XVIII EZEKIEL 174 - - XIX DANIEL 180 - - XX MINOR PROPHETS 190 - - XXI PSALMS. LAMENTATIONS 218 - - XXII PROVERBS 231 - - XXIII JOB 235 - - XXIV ECCLESIASTES. SONG OF SONGS 243 - - BIBLIOGRAPHY 251 - - INDEX 253 - - - - -THE LITERATURE - -OF - -THE OLD TESTAMENT - - - - -CHAPTER I - -THE CANON OF THE OLD TESTAMENT - - -The early Christians received the Sacred Books of the Jews as inspired -Scripture containing a divine revelation and clothed with divine -authority, and till well on in the first century of the Christian era -the name Scriptures was applied exclusively to these books. In time, -as they came to attach the same authority to the Epistles and Gospels, -and to call them, too, Scriptures (2 Pet. iii. 16), they distinguished -the Christian writings as the Scriptures of the new dispensation, or, -as they called it, the "new covenant," from the Scriptures of the "old -covenant" (2 Cor. iii. 6, 14), the Bible of the Jews. The Greek word -for covenant (_diathéké_) was rendered in the early Latin translation -by _testamentum_, and the two bodies of Scripture themselves were -called the Old Testament and the New Testament respectively. - -The Scriptures of the Jews were written in Hebrew, the older language -of the people; but a few chapters in Ezra and Daniel are in Aramaic, -which gradually replaced Hebrew as the vernacular of Palestine from -the fifth century B.C. The Sacred Books comprise the Law, that is, the -Five Books of Moses; the Prophets, under which name are included the -older historical books (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings) as well as what -we call the Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve, i.e. -Minor Prophets); a third group, of less homogeneous character, had no -more distinctive name than the "Scriptures"; it included Ruth, Psalms, -Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Lamentations, Daniel, -Esther, Ezra-Nehemiah, and Chronicles. The Minor Prophets counted as -one book; and the division of Samuel, Kings, Ezra-Nehemiah, and -Chronicles each into two books was made later, and perhaps only in -Christian copies of the Bible. There are, consequently, according to -the Jewish enumeration twenty-four books in the Bible, while in the -English Old Testament, by subdivision, we count the same books as -thirty-nine. - -The order of the books in the Pentateuch and "Former Prophets" -(Joshua-Kings) is fixed by the historical sequence, and therefore -constant; among the "Latter Prophets" Jeremiah was sometimes put -first, immediately following the end of Kings, with which it was so -closely connected. In the third group there was no such obvious -principle of arrangement, and consequently there were different -opinions about the proper order; that which is given above follows the -oldest deliverance on the subject, and puts them in what the rabbis -doubtless supposed to be a chronological series. So long as the books -were written on separate rolls of papyrus, the question of order was -theoretical rather than practical; and even when manuscripts were -written in codex form (on folded leaves stitched together like our -books), no uniformity was attained. - -At the beginning of the Christian era, lessons from the Law were -regularly read in the synagogues on the sabbath (the Pentateuch being -so divided that it was read through consecutively once in three -years), and a second lesson was chosen from the Prophets. The title of -these books to be regarded as Sacred Scripture was thus established by -long-standing liturgical use, and was, indeed, beyond question. Nor -was there any question about the inspiration of most of the books in -the third group, the "Scriptures." There was a controversy, however, -over Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs; some teachers of the -strictest school denied that either of them was inspired, while others -accepted only one of them. The question was voted on in a council of -rabbis held at Jamnia about the beginning of the second century of our -era, and the majority decided for the inspiration of both books. There -were also, even down to the third century, Jewish scholars who did -not acknowledge Esther as Sacred Scripture. On the other hand, some -were inclined to include among the Sacred Books the Proverbs of Ben -Sira, which stand in the English Bible among the Apocrypha under the -title Ecclesiasticus. - -It is thus evident that, while there was agreement in general, there -was, down to the second century A.D., no authoritative list of the -"Scriptures," and that about some of the books there were conflicting -opinions among the learned of the most orthodox stamp. An interesting -confirmation of this is the fact that in the first half of that -century it was thought necessary to make a formal deliverance that the -"Gospel and other writings of the heretics" are not Sacred Scripture. -There are other indications that in that generation Jewish -Christianity had a dangerous attraction for some even in rabbinical -circles, and there was evidently ground for apprehension that the -inspiration which the Christians claimed for the Scriptures of the New -Covenant might impose upon well-meaning but uninstructed Jews. In the -same connection it was decided, further, that Ben Sira (Ecclesiasticus) -was not Holy Scripture, and that no books written from his time on (about -200 B.C.) were inspired, in accordance with the theory, found also in -Josephus, that inspiration ceased in the age of Ezra and Nehemiah. - -By such decisions, recognizing the inspiration of books that had been -challenged and excluding others for which inspiration had been -claimed, the canon of the Scriptures, that is, the authoritative list -of Sacred Books, was defined. The oldest catalogue we have, containing -the titles of all the books, dates probably from the latter part of -the second century, and is not concerned with the point of -canonicity--which it takes for granted--but with the proper order of -the Prophets and the Scriptures. - -The Jews had for centuries been widely distributed through the lands -that had been included in the kingdoms of Alexander's successors. -There were large numbers in Babylonia and the neighbouring provinces -of the Parthian empire, and still more in the countries around the -eastern end of the Mediterranean, in Syria and Asia Minor, in Egypt -and Cyrene. In Alexandria the Jews had a whole quarter of the city to -themselves, and Philo estimates their numbers in Egypt in his time -(ca. A.D. 40) at a million. - -In cities like Alexandria, where Greek was the common speech of a -population recruited from many races, the Jews soon exchanged their -mother tongue for the cosmopolitan language. The ancient Hebrew of -their Sacred Books was unintelligible, not only to the masses, but -even to most of the educated, who had learned in the schools of Greek -rhetoricians and philosophers rather than at the feet of the rabbis. -If the knowledge of the holy Law by which the distinctive Jewish life -was regulated was not to be lost altogether, the Scriptures must be -translated into Greek. The Pentateuch was doubtless translated -first--legend attributes the initiative to King Ptolemy Philadelphus -(285-246 B.C.); then other books, by different hands and at different -times and places. To some of the books, as to Daniel and Esther, -additions were made in the translation which were not accepted by the -Palestinian Jews. - -Besides the books which were finally included in the Jewish canon, -there were various others, written in Hebrew or Aramaic after the -pattern of the several forms of Biblical literature. History, for -example, is represented by 1 Maccabees, relating the struggle of the -Jews in Palestine for religious liberty and national independence in -the second century B.C.; the Proverbs of Solomon have a counterpart in -the Proverbs of Ben Sira, already mentioned; the Psalter, in the -so-called Psalms of Solomon; the story of Judith may be compared with -Esther; the visions of Daniel have their parallel in popular -apocalypses bearing the names of Enoch, Noah, Ezra, Baruch, and other -ancient worthies. These writings were sooner or later translated into -Greek, and some of them attained a wide circulation. The -Greek-speaking Jews, also, produced a religious literature, in part -imitating the familiar Biblical forms, as in the Wisdom of Solomon -and 2 Maccabees, in part cast in Greek moulds, as when prophecy -disguised itself in Sibylline Oracles, or the supremacy of reason over -the emotions was made the subject of a discourse after the pattern of -a Stoic diatribe (4 Maccabees). - -The influence of Greek culture on many of these writers was not -confined to language and literary form; they lived in an atmosphere of -Greek thought--the popular philosophy, in which Platonic and Stoic -elements were fused or confused--and a few had a more academic -acquaintance with the Greek thinkers. But, under all this, they were -Jews to the core, devoted to the religion of their fathers, of the -superiority of which they were the more convinced by the spectacle of -heathenism about them: Judaism was the only true religion, its -Scriptures the one divine revelation. The Law and the Prophets had the -same precedence as in the Palestinian synagogue. Of the other -Scriptures there was no authoritative and exclusive list, and among -books read solely for private edification it is not likely that a very -sharp line was drawn; but, on the whole, the practice of the -Greek-speaking Jews does not seem to have been materially different -from that of their countrymen in Palestine. - -Outside of Palestine, Christianity was spread by Greek-speaking Jews -who had embraced the new Messianic faith, and their converts in the -fields of their missionary labours, both Jews and Gentiles, spoke -Greek, either as their mother tongue or as the language of common -intercourse. The church, therefore, took over the Jewish Scriptures in -the existing translations: the Christian Old Testament was from the -beginning the Greek Bible, not the Hebrew. They received also from the -Greek-speaking Jews the belief in the divine inspiration of the -translators, by virtue of which the same infallible authority attached -to the version of the Seventy which belonged to the Hebrew original. -In their desire to possess every word of God, they gathered up the -religious books which they found in the hands of the Jews, without -inquiring curiously whether the Jews included them in the narrower -category of Sacred Scriptures or not; and they discovered no reason in -the books themselves why Esther, for example, should be inspired and -Judith not; or why Ecclesiastes, with its scepticism about the destiny -of the soul, should be divinely revealed, and the Wisdom of Solomon, -with its eloquent defence of immortality, a purely human production; -or, again, why the Proverbs of Solomon were Scripture, and the -Proverbs of Ben Sira (Ecclesiasticus) nothing but profane wisdom. - -Controversies in the second century made the Christian apologists -aware that the Jews did not acknowledge the authority of some of the -books from which their opponents adduced proof-texts, and this -practical concern, rather than purely learned interest, led to the -drawing up of lists of books which were accepted by the Jews as Sacred -Scripture. The oldest of these lists which has come down to us was -made by Melito, Bishop of Sardes, about A.D. 170; it contains the -books of the Jewish canon enumerated above (p. 8), with the noteworthy -exception of Esther, about which, as we have seen, Jewish opinion was -divided. Christian catalogues of the Jewish Old Testament long show an -uncertainty about the right of this book to a place in the canon. - -Meanwhile the church had, in its worship and in religious instruction, -established a use and tradition of its own. The Wisdom of Jesus, son -of Sirach, was appropriated for the moral instruction of youth and of -converts, as is shown by the title it bears in the Greek Bible, -Ecclesiasticus, that is, "The Church Book," and other writings not -included in the Jewish canon were highly esteemed in the church. About -A.D. 240, Julius Africanus, Bishop of Emmaus in Palestine, addressed a -critical letter to Origen on the story of Susanna and the Elders in -the Book of Daniel. This story, he said, was not found in the Hebrew -Daniel, and was not acknowledged by the Jews. He proved by internal -evidence that it was not translated from the Hebrew, the language in -which the Scriptures of the Old Testament were inspired, but -originally composed in Greek, and he raised various historical -objections to the tale: it ought not, therefore, to be quoted as -Sacred Scripture. In his answer, Origen, the greatest Biblical scholar -of his age, argued that if the story of Susanna was to be set aside on -the ground that it was not accepted by the Jews, other books, such as -Judith and Tobit, would have to be rejected also. He appeals to the -prescriptive usage of the church itself, which had always used these -books and read them with edification. This immemorial tradition was -authority enough for Christians; there was no reason why the church -should prune its Bible to please the Jews or adapt itself to their -opinions about what was and what was not inspired Scripture; he -reminds his correspondent of the law, "Thou shalt not remove the -ancient landmarks which those before thee have set." - -This way of looking at the matter, as might be expected, prevailed in -the church. Lists of the books of the Jewish Bible were handed down, -and scholars were well aware that the Christian Old Testament -contained several books not received by the Jews. By the more critical -of the Greek Fathers these books are not cited with the same authority -for the establishment of doctrine as the books of the Hebrew Bible. -Thus, Athanasius, at the end of a list of the canonical Scriptures of -the Old and New Testaments (A.D. 365), adds: "There are, besides -these, other books, not, indeed, included in the canon, but -prescribed by the Fathers to be read by those who come to the church -and wish to be taught the doctrine of religion, namely, the Wisdom of -Solomon, and the Wisdom of Sirach, Esther, Judith, Tobit, and the -Teaching of the Twelve Apostles." But this learned reserve had no -effect on the liturgical or practical use of the church. The question -of the inspiration and authority of the supernumerary books of the Old -Testament was not decided by any council speaking in the name of the -catholic church; nor was it ever thus determined exactly what these -supernumerary books were, though several local synods made lists of -them. - -The Latin Church received its Bible from the Greeks, and the Latin -translations of the Old Testament made from the Greek included, as a -matter of course, the books which the church accepted and the -synagogue rejected. About the beginning of the fifth century, Jerome -undertook a new Latin translation direct from the Hebrew. He lived for -many years at Bethlehem, and had learned Hebrew from Jewish teachers, -whose assistance he employed also in the work of translation. In some -of the prefaces to this translation (which was published in parts), -and in other places in his writings, Jerome gives a catalogue of the -books of the Hebrew Bible, corresponding to the contents of our -English Old Testament, and expressly excludes all others from the -class of canonical Scriptures: "Whatever is not included in this list -is to be classed as apocrypha. Therefore Wisdom (commonly entitled 'of -Solomon'), and the Book of Jesus son of Sirach, and Judith and Tobit -... are not in the canon." The word "apocrypha," literally "secret, or -esoteric, writings," had been used generally for the books of -heretical sects, or suspected of being such, and, more broadly, of -writings which the church repudiated as not only uninspired but -harmful, the reading of which it often forbade. It was, therefore, a -very radical word that Jerome uttered when he applied this name to -books which the church had always regarded as godly and edifying. - -Jerome himself did not consistently maintain the position which would -make the Jewish Bible the canon of the Christian church. At the -request of certain bishops he translated Judith and Tobit, noting in -the prefaces that the Jews exclude these books from the canon and put -them among the apocrypha, but significantly adding in the one case -that he thinks it better to oppose the judgment of the Pharisees and -obey the commands of the bishops, in the other pleading not only the -demand of a bishop but the fact that the Nicene Council had included -Judith among the Sacred Books.[1] In another preface he describes -Ecclesiasticus and the Wisdom of Solomon as books which the church -reads "for the edification of the people, not for proving the -doctrines of the church"--a definition which accords with the attitude -of many of the Greek Fathers. Jerome thus halts between two opinions: -in relegating to the apocrypha everything that is not in the Hebrew -Bible he speaks as a critic; in recognizing the books found in the -Christian Old Testament, but not in the Hebrew, as useful and -edifying, though of inferior authority for doctrinal purposes, he, -like Origen, takes the ground of the practical churchman. The -mediating position is more clearly defined by Rufinus, who, after -giving a catalogue of the books of the Hebrew Bible, adds: "There are -other books, which older authors called not 'canonical' but -'ecclesiastical,' such as the Wisdom of Solomon, and the so-called -Wisdom of the Son of Sirach, named by the Latins Ecclesiasticus; to -the same class belong Tobit, Judith and the Books of the Maccabees." - - [1] The Nicene Council made no formal deliverance on the subject of - the canon, and upon what Jerome's appeal to its authority rests is - unknown. - -The great influence of Augustine was thrown wholly on the side of -ecclesiastical tradition; he even remonstrated with Jerome for -translating the Old Testament from the Hebrew and thus disturbing the -minds of the faithful, instead of revising the Old Latin version after -the Greek. In his treatise on Christian Doctrine (ii. 8; written in -A.D. 397) he includes among the canonical books of the Old Testament, -Judith, Tobit, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Ecclesiasticus, and the Wisdom of -Solomon; African provincial synods at Hippo (A.D. 393) and Carthage -(A.D. 397) pronounced themselves in the same sense. - -The Syriac-speaking churches, whose Old Testament was translated from -the Hebrew, originally recognized those books only which were found in -the Jewish Bible; it appears, indeed, that the earliest Syriac version -did not extend to Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, but did include -Sirach. Under the influence of the Greek Church, those branches of the -Syrian Church which remained in communion with it gradually added to -their Bible translations of the other books from the Greek; but the -Nestorians, in whose schools Biblical criticism moved more freely than -in the Catholic Church, continued to reject them, or to accord them, -together with several of the books commonly reckoned canonical -(Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Job, -Ecclesiasticus, Wisdom), only qualified authority. - -Throughout the Middle Ages learned authors repeated the conflicting -utterances of the Fathers concerning the canon, without being -disturbed by their inconsistency; in practice, the Old Testament -comprised all the books that were usually found in copies of the Greek -or Latin Bible, without regard to the fine distinctions of "canonical" -and "ecclesiastical." The immemorial usage of the church had more -weight than the opinions of scholars. With this concurred the fact -that from the fourth century on the Bible was copied in collective -codices, on folded sheets of parchment or vellum like our books, not -in separate rolls, and thus the canon of the Old Testament became, not -a mere list of Sacred Books, but a physical unity, in which the books -of the Jewish Bible were intermingled with those which the Jews did -not accept. - -The question assumed a new significance at the Reformation. In -rejecting the authority of ecclesiastical tradition and the -prescriptive usage of the church and making the Scriptures the only -rule of faith and practice, the Reformers were under the necessity of -deciding what books were inspired Scripture, containing the Word of -God revealed to men, clothed with divine authority, demanding -unqualified faith, and a means of grace to believers. Obviously they -could not logically acknowledge books whose place in the Bible had no -other warrant than that the church had accepted them from very early -times; nothing short of the authority of the New Testament itself -would suffice, and they found in the New Testament no quotations from -these books. To the Jews, St. Paul said, were committed the oracles of -God; it was the Jewish Scriptures to which Jesus and the Apostles -appealed. - -Naturally, therefore, Luther reverted to the position of Jerome: the -books found in the Hebrew Bible, and those only, were the Scriptures -of the Old Testament; whatever was more than these was to be reckoned -among the apocrypha. In the first complete printed edition of his -translation (1534), these books (Judith, Wisdom, Tobit, Sirach, -Baruch, 1 and 2 Maccabees, the Greek additions to Esther and Daniel, -the Prayer of Manasseh) stand between the Old Testament and the New, -with the title (after Jerome) "_Apocrypha_; that is, books that are -not equally esteemed with the Holy Scripture, but nevertheless are -profitable and good to read." The other Protestant versions, on the -Continent and in England, followed this example. - -The attitude of Luther toward the Old Testament Apocrypha was -maintained by the Lutheran Churches, whose Confessions do not, -however, attempt a more exact definition of the value and authority of -the Apocrypha. The earlier Reformed (Calvinistic) Confessions take -substantially the same ground: the Ecclesiastical Books, or Apocrypha, -are useful, especially for moral instruction, but they have not the -same authority as the canonical books, and doctrines may not be -deduced from them alone. The Articles of the Church of England (1563; -English translation, 1571) agree on this point with the other Reformed -Confessions: after enumerating the canonical books "of whose authority -there was never any doubt in the Church," the Sixth Article continues: -"And the other books (as Hierome saith) the Church doth read for -example of life, and instruction of manners; but yet it doth not apply -them to establish any doctrine." A list of such books follows, -comprising those commonly printed in the English Bible under the title -Apocrypha. - -A more radical position was represented by the Synod of Dort (1618) -and by the Westminster Assembly (1643). The latter declares: "The -books commonly called Apocrypha, not being of divine inspiration, are -no part of the canon of Scripture; and therefore are of no authority -in the church of God, nor to be otherwise approved, or made use of, -than other human writings." - -In opposition to the Protestant limitation of the canon of the Old -Testament to the books of the Hebrew Bible, the Roman Church defined -its attitude more sharply. In the Fourth Session of the Council of -Trent (1546) it framed a "Decree concerning the Canonical Scripture," -in which the books set apart by the Protestants as Apocrypha are -included with the rest. The complete contents of the Old Testament in -the Catholic Bible as thus defined are as follows: The Five Books of -Moses, that is, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy; -Joshua, Judges, Ruth, four Books of Kings [Samuel, Kings], two Books -of Chronicles, 1 and 2 Esdras [Ezra, Nehemiah], Tobit, Judith, Esther, -Job, the Psalter of David, containing one hundred and fifty Psalms, -Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Isaiah, -Jeremiah with Baruch, Ezekiel, Daniel, the Twelve Minor Prophets, two -Books of Maccabees, namely, the First and Second.... "If any man does -not accept as sacred and canonical these books, entire, with all their -parts, as they have customarily been read in the Catholic Church and -are contained in the ancient common Latin edition ... let him be -anathema!" - -This decree not only affirms that all the books in question are Holy -and Canonical Scripture, but seems to put them all in one class, and -deliberately to exclude the ancient distinction between the books of -the Jewish Bible and the Ecclesiastical Books. Many of the Fathers -had, however, made such a distinction, and Catholic scholars, even -after Trent, thought it permissible to class the Ecclesiastical Books -(which Protestants call the Apocrypha) as "deuterocanonic," meaning -not thereby to imply that they are inferior in authority or -infallibility or dignity--for both classes owe their excellence to the -same Holy Spirit--but that they had attained recognition in the church -at a later time than the others. Individuals have sometimes gone -farther, and acknowledged a difference in authority: the -deuterocanonic books are useful for edification, but not for the proof -of doctrines--a position substantially the same as that of the Greek -Fathers and of moderate Protestants; but this is plainly against the -sense of the decree of Trent. - - - - -CHAPTER II - -THE OLD TESTAMENT AS A NATIONAL LITERATURE - - -For the religious apprehension of Jews and Christians the Old -Testament is a body of Sacred Scriptures, containing the Word of God -as revealed to the chosen people. The revelation was made "at sundry -times and in divers manners" through many centuries, that is to say, -it has a historical character, an adaptation to the needs or -accommodation to the capacities of men, and, from the Christian point -of view, makes a progressive disclosure of the divine purpose and plan -of salvation. To understand this economy of revelation, or this -pedagogic of religion, it is necessary to distinguish the times, and -to determine the nature, authorship, and age of the several books or -parts of books. The critical questions which lie at the threshold of -every historical inquiry arise, therefore, in the study of the Old -Testament, and much learning and acumen have been expended upon them, -especially in modern times, by scholars of all shades of theological -opinion. That there should be wide divergence in their conclusions on -many points is not surprising, in view of the difficulty of many of -the questions and the insufficiency of the data available for a -solution; the same thing is true in other ancient literatures. - -A more radical difference exists in the Old Testament, however, -because, for many scholars, Catholic and Protestant, the deliverances -of the church, or the consent of tradition, or the testimony of the -New Testament, or the concurrence of all these, outweighs, in such a -matter as the unity and Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, the -internal evidence of the books themselves, and makes it their task to -show that the evidence which seems to contradict this attribution is, -when properly interpreted, compatible with it; while others hold that -no external authority and no theory of inspiration can be allowed to -countervail the cumulative weight of internal evidence. - -Apart from its religious value and authority for the synagogue and the -church, the Old Testament contains the remains of a national -literature which richly rewards study for its own sake. While its -masterpieces may be read with pleasure and profit without regard to -the age and circumstances in which they were written, they will be -better appreciated as well as better understood in the light of their -own times and in their place in the literature as a whole. In this -literature are also the sources for the political history of the -Hebrew people and for the history of its civilization and religion. -The critical ordering and appraisal of these sources is fundamental -to any solid historical construction and, indeed, to any historical -understanding of the Old Testament. - -In the present volume the results of this critical inquiry are -concisely set forth, with primary reference to the history of the -literature and the development of religion, rather than to the sources -for the political history, a complete investigation of which would -require a somewhat different method. The questions are approached in -the same way in which we should deal with similar questions in any -other literature; critical problems, whether in sacred texts or -profane, can be solved only by the application of the established -methods of historical criticism. - -All that survives of Hebrew literature prior to the age of Alexander -is preserved in the Jewish Bible. It is not until the beginning of the -third century B.C. that we come upon books written by Jews in Hebrew -or in Greek which are not included in the canon. It is, doubtless, -only a small part of a rich and varied literature that has thus been -rescued across the centuries; much the larger part of what was written -in the days of the national kingdoms, for example, must have perished -in the catastrophes which befell Israel in the eighth century and -Judah in the beginning of the sixth. What was saved was preserved for -its intrinsic religious value or its association with great names of -religious leaders and teachers, not out of a merely literary or -patriotic interest. Nor were these losses confined to the older -literature. Of the history of Judah under the Persian kings, for -example, there must once have been completer records than the dubious -scraps we have in Ezra. Of secular poetry, which there is every reason -to think flourished no less than hymnody, we should have had no -specimens, had not an anthology of love songs somehow got the name of -Solomon, and by a mystical interpretation been converted to religion. -The remains of this literature are scattered unequally over a period -of a thousand years or more. The youngest writings in the canon date -from the second century B.C. (Daniel, Maccabean Psalms), being later -than Sirach, and contemporary with some of the visions of Enoch. All -that is preserved of the earliest writings has been transmitted to us -by later authors, who incorporated in their works longer or shorter -passages extracted from their predecessors. - -The books of the Old Testament differ widely in matter and -form--history and story; legislation, civil and ritual, moral and -ceremonial; prophecy and apocalypse; lyric, didactic, and dramatic -poetry. The literary quality of the best in all these kinds is very -high. The Song of Deborah (Judg. 5), notwithstanding the imperfect -state of the text, is one of the greatest of triumphal odes; parts of -Job attain the height of the sublime; some of the Psalms are worthy of -a foremost place among religious lyrics; many oracles of the prophets -are as noteworthy for the perfection of the expression as for the -elevation of the thought; the laws are often formulated with admirable -precision; in the art of narration the older historians are -unsurpassed in ancient literature. These qualities appear even more -conspicuous in comparison with the remains of Egyptian or of -Babylonian and Assyrian writings. It is only among the Greeks that we -find anything to match the finest productions of the Hebrew genius. It -need hardly be said that the Old Testament is not all on this high -level of excellence--what literature is? But, taken as a whole, the -level is surprisingly high, and even in the decadence classical models -are sometimes imitated with no small degree of success. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -THE PENTATEUCH - - -The Old Testament begins with a comprehensive historical work, -reaching from the creation of the world to the fall of the kingdom of -Judah (586 B.C.), which in the Hebrew Bible is divided into nine books -(Genesis-Kings). The Jews made a greater division at the end of the -fifth book (Deuteronomy) and treated the first five books (the -Pentateuch) as a unit, with a character and name of its own, the Law. -The names of the several books in our Bibles are derived from the -Greek version, and indicate in a general way the subject of the book, -or, more exactly, the subject with which it begins: Genesis, the -creation of the world; Exodus, the escape from Egypt; Leviticus, the -priests' book; Numbers, the census of the tribes; Deuteronomy, the -second legislation, or the recapitulation of the law. - -The three middle books of the Pentateuch (Exodus-Numbers) are more -closely connected with one another than with the preceding and -following books (Genesis, Deuteronomy); in fact, they form a whole -which is only for convenience in handling divided into parts. In these -books narrative and legislation are somewhat unequally represented. -Exod. 1-19 is almost all narrative, as are also c. 24, and cc. 32-34; -the story is picked up again in Num. 10, what lies between is wholly -legislative; in Num. 10-27, 28-36, narrative and laws alternate, the -latter predominating. It is evident that from the author's point of -view the narrative was primarily a historical setting for the Mosaic -legislation. - -Deuteronomy begins with a brief retrospect (Deut. 1-3) of the -movements of the Israelites from the time they left the Mount of God -till they arrived in the Plains of Moab, the lifetime of a whole -generation. There, as they are about to cross the Jordan to possess -the Land of Promise, Moses delivers to them the law which they shall -observe in the land, and with many exhortations and warnings urges -them to be faithful to their religion with its distinctive worship and -morals. Thus Deuteronomy also presents itself essentially as -legislation. - -The history of the Israelite tribes opens with the account of the -oppression in Egypt, the introduction to the story of deliverance. Its -antecedents are found in the Book of Genesis, the migration of Jacob -and his sons from Palestine to Egypt several generations earlier in a -time of famine; and this in turn is but the last chapter in the -patriarchal story which begins with the migration of Abraham from -Syria or Babylonia to Palestine. Gen. 1-11 tells of creation and first -men; the great flood; the dispersion of the peoples, with a -genealogical table showing the affinities of the several races and -another tracing the descent of Abraham in direct line from Shem the -son of Noah. But even in Genesis the interest in the law manifests -itself in various ways, such as the sanction of the sabbath, the -prohibition of blood, and the introduction of circumcision. - -In regarding the whole Pentateuch as Law, or, to express it more -accurately, as a revelation of the principles and observances of -religion, the Jews were, therefore, doing no violence to the character -and spirit of these books; and in ascribing them to Moses they were -only extending to the whole the authorship which is asserted in -particular of many of the laws, and especially of the impressive -exhortations in Deuteronomy which form the climactic close of his work -as a legislator. - -It was early observed, however, that there are numerous expressions in -the Pentateuch which assume the settlement of Israel in Canaan and -look back to the age of Moses as to a somewhat remote past: Gen. -xxxvi. 31, for example, implies the existence of the Israelite -monarchy. In the seventeenth century such anachronisms were bandied -about a good deal, but, inasmuch as they were all brief clauses which -might well be notes or glosses by scribes, they proved nothing about -the age of the main text. The controversy sharpened the eyes of the -critics, and many more conclusive facts were brought to light, which -proved that the Pentateuch was not the product of one author nor of -one age, and that, whatever part Moses may be conceived to have had in -it, much must be ascribed to later writers. No methodical attempt had -been made, however, to distinguish its different strata, or to -discover the sources from which it was compiled. This was first -undertaken by an eminent French physician, Jean Astruc, who in 1753 -published the results of his investigations under the modest title -"Conjectures concerning the Original Memoirs which it appears that -Moses used in compiling the Book of Genesis." Astruc's analysis was -suggested by peculiar phenomena in the use of the divine names in -Genesis, and he was led to the hypothesis that Moses had for the -primeval and patriarchal history two principal sources, one of which -employed consistently the proper name Jehovah, the other the -appellative Elohim (God). The two narratives were in large part -parallel, and when they were united in one continuous narrative, -repetitions, contradictions, and chronological difficulties were -created which disappear when the sources are separated and recombined -in their original sequence. - -This is not the place for a history of criticism: it must suffice to -say that, as the result of the labours of many scholars in the last -century and a half upon the problem of the sources and composition of -the Pentateuch, historians are now generally agreed that four main -sources are to be recognized, of which three run, in varying -proportion, from Genesis to Numbers and reappear in Joshua, while the -fourth is found in Deuteronomy and Joshua only. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -CHARACTER OF THE SOURCES: GENESIS - - -Of the four main sources of the Pentateuch and Joshua, two are easily -recognizable, and may be distinguished with certainty in almost any -combination. The Book of Deuteronomy, though itself a composite work, -constitutes a whole, with a characteristic religious point of view and -marked peculiarities of language and style. The strand akin to it in -Joshua is not always so easy to discriminate from additions and -editorial retouchings in one of the other sources; but since these are -of approximately the same age, the difficulty is, from the historian's -point of view, not of very serious moment. - -The second source, more closely interwoven in the narrative of -Genesis-Numbers, and Joshua, has also such strongly marked -peculiarities, not only in religious ideas and in phraseology and -style, but in its whole conception and treatment of the history, that -it stands out in salient contrast to any surroundings in which it may -occur. Its interest is concentrated on the origin of the sacred -institutions of Israel, especially on the priesthood, the worship, and -the distinctive religious customs of the people, for which reason it -is commonly called the "priestly" history and law. - -The two remaining sources resemble each other much more closely in -religious conceptions, in language, and in their representation of the -history, so that, where their closely parallel narratives are -intimately interwoven to make one continuous and harmonious story, it -is often impossible to unravel them. As far as Exod. iii. 14 one of -them employs the name Elohim for God, while the other uses Jehovah -from the beginning (see Gen. iv. 26), and this difference frequently -serves as a first clue; but editors and copyists have so often, -purposely or thoughtlessly, interchanged the names of God that it is -by no means a decisive criterion. From Exod. 3 on, this criterion -fails altogether. Closer acquaintance with the two sources discovers, -under all their similarity, individual peculiarities by which they can -ordinarily be recognized. Frequently, also, the connection of the -story itself, references or allusions to incidents already recounted -and preparation for events subsequently to be narrated, serve to -identify passages with one or the other. - -For the sake of brevity, it is customary to designate these sources by -symbols: J (Jahvist), the source in which God is from the beginning -called Jehovah (more exactly, Jahveh); E (Elohist), the closely -cognate source in which Elohim (God) is consistently used throughout -Genesis; D, Deuteronomy and the kindred narrative in Joshua; P -(Priestly), the source in which the interest in the religious -institutions predominates. This author also uses Elohim exclusively in -Genesis, and down to Exod. vi. 2 ff. - -The two sources, J and E, both narrate the story of the patriarchs at -some length. J begins with the migration of Abraham from Haran (Gen. -12); the corresponding introduction of Abraham in E is not preserved, -and the first passage that can with confidence be attributed to that -source is Gen. 20. From that point through Genesis and down to Exod. -24, J and E furnished the author of the Pentateuch most of his -narrative. The contents of both were evidently drawn from the same -common stock of legend, and they tell in large part the same stories -in variant forms, with differences of incident or of localization. -Sometimes one is ampler and more detailed, sometimes the other. The -author of Genesis in such cases often chose the fuller version, -enriching it here and there from the other; in other places the two -are combined in more equal measure into one continuous narrative; or, -again, as in parts of the story of Joseph, extracts from the two -alternate in large blocks. - -J and E are, as has been said above, much alike in language and style, -yet each has distinguishing peculiarities of expression. These of -necessity disappear in a translation, especially in a translation -which, like the Authorized Version, raises everything to one stately -level of noble English prose. Even in translation, however, a -difference in the story-teller's art and manner may be discerned. For -J the reader will find good examples in Gen. 18-19; 24; 38; 39; and -43-44 (which are nearly solid extracts from that source); with the -latter chapters, from the story of Joseph, should be compared Gen. -40-42, chiefly from E. Gen. 22 is also from E. From the literary point -of view, J is the better narrator; he tells his story directly, -swiftly, with almost epic breadth, and with just that measure of -detail which gives the note of reality, never overloading the story -with circumstance. Nor is it only the external action which he causes -thus vividly to pass before us; with the dramatic instinct of the true -story-teller he makes us spectators of the inner play of feeling and -motive. - -The religious element in the stories of J is pervasive. The -forefathers are favourites of God, who directs their ways, and -protects and blesses them in all their doings. He appears to them in -human form, and converses with them as a man with his friends; -reflection has not yet found such too human behaviour unbecoming in -God. Gen. 18 is a striking instance of this familiarity in the deity: -Jehovah with two companions comes to Abraham's tent, eats of the meal -the patriarch's hospitality provides, predicts that Sarah shall bear a -son before the year is out--a prospect which moves the old woman -listening behind the door to incredulous merriment--and as he departs -announces that he is going down to Sodom to see whether they are as -bad there as has been reported to him. A still more drastic example is -the "man" who wrestles with Jacob, and finding himself no match for -the brawny patriarch, disables him by a foul, putting his hip out of -joint, and finally, to get loose, unmasks as a god, owns Jacob the -winner, and names him "Israel," the man who held his own against a -god (Gen. xxxii. 24 ff.). Or, again, as Moses is on the way to Egypt -by God's command to deliver his people, Jehovah encounters him where -he halts for the night, and tries to kill him, desisting only when -Zipporah bans him by smearing her imperilled husband with the bloody -foreskin of her son (Exod. iv. 24 ff.). - -Such extremely human representations belong to the ancient legends -which are incorporated in the history; the author's own conception of -God, if we may judge him by passages like Exod. xxxiii. 12-23; xxxiv. -6-9, was much less crude; but it is significant that such traits were -allowed to remain with so little change. - -The legends also attribute to God a partiality for the patriarchs -which lets him protect and prosper them in transactions such as are -repugnant not only to the most rudimentary morality but to savage -manliness, as in Gen. 12 and 26, variants of the story how one of the -forefathers exposed his wife's honour rather than risk his own neck. -Less striking, but no less instructive, is Jacob, who gains the -birthright by overreaching his brother and the blessing of the -first-born by deceiving his father, and in the end outwits the wily -Laban at his own devices and grows rich at his expense. It would be a -mistake to take such stories as reflecting the morality of the -author's time: they were the traditions of another age and another -order of things. But again it is significant that they are narrated -in J without any visible attempt to mitigate their offensive features. -Other authors, as we shall see, toned down these features or -eliminated them. - -The second of the authors in the patriarchal history (E) is but little -inferior to J as narrator, and in translation the difference is even -less noticeable than in the original. Where they can be directly -compared, however, E is slightly less vivid and picturesque. A certain -learned, or antiquarian, interest is also apparent. E notes, for -instance, that Laban, who as a Syrian naturally spoke Aramaic, called -the boundary cairn Jegar Sahaduta, while Jacob named it in good Hebrew -Gal 'Ed (a popular etymology of Gilead), and that the ancestors of the -Israelites in their old homes beyond the Euphrates were heathen. He is -particularly well informed in things Egyptian; he knows, for example, -the Egyptian names of the chief personages in the story of Joseph. It -is in accord with this tendency that he introduces the name Jehovah -only after the call of Moses (Exod. iii. 14 ff.), and for the -patriarchal period employs only the appellative, God. - -The conception of deity is less naïve than in J: God never appears in -tangible bodiliness like a man, but reveals himself in visions or -dreams, or makes known his will by a voice out of the unseen. Things -objectionable to morals or taste are frequently softened down. In J, -for example, Joseph's brothers, at Judah's instance, sell him to the -Ishmaelites; in E Reuben persuades them to put Joseph into a dry well, -intending to save him from them and restore him to his father; while -he is absent, Midianites steal Joseph out of the well and carry him -off to Egypt. Compare also Gen. 20 (E) with c. 12 (J), noting how in -the former the author takes pains to make clear that no harm came to -Sarah, and that Abraham is a prophet whose intercession is effectual -with God. On the other hand, the interventions of God in E often show -a disposition to magnify the miracle and to give it a magical -character. Thus at the crossing of the Red Sea, in J the waters are -driven back by a strong wind, leaving the shallow basin dry; in E the -miracle is wrought by Moses with his wand (like the plagues), and this -representation is followed by P, in which the waters stand in walls on -either hand while the people march between. - -If the author of E was acquainted with J, as it would be natural to -assume, he certainly does not copy him; of literary dependence in a -strict sense there is no sign. The two appear, rather, to be parallel -narratives, drawing on a common stock of tradition, which had already -acquired by repetition, whether oral or written, a comparatively fixed -form. This common stock included traditions of different groups of -tribes and of holy places in different parts of the land. As might be -supposed, the tribes seated in central Palestine, with their kinsmen -east of the Jordan, which constituted the strength of the kingdom of -Israel, make the largest contribution; Judah with its allied clans in -the south comes second. - -In the treatment of the common tradition in J and E, respectively, -local or national interests appear, from which it is generally -inferred that E was written in the Northern Kingdom (Israel) and J in -the Southern (Judah). The question of the age of these writings can be -more profitably considered at a later stage of our inquiry. - -The patriarchal history which begins with the migration of Abraham, -Gen. 12, is preceded by what may be called the primeval history of -mankind, Gen. 1-11. In these chapters E is not represented, and it -seems probable that the Israelite historian began his book with -Abraham. The primeval history as we read it, therefore, is derived in -part from J, in part from P. From J come Gen. ii. 4b-iv. 25; vi. 1-8; -a part of the composite story of the Flood (vii. 1-5, 7-10, 12, 17b, -22-23; viii. 6-12, 13b, 20-22); the sons of Noah, ix. 18-27, and part -of the table of nations (x. 8-19, 21, 24-30); the Tower of Babel (xi. -1-9). These pieces do not form a literary unity, and they give -evidence, as we should expect, of diverse origin. There are some among -them which imply a continuous development of civilization, unbroken by -the catastrophe of the Deluge, and Noah himself was originally an -agricultural figure, the first vine-dresser and maker of wine, not the -navigator of the ark. The tradition which ascribes the invention of -the arts of primitive civilization to descendants of Cain (Gen. iv. -17-24) is obviously of different origin from the story of Cain and -Abel. Closer inspection shows that the narrative of J in Gen. 1-11 is -composed of two strands, each having a consistency and continuity of -its own, and similar phenomena appear in subsequent parts of the -history from Genesis to Samuel. - -If these various elements are alike designated by the symbol J, it is -because they exhibit the peculiarities of conception and expression -which characterize that work. The God who walks for pleasure in his -garden in the cool of the day, misses his gardeners, and finding that -they have eaten the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge, drives -them out of the garden for fear they might also put out their hands to -the tree whose fruit gives immortality, or who comes down to see the -tower the Babylonian heaven-stormers are building, and apprehending -more presumptuous attempts from their success, breaks up their concert -by the ingenious device of making them talk different languages, is -plainly imagined in quite the same way as the God who visits Abraham -on his way to Sodom or wrestles with Jacob or tries to kill Moses on -the road to Egypt. Even more primitive is the fragment, Gen. vi. 1-4, -telling how deities, captivated by the charms of mortal women, begot -with them a mythical race of giants. - -The Deluge has long been known to be a Babylonian myth, which now -forms an episode in a poem celebrating the exploits of a hero named -Gilgamesh. But, though preserving even such details of the Babylonian -original as the sending out of the birds, the Hebrew author has -impressed upon it the stamp of his own religion, effacing its -polytheistic features, and making the Flood a just judgment on -universal sinfulness; while for the Babylonian hero he substituted a -figure of Palestinian legend, and shows his inland bringing-up by -converting the ship into an enormous box. It has frequently been -assumed or asserted that others of these myths of the early world, -particularly the Garden in Eden and the Tower of Babel, are also of -Babylonian origin, but no parallels to them have as yet been -discovered, nor does internal evidence point that way. - -The scenery in the Garden in Eden is naïve enough, but the problem of -the myth is one which has exercised the minds of men through all time: -Why is man mortal? or, as it is usually put in myths, How did man fail -of immortality? Two other persistent questions are here joined with -it, Why has man to work so hard for a living? and Why must women bear -children with pangs and peril? The answer evinces a reflection of -which we often think primitive philosophy incapable: man aspired to a -knowledge that God jealously kept to himself--he would not respect his -limitations. - -The third chief narrative source in the Pentateuch, commonly called -the Priestly History (P), is of a different character from those which -we have been examining. A more descriptive title for it would be, -Origins of the Religious Institutions of Israel. In the view of the -author, these institutions were successively ordained by God at -certain epochs in the history of mankind and in connection with -certain historical events; these events he narrates as the occasion or -ground of the institution, which the subsequent observance recalls and -commemorates. These institutions were not all first revealed to Israel -and prescribed for it; on the contrary, the author has a theory of a -progressive revelation of God's will, beginning with the first man and -woman, and amplified from age to age by the addition to its contents -of fresh ordinances, while at the same time its extension gradually -narrows, until, in the Mosaic Law, it is addressed to the chosen -people of Israel alone. The place of each new institution is therefore -fixed not only in a chronological system but in the genealogical -scheme of races and nations. The genealogies which connect one epoch -of revelation with the following one are thus not the bare bones of -history, stripped of its flesh and blood, but serve a distinct and -characteristic purpose. - -The Origins begin with the creation of the world (Gen. i.-ii. 4), and -a comparison of this account with that of J in 2-3 well illustrates -the difference between the two sources. The God of P is not one who -fashions man and beast out of clay and breathes with his own lips into -the work of his hands the breath of life; he stands above and apart -from the world, and creates all things by fiat: "Let there be light, -and there was light"--so in sublime simplicity the formula runs. The -creative acts are six natural days: "Evening came and morning came, a -first day." "And he rested (kept sabbath) on the seventh day from all -his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day and made -it holy, because on it he rested from all his creative work." The -ordinance of the sabbath thus has its origin and sanction in the -creation itself, and this is alleged in the Decalogue (Exod. xx. 11) -as the motive for man's sabbath-keeping. - -The Flood gives occasion to the blessing of Noah and his sons, in -which for the first time animal food is permitted--like many of the -ancients, P made the first men vegetarians--and with this licence is -coupled a prohibition of flesh with blood in it and the sentence of -God upon murder, "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood -be shed; for in the image of God made he man." These commandments, -given to Noah, are binding on all mankind, his descendants. The -genealogies of the antediluvians connect the creation with the Flood -and serve also the chronology; genealogies of the descendants of -Noah's sons follow, the chronology attaching to the line of Shem down -to Terah, the father of Abraham. - -Abraham's migration to Canaan and the birth of Ishmael are briefly -told, and then, at large, the covenant with Abraham, the promise of a -son by Sarah, and the institution of circumcision, which is an -ordinance for all the Abrahamic peoples, the Arab descendants of -Ishmael as well as the Israelites and Edomites sprung from Isaac, and -for their slaves, home-born or foreign. The only other incident in -Abraham's life of which P gives a fuller account is the purchase from -the sons of Heth of the cave of Macpelah, the burial-place of the -patriarchs; meagre notices of marriages and deaths, and tedious -pedigrees take the place of the vivid stories of J and E. The contrast -is most striking in the case of Joseph, about whom we have from P only -a few verses. Doubtless this is in part due to the fact that the -author of the Pentateuch preferred the richer narrative of his other -sources, but what is preserved of P shows clearly enough that his -history of Joseph, even when complete, was brief and dry. - -The diction and style of P are very unlike that of J and E; a -favourable example of his manner is Gen. 17. Even in a translation, -which necessarily obliterates much, some of the author's -peculiarities can be observed, foremost among them a certain stiffness -and a laborious circumstantiality, which will be felt if Gen. xvi. -1-2, 4-8, 11-14 (J) or xvi. 8-21 (E) be compared with c. 17 (P). In -Gen. 1, thanks to the subject, this dry simplicity gives an impression -of sublimity; but in general, narration is not the author's best gift. -On the other hand, the conception of God, as we have seen in Gen. 1, -is more elevated than in either of the other sources; and in the -little P tells of the patriarchs their deportment is unimpeachable. - - - - -CHAPTER V - -EXODUS, LEVITICUS, NUMBERS - - -In the early chapters of Exodus the narrative is chiefly a combination -of J and E; the first considerable extract from P is Exod. vi. 2-vii. -13, recalling the covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and -announcing its approaching fulfilment, adding, as the signature of the -new epoch of the history now opening, the revelation of the name God, -Jehovah (Jahveh), which none of the patriarchs had known. - -In the story of the plagues all three sources are interwoven; a -distinctive feature of P is that Aaron with his wand, under Moses' -direction, brings the plagues to pass. The announcement of the last -plague is the occasion for P to introduce the ordinance of the -Passover. The houses of the Israelites are to be marked by the blood -of the victim on the door-posts and lintel: when Jehovah passes -through the land, smiting dead all the first-born of the Egyptians, he -will "skip" the houses so protected--thus the name of the feast is -explained (Exod. xii. 1-13). To this is annexed a law for the -observance of the feast of Unleavened Bread, which in Palestine -immediately followed the Passover (xii. 14-20). With the institution -of the Passover is connected also a change in the calendar: henceforth -the month of the vernal full moon (March-April) is to be the first of -the year. It was so in the ecclesiastical calendar of later times, but -the civil New Year was, and still is, in the Autumn. - -All the strands of the triple narrative lead to a holy mountain in the -desert (Sinai in P and probably in J; Horeb in E and D), the Mount of -God, represented in all as the ancient seat of Jehovah. It was on this -mountain that God appeared to Moses and bade him return to Egypt to -deliver Israel: when he had brought the people out of Egypt they -should worship at this mountain. Thither, therefore, Moses directs -their way after crossing the Red Sea. In all the sources God's -presence is manifested by cloud and fire upon the mountain, and Moses -goes to the summit to meet God (Exod. 19, J, E; xxiv. 15^b-18^a, P). -These imposing preparations portend a revelation of no common moment; -and the whole situation bids us expect the organic law of the religion -of Jehovah, the things which he requires of his worshippers. - -We find, in fact, in each of the three sources at this point larger or -smaller groups of laws purporting to be delivered to Moses at the holy -mountain, and containing what may be regarded as fundamental -institutions. These bodies of law are, however, very different; the -problem of their relation to one another and to the narratives is -extremely difficult, and the parallel account of the legislation at -Horeb in Deut. 5 adds another element to the complication. If the -reader will attentively compare Exod. 20; 21-23; 24; Deut. 5; ix. 8-x. -5; and Exod. 34, he will get some impression of the nature of the -difficulties. According to Deut. v. 22, the Decalogue (Deut. v. 6-21; -Exod. xx. 1-17, with noteworthy variants) was the law written on the -two tables of stone by the hand of God which Moses dashed down and -shattered when he saw the people wantoning around the golden calf -(Exod. xxxii. 19). God proposes to reproduce the law on two new -tablets (xxxiv. 1), but the Decalogue (xxxiv. 28) written on these -tablets (xxxiv. 14-26) is wholly different from that of Exod. 20, -being not a compend of moral law, but prescriptions for the festivals -and ritual rules, whereas Deut. ix. 8-x. 5 says in so many words that -it was the Decalogue of v. 6-21 which was restored. - -It is impossible to discuss these problems here. It must suffice to -say that they arise in part from the attempt to harmonize radically -different representations of what the fundamental law given at Sinai -(or Horeb) was, in part from the tendency of later times to ascribe to -the original Mosaic legislation the whole body of actual law regarded -as having a religious sanction. To the latter cause we may without -hesitation attribute, for example, the introduction of the fragmentary -remains of a Palestinian civil code in Exod. 21-22, to which other -remnants of diverse origin have been attached, as well as the great -mass of ritual and ceremonial laws which are thrust into the framework -of P. - -The fundamental law of J, the basis of the original compact between -Jehovah and Israel, is preserved in Exod. xxxiv. 1-5, 10a, 14-28 (with -some manifest amplifications in vss. 15, 16, 24). When this was -combined with the story of the golden calf and the broken tables (E), -it was necessary to take it as a _renewal_ of the law, and this was -accomplished by very slight additions in vss. 1 and 4 ("like unto the -first," "that were on the first tables, which thou brakest"). - -What the Horeb constitution in E originally was, is less confidently -to be determined. In the form in which E was read by the authors of -Deut. 5 and of ix. 8-x. 5 (end of the seventh century or later), it -was the Decalogue _only_ (Deut. v. 22 f.); but it is not certain that -this was the oldest representation. There are other evidences that E -was revised and enlarged in the seventh century by an author who was -influenced by the prophets, particularly by Hosea; and the story of -the golden calf (with which the Decalogue narrative is closely -connected), a condemnation in advance of the Israelite worship of -Jehovah in the image of a bull, may have been introduced in this -edition, as the repudiation of the sacrifice of children to Jehovah in -the story of Abraham and Isaac (Gen. 22) probably was. - -In P the case is clearer. According to his theory all the ordinances -of worship were revealed at Sinai. Legitimate sacrifice presupposes -one legitimate temple and altar, a legitimate priesthood, and a -minutely prescribed ritual. In J and E the patriarchs set up altars -and offer sacrifice in many places; it is an obvious interest of the -authors, or of the local legends of holy places which they follow, to -trace the origin of the altars, sacred stones, holy trees and wells, -at Shechem or Bethel, Hebron or Beersheba, to one of the forefathers. -In P, on the contrary, the patriarchs never offer sacrifice. Until the -tabernacle was erected and God's presence filled it, until Aaron was -consecrated as priest, until the technique of the various species of -offering had been revealed by God and exemplified by Moses or Aaron, -no sacrifice could be anything but impious, like the worship of -heathen. - -Accordingly, the first thing God does when Moses goes up into the -mount is to give him plans and specifications for a sacred tent--a -portable temple--with all its furniture, an altar for sacrifice in the -court before it, the vestments of the priests, and the apparatus of -the high-priestly oracle, and to reveal in detail the ritual for the -consecration of priests (Exod. 25-30). The making of the tabernacle -and all the other things necessary for the complete cultus is -described in Exod. 35-40; the consecration of the priests and the -inaugural sacrifices by Aaron in Lev. 8-9; Lev. x. 1-7 is closely -connected with cc. 8-9, and its sequel (combined with other matter) is -found in c. 16, the ritual of atonement. Lev. 8-9 is a good specimen -of the author's method. In the form of a description of the sacrifices -of consecration and the inaugural sacrifices of Aaron, he gives a -paradigm for every variety of offering. - -Here was obviously a natural place to introduce laws prescribing the -ritual of these species of sacrifice and the circumstances which -demand them, and accordingly we find in Lev. 1-7 a collection of such -laws, some of them (e.g. Lev. 1 and 3) unquestionably old both in -substance and formulation, with slight adaptation to their surrounding -(e.g. "the sons of Aaron," i. 5, etc.), or with supplements to meet -new economic and social conditions, such as the burnt offering of -doves (Lev. i. 14-17, cf. vs. 2); others are younger or have been -more extensively enlarged and amended. The chapters thus represent a -growth in actual custom and corresponding rule. In c. 4 we may observe -an example of another kind of legal growth, namely, the systematic -development of principles or ideas. The scale of sin-offerings, -graduated by the social station of the sinner--the high priest, the -whole people, the prince, a common citizen--is consistently thought -out in conformity with a theory. Observe that the prince is assigned a -modest place next the bottom, below the religious community -corporately, while the priest takes his at the top. We can say with -full confidence that this elaborate ritual is not the booking of -usage, but is a product of sacerdotal theory; and, further, that so -long as kings reigned, the most high-church ecclesiastic is not likely -to have arrogated so much to himself, or, at least, to have proclaimed -his ambitions. Only in days when, under foreign governors, the high -priest was really the greatest man in the community is such a table of -precedence conceivable. Whether even then this law was actually put in -operation, may be an open question. - -The position of the sacrificial laws, Lev. 1-7, explains itself, as -has been said. In many other cases, however, we see no reason why a -subject is brought in where it is. Thus, Lev. 11-15, on various forms -of uncleanness and the prescribed purifications, to which x. 10 f. -seems to be a fragmentary introduction, have no obvious association -with anything in the context, though they are introduced appropriately -enough before the general purification of the Day of Atonement, c. 16. -The laws, which read like the chapters of an exactly formulated code -of purity, have been expanded by the addition of new paragraphs (e.g. -Lev. xiv. 21-32, 33-53), and in some cases changes in the ritual may -be recognized; compare, for example, Lev. xiv. 1-8 with vss. 10-20. - -Chapters 17-26 form a distinct body of law, having certain marked -peculiarities of its own, notably the frequent recurrence of the -motive of "holiness"--that is, the avoidance of things and actions -tabooed by the religion of Israel--often coupled with the appeal to -God's holiness, as in xix. 2, "Ye shall be holy, for I, Jehovah, your -God, am holy," or simply asserting his authority, "I am Jehovah." On -the other hand, much in the laws of this Holiness Book (H), as it now -stands, has close affinity to the mass of ritual and ceremonial laws -in Leviticus and Numbers. The hypothesis which seems best to explain -the phenomena is that an independent collection of laws (or rather the -remains of such a collection), characterized by the motive of -holiness, has been expanded and edited in the spirit and manner of the -priestly legislation, while some laws which were originally included -in this collection have been transposed to other contexts. - -The Holiness Book closed with an earnest exhortation and warning to -observe all these laws, promising the blessing of God on obedience and -depicting in strong colours the calamities with which he will punish -defection (Lev. 26). The position and prophetic tenour of this chapter -resemble Deut. 28, and the book in its original form is apparently the -product of the same age with Deuteronomy. - -The Origins (P) described in Exod. 28 f. and Lev. 8 f. the choice of -Aaron and his sons to be priests and their installation in the sacred -office. The inferior order of the ministry of the sanctuary, the -levites, is not as yet instituted. This is done in Numbers, and indeed -with a certain redundancy, for Num. 3 and 4 independently deal with -the subject, and c. 18 takes it up afresh without any allusion to a -previous appointment. Much stress is laid on the exclusive prerogative -of Aaron and his sons in the service of the altar and the ministry -"within the veil"; no levite, much less a layman, may presume to these -sacred functions on pain of death. The levites are given to Aaron and -his sons as temple slaves for the menial work of the sanctuary, in -place of the first-born Israelites of all tribes who would naturally -be dedicated to God, i.e. to the temple. Yet, as ministers of -religion, they are supported by a general tithe of the products of the -soil imposed on all the people. - -The laws in Numbers present the same variety as in Leviticus. There -are old laws with modifications and enlargements, and many others -which by various signs betray a more recent origin. Num. 28-36 belong -as a whole to the latter class; cc. 28 f. exemplify that growth of the -law by the formulation of sacerdotal ideals or desiderata which has -been noted in the case of Lev. 4. It is to be observed that the -narrative of P has reached in Num. xxvii. 12-23 the end of Moses' -career; nothing is in place after it but the ascent of Mt. Abarim and -Moses' death (Deut. 34). Num. 28-36 thus stand even formally in the -place of an appendix. - -The narrative of P (Origin of the Religious Institutions) and the -great mass of ritual and ceremonial laws in the three middle books of -the Pentateuch are often called collectively the Priests' Code. The -name naturally suggests to the English reader an orderly body of law, -compiled, revised, and promulgated by some authority; and, in fact, -many critics--except for the orderliness, which nobody has ventured to -affirm, and with allowance for later additions--regard the Priests' -Code as such a law book, compiled and edited by priestly scribes in -Babylonia, brought to Judĉa by Ezra, with the authority of the Persian -king, to reform the many disorders that existed there, and ratified -and put in force in B.C. 444 by the magnates and the people of the -Jews. (See Ezra 7; Neh. 8-10, and below, pp. 129 ff.) Internal -evidence of such an origin and destination is, however, sought in -vain in the laws; the things that Ezra and Nehemiah were most zealous -about, especially the veto on mixed marriages, do not stand out in the -so-called Priests' Code as they do in other parts of the law, while -about a reform of the cultus in Jerusalem in conformity with a new -ritual introduced from Babylonia, the story of Ezra's doings is -significantly silent. - -The phenomena we have observed in Exodus-Numbers suggest the -hypothesis, rather, that various old laws, dealing chiefly with -sacrifice and with the rules of clean and unclean--the two principal -subjects of priestly regulation--were inserted at suitable points in -the Origins of the Religious Institutions (P); these received -amendments and supplements both before and after their incorporation; -other more independent developments, whether representing actual -custom or sacerdotal aspirations, found place among or beside them; -and thus the whole Priestly stratum grew by a process of accretion -through many generations into its present inorganic magnitude. It is -antecedently probable that this process went on in Palestine, where -the ritual laws were a practical concern, rather than in the schools -of Babylonia; and only strong evidence to the contrary could overcome -this presumption. - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -DEUTERONOMY - - -Deuteronomy purports to contain the laws under which Israel is to live -in the land of Canaan. It deals with the conditions of an agricultural -people, settled in towns and villages, in the presence of a native -population to the contamination of whose religion and morals the -Israelites are exposed. This legislation was revealed to Moses at -Horeb (Deut. v. 28-33), but, inasmuch as it was not to go into effect -until Israel was established in the possession of Canaan, being in -fact wholly inapplicable to nomadic conditions--a consideration of -which P, in its code of worship, is oblivious--it was not promulgated -till the moment when the people, encamped opposite Jericho, was on the -point of invading Palestine. Then the aged Moses, about to lay down -his office and his life, delivers to the people, in national assembly, -the law by which they are in future to be governed, and adds his most -urgent injunctions and solemn warnings to be faithful to their -religion and the law of their God. - -The book is thus almost wholly in the form of address, and the -hortatory note is insistent. As an introduction, Moses briefly recalls -the history of the wanderings, from Horeb on, impressing at every turn -the lessons of their experience (Deut. 1-3); the material is taken -chiefly from E's narrative, which it was intended to supersede in an -independent Book of Deuteronomy. There follows a hortatory discourse -(iv. 1-40), closely akin to cc. 29-30. The last acts and the death of -Moses are narrated in confused fashion in c. 31; xxxii. 48-52; 34. The -Song of Moses (c. 32), and the Blessing of Moses (c. 33), are -apparently independent compositions which have been given an -appropriate place at the end of the book. The core of Deuteronomy is -cc. 5-11; 12-26; 28. Speaking generally, the first part (cc. 5-11) -expounds the fundamental principles of religion, while the second (cc. -12-26) contains special laws, and, as a fitting and effective -conclusion of the whole, c. 28 sets forth the blessings which God will -bestow on Israel if it keeps his commandments, and the curses it will -incur by unfaithfulness and disobedience. The special laws, -particularly in Deut. 22 ff., are similar in character to those in -Exod. 21-23 and in Lev. 17-25, and doubtless embody in the main -ancient custom; but beside them are provisions of a singularly Utopian -kind, such as those on the conduct of war in c. 20 and the septennial -cancelling of all debts (xv. 1-11). - -The conception of religion which dominates the whole book, but is most -conspicuous in cc. 5-11, is the highest in the Old Testament. There is -but one God, supreme in might and majesty, constant in purpose, -faithful to his word, just but compassionate; he is not to be imaged -or imagined in the likeness of anything in heaven or on earth; -idolatry, divination, and sorcery are strictly forbidden. The essence -of religion is love (Deut. vi. 4), the love of God to his people and -their responsive love to him is the ruling motive in worship and -conduct. In the relations of men to their fellows, whether countrymen -or strangers and to the brute creation, humanity and charity are the -prime virtues; the Utopian features of the laws are such only because -they push the ideal of humanity too hard for unideal human nature. - -What is most characteristic in the Deuteronomic legislation, the thing -on which it dwells with insistent iteration, is that Jehovah will be -worshipped only at one place, to be chosen by himself in the territory -of one of the tribes. There all sacrifices must be offered, all -festivals celebrated. At the head of the special laws this fundamental -article is repeatedly laid down (Deut. xii. 13-19--seemingly the -oldest formulation--xii. 2-7, 8-12, 20-27), and it recurs in -connection with the laws concerning the disposition of God's share in -man's increase (tithes, firstlings, etc.) and the annual festivals -(Passover, Tabernacles). - -This was an innovation which dislocated the whole system of religious -observances, and the Deuteronomic legislation had to provide for the -direct and indirect consequences of so radical a change. By ancient -custom the religious dues were rendered and sacrifices offered at the -village altars ("high places"), and there also the festivals were kept -which marked the seasons of the husbandman's year; beside the altar, -with a simple religious rite, domestic animals were slaughtered -whenever hospitality or a family festival gave occasion. If a man -visited a more renowned sanctuary at a distance from his home, he did -it of his own accord and in his own time and way. The feasts at the -village altars, at which custom prescribed open hospitality, were a -godsend to the poor of the community, many of whom would else seldom -have tasted flesh or eaten their fill. The Deuteronomic law licenses -the slaughter of animals at home without any religious rite, and -introduces a plan of charity tithes to replace the hospitality of the -altar. Its concern for the levites (that is, the priests of the local -sanctuaries), who by the new arrangement were left without a -livelihood, is also to be noted. - -The motives for this radical change in immemorial religious custom are -characteristic. In the first place, the "high places" had been seats -of Canaanite worship before they were taken possession of by the -Israelites, and not only did the stigma of aboriginal heathenism cling -to them, but, in fact, many heathenish doings were perpetuated at -them--drunken debauches and consecrated prostitution. But, further, -their existence seemed to be incompatible with strict monotheism: the -many gods were worshipped in many places; the _one_ God seemed to have -as corollary _one_ place of worship. As a matter of experience, the -localizing of Jehovah at numerous sanctuaries--Dan, Bethel, Gilgal, -Beersheba--with their distinctive traditions and local peculiarities -of ritual, doubtless did result, for the apprehension of the common -man, in making a local Jehovah, as happens to the Virgin and the -Saints in Catholic countries. For the Deuteronomist this was only -another kind of polytheism: "Hear, O Israel, Jehovah, our God, is -_one_ Jehovah!" - -Deuteronomy is, therefore, the programme of a reform. Fortunately, we -know how this programme was put in execution; the history of it is -written in 2 Kings 22-23. In the course of some repairs in the temple -in Jerusalem, a law book turned up, the reading of which threw King -Josiah and his advisers into consternation. After taking counsel of a -prophetess, an assembly was convoked, and the book publicly ratified -by the notables and the people as the law of the realm. Thereupon the -king proceeded to put the code in force. He not only cleaned house in -the temple in Jerusalem, where a miscellany of foreign gods and cults -was installed, but he destroyed and desecrated all the "high places," -that is, the immemorial seats of the worship of Jehovah in the towns -and villages of his kingdom, pulling the altars to pieces, smashing -the stone pillars, hewing down the sacred poles, and forcibly carrying -off the priests (levites) to Jerusalem, where he assigned them a -living from the income of the temple, but--in his zeal going beyond -the law of Deut. xviii. 6-8--excluded them from sacrificial functions. - -It was seen long ago by some of the Church Fathers that the law book -which Hilkiah found and Josiah enforced can have been no other than -Deuteronomy. The historian of the kingdoms, writing after the reforms -of Josiah and the following reaction and believing that the -prohibition of worship at the high places had been binding since the -building of Solomon's temple, is at pains to say that none of the -kings from Solomon to Josiah, not even those to whom otherwise he -gives the best mark for piety, had paid any attention to this law, -with the sole exception of a brief attempt by Hezekiah. We can go -further, and say that none of the older historians and none of the -prophets of the ninth and eighth centuries show any acquaintance with -such a prohibition. If the prophets assail the worship at the high -places, as Hosea does, it is on the ground that it is heathenish and -immoral, not that it is illegitimate; if Hosea condemns the -pilgrimages to Gilgal and Beersheba, it is not implied that it would -be better to go to Jerusalem; nor, indeed, is any condemnation of the -worship at the high places more drastic than Isaiah's of the cultus -in Jerusalem. Before the latter part of the seventh century there is -no thought that Jehovah has such an exclusive preference for Solomon's -temple. - -All the other evidence in Deuteronomy points to the same age. Its -conception of God and of religion is derived from the prophets of the -eighth century. The influence of Hosea is particularly plain: that the -essence of religion is love is Hosea's idea, if there is such a thing -as originality in religion. The language and style of Deuteronomy are -of the seventh century, in its excellences and in its defects; -Jeremiah and the author of Kings have the closest resemblance to it in -its rhetorical manner and in its peculiar pathos. - -On these grounds, since the latter part of the eighteenth century, an -increasing number of scholars have held that the book was written in -the second half of the seventh century for the purpose of bringing -about a revolution such as actually followed its well-timed discovery; -and this is now the opinion of almost all who admit that the common -principles of historical criticism are applicable to Biblical -literature. - -Deuteronomy is not all of one piece, as has already been pointed out. -Many older laws were taken up into it at the beginning or introduced -subsequently; considerable additions were made to it after Josiah's -time, and even after the fall of Judah, for in several passages that -catastrophe and the dispersion of the people are an accomplished fact, -an existing situation. It is only the reform programme and what hangs -together with it that can be definitely dated. - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -AGE OF THE SOURCES, COMPOSITION OF THE PENTATEUCH - - -Deuteronomy is a fixed point, by reference to which the age of other -strata in the Pentateuch may be determined, at least relatively. Thus -in P the patriarchs never offer sacrifice at the ancient holy places -of Canaan, and the notion that legitimate sacrifice can be made only -on one altar is so fundamental an article of religion that the first -thing at Sinai is the construction of the tabernacle to be transported -from one station to another in the desert. The inference is plain that -P was written at a time when the principle of the unity of the -sanctuary for which Deuteronomy contends with the zeal of innovation -was no longer disputed, at least in the author's surroundings, so that -he has no need to enjoin it, and can, indeed, ignore the fact that -there ever had been other sanctuaries of Jehovah. Such a state of -things never existed while the kingdom stood; it was only in the -Persian period, when Judĉa was reduced to a circle of a few miles -about Jerusalem, that the conditions implied in P arose. Only in that -age, through political circumstances, did the high priests attain the -pre-eminence to which P gives the sanction of divine right; and P -itself not obscurely witnesses that these towering pretensions did not -go unchallenged (see especially Num. 16). With this all the other -evidence concurs: the supramundane conception of God and the avoidance -of everything that seems to bring the deity into too close contact -with earthly things or tempts the imagination to figure him too -humanly speak of the progress of theological reflection. The language -is plainly in decadence: apart from words which seem to be new, and -occasionally foreign, the sentence is losing its flexibility, or -authors are losing their mastery of it; it is only necessary to -compare even the best passages in P (such as Gen. 23) with examples of -really classical Hebrew prose (say, in 2 Sam. 11 ff. or the stories of -Elijah in Kings), on the one hand, and with the writing of the -Chronicler (third century B.C.), on the other, to see that P is nearer -to the latter than to the former. - -The age of the laws now set in the framework of the Origins is a -distinct question, or rather, as will be understood from what has been -said above, it is a separate question for every law, and often for -successive paragraphs of the same law. And behind the question of the -age of the law in its present formulation is frequently the remoter -problem of the age of the institution or custom. Various criteria are -available in the history of the Kingdoms, in the prophets, in other -collections of laws, and in Ezekiel's programme for the New Jerusalem -(Ezek. 40 ff.). It must be enough here to say that the older laws in P -go back, substantially in their present shape, to the days of the -kingdom, and in many cases represent a prescriptive usage which is of -remote antiquity; while the latest additions to P were made at a time -so recent that they had not found entry into the copies from which the -earliest Greek version was made in the third century B.C. - -J and E are both older than Deuteronomy. In Genesis, as has already -been noted, they recite the foundation legends of Shechem, Bethel, -Hebron, Beersheba, and other of the holy places of Canaan, telling how -the patriarchs built the altars, set up the sacred stones, planted the -sacred trees, dug the holy wells, and offered sacrifice to their own -God at these spots, by this origin legitimating as Israelite -sanctuaries what were, at the time of the conquest and long after, -Canaanite "high places." Similarly, in Joshua, Gilgal and Shiloh are -Israelite foundations. These were all, in the time of the kingdoms, -holy places of great repute, frequented by pilgrims from distant -quarters; but there were others, of less ancient pretensions, which -attained equal celebrity. Dan, for instance, which came into the -hands of the Israelites in the time of the Judges, claimed a -priesthood descended from Moses, and became proverbial for the -tenacity with which the good old traditions of Israel were preserved -there. - -The narratives in Judges, Samuel, and Kings show that every town and -village had its own holy place, with an altar and a sacred stone, and -sometimes a hall for feasts (e.g. 1 Sam. ix. 22), and that temporary -altars were built whenever and wherever there was reason. This -practice is presumed in an ancient fragment of a law, Exod. xx. 24-26, -which prescribes that all offerings must be made at an altar, which -may be a mound of earth or a heap of field-stones (not hewn stone), -and promises that at every place where God has given signs of his -presence he will come to the sacrifice and bless the offerer. This -rule, which probably originally stood in the context of J, expressly -sanctions the local altars and sacrifices which are so abhorrent to -the deuteronomic reformers of the seventh century. - -On the other hand, the strong interest in the origins of the holy -places of Canaan indicates that when J and E were written these high -places were Israelite sanctuaries, which had as such their sacred -legends; indeed, a considerable part of the patriarchal stories is -ultimately derived from these legends of local sanctuaries, which form -a cycle, harmonized and connected by a migration motive. That both J -and E were written long after the settlement of the Israelites in -Palestine is proved even more conclusively by the fact that the -obligatory religious observances are those of an agricultural people. -Thus in Exod. 34, in what was probably according to J the organic law -of the religion of Jehovah, and is indisputably the oldest collection -of religious laws in the Pentateuch, three festivals are ordained, at -which every male is bound "to see the face of Jehovah," that is, to -appear at the high place with his offering--he is warned not to try to -"see Jehovah" without something in his hands--namely, the Feast of -Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks,[2] and the Feast of Ingathering -in the end of the year. The first of these, as we know, came at the -beginning of the barley harvest, at the second the firstfruits of the -wheat harvest were presented, the third celebrated the close of the -vintage and the olive-pressing. The firstlings of the flock and herd, -if we may infer from the order of the prescriptions, were to be -offered at the feast of Unleavened Bread in the Spring. The sabbath is -to be kept as a day of abstention from agricultural labour, "even in -ploughing-time and harvest thou shalt rest." The occupations of a -nomad go on one day like another; the care of the flocks cannot be -suspended for sabbath-keeping. - - [2] The older name, Harvest Feast, is preserved in the parallel, Exod. - xxiii. 16. - -It is difficult to reconstruct the narratives of the exodus and the -wanderings in the desert in J and E as they originally were. Extensive -transpositions seem to have been made at some stage in the -transmission, by which parallel relations of the same occurrence are -separated and appear as distinct events. There were evidently -considerable differences in the traditional accounts which the -earliest authors found current. The holy mountain is in E named Horeb, -in J (probably) as in P, Sinai; Moses' father-in-law in the one is -Jethro, in the other Hobab. In J there are some traces of a tradition, -perhaps the oldest of all, in which there was no mention of Sinai; the -Israelites made their way straight from the Red Sea to Kadesh. - -A comparison of J and E with the history of the times of Saul and -David in Samuel, and with the stories of Elijah and Elisha in Kings, -would lead us to ascribe them both to the classic age of Hebrew prose -of which those narratives are specimens. On the other hand, in J and -the older stratum of E there is no influence of the prophetic movement -of the eighth century which left so deep a mark on religion and -literature. On these grounds J may be probably ascribed to the ninth -century, and E, which is somewhat younger, to the first half of the -eighth. Both used older sources, and both were revised and enlarged -by later hands; we have had more than one occasion to refer to an -edition of E which reflects the teaching of the prophets, particularly -of Hosea. - -These two histories--the one, as we have seen, Judĉan, the other -Israelite--ran so nearly parallel and contained so much matter in -common that an attempt to combine them in one continuous narrative was -natural. The task was accomplished with considerable skill, by a -Judĉan historian in the seventh century, who probably introduced -variants or supplementary matter from other sources. The author's own -hand is most certainly recognized in the multiplied and emphasized -warnings against all sorts of heathenism and in a fine tone of -religious reflection on the history and its lessons, in which the -influence of the prophets is plainly visible, but the peculiar -theories of the seventh century historians do not appear. Whether this -history (JE) extended beyond the Book of Joshua, and if so where it -ended, are questions which must be reserved for later consideration. - -It is the general opinion that the next stage in the growth of the -Hexateuch (Genesis-Joshua) was the inclusion in a new edition of JE of -the Book of Deuteronomy in the form and dimensions which it had -attained in the generation after the fall of Judah; and, perhaps in -connection with this, the history of the conquest in Joshua as -narrated in JE was recast and much enlarged by an author who was full -of the ideas and phrases of Deuteronomy. - -At a considerably later time, perhaps in the fifth century B.C., or -even in the fourth, the Origins of the Religious Institutions, a -product of the Persian period, with the mass of laws that had been -incorporated in it (see above p. 57), was united with JED, thus -bringing together into one volume all that was preserved about the -history down to the conquest of Canaan and all the various -institutions and collections of laws which were attributed to Moses. -The author of this comprehensive work, as was most natural, took P, -with its sharply marked divisions and outstanding epochs, as his -basis, and introduced in each period the parts of JE which seemed to -him to belong there. Where P had a parallel narrative, as in the story -of the Flood, he wove the strands together with more or less -ingenuity, omitting, in ordinary cases, only the most palpable -doublets. It is possible that the same author first incorporated in P -a large part of the so-called priestly laws; it is more certain that, -besides the harmonistic changes necessary in combining his sources, he -made numerous additions; but there is usually no way of distinguishing -his hand from that of earlier or of still later editors. - -This hypothesis, which, for all its seeming complexity, is doubtless a -great simplification of the actual literary history, is accepted by -the majority of Old Testament scholars--with many variations in -particulars, it need hardly be said. It is commended to the historian, -not merely by the fact that it explains the confusion and -contradiction which reign in the Pentateuch and offers a solution of -its literary problems, but that, when the sources are distinguished -and reconstructed and their age and relations determined, they become -historical sources of great value for the times in which they were -respectively written, confirming, supplementing, or interpreting the -evidence of the historical books and the prophets, and contributing -important material of various kinds to our knowledge of civilization -in ancient Israel and of its religious development. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -JOSHUA - - -In all the sources of the Pentateuch the possession of Canaan is the -goal toward which the whole history moves, from the call of Abraham to -the last exhortations of Moses in the plains of Moab, and they must -all have narrated, however briefly, the occupation of the country. The -history of the conquest and division of Canaan is the subject of the -Book of Joshua. The author has evidently derived his material from -diverse sources, and it is reasonable to expect to find among them -the continuation of the chief sources of the Pentateuch. This -expectation is verified; it is not difficult to recognize in some -places the sequel of the preceding narratives, and other passages -which on internal grounds may confidently be ascribed to one or the -other of them. But the attempt to analyze the book discovers at once -the fact that the problem is different from that in Genesis to -Numbers. The author of the Pentateuch had two chief narrative sources, -a history compiled probably in the first half of the seventh century -and in any case pre-Deuteronomic, which from its two principal strands -is commonly designated by the symbol JE, and the history of the -religious institutions (P), probably of the fifth century. The author -of Joshua had for his sources, besides the continuation of P, a -history of the conquest by a writer belonging to what is not inaptly -called the deuteronomist school of historians, whose thought and style -are moulded by those of Deuteronomy. In cc. 1-12 the author of Joshua -follows this source almost exclusively, only here and there -introducing a passage from the post-exilic narrative (e.g. Jos. v. -10-12); in cc. 13-24, on the other hand, the allotment of the tribal -territories and the assignment of cities in these territories to the -levites and the priests, are chiefly from the later work. Inasmuch as -the style of the deuteronomist and of the priestly writers is -characteristically different, the rough analysis is here comparatively -easy, nor is it ordinarily difficult to recognize the brief passages -which are incorporated from the older sources; but, as in the -Pentateuch, the discrimination of the original contents of the -priestly source from subsequent expansions and from the hand of the -author of Joshua himself is frequently very uncertain. Here also -additions were made by editors at a still later time, some of which -are not found in the Greek version. - -A different and much more difficult problem is presented by Jos. 1-12, -the problem, namely, of the sources of the deuteronomist history. The -duplication of the narrative is very plain in the story of Jericho -(Jos. 6). One account told how the Israelites marched around the city -once each day for seven days in ominous silence; on the seventh day, -at Joshua's command, they broke out in the war-cry, and rushing upon -the city from every side, took it by storm, and put every living thing -in it to the sword, sparing only Rahab the harlot and her household. -In the parallel narrative a religious procession, the priests bearing -the ark in the midst, compassed the city seven times; on the last -circuit the priests blew a fanfare on their ram's horns, at which the -walls fell flat to the ground, and the Israelites, after bringing -Rahab to a place of safety, burnt the city with fire. Editors or -scribes who were particularly edified by the horn-blowing start it -prematurely in vs. 8 f., 13, and have tried to improve on the story in -other places. The second version shows the same inclination to glorify -the divine interventions by giving them a magical form which has been -remarked in E's account of the deliverance at the Red Sea, while the -simpler story of the unexpected assault--to which there is a close -parallel in a Roman hand-book of military stratagems--resembles in its -naturalness J's account of the crossing of the sea. - -Both sources tell of the rescue of Rahab, and thus presuppose some -such story as we find in Jos. 2, where, again, duplication is evident. -The interdict on the spoils of Jericho (vi. 17, J), is the antecedent -to the story of Achan, whose appropriation of a part of the spoil is -the cause of the repulse at Ai (c. 7), and thus the clues can be -followed backward and forward. The chief source in c. 8 (the taking of -Ai) and c. 9 (ruse of the Gibeonites) also is J, with which the -parallel account of E is combined; additions by later hands are -recognizable, the most remarkable being viii. 30-35 (cf. Deut. xxvii. -1-8, 12). In the history of the two campaigns by which the allied -kings of the south and of the north respectively were annihilated -(Jos. 10 and 11) both sources appear. A considerable part of these -chapters, however, is the work of the deuteronomist author, especially -the summary of the conquests, cc. x. 28-43; xi. 10-23. Chapter 12, -which for completeness goes over the conquests east of the Jordan -also, is dependent on Deut. 3; Jos. xiii. 2-6 (the territories -remaining to be conquered) is of the same sort and probably by the -same hand. - -It seems, therefore, that both J and E related the crossing of the -Jordan, the taking of Jericho and the operations against Ai, and, -further, the wars with the confederate kings. In these narratives -Israel, from its standing camp at Gilgal, invades the country as one -great army under the command of Joshua; the deuteronomist author -represents them as exterminating the native population root and -branch, "they left not a soul alive." There are, however, scattered -here and there through the text, fragments of a very different story -(xiii. 13; xv. 13-19, 63; xvii. 11-13, 14-18; xix. 47), most of which -are also found continuously in Judg. 1. According to this account, the -Israelite tribes invaded the country separately or in small groups; -their success varied in different regions, but everywhere the walled -cities remained in the possession of their old inhabitants; in some -quarters the Israelites became subject to the Canaanites, in others -they in time reduced them to subjection. This account may not embody a -historical tradition--it could perfectly well have arisen by inference -from the actual situation at the beginning of the kingdom--but it is -at least in a broad sense historical. The case illustrates in an -instructive way the fact that the oldest literary sources of the -history which we can recover had themselves diverse and sometimes -contradictory sources in tradition. - -In the Pentateuch it is well established that J and E had been -combined by a historian of the prophetic period (JE), though there is -evidence that the separate works continued to circulate. In Joshua, -also, it is probable that the deuteronomist historian used the -composite JE, and that the harmonizing of these sources and some of -the religious improvement which runs along with it is the work of his -predecessor who combined the two sources. It seems that P also had E -independently, and it is certain that later editors of the -deuteronomist school added their contributions. - -The allotment of the tribal territories, the designation of asylum -cities, and the setting apart of cities for the levites and priests, -comes chiefly, as was said above, from a priestly source. How much of -it was in the older history of P (Book of Origins) is doubtful. One, -at least, of the earlier narratives told of the division of the land -by lot, and P, who followed this representation, may have connected -with it some sort of domesday book; but it was probably not so -detailed as that which we now read. - -The assignment of forty-eight cities to the priests and levites, -including the most important places in the country, is an extravagance -even for the sacerdotal imagination, comparable to Ezekiel's -partition of the land in parallel strips. It is the counterpart of -Num. xxxv. 1-8, in a late supplement to the priestly laws, and -directly contradicts the older principle (Num. xviii. 21-24) that -neither priests nor levites shall have any landed property. Thus in -Joshua, as in the Pentateuch, the priestly element is neither of one -sort nor of one age: and again the evidence of the Greek version shows -that additions and changes continued to be made in the text till the -neighbourhood of 200 B.C. - -There is no evidence that the author of our Book of Joshua was the -same as the author of the present Pentateuch; various indications -point rather to the contrary. Nor can the author of the deuteronomist -history of the conquest be certainly identified with any one of the -hands engaged in the compilation and enlargement of the Book of -Deuteronomy; all that can be affirmed is that he was of the same -spirit, and that literary dependence upon Deuteronomy, and sometimes -on younger parts of it, is visible in many places in Joshua. - -The Book of Joshua closes with a farewell address by Joshua to the -tribes of Israel assembled at Shechem, in which, after a brief résumé -of God's dealing with their fathers from the calling of Abraham, the -exodus, and their own more recent experiences down to the present, he -exhorts them to put away the gods which their fathers served "beyond -the river" (in Mesopotamia), and worship Jehovah alone. Thereupon the -people solemnly pledge themselves to serve him only and hearken to his -words (Jos. 24). There is no question that this discourse is derived -from E; a counterpart to it from the hand of the author of the -deuteronomist Joshua stands in c. 23, and corresponds to the address -of Moses in Deut. xxxi. 1-8. The sequel of Jos. xxiv. 28 is found in -Judg. ii. 6-9. The restoration at a late time, of the old fragment -Judg. i. 1-36, and the division of the books at this point, led to the -repetition of the verses in Jos. xxiv. 29 ff. The importance of this -fact is the proof it gives that E narrated the history of the -generations following the death of Joshua as an apostasy from the -religion of Jehovah such as the dying leader had warned the people -against (Jos. xxiv. 19), and thus determined the treatment of the -whole period which we now find in the Book of Judges. The last -injunctions of Joshua in the deuteronomist history (Jos. xxiii. 14-16) -exhibit the same conception of the subsequent history; in Judg. ii. -11-iii. 6, both E and the deuteronomist author are represented. - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -JUDGES - - -The Book of Judges falls into three parts, namely, (1) Judg. i. 1-ii. -5, which intrudes, as has already been observed, between the close of -Joshua and its immediate sequel in Judges ii. 6 ff.; (2) Judg. ii. -6-xvi. 31, stories of a succession of champions and deliverers of -Israel in the centuries preceding the establishment of the kingdom; -(3) Judg. 17-18; 19-21, two additional stories laid in the time of the -Judges. In the Christian Bibles the story of Ruth, which also is said -to have occurred in the days of the Judges, follows. - -The introduction, Judg. ii. 6-iii. 6, gives a summary of the whole -period: as soon as Joshua and his generation had passed away, the -Israelites fell away from the religion of Jehovah, and worshipped the -gods of Canaan; indignant at this defection, he allowed them to be -overrun and subdued by their enemies; when in their distress they -turned to their own God for help, he raised them up champions who -delivered them; but their amendment was brief, they presently relapsed -into heathenism; and so it went on from bad to worse. In -correspondence with this general scheme each epoch in the history is -opened in some such way as this: The Israelites again did what was -evil in the sight of Jehovah; he delivered them into the power of -such and such a tyrant or nation; when they cried unto him, he raised -up so and so as a deliverer. Thereupon follows the story of the -deliverance (see iii. 7-11; iii. 12-15; iv. 1 ff.). Sometimes, as in -vi. 1-10, x. 6-18, these preambles are expanded, but the purport -remains the same. - -Another feature of the book is the systematic chronology in which the -frequency of the numbers twenty, forty, and eighty (forty years being -in the Old Testament equivalent to a generation) at once strikes the -attention; see iii. 11, 30; iv. 3; v. 31; viii. 28; xiii. 1; xv. 20 -(xvi. 31). In several other instances the figures vary a little on -either side of twenty (eighteen, twenty-two, etc.). The duration of -the oppression is given in the introduction of the story; the period -of peace and prosperity which succeeded the deliverance, at the end; -see, e.g., iv. 3; v. 31. In the same way the life of Moses is divided -into three parts of forty years each; Eli judged Israel forty years; -David and Solomon each reigned forty years. It can hardly be doubted -that this chronology is artificial, and that the key to it is found in -1 Kings vi. 1, which reckons four hundred and eighty years (i.e. -twelve generations) from the exodus to the building of Solomon's -temple; but the actual figures in Judges and Samuel do not foot up to -this sum, and there are some gaps in the series, namely, the years of -Joshua after the conquest, the rule of Samuel, and that of Saul. The -symmetry of the scheme has been broken by intrusions or accidental -omissions in the later history of the book. - -The author of the part of the Book of Judges we are now considering -(ii. 6-xvi. 31) sees in the history of these centuries a series of -"oppressions" by the native kings or by neighbouring peoples which the -Israelites brought upon themselves by neglecting their own God and -worshipping the deities of the Canaanites, the Baals and Astartes. -This is making history illustrate and enforce the prophetic teaching -of Hosea in the eighth century and Jeremiah in the seventh. - -About the oppressions the author of Judges had clearly no information -independent of what he extracted from the stories of the deliverances -in his sources. In accordance with his theory of national sin and -national disaster he converted what are in the stories themselves -local conflicts, involving particular tribes or regions, into -oppressions and deliverances of all Israel; where the story tells of -raids by the Midianites, for example, the introduction gives them the -Amalekites and the Eastern Bedouins for allies, and extends the -devastation these wrought across the whole country to the -neighbourhood of Gaza. The exaggeration of the evils and the -emphasizing of the moral, as in other cases, invited later editors to -amplifications in the same spirit. Of the heroes who delivered Israel -from its oppressors the author made a succession of dictators -("judges"), who differed from the kings after them chiefly in that -their office was not hereditary, and to most of them he gives in his -chronology a long reign. - -The setting of the history is thus unmistakably a product of the -so-called deuteronomist school of the sixth century which we have -already recognized in Joshua, and shall learn more of in Kings. The -stories themselves have, however, not been recast or extensively -retouched by deuteronomist hands; only at the beginning and the end, -where they had to be fitted into the frame, are such retouches common. - -The author's source was a collection of stories of struggles in -different parts of the land, both east and west of the Jordan, with -the older settled populations or with invaders, and the exploits of -the leaders and champions of the Israelite tribes in these struggles. -It included Ehud's assassination of the king of Moab, the defeat of -Sisera and the Canaanite kings of the great Plain by Barak and -Deborah, the rout and pursuit of the Midianite invaders by Gideon, and -Jephthah's victory over the Ammonites in Gilead. The history of -Abimelech's kingdom of Shechem--sequel to the story of Gideon--which -is not accompanied by the author's moralizing comments, and the -stories of Samson, which have no more than a chronological -introduction and close, evidently belong to the same cycle of heroic -legends; as do also the stories of Micah's idol and the migration of -the Danites (cc. 17-18), and the older form of the story of the levite -and his concubine and the sanguinary vengeance on Benjamin in cc. -19-21. The two last-named stories were not comprised in the -deuteronomist Judges, whose doctrine they could not well be made to -exemplify. On the other hand we shall see that this work included Eli -and Samuel among the judges, and came to its natural conclusion with -the establishment of the kingdom, as it began with the death of -Joshua. - -In several of the stories we recognize not merely such additions and -improvements as are commonly made to popular tales in the retelling, -but evidences of the combination of two versions of the same exploit -or accounts of other doings of the same hero. This is particularly -plain in the story of Gideon, where in Judg. vii. 24 f. (vs. 23 is a -harmonistic note), viii. 1-3, the business of the chiefs of Midian is -effectually finished, while in viii. 4 ff. it is all still to be done. -The phenomenon is entirely similar to those which we have had repeated -occasion to observe in the Pentateuch and Joshua and is to be -explained in the same way. The two versions of the story had been -united before the time of the author of the deuteronomist Judges, for -in the joints of the narrative no trace of his peculiar motives or -style occur. - -The stories recount the exploits of local or tribal heroes, and -doubtless represent the traditions of the regions or tribes concerned; -with the union of the tribes under the kingdom, however, these -traditions became the common property of the nation, and more than one -writer made collections of them. As in the patriarchal legends, two -strands may be distinguished, which have such affinities with the -Judĉan and the Israelite histories in the Hexateuch respectively that -they are naturally regarded as the continuations of J and E. To J may -be probably attributed the story of Ehud (disregarding the -introduction and conclusion), say Judg. iii. 16-28; in the story of -Gideon, viii. 4-60 (with small exceptions), and a part of cc. 6-7; -part of the history of Abimelech; and the adventures of Samson. A good -specimen of the other narrator is the beginning of the story of -Abimelech, with the fable of Jotham, Judg. ix. 1-25. - -Here, again, additions have been made at various stages of the -transmission: to the sources independently, by the author who first -combined them, by the deuteronomist author, and in some places by -editors at a much later time. These hands cannot always be certainly -discriminated, but the main outlines of the literary history are clear -enough. A peculiar problem is presented by the so-called Minor Judges, -of whom nothing is told but the length of their rule and the sultanly -size of their families (Judg. x. 1-5; xii. 8-15). They seem to be -brought in only for the sake of the chronology, the difficulties of -which they do not diminish. - -Except the curt notices that, the Israelites having again offended -their God, he gave them into the power of the Philistines for forty -years, and that Samson judged Israel for twenty years, it has already -been remarked that the stories of Samson have no such introduction and -conclusion as those which precede. The statement about the duration of -Samson's judgeship occurs both at the end of Judg. 15, and at the end -of c. 16, and it has been inferred from this that whoever put this -formal close in xv. 20 left out the adventure with Delilah and -Samson's tragic end (c. 16). - -The stories of Micah and the migration of the Danites (Judg. 17-18) -and of the levite and his concubine and the decimation of Benjamin -(cc. 19-21) were not included in the deuteronomist book; but there is -no reason to doubt that they are of the same age as the other stories -in Judges, nor that they were found in one or more of the literary -collections of these stories. In cc. 17-18 the character of the -narrative in the main suggests the same source with the stories of -Samson (J), but there are some duplications and inconsistencies which -may be regarded as fragments of a closely parallel account of not -greatly inferior age. In cc. 19-21, again, the original story seems to -be from J (with perhaps traces of another version in c. 19), but in -the following account of the vengeance taken by all Israel on the -Benjamites, the older narrative has been united with a second, which -in its point of view, its language, and its unimaginable -exaggerations, is evidently akin to parts of the Books of Chronicles, -or to the youngest additions to the Pentateuch such as the vengeance -on the Midianites (Num. 31), and doubtless belongs to the most recent -stratum of the Old Testament. - -Judges i. 1-ii. 5, as has been pointed out above, is foreign to the -connection in which it stands, and can only have been introduced there -by a late compiler or editor. It is a remnant of the most historical, -and presumably the oldest, account of the establishment of the tribes -in western Palestine. That, in completer form, it had originally a -place in the Judĉan history (J) is unquestioned, and in that work it -may have been closely followed by stories of exploits such as those of -Ehud, Barak, Gideon. Inasmuch as it contradicted the theory of the -complete conquest and extermination of the Canaanites, it was left out -of the works which described the conquest in that way, but scraps of -it were subsequently introduced in Joshua, and finally the whole -restored in its present position. It is easily seen that the recurring -apostasies into Canaanite heathenism, as well as such stories as those -of Deborah and Barak and of Abimelech, assume that the Canaanites had -not been killed off to the last man, but, on the contrary, were very -much alive; and, in fact, the authors of Judg. ii. 20-iii. 4 feel the -necessity of explaining why God had allowed these heathen to survive. - -The historical value of the stories in Judges is very great. However -large the element of legendary embellishment may be in them, they give -us a picture of the social and religious conditions in the period -preceding the founding of the kingdom which has an altogether -different reality from the narratives of the exodus and the -wanderings. - -The trustworthiness of this picture is confirmed by one contemporary -monument of prime significance, the triumphal ode in Judg. 5, commonly -called the Song of Deborah, celebrating the victory of the Israelite -tribes over Sisera and his hosts and the death of the fleeing king by -the hand of a Bedouin woman in whose tent he sought refuge. The text -in the middle of the poem has suffered greatly, but the beginning and -end are better preserved and display not only a developed poetic art -but poetic inspiration of the highest kind. To the historian it has an -even greater interest for the light which it throws on the times: the -independence of the tribes on both sides of the Jordan, the subjection -of those along the Great Plain to the Canaanite kings with their -walled cities and their formidable chariotry, the summons to the -struggle in the name of religion and the varying response, the victory -of Jehovah over his foes. It should not be overlooked that Judah is -ignored; it was not counted among the tribes of Israel. - -The moralizing improvement of the history in the Book of Judges is not -carried beyond the story of Jephthah, but neither at that point nor -after the stories of Samson is there anything to indicate that the -author is done. The introduction in Judg. ii. 11-iii. 6, a passage in -which both the deuteronomist historian and a predecessor in the same -way of thinking have had a hand, seems to require a correspondingly -solemn conclusion, and the example of Deuteronomy and Joshua suggests -that this would take the form of a hortatory address such as Moses and -Joshua deliver as their testament to the people. Exactly such a -discourse is found in 1 Sam. 12, where the aged Samuel, on the point -of laying down his office as judge, reminds the people's conscience of -the chief crises of the times of the judges in terms reminiscent of -the introduction to the Book of Judges and to the several oppressions, -upbraids them for their sin in desiring a king, and closes with -admonitions for the future. Here Samuel appears as a judge, the last -in the succession; as a judge he is represented also in 1 Sam. 7, -where he delivers his people from the Philistines in the great victory -at Ebenezer through the efficacy of his sacrifice and prayers--a -Gideon or a Jephthah went about the business in a more secular -fashion! Eli also is said to have judged Israel forty years. At some -stage in the history of the sources of Judges and Samuel, therefore, -Eli and Samuel were enumerated among the judges, and the close of the -period was marked by the address of Samuel which we now read in 1 Sam. -12. The contents and form of this address have their parallels in the -writings of the sixth century or the latter part of the seventh, and -to that time it is doubtless to be ascribed. - - - - -CHAPTER X - -SAMUEL - - -A different division is adopted in the present books of Judges and -Samuel, in which the stories of Eli and of Samuel are not made the -close of the period of the judges but the prelude to the history of -the kingdom. The Greek Bible divides this history into four books of -the Kingdoms, or rather of the Reigns of the Kings; the Hebrew, into -two, Samuel and Kings; the modern translations employ the latter names -but adopt the subdivisions of the Greek, thus making two books of -Samuel and two of Kings. First Samuel shows how the conquest and -occupation of central Palestine by the Philistines led to the -establishment of a national kingdom under Saul, a Benjamite; narrates -the rise of his rival, the Judĉan David, and the feud between them, -down to the disastrous battle with the Philistines at Mt. Gilboa in -which Saul and his gallant sons fell. Second Samuel is the history of -David's reign and the tragedy of his house, the conclusion of which, -the intrigue which raised Solomon to the throne and the death of the -aged king, is treated as the prelude to Solomon's reign and carried -over into 1 Kings; one recension of the Greek Bible, however, joins -these chapters (1 Kings 1-2) to the preceding book. The two Books of -Kings recount the reign of Solomon; the division of the kingdom after -his death into two, on the old line, Israel and Judah; the parallel -history of the two kingdoms to the end of Israel in 721 B.C.; and the -rest of the history of Judah to its fall in 586. - -In the account of how Saul became king there are two contradictory -representations. One of these, which agrees with 1 Sam. 12 in treating -the desire of the people for a king as the wanton repudiation of -Jehovah their king and of Samuel their divinely appointed judge, is -contained in cc. 8; x. 17-27; 12. The other, according to which God, -seeing the distress the people were in because of the Philistines, of -his own motion resolves to give them a king to deliver them from their -oppressors, is in 1 Sam. ix. 1-x. 16; 11. In c. 9 Samuel appears as a -seer with a neighbourhood reputation of being able to tell where -people's stray asses have gone, not as the prophet and judge, the -first man of his time. - -These strands can be followed in both directions beyond the chapters -named: 1 Sam. xiii. 1-xiv. 66 belongs to the second, which we may call -the national version of the matter; c. 15 attaches itself to the -other, say theocratic, representation, though it is of a somewhat -different texture. On the other side, vii. 3-17 plainly goes with c. -8; while iv. 1^b-vii. 2 are akin to the national version, showing how -grievous the situation was and how urgent the need of a king. Chapters -1-3 have a twofold motive; they tell of the wonderful childhood of a -great man, and they explain the disasters of Eli's house. The latter -has reference to cc. 4-6; the former, a favourite theme of popular -tales, is an appropriate introduction to Samuel the prophet. - -Of the two accounts of the origin of the kingdom, it takes no great -critical discernment to see that what we have called the national -version is the older and more historical; the other, which condemns -the monarchy as a kind of apostasy, takes the standpoint of Hosea. The -picture of the monarch in 1 Sam. 12 is drawn from sorry experience. - -Even in the older narrative not all is of one piece. Chapter 9, in -which Saul is a young man in his father's house, does not tally with -c. 14, where he has a grown-up son. The author of this narrative made -it up from traditions of diverse origin, some of them more strictly -historical, others embellished with legendary traits. In its main -features, however, it gives us a trustworthy account of the -establishment of the kingdom. In c. 13, the breach with Samuel, vs. -7^b-15^a (with x. 8 which prepares for it), are not part of the -original narrative; c. 15 gives another account of the origin of this -breach, which was evidently a standing feature of tradition. In the -remaining chapters of 1 Samuel the central interest is the relations -of David to Saul. Here also there are not only two main literary -sources but evidence of variant traditions underlying the oldest -narrative, and of the additions by later editors, sometimes of their -conception, sometimes taken from old and good sources. - -It is impossible here to pursue the analysis of the sources further. -It must suffice to say that the further on we go, the more the older -and better of the histories predominates. In 2 Samuel almost the whole -is from this source (c. 7 is a notable exception, in the spirit and -manner of the seventh century). Abridgment and transposition have -brought matters into disorder at some points; but 2 Sam. 9-20 is a -well-preserved piece of continuous narrative, of which 1 Kings 1-2 is -the sequel. 2 Sam. xxi. 1-14 and c. 24 are from the same source, but -must originally have stood at an earlier point in the history; their -present position is best explained by supposing that they were once -omitted--which their contents make very natural--and subsequently -restored from a completer copy, not in their proper connection but in -an appendix. Chapter xxiii. 8-39 is a very ancient roster of David's -"valiant men," the companions of his days as an outlawed freebooter on -the Philistine border; xxi. 15-22 is of the same character. Two poems -attributed to David are also included in this appendix, c. 22, which, -with many variants, is found also in the Psalter (Ps. 18), and xxiii. -1-7. - -The history of Saul and David gave little invitation to a moralizing -improvement such as we have found in Judges and shall find again in -Kings. Whatever faults those heroes had, a propensity to the worship -of heathen gods could not be laid to them. The national uprising -against the Philistines was, in fact, a revival of religion. If in -times of peace men sought the blessing of the gods of the soil (the -Baals) upon their tillage, in war their only reliance was on Jehovah, -the god of Israel. Nor was the worship of Jehovah at the village -sanctuaries (high places) or upon altars erected for the nonce, -illegitimate, even in deuteronomic theory, till God had taken up his -sole abode in Solomon's temple. Accordingly there is, after 1 Sam. 12, -once the close of a history of the judges, small trace of the motives -or phrases of the seventh-century school of historians; and only in a -few passages can the hand of post-exilic editors be suspected. For the -rest we have in our hands a product of the oldest Hebrew -historiography. - -From a literary point of view the older source in the history of David -is unsurpassed. It has in perfection all the qualities that -distinguish the best Hebrew prose such as are conspicuous in the -Judĉan author of the patriarchal stories in Genesis. In the art of -narrative Herodotus himself could do no better. - -Its historical value is also very high. The account of David's later -years in 2 Sam. 9-20; 2 Kings 1-2 bears all the marks of contemporary -origin. It comes from one who not only knew the large political events -of the reign, but was intimately informed about the life of the court, -and the scandals, crimes, and intrigues in the king's household which -clouded the end of his glorious career. These things are narrated with -an objectivity and impartiality which cannot fail to impress the -reader. The author has a high admiration for David, but this does not -lead him to gloze over his faults or even his grave sins, nor to -disguise the weakness of his rule in his own house which was the cause -of so much unhappiness. His development of this domestic tragedy is, -indeed, truly dramatic, and the discrimination of the characters--say -of Absalom and Adonijah--shows fine insight. He tells without comment -how only the distrust of some of the Philistine chiefs kept David, as -a vassal of Achish of Gath, from fighting upon the Philistine side -against Saul in the fatal battle of Mt. Gilboa. So, too, he is loyally -minded to Solomon, but he does not conceal the strings of the -harem-intrigue by which the doting old King David was brought to -declare for his succession, or to pass over the ominous beginning of -Solomon's "new course," with the execution of Adonijah, the deposition -of the priest Abiathar, and the murder, at altar where he had sought -asylum, of Joab, to whom more than any other the house of Jesse owed -the throne. The official pretexts are duly recorded, but the facts -speak for themselves. In 1 Kings ii. 5 f. the death of Joab is -enjoined in David's testament; opinions differ whether these verses -are from the same source with ii. 12 ff., or are by the late -seventh-century writer to whom vs. 1-4 are ascribed by all. Without -idealizing David, we may at least allow ourselves the conjecture that, -if his last words decided the death of his old companion in arms and -most loyal servant, Nathan or Bathsheba was at his dying ear. - -The crisis in the history of the Israelite tribes which the Philistine -invasion created; the long struggle with these foes, very different -from their conflicts with their petty neighbours; the emergence in -this struggle of a national consciousness at once political and -religious; the union of the tribes in a national kingdom; the conquest -of independence; the following wars of expansion and the foundation -of a short-lived Israelite empire--these were achievements to stir the -soul of a people and be celebrated in song and story. The leaders too, -in these memorable doings were such heroes as ancient history loves to -have in the middle of its stage--Saul with his chivalric son Jonathan; -David with Joab, Abner, and the rest of his gallant band. - -The making of great history has often given a first impulse to the -writing of history, and we may well believe that it was so in Israel, -and that the beginning of Hebrew historical literature, in the proper -sense of the word, was made with Saul and David. Around such figures -the popular imagination always weaves a more or less translucent -tissue of legend, and particularly about their youth before they come -out on the stage of history, or the manner of their first appearance. - -The historians gathered up tribal tales such as the exploits of the -judges (that is, in the original sense, deliverers, or defenders), the -sacred legends of holy places, the traditions of a wonderful escape -from the Egyptians, a visit to the Mount of God and an agreement to -worship the god of the place as their god, of another sanctuary in the -desert at Kadesh, conflicts with the Bedouins, and attempts to force -an entry into Canaan--in short, all the diverse material which is -preserved in the older narratives in Exodus and Numbers--and combined -them as best they could into a continuous history of the people of -Israel. - -The continuity is, however, only a narrative continuity; historically -there are great gaps in it, or, more exactly, the traditions cluster -about only a few points, such as the exodus and the invasion of -Palestine, and these are embellished with a wealth of legendary and -mythical circumstance beneath which the facts are effectually hidden. -The nature of this material may be judged from the fact that between -Joshua and Eli there are only the episodes of the judges, strung on a -chronological string, generalized as experiences of all Israel, and -put under a theological judgment--invaluable as pictures of -civilization, but as a history of a couple of centuries (the -chronology says four) evidently insufficient. On the other side of the -exodus are, according to the genealogies, three or four generations -(the chronology again makes it four hundred years) of total ignorance; -beyond that lies the patriarchal story, the realm of pure legend. - -Out of such materials Judĉan authors in the tenth and following -centuries constructed the history of their people from the remotest -antiquity, and, as commonly happens with the first precipitation of -national traditions, preformed all subsequent representations. - -This earliest book of history is commonly designated in the Pentateuch -and Joshua by the symbol J. It is disputed whether the oldest history -of the founding of the kingdom in Samuel should be regarded as a -continuation of J. If it were meant thereby to affirm unity of -authorship of this strand from Genesis to Samuel, that would be saying -much more than the facts warrant; but there is through the whole so -noteworthy a congruity of conception and sameness of excellence in -style that it is not inappropriate to use for it the one symbol J in -the sense of the oldest Judĉan history. - - - - -CHAPTER XI - -KINGS - - -David took Jerusalem, which till then had been a Jebusite stronghold, -and made it the capital of his kingdom; but he reigned, after as -before, in patriarchal fashion, making, so far as appears, few changes -in the old institutions. Solomon reorganized the monarchy after the -common pattern of Oriental despotisms, dividing the country into -provinces for purposes of taxation, without regard to the autonomy of -the tribes and their liberties. He built a great palace in the -citadel, and, within the same enclosure, a temple, which, as the royal -sanctuary, was also in a sense national. Like other Eastern rulers, he -caused his doings to be recorded in the annals of the kingdom, and -doubtless the priests of the temple kept their own chronicles. From -this time, therefore, sources of a new kind make their appearance in -the history, contemporary records drawn from the royal and priestly -annals. The extracts from these sources in the Book of Kings, like -those of the Assyrian kings, or the Phoenician annals of which -fragments (through Menander) are preserved by Josephus, were brief and -bald records of doings or happenings, not biographical or historical -narratives. But brief and bald as they were they furnished a -groundwork of fact; and, since they set down at the accession of each -king the length of his predecessor's reign, they gave also the data -for a continuous chronology. - -It is not to be supposed that the historical literature whose -brilliant beginnings we have seen ceased in the first century of the -kingdom or that the writers occupied themselves solely with the -remoter past. The memorable deeds of great men will not have gone -uncelebrated. The narrative, however, which is the chief source for -the times of Saul and David, breaks off abruptly in 1 Kings 2. The -Books of Kings are of a wholly different fabric. For one thing, while -the two Books of Samuel cover little more than the span of one long -lifetime, Kings, in about the same space, comprises the history of -close on to four centuries. But there is a still greater difference, -as we shall see, in the way in which history is treated. - -The grand divisions of the Books of Kings are these: 1 Kings ii. -12-xi. 43 is occupied with the reign of Solomon; the division of the -kingdom after his death is narrated in xii. 1-24; the parallel history -of the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah to the fall of Samaria in 721 -B.C. runs to 2 Kings xviii. 12; the history of Judah from that date to -its own fall in 586 fills the rest of the book. - -The age of the book is easily determined: it tells of the two sieges -of Jerusalem by the Babylonians (597 and 586 B.C.); the destruction of -the temple and palace and the razing of the city walls, the -assassination of Gedaliah, whom Nebuchadnezzar had made governor over -the devastated land; and the flight of the Jews from the king's -vengeance to Egypt. The last event mentioned is the liberation of King -Jehoiachin by Evil-Merodach (Amil-Marduk) in 561 B.C. It is of course -possible that this detached notice (2 Kings xxv. 27-30) was added by a -later hand; but there is no reason to include the story of Gedaliah in -this suspicion. The book in its present form cannot, therefore, be -earlier than, say, about 580 B.C. In some places in the body of the -book, also, the fall of Judah is spoken of as an accomplished fact, -e.g. 2 Kings xvii. 19 f. (in conflict with vss. 18 and 21 ff.). Such -passages are, however, not very numerous, and they commonly sit loose -in their context, like the verses just cited, as if they were thrust -into the narrative by an editor. The bulk of the work, on the -contrary, seems to suppose the existence of the kingdom. It is, -therefore, the general opinion that the book was written before the -fall of Jerusalem, and that a continuator added the account of the -catastrophe and the events immediately subsequent to it. - -The older Kings, from beginning to end, is dominated by the conception -and permeated by the phraseology of Deuteronomy and of the prophet -Jeremiah, and must therefore be placed between 621 B.C. (the date of -the introduction of the deuteronomic law) and the beginning of the -last act of the history, that is to say, probably shortly before the -year 600 B.C. - -It is not enough to say that Kings was written under the influence of -Deuteronomy; it was written, we might rather say, as a commentary on -the deuteronomic doctrine that falling away from the national religion -is punished by national disaster. In this point of view it resembles -Judges; but while in Judges it is the lapse into Canaanite heathenism, -the worship of the Baals and Astartes, which draws upon Israel -invasion and subjugation, in Kings not only foreign religions but the -worship at the high places, that is, the worship of Jehovah at his -oldest and holiest sanctuaries, provokes the wrath of God; for since -the dedication of Solomon's temple Jehovah had made it his exclusive -abode and all other places of worship were illegitimate. We have seen -that down to Josiah's reform this worship prevailed unchallenged in -both kingdoms. In the author's view, generation after generation, -under bad kings and good, had thus sinned against the organic law of -religion, and all judgments had failed to work amendment. In Israel -idolatry made the case worse; the "golden calves," that is, the small -images of Jehovah in the form of a bull, which Jeroboam had set up at -Bethel and Dan, were worshipped under all his successors. These sins -had in the end brought ruin on Israel, and they were bringing it on -Judah. Manasseh had done even worse than Jeroboam; strange gods from -near and far were installed in the temple itself, and under its walls -men sacrificed their children to "the King" (Moloch). Josiah's reforms -had no lasting results; the reaction under his successors restored the -high places, and heathen cults flourished again. The doom was -imminent; would Judah learn the lesson of history before it was too -late? Some one has said that history is philosophy teaching by -example; for the author of Kings history was prophecy teaching by -example. - -It was the lesson of the history that the author was after, and this -ruling motive determined his selection of material as well as the -treatment of it. It explains why he hardly tells anything about some -of the greatest kings and the most glorious periods of the history, -which did not afford illustrations of his thesis, while he dwells on -things of much less historical importance. - -The characteristic interests of the author and his highly -characteristic style sharply distinguish his own writing from the -sources which he incorporates. These sources, as will be supposed, -were of different kinds and of various worth; they were naturally not -the same in all parts of the long period he covers, and he has not -always dealt with them in the same way. Part of his material comes, -directly or indirectly, from the annals of the kings, to which the -reader is regularly referred for further information (see e.g., 1 -Kings xiv. 19, 29), or from temple records; part of it from more -properly literary sources. Sometimes it has all the marks of -trustworthy tradition originating close to the event; again, it is -embroidered with legendary traits; a smaller part is edifying fiction. -In some cases, as in the stories of Elijah and Elisha, a special -source is recognizable, but in the main the attempt to trace the -literary channels through which the matter reached the author is -fruitless. - -In the history of Solomon's reign the central place is taken by a -description of the palace and temple he erected (1 Kings 6-7), for -which c. 5 is a preparation, and c. 8, the dedication of the temple, -the sequel. The interesting account of the provincial organization and -system of taxation in c. 4 is evidently from an authoritative source; -the cession of cities in Galilee to Hiram, the list of cities -fortified, the (mutilated) account of the revolt of Edom, the rise of -the kingdom of Damascus, and the (mutilated) history of the revolt of -Jeroboam, the prelude to the separation of Israel and Judah, are also -of good authority. - -By the side of these are stories celebrating the magnificence and -wisdom of Solomon, the beginnings of the exuberant Solomonic legend. -The judgment of Solomon in the case of the two harlots and of the -visit of the Queen of Sheba are examples of the popular tale, and -relatively old. The dedication of the temple has been much expanded by -the author of the Book of Kings; 1 Kings viii. 14-66 are wholly his -composition; ix. 1-9 is an appendix to c. 8. In viii. 1-12 an older -account of the dedication has been improved by various hands. -Comparison with the Greek translation shows that this process went on -to very late times; the latest additions are akin to the priestly -stratum in the Pentateuch. Chapter xi. 1-13 also is by the author of -the Book of Kings, built about a few words from his source in vs. 7; -vss. 29-40 are of the same sort. - -1 Kings 12-2 Kings 17 contains the parallel history of Israel and -Judah. The method of the author is to follow the reign of a king, say -of Israel, to its end and then go back to take up the king of Judah -who came to the throne during this reign, follow him to his death, and -return to pick up the Israelite history again in the same way. The -result is, thus, interlocking histories, rather than a parallel -history. The length of each reign is given, probably ultimately from -the annals, with a computed synchronism which is at some points -demonstrably in error. With the introduction of each king a -comprehensive judgment by the standard of the deuteronomic law is -pronounced upon his reign. Thus, "In the eighteenth year of the king -Jeroboam the son of Nebat [king of Israel], began Abijah to reign over -Judah. Three years reigned he in Jerusalem, and his mother's name was -Maacah the daughter of Abishalom. And he walked in all the sins of his -father which he had done before him," etc. "In the third year of Asa -king of Judah began Baasha the son of Abijah to reign over all Israel -in Tirzah, and he reigned twenty and four years. And he did that which -was evil in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the way of Jeroboam, -and in his sin wherewith he made Israel to sin." These judgments are -so stereotyped that they are pronounced even on kings who reigned but -a short time--Zimri, for instance, who lasted only seven days. In the -case of godly kings of Judah, even of such as are credited with -commendable zeal against the worships that Deuteronomy denounces as -Canaanitish heathenism, the reproach of leaving the worship of Jehovah -at the "high places" unmolested is not spared them; see, e.g., 1 Kings -xv. 1-14; xxii. 43. - -The conflict between the tribes to whom the name Israel by historical -right belonged, headed by Ephraim, intent on reclaiming the ancient -liberties which Solomon had curtailed and securing adequate guarantees -for them, and Rehoboam, obstinate to maintain the despotism which his -father had established and the supremacy of Judah, ended in the -Israelite tribes refusing to acknowledge the succession and setting up -a kingdom of their own with Jeroboam the son Nebat as king. These -critical events are narrated in the source, 1 Kings xii. 1-20, with -noteworthy impartiality; a comparison with the treatment of the matter -by the author of the Book of Kings himself in xi. 29-39; xii. 21-24, -is instructive. The account of Jeroboam's religious foundations and -innovations in c. xii. 26-33 (with which xiii. 33^b belongs) is -probably based on an old Israelite source (the temples Jeroboam built, -etc.), on which the author of the book has put his own construction -and made his own comments. 1 Kings 13 is a specimen of the edifying -stories--religious fiction--which were added to the historical books -at a very late time and are especially numerous in Chronicles; the -reference to it in 2 Kings xxiii. 17 f. is an interpolation in a -context itself post-exilic. The story of the visit of Jeroboam's wife -to the prophet Ahijah (1 Kings xiv. 1-18) is in the manner of the -author, but seems to have an older basis. The fluid state of the text -at a very late time is again shown by the fact that in some recensions -of the Greek version the story is not found in this place, but, -together with other matter about Jeroboam (in part variant parallel to -1 Kings xi. 26 ff., 40), in a long passage which stands in c. 12 -between vss. 24 and 25. - -The invasion of Shishak, king of Egypt (1 Kings xiv. 25-28), is -introduced by the author with a catalogue of the deuteronomic -transgressions which provoked God to punish the kingdom in this way; -the similarity to the introduction to the oppressions in Judges is -apparent. So in the following chapters: the author's facts probably -come from annalistic sources which can in places be recognized, but -the religious interpretation of the events, which he sometimes gives -in his own quality as historian, sometimes puts into the mouth of a -prophet (e.g. xvi. 1-7, cf. xiv. 1-18), is from the point of view of -the deuteronomist school. - -Another characteristic of the author's method is illustrated by his -treatment of the reign of Omri (1 Kings xvi. 23-28). Omri was the -founder of the greatest dynasty of the northern kingdom, and was one -of its greatest kings. From an inscription of the Moabite king Mesha, -we learn that Omri subjugated the lands east of the Jordan (see also 2 -Kings i. 1; iii. 4 ff.), and it is probable that his conquests were -pushed to the north-east into Syria; the Assyrian kings long after his -death call Israel the "house of Omri." But the long and brilliantly -successful reign of a king who in religion followed in the footsteps -of the kings of Israel before him, "golden calves" and all, obviously -could not be made to exemplify the doctrine that such sins are -regularly visited by condign judgment in national disaster. -Consequently, all that our author records of Omri, beyond the -revolutions which paved for him the way to the throne (1 Kings xvi. -16-18), is contained in one verse, 1 Kings xvi. 24--he built a capital -on a new site, Samaria! - -In the following reign, however, Israel had troubles enough; the -conquests east of the Jordan were lost, and the long chapter of Syrian -wars began. This was material more to the author's purpose, and he -makes good use of it. Here also, in addition to the annals and -whatever other sources were at his hand for the preceding period, he -had a new and peculiarly grateful source in the stories of Elijah and -Elisha. To the fact that these prophets were outstanding figures in -some of the crises of the Syrian wars we owe it that so much of the -history of that struggle is preserved; for what the author has -extracted from the annals is as meagre as elsewhere. - -From such "lives and times" of the prophets is derived much the -greater part of 1 Kings 17-2 Kings 10, with 2 Kings xiii. 14-21. The -stories of Elijah (1 Kings 17-19; 21; 2 Kings 1; ii. 1-18) are among -the most striking in the Old Testament; the supernatural in them seems -the natural setting for a figure of such heroic mould, and is a -stronger testimony than any record of fact could be to the impression -of the superman on the imagination of ordinary mortals. Through the -vesture of legend, we too have the impression of a something titanic -in the man who dared solitary to stand for his God against kings, -priests, prophets, and people, and, worse than all, the vengeful fury -of a woman! We can see, also, that his conflict against the prophets -of Baal makes an era in the history of religion in Israel. "If Jehovah -be God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him," he thunders at the -people on Mt. Carmel. It was not the first assertion of the jealousy -of Jehovah and the exclusiveness of the true religion; but the issue -had never before been so dramatically joined. The intolerant -monotheism of Judaism had found its war cry. - -1 Kings 17-19, Elijah at Sarepta, on Carmel, and at Horeb, belong -together; the beginning, which must in some way have brought Elijah -upon the stage, is not preserved; 1 Kings 21 (Naboth's vineyard) may -very well be from the same source; in the end of the chapter (vs. -20^b-26) the author of the Book of Kings has the word, and in the -other chapters there are slight traces of the same hand. With these -small exceptions the stories are old, and probably received their -present literary form in the ninth century, certainly before the -prophetic movement of the eighth. 2 Kings i. 2-17 is a legend of a -different kind and presumably considerably younger. 2 Kings ii. 1-18, -on the other hand, is akin to the older stories in 1 Kings 17-19, 21; -it forms the connecting link with Elisha. - -Among the stories of Elijah stand other episodes of the Syrian wars in -which prophets figure, 1 Kings 20; xxii. 1-38. The second of these, -Micaiah ben Imlah before Ahab and Jehoshaphat, is of peculiar -interest. They are apparently of the same age with their surroundings. -In both a few verses are from later editors. To the same cycle -probably belong 2 Kings iii. 4-27, the campaign against Moab, as well -as 2 Kings ix. 1-x. 27, Jehu's revolt instigated by Elisha, the murder -of King Ahaziah and of the queen mother, Jezebel, the massacre of the -princes of the house of Omri and the extirpation of the worship of -Baal. - -Beside these are a group of stories about Elisha, chiefly celebrating -him as a wonder-worker, and bringing him into connection with the -"sons of the prophets," who seem to have formed a kind of dervish -order. The collector or editor has accumulated them all in one reign, -probably against their original intention. Scattered through the -narratives drawn from the lives of the prophets are brief notices from -the annals and the usual deuteronomist appraisals by the author of -Kings. - -The attempt of Jehu to exterminate the dynasty of Omri, involving the -slaughter of the Judĉan princes, had the unintended result of enabling -the queen mother, Athaliah, a daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, to seize -the throne. The revolution, planned by the chief priest of Jerusalem, -which overthrew the usurper and brought the true heir, the -seven-year-old Joash, to his own, is told in 2 Kings xi. 1-20; a -somewhat minute account of the restoration of the temple in his reign -follows in c. xii. 4-16, both from a good Judĉan source, perhaps -ultimately a temple chronicle. The author of Kings has his usual -formulas, including the tolerated high places, in c. xii. 1-3. The -extract from the annals at the end of the chapter, the straits into -which Hazael of Syria brought Joash, and his death by a treasonable -conspiracy, which might be thought to prove that piety is not always -crowned with prosperity, is anticipated by the author of Kings in 2 -Kings xii. 3--Joash's piety lasted only as long as he was in the -leading strings of the priest Jehoiada. - -In the following reigns the material derived from narrative sources is -more scanty; a noteworthy passage of this kind is the account, -evidently from an Israelite writer, of the chastisement Jehoash of -Israel inflicted on the presumptuous Amaziah of Judah (2 Kings xiv. -8-14). The contemporary reigns of Jeroboam II of Israel and Azariah, -or Uzziah, of Judah, lasting half a century, a period of great -prosperity in both kingdoms, are dispatched with extreme brevity, and -are followed by the swiftly successive conspiracies and revolutions in -which the northern kingdom declined to its fall. The story of treason -and bloodshed is suspended to tell of the reign of Ahaz in Judah (2 -Kings 16) from a source chiefly interested in the temple, and then the -last act of Israel's tragedy opens. To the brief account of the fall -of Samaria in 2 Kings xvii. 1-6, is appended the moral of the whole -history, VSS. 7-41. This homiletic improvement of the catastrophe was -an inviting task, and besides the author of Kings, the exilian -continuator and perhaps still later editors contributed to draw it out -and emphasize it. - -From this point the historian has only Judah to deal with. The reign -of Hezekiah is narrated at some length in 2 Kings 18-20. A -considerable part of these chapters (xviii. 13-XX. 19) is found also -in the Book of Isaiah (Isa. 36-39), with variations which are of much -interest for the history of the text. The psalm, Isa. xxxviii. 9-20, -for instance, is not found in Kings; 2 Kings xviii. 14-16 is not in -Isaiah, and minor differences occur in almost every verse. The -introduction to the reign of Hezekiah by the author of Kings is -somewhat longer than usual, and attributes to him not only the -destruction of the serpent idol in the temple which Moses was -believed to have made (cf. Num. xxi. 8 f.), and of other apparatus of -heathenism, but the removal of the high places, making him thus -anticipate the reforms of Josiah a century later (2 Kings xviii. 4). -This probably exaggerates Hezekiah's good works, but for the bronze -serpent to which sacrificial worship had been paid from time -immemorial, as well as for vs. 7 f. (Hezekiah's rebellion), which is -the antecedent of vs. 13 ff., he may have had the authority of the -annals. - -From the annals probably come also 2 Kings xviii. 13-16, with their -brief record of the penalty Hezekiah paid for his revolt. Of this we -have also Sennacherib's account in his inscriptions, where he tells -how he took the cities of Judah and shut up Hezekiah in Jerusalem -"like a bird in a cage," and gives the figures of the heavy indemnity -he imposed upon him. There follow two longer accounts of Sennacherib's -operations, 2 Kings xviii. 17-xix. 8 and xix. 9-37, which are commonly -regarded as parallel and somewhat discrepant relations of the same -campaign, but by some are thought to refer to two different occasions, -at an interval of ten years or more. 2 Kings xx. 1-11 (cf. Isa. 38) is -perhaps from a life of Isaiah, who is the chief figure in it; vs. -12-19 (Isa. 39), the embassy of the chronic Babylonia rebel, Merodach -Baladan, presumably to undermine Hezekiah's shaky loyalty to his -Assyrian lord, seems to belong at an earlier point in the story; in it -also Isaiah is the central person. In the closing paragraph the -author of Kings has preserved an interesting annalistic notice of an -aqueduct and reservoir which Hezekiah constructed, not improbably the -Siloam tunnel and the reservoir it feeds. - -Of the fifty-five years' reign of Manasseh, and the two years of his -son Amon, a half-century of peace and prosperity in which the country -recuperated from the disasters Hezekiah had brought upon it, nothing -is told. Instead we have a long catalogue of Manasseh's religious -obliquities, which includes all the crimes most abhorrent to the -seventh-century prophets and laws, and the proclamation of God "by his -servants the prophets" that these sins sealed the doom of Judah. This -prediction is made from the standpoint of the accomplished fact, and -indeed most of the chapter seems to be by the exilian continuator of -Kings or a still later writer. - -With the reforms of Josiah (621 B.C.; 2 Kings 22-23) we arrive at -events which, if not within the personal knowledge of the author of -Kings, were known to his older contemporaries. This does not, of -course, exclude the use of written records or narratives, and, in -fact, there seem to be traces of such in the chapters. More certain it -is that the continuator of the book made some changes in the account; -the oracle of Huldah, for example, seems to have been revised in the -light of the event. - -To this continuator, as has already been said, the history of the two -sieges of Jerusalem, the deportations, and the misfortunes of those -who were left in the land are to be attributed. In several places in -earlier parts of the history we have had occasion to observe that -additions and changes continue to be made by the editors or -scribes--and every scribe who copied a book in those days wielded an -editor's pen when he chose--until a time close to the age of the Greek -translation, that is, the third century B.C. - -The age in which the Pentateuch and the several Historical Books -(Joshua-Kings), the product of the long and obscure process which we -have attempted to outline in the preceding chapters, were adjusted and -connected so as to make a continuous history from the creation to the -fall of the Judĉan state, can be fixed only by the fact that the -author of Chronicles (about 300 B.C. or somewhat later; see below) -seems to have read these books in the order and, so far as his use of -them permits a judgment, substantially with the contents of our -present Old Testament. This arrangement, or edition, if we choose to -call it so, as has been shown, did not put an end to additions and -alterations, though they gradually became less frequent and less -important in the following centuries. A standard and stable Hebrew -text was established only in the second century after the Christian -era. - - - - -CHAPTER XII - -CHRONICLES - - -By the side of this comprehensive history stands another which is in -part parallel, in part supplementary, to it, Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah. -It differs from the former in being the work of one author, whose -characteristic conceptions, interests, and manner make it easy to -distinguish his writing from the sources he incorporates. His -peculiarities are the better known because there is so much of his own -in the books--not far from half the matter contained in them. - -The succession of the high priests is brought down to Jaddua, who was -contemporary with Alexander the Great, and lists of heads of priestly -and levitical families are given in Neh. 12 for the reign of Darius -(Codomannus), the last Persian king. The book can, therefore, not be -put much, if any, before 300 B.C., and more probably it was written in -the following century. - -The history begins with the death of Saul and the election of David as -king by all Israel at Hebron (1 Chron. 10-11). The preceding chapters -are filled with genealogies, beginning with Adam. Twenty-six verses -bring us to Abraham, and the second chapter opens with the sons of -Israel, while the third is a list of the sons of David and of his -successors on the throne to the fall of the kingdom, with the -descendants of the last king through several generations. These -genealogies, to which historical notices of different kinds are -frequently attached, are in part compiled from various places in the -Pentateuch and Historical Books, in part more freely reproduced from -such passages; but a large remainder has no parallel in the older -work. The author, here as elsewhere, evidently attaches great -importance to these lists, in particular to those which enabled the -families of his own time, clerical and lay, or the inhabitants of -towns and villages, to trace their pedigree back to remote times. - -It is not without reason that the historical narrative sets in with -David, and that the first event of his reign recorded is the taking of -Jerusalem; for Jerusalem is from first to last the centre of the -author's interest. He writes the history of Judah alone, touching upon -the kingdom of Israel only in its relation to Judah. The desire to -magnify and glorify the kingdom of Judah in its great days, especially -under David and Solomon, to represent it as the most powerful, -wealthy, and magnificent among the nations, not only of its time but -of any time, frequently expresses itself in enormous exaggerations. -David could raise a native army of a million and a half, almost as -many as, according to Herodotus--who certainly does not underestimate -the numbers--Xerxes mustered from the whole Persian empire for the -invasion of Greece; he laid away, "out of his poverty," to build the -temple, a hundred thousand talents of gold and a million talents of -silver--over three times the national debt of the United Kingdom in -1912; at the dedication of the temple Solomon sacrificed 22,000 -bullocks and 120,000 sheep and goats; and so on. It is evident that -the author has raised the figures out of the grasp of his own -imagination. - -From the same motive, if it is possible to avoid it, he tells nothing -to discredit the kings whom he thus extols. David's sin in taking a -census is necessarily related, because the sequel of it was the choice -of a site for the future temple, but, characteristically, not God but -Satan tempted him to number the people; otherwise none of the misdeeds -and misfortunes which are set down so impartially in 2 Samuel is so -much as alluded to by the Chronicler; David is in his pages the model -king. Solomon fares as well; nothing is said of the perverting -influence of his foreign wives nor the temples he erected to their -gods. Indeed, his piety is such that he will not allow Pharaoh's -daughter, apparently the only foreign wife the Chronicler gives him, -to live in the city of David, for the neighbourhood of the ark is -holy. Solomon's press-gangs were one of the greatest grievances of the -tribes; the author of Chronicles takes pains to aver that Solomon -raised his corvée from the remnants of the Hittites and other heathen; -no Israelites were put to such work. In Kings we read that Solomon -ceded twenty towns in Galilee to Hiram, king of Tyre, in payment for -materials and services in the building of the temple; to the -Chronicler such a transaction is unimaginable, and he amends it by -making Hiram give the towns to Solomon. - -All this is, however, incidental to the main purpose of the book to -exalt Jerusalem as the religious capital, its temple as the place -which God has chosen for his abode, its liturgy as the correct form of -worship, its priests and levites as the only ministry of valid orders -and unimpeachable succession. It is not solely the pride of the -churchman which prompts him to dwell on these things. The assertion is -so emphasized and reiterated that we can hardly mistake in inferring a -controversial animus, especially when we recall that at the time of -writing there was a rival temple on Mt. Gerizim near Shechem, at one -of the most venerable holy places in the land. - -This temple is said by Josephus to have been erected in the time of -Alexander the Great, in avowed rivalry to the temple in Jerusalem. The -high priests of the Samaritan temple were a branch of the Jewish -high-priestly line, its ritual was the same, the Pentateuch was the -Law in Shechem as well as in Jerusalem. If the Jews maintained that -Jerusalem was the only place in the land where sacrifice might -lawfully be made to God, the Samaritans made the same exclusive claim -for their temple: Shechem, not Jerusalem, was the place (unnamed in -Deuteronomy) which God had chosen out of all the tribes to put his -name there. At Shechem was held the first great religious assembly of -Israel after the invasion of Canaan; there, on Gerizim, the first -altar of Jehovah was erected by his express command (see Deut. xi. -26-29; Jos. viii. 30-35; Jos. 24; especially Deut. xxvii. 4, where -"Ebal" in the Jewish Bible is an anti-Samaritan substitute for the -original "Gerizim"). The rivalry of Shechem was thus a serious menace, -and so the Jerusalem Jews treated it. - -In their eyes the people of the old territory of Ephraim were -descendants of the assorted heathen whom the Assyrian kings had -colonized in the cities of Samaria after transplanting to the eastern -provinces of the empire the old Israelite population of the region -(see 2 Kings 17--a very late passage--noting especially vs. 34, "unto -this day"). On the other hand, Jerusalem and the region about it, -after lying waste for seventy years, had been repeopled under Cyrus by -Jews of pure race returning from the exile in Babylonia, who rebuilt -the temple and restored the worship as prescribed in the law. They -were surrounded by the "peoples of the land," who were regarded as -descendants of the ancient heathen of Canaan with whom intermarriage -was forbidden in the law. This is the Chronicler's representation: the -returned exiles are the only genuine stock, their priesthood the only -legitimate sons of Aaron, the rest of the ministry, down to the temple -slaves, was authenticated by recorded pedigrees (see Ezra ii. 59-63), -and the elaborate liturgy of his own time the same in all particulars -which had been used in the temple from its foundation. - -The author has an exaggerated interest in this liturgy, and especially -in the part taken in it by the minor orders of the clergy, levites, -musicians, singers, door-keepers, and the rest. The levites are -provided for in the Pentateuch, but the orchestra and choruses, -according to the Chronicler, were organized by David (1 Chron. 23-26), -who thus provided for the proper execution of his Psalms. When a great -religious function is described, the music invariably comes in for a -prominent notice (e.g. 2 Chron. v. 12 f.). - -We have seen that the historians of the seventh and following -centuries, the so-called deuteronomist school, wrote or interpreted -the history to exemplify the doctrine that defection from the national -religion is surely punished by national calamities. The Chronicler's -doctrine of retribution is at once harder and more individual. He also -turns it about: unusual suffering is proof of sin. Thus, Asa was, -according to Kings, a conspicuously good king, but in his old age he -had the gout. The Chronicler, by the mouth of a prophet, explains why: -he relied on the king of Syria to help him against Israel, instead of -relying on the Lord. The king clapped the prophet into prison for -meddling with affairs of state, and so added another affront to God. -He was impenitent, however, for though the gout was very bad, "yet -sought he not unto the Lord, but to the physicians." Uzziah, another -godly king, was in his later years afflicted with leprosy, a disease -which was regarded as peculiarly the stroke of God. The Chronicler -gives the reason: the king presumed to burn incense on the altar in -spite of the protest of the priest, and was smitten with leprosy on -the spot. - -There is no reason to impugn the author's good faith in such -emendations of his sources. He thought he knew the laws of history, -and if in the particular instance the record did not correspond, it -must be defective. But whatever apology may be made for his good -intentions, it need hardly be said that the unsupported testimony of a -doctrinaire historian who deals so sovereignly with the facts is of no -weight. - -The Chronicler names a considerable number of books as authorities for -different periods of the history; the Book of the Kings of Judah and -Israel (or Israel and Judah) and the Book of the Kings of Israel are -repeatedly cited for things not related in our Book of Kings. For more -information about Joash the reader is referred to the "Midrash of the -Book of Kings," and for Abijah to the "Midrash of the Prophet Iddo," -titles that in later times, at least, would designate an edifying -exposition in which full licence was given to the imagination to -embroider the theme with picturesque inventions. The favourite -references, however, are to writings bearing the names of -prophets--Samuel, Nathan, Gad, Ahijah, Iddo, Shemaiah, Jehu son of -Hanani. The title History of Samuel the Seer, of Nathan the Prophet, -and so on, may mean either _about_ Samuel or _by_ Samuel. Very likely -the author entertained the theory which subsequently prevailed among -the Jews that in each age the prophets wrote down the events of their -own time in which many of them had a conspicuous part. - -The question is of no other interest; for an examination of the -extracts from his sources which the Chronicler has incorporated or -condensed shows that (with small possible exceptions to be considered -hereafter) his material was all taken from our Book of Kings. This -enables us to confront his history of Judah with his sources and -acquaint ourselves with his habitual way of dealing with them, an -investigation not only instructive for his method, but of the greatest -importance when we come to the Chronicler's history of the Persian -period, where, for the most part, his sources are not independently -preserved. - -In the first place it will be noticed that he has selected from the -history in Samuel and Kings the parts which particularly interested -him for their own sake, such as the description of religious -ceremonies, or could be used as a text for the doctrines he had most -at heart, and has therefore passed over a very large part of the -contents of his source. Precisely so, the author of Kings, two -centuries earlier, had dealt with his sources, though with a different -interest. What the Chronicler chose to include he generally copied out -without much change; the present variations in the text are chiefly -due to divergent transmission. (Compare, for illustration, 1 Chron. x. -1-xi. 47 with 1 Sam. 31 and 2 Sam. xxiii. 8-39, or 1 Chron. xvii. -1-xx. 8 with 2 Sam. 7, 8, 10 and 12.). Often he introduces in these -extracts, or appends to them, notes of his own which would in almost -all cases be certainly recognizable on internal evidence even if we -had not the text of Kings before us. In a few places he condenses or -abridges the narrative of Kings, as in 2 Chron. xxxii. 1-23 compared -with 2 Kings xviii. 13-xix. 37. - -Of alterations, or, from the author's own point of view, corrections, -of the older history several examples have been given above. One more, -of a striking character, may be cited, viz. 2 Chron. xxii. 10-xxiii. -21 compared with 2 Kings 11. The Carian mercenaries of the guard in -the sacred precincts of the temple (2 Kings xi. 4) were a plain -profanation, of which the pious chief priest could not have been -guilty. The Chronicler accordingly rewrites the story, substituting -the levites (note 2 Chron. xxiii. 6) for the obnoxious heathen. -Finally, he sometimes freely expands on his text, as in the building -of Solomon's temple (2 Chron. 2-3). - -In view of the Chronicler's multiplied references to authorities, it -has frequently been assumed that his immediate source was not the -Books of Samuel and Kings, but a work of a "midrashic" character--that -is, euphemistically, a work with more concern for edification than for -historical verity--written not long before his time from the same -point of view and with the same salient interests, which the -Chronicler in all simplicity took for authentic history. This ghost -source eludes, however, all attempts to catch it actually walking. It -may perfectly well be that the Chronicler did not invent everything in -the book which is plainly invention, but if not, we can only apply the -famous contribution of an undergraduate to Homeric criticism, "the -Iliad was not written by Homer, but by another man of the same name." - -There remain a few short notices, not derived from the Pentateuch or -Historical Books, whose contents and form suggest that they are scraps -which the Chronicler picked up from some other source, e.g. the -migration of the Simeonites, 1 Chron. iv. 24-43 (in the main). But -these passages are so few, and generally of so little historical -importance, that the question need here not be pursued farther. - - - - -CHAPTER XIII - -EZRA AND NEHEMIAH - - -The books which in our Bible bear the names Ezra and Nehemiah (in the -Jewish Bible, one book, Ezra) are the immediate continuation of -Chronicles, by the same author. When they were divided, 2 Chron. -xxxvi. 22-23, the necessary sequel of vss. 20-21 was repeated at the -beginning of Ezra (Ezra i. 1-3). The reason for the division is plain: -down to the end of the exile the work was no more than an epitome of -the Pentateuch and Historical Books; but from the time of Cyrus to -Alexander it was the only history the Jews possessed. This part was -therefore separated from what went before as the book of post-exilic -history, and named "Ezra" after the figure most prominent in the -earlier half of it, on the same principle that the history of the -founding of the kingdom was named Samuel. The subdivision into two -books of Ezra as in the Greek Bible, or as we name them Ezra and -Nehemiah, is apparently due to Christian hands. - -This part of the Chronicler's work begins, as has been said, with an -edict of Cyrus permitting the Jews in Babylonia to return to Jerusalem -and rebuild the temple. There follows a list (given again in Neh. 7) -of the families who availed themselves of this permission, shortly -after 538 B.C. The restoration of the temple is begun, then stopped by -the machinations of their enemies under Xerxes (486-465 B.C.) and -Artaxerxes (465-424 B.C.), but happily completed (by the same -Zerubbabel and Joshua who began it) in the sixth year of Darius -(Nothus, 424-405 B.C.). "After these things, in the reign of -Artaxerxes," Ezra came up from Babylonia, armed with large powers by -an edict of the king, to order things according to the law of his God -in the province "beyond the river" (Euphrates, Ezra 7 f.). He found -things enough that needed reform; particularly the frequent -intermarriages of all classes, including the clergy, with the "peoples -of the land," and succeeded in inducing the Jews, in a great act of -penitence, to divorce these "foreign women" (cc. 9-10). - -At this point the History of Nehemiah sets in abruptly in the form of -personal memoirs. Nehemiah, a favourite cup-bearer of the Persian king -Artaxerxes, hearing that the wall of Jerusalem was broken down and the -gates burned, asks permission to go thither and repair the damaged -fortifications, and is sent with a commission as royal governor of the -district. In spite of dangerous opposition from jealous neighbours in -Samaria and elsewhere, by the utmost endeavours he accomplishes the -rebuilding of the walls in a very brief space (Neh. 1-6). In all this -there is not so much as a mention of Ezra, who is supposed to have -been now thirteen years in Jerusalem, but in Neh. 8 he suddenly -appears on the scene with his law-book. The law is read, and the -people solemnly covenant by sign and seal to observe it; Nehemiah's -name stands at the head of the list of signers, but otherwise he is -entirely ignored (Neh. 8-10). Lists of the inhabitants of Jerusalem -and of other settlements, a catalogue of the priests and levites who -came up under Cyrus, and a description of the dedication of the walls, -in which the singers shine, fill Neh. 11-12. That the Chronicler is -the author is palpable. Finally, in c. 13, Nehemiah, who had returned -to court, reappears, and finds a sad state of things; a foreigner, and -an Ammonite at that, lodged by the high priest in a chamber of the -temple, flagrant violations of the sabbath by market men, and the old -grievance of mixed marriages in full gait. Even the high priest's -family was not pure: one of its scions was son-in-law to Nehemiah's -arch-enemy, Sanballat of Samaria. Naturally Nehemiah expelled him. - -It has been necessary to give this somewhat detailed synopsis of the -books to make intelligible the problems they present. On this point it -is further to be observed that the book is not all written in Hebrew: -Ezra iv. 8-vi. 18; vii. 12-26, containing chiefly correspondence with -the Persian court and documents issuing from it, are in Aramaic, the -official language of the western provinces of the empire. Moreover, -the oldest Greek translation of the Chronicler's history, part of -which is preserved in the Bible of the church as 1 Esdras, differs -both in matter and order from the Jewish standard text and the later -Greek version; it contains, for example, the famous exhibition of wits -by the three Jewish youths at the court of Darius (1 Esdr. 3 f.), as a -result of which Zerubbabel obtains from Darius permission to go up to -Jerusalem. In 1 Esdras the reading of the law (Neh. 8) immediately -follows the act of penitence for the strange wives (Ezra 10). - -A large part of Ezra-Nehemiah exhibits the Chronicler's familiar -motives and manner; in other places he has incorporated extracts from -the sources with or without annotations of his own. Of these sources -the only ones which have been independently preserved are the -prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah, from which the author takes, -however, no more than the facts that at the instance of these prophets -Zerubbabel and Joshua began to rebuild the temple in the second year -of Darius (Ezra v. 1 f.); the completion of the work by the same -hands, which according to the Chronicler took place in the sixth year -of Darius and was celebrated in a great dedication ceremony, is in -Zech. iv. 9 still prediction. Another source which stands out -distinctly is the Memoirs of Nehemiah, of which Neh. 1-6 (except c. 3) -is a solid piece. There is, moreover, a series of documents: Ezra 1, -the edict of Cyrus; Ezra iv. 7-vi. 12, complaints to the court of the -Jews' building operations, and answers of the kings Artaxerxes and -Darius respectively. Ezra vii. 11-26, commission of Artaxerxes to -Ezra. A diplomatic appearance is given to these by the fact -that--except the edict of Cyrus--they are all couched in the official -Aramaic; and, inasmuch as in cc. iv. 7-vi. 18 the connecting links of -narrative are also in Aramaic, the presumption is that this material -was taken bodily from an Aramaic book in which the letters and -rescripts were already embodied. - -Finally, a distinct source is commonly assumed for the history of -Ezra. This is chiefly told of Ezra in the third person; but in some -parts for a considerable space together Ezra speaks in the first -person (I or we), and it is accordingly thought by most scholars that -the Chronicler had in his hands Memoirs of Ezra as well as of -Nehemiah, which in part he incorporated intact (e.g. Ezra 8 f.), in -part recast into the form of a narrative about Ezra (as in Ezra 10; -Neh. 8 f.). It is evident that the story of Ezra, whatever its origin, -is badly dislocated: the chapters which now stand in Neh. 8-10 have no -business there, and, as has been noticed above, in 1 Esdras the -reading of the law immediately follows Ezra 10. On the other hand, -there is a gap at the end of Ezra 6; chapter 9 cannot well be its -original sequel. And, lastly, Neh. 9 f. does not seem naturally to -follow c. 8. The most probable restoration of the order is Ezra 8; -Neh. vii. 70-73; 8; Ezra 9-10; Neh. 9-10. This arrangement gives a -continuous and consistent story, and the numerous dates fall into -sequence. Incidentally another connection is thus restored, Neh. 11 -follows vii. 5^a. The list (Neh. vii. 5^b-60) of the exiles who -returned with Zerubbabel and his company ( = Ezra 2) is obviously not -what is required here. The dismemberment of the story of Ezra is not -to be attributed to the Chronicler, but to misadventures of copying -such as are not infrequent in ancient manuscripts. - -The extract from the Memoirs of Nehemiah breaks off with Neh. 6; -though perhaps in vii. 1-4; xi. 1-3 the Chronicler has utilized in his -own way some further sentences. In Neh. xii. 27-43, the procession at -the dedication of the walls is described, ostensibly by Nehemiah in -the first person, and the passage has on this ground been taken for an -extract from the Memoirs. It is, however, an unmistakable piece of the -Chronicler's own composition. In c. 13, also, Nehemiah, in the first -person, gives an account of his reforming enterprises on a second -visit to Jerusalem. An unaltered extract from the Memoirs, however, -the chapter cannot well be; the Chronicler's vein crops out in too -many places. - -It does not belong to our present task to discuss the historical -value of these sources; but it may not be amiss to say that the -authority of the Memoirs of Nehemiah alone is unimpeached. The -question is of peculiar interest in the case of the supposed Memoirs -of Ezra, because Neh. 8 has been generally understood by recent -critics to be the account of the formal introduction of a new, or -newly codified, law, the Priests' Code or the Pentateuch, which Ezra -brought up from Babylonia. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV - -STORY BOOKS: ESTHER, RUTH, JONAH - - -Besides the older and younger historical books we have been -considering, the Jewish Bible contains some examples of what we should -call the short story, and the church has preserved others. The -canonical books of this class are Esther, Ruth, and Jonah; among the -apocrypha are Judith and Tobit; others, such as 3 Maccabees, are found -in manuscripts of the Greek and Latin Bibles, or in Oriental -translations, but did not attain official recognition of any of the -great churches. These stories, which, as might be expected, differ -widely in literary quality as well as in subject and motive, are -doubtless only the rare survivors of a larger literature of this kind, -but they suffice to give us a notion of the popular reading of the -Jews in the last centuries before the Christian era. It would be more -exact, perhaps, to say the popular story-telling, for probably the -written books were chiefly used by the story-tellers, who reproduced -their contents orally and freely, just as the Moslem story-tellers -to-day recite stories from the Arabian Nights or the Antar romance. -Some of them, however, like Esther, attached themselves to popular -festivals and were recited or read as part of the celebration. - - -ESTHER.--Esther is the story of a beautiful Jewess of Susa whom Xerxes -raises from the ranks of his concubines to be his queen, and who uses -her influence over him to save her people from a general massacre -which the grand vizier has prepared for them by way of avenging an -affront from one of the race. The plot is developed with noteworthy -art. The deposition of Vashti, which, so far as the main matter goes, -is necessary only to make room for Esther, under the author's hand -becomes a brilliant first act. The embroilment of Mordecai and Haman -is skilfully managed; the stiffnecked Jew refuses homage to the proud -vizier, who schemes a generous revenge. Esther ventures her life for -her people by intruding into the audience chamber, but the -_dénouement_ is artfully retarded--instead of a pathetic plea for the -imperilled Jews, an invitation for the king and his prime minister to -a _petit dîner_ in the queen's apartments! At the banquet the king -offers Esther her wish, but again the issue is postponed. Haman, in -his elation at such signal marks of queenly favour, builds a gallows -for Mordecai seventy-five feet high--and next day has to parade the -streets of the capital at the bridle of the hated Jew's horse -proclaiming him the object of the king's special honour! - -The scene in the banqueting hall when Esther at last makes her -petition is highly dramatic. She makes it a plea for her own life, -"for we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and -to perish." The king, who has no inkling that she is a Jewess, and is -incensed at the thought of such a plot against his queen, angrily -asks, "Who is he, and where is he, that durst presume in his heart to -do so?" The climax so skilfully prepared comes in the stunning words, -"This wicked Haman here!" Thenceforth the action matches swiftly: the -king bursts out of the room to collect himself by a turn in the -garden; the fallen vizier sinks a suppliant on the queen's couch, -where the king, returning, finds him; the sinister eunuch standing by -describes the fine new gallows Haman has at home, ready for Mordecai, -and on his own gallows, in poetic justice, Haman is hanged, fifty -cubits high! Mordecai succeeds to the seal of state, and conceives the -counter-stroke by which, instead of the heathen massacring the Jews, -the Jews slaughter the heathen. An annual festival celebrates the -joyful issue. - -For the full account of Mordecai's greatness the reader is referred to -the royal annals of Media and Persia, where it will be found, he says, -recorded along with the mighty deeds of Xerxes, including his -subjugation of the Greeks. Despite this authority, it should be -unnecessary to say that the Book of Esther is a work of fiction. -Whether it is pure invention, or whether some of the incidents are -borrowed from fact, is an idle question, because a wholly unanswerable -one. If the local colour, which is laid on pretty thick, is good, as -some modern archĉologists aver, it would not be strange that a Jewish -novelist who wrote not so long after the passing of Persia should -prove as well acquainted with it as a modern archĉologist. - -Some recent interpreters find in the story a mythical background: -Esther is Ishtar, the Babylonian goddess of love; Mordecai, "Marduk's -man," was originally Marduk himself, the great god of Babylon; the -name of Haman sounds something like one way of pronouncing the name of -an Elamite god in the epic of Gilgamesh. The triumph of Mordecai and -Esther over Haman would thus be an echo of ancient strife between the -gods of Babylonia and Elam. It will be obvious, however, to the -mythologically unsophisticated understanding, that if these very -problematical combinations are right, the author of the Book of -Esther was quite innocent of them, and therefore that for the -interpretation of the story he tells they are wholly irrelevant. - -The Book of Esther, it was long ago observed, is singular among the -books of the Bible in that there is no mention of God in it. It is -Jewish with a sanguinary loyalty to race, but of Judaism as religion -there is not a trace; it is in fact somewhat obtrusive by its absence. -When Mordecai warns Esther that if she fails her people in their hour -of need deliverance will come "from another place," the word God is -ostentatiously avoided; before her great adventure she fasts three -days, but there is no suggestion of prayer; in the celebrations of -rescue and the annual commemoration of it there is feasting and -gladness, but no thanksgiving to God. It is no wonder that orthodox -rabbis doubted the inspiration of so conspicuously secular romance, -nor that the Greek translators made good the religious deficiencies of -the book by putting pious prayers into the mouth of Mordecai and -Esther at the appropriate junctures. - -The age of the book cannot be very closely determined; it is pretty -certainly not older than the third century B.C., more likely from the -second. A note at the end of the Greek version says that this -translation was brought from Jerusalem to Egypt in the year which -corresponds to 114 B.C. The earliest mention of the festival of Purim -is in 2 Macc. xv. 36, where it is called Mordecai Day. - - -RUTH.--The story of Ruth is laid in the time of the Judges, for which -reason it was placed in the Greek Bible and in modern versions between -Judges and Samuel. It tells of a young Moabitess, the childless widow -of a Judĉan from Bethlehem, who accompanies her widowed mother-in-law -back to Bethlehem, embracing her religion. Ruth goes out to glean -after the reapers and by chance comes to the field of Boaz, a kinsman -of her husband, who shows her kindness. By Naomi's contrivance, she -reveals to him who she is under circumstances that appeal to his -chivalry, and, after a nearer of kin has waived his right, Boaz takes -the widow with the land, and they live happy ever after. Their son -Obed is David's grandfather. The legal proceedings in the last chapter -are different from anything we otherwise know of Israelite custom, but -our ignorance is no warrant for assuming that the usage there -described is fictitious. - -If the story of Esther is told with dramatic power, that of Ruth is -told with idyllic grace. The pathos of the moment in which Naomi bids -her daughters-in-law return to their mothers' homes and Ruth refuses -to part from her is unforced. The picture of the gleaners in the -fields; the delicacy with which the night at the threshing-floor is -treated; the scene at the city gate, where the waiver and redemption -are witnessed and the shoe given in attestation; the blessing of the -townsmen on the union, all have the charm of simple and unaffected -narrative. - -The question what the book was written for has received diverse -answers. It has been thought that the author meant to protest against -the narrowness of those who condemned all marriages with foreigners -and put the Moabites under a special ban, by showing that David -himself had Moabite blood in his veins; others see the point of the -book in the commendation of the marriage of childless widows, not by -brothers-in-law only as the levirate law required, but by remoter -kinsmen. Others have conjectured otherwise. In this state of the case -it is safe to say that if the author had an ulterior motive, he -concealed it more successfully than is common to story-tellers who -write with a purpose. - -There are no very definite signs in the book of the age in which it -was written. The author is familiar with the Hebrew literature of the -good period, and writes a better imitation of it than some. It is -precisely this imitative character which stands in the way of putting -the book in the days of the kingdom. But where, in the centuries of -the Persian or Greek dominion it belongs, it is impossible to say. - - -JONAH.--The third of the short stories, Jonah, is not found, like -Esther and Ruth, in the Jewish Bible in the miscellaneous collection -of "Scriptures" and in the Christian Bible among the Historical Books, -but in the prophetic canon, as one of the Minor Prophets. The reason, -doubtless, is that it is not only a story about a prophet and his -mission, but was thought to be written by himself. - -The tale is too familiar to have to be retold at length. The Israelite -prophet, Jonah the son of Amittai, is commissioned by God to go to -Nineveh and announce its impending destruction; to escape this -unwelcome errand he embarks on a Phoenician ship bound for Spain, at -the other end of the world; a tempest threatens to engulf the ship; -the seamen cast lots to discover against whom the gods are so angry; -the lot falls on Jonah, and he is cast into the sea, which thereupon -becomes calm; Jonah is swallowed by a monstrous fish, which after -three days sets him ashore safe and sound. He goes to Nineveh and -delivers his message; the people repent of their sins, and God repents -of his purpose to destroy them, whereat the prophet is very indignant -and upbraids God with his soft-heartedness; he expected this from the -beginning, and therefore tried to flee to Tarshish. By his own grief -for the death of the plant "which sprang up in a night and perished in -a night," the prophet is taught the lesson of the divine compassion: -"How should I not have compassion on this great city, Nineveh, in -which are more than a hundred and twenty thousand human beings which -do not know their right hand from their left, not to speak of cattle?" -With this rebuke the book ends. - -These closing words leave no room for question about the purpose of -the book. In the person of Jonah, the rebuke is addressed to the Jews, -to whom God's long-suffering with the heathen was a stumbling-block. -The greater prophetic books, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, all contain a -long array of oracles against foreign nations, predicting their total -and remediless destruction, some of them very precise as to time and -agent (see, for example, Isa. 13 f., against Babylon). The fulfilment -of these prophecies, the final breaking of the power of the heathen -world, must come before the golden age of Israel could dawn. Yet the -generations came and went, and the heathen still ruled the earth! -Then, too, the Jews doubtless felt that they, as the people of God, -had an exclusive claim on his affections, as he asserted exclusive -claims to theirs. The author of Jonah not only extends to mankind -God's word in Ezekiel, "Have I any pleasure in the death of the -wicked? saith the Lord God, and not rather that he should return from -his way and live?" but he asserts the all-embracing compassion of God. -The one God is the creator of the heathen as well as of Israel, his -merciful providence is over all his works. - -The higher spirit of Judaism here reproves the lower, narrow, -exclusive, and intolerant spirit, which could unfortunately allege so -much warrant for itself from the law and the prophets. Therein the -author had many and noble successors, not only among the sages, with -their cosmopolitan wisdom, but in the circles of the law. - -It is not the fault of the author that modern readers and interpreters -have had their attention diverted from the moral of the book to the -fable in which it is conveyed; he could not have imagined the -pseudo-historical frame of mind to which the question whether it all -happened thus and so was of such absorbing importance that it might -almost be said that the sea-monster swallowed the commentators as well -as the prophet. For one of the difficulties of the book he is not -responsible, the psalm (Jonah ii. 2-9) which Jonah sings in the fish's -belly was put in his mouth by a later editor; vs. 10 is the immediate -sequel of vs. 1. The poem was evidently not composed for the place; it -is a hymn of thanksgiving not a prayer for deliverance; but the -(figurative) references to the depths of the abyss seemed appropriate -to Jonah's situation. - -The hero of the story is a historical character, of whom, to be sure, -we know only that he came from a place named Gath-hepher, and -predicted the reconquest of lost Israelite territories which Jeroboam -II. achieved (2 Kings xiv. 25). It has been conjectured that the -author of our book may have heard in some way that he went on a -mission to Nineveh; but if he had, that would not make the book any -more historical. - -Jonah, like Ruth and Esther, belongs to the later period of Hebrew -literature; it is more likely that it was written after the time of -Alexander than before, but greater definiteness is not justified. - - - - -CHAPTER XV - -THE PROPHETS - - -In the old story of Saul and Samuel (1 Sam. 9 f.) Samuel is named "the -seer," that is, a man endowed with what we call second sight, and a -note by an editor explains that what in his time was called a prophet -used to be called a seer. Samuel was, indeed, in the apprehension of -later times, a prophet, but the story itself makes a clear distinction -between the two. The band of prophets whom Saul meets coming down from -the high place, working up by music an enthusiasm, or possession, -which makes them beside themselves, raving in the prophetic fury -(raving and prophesying, in such connections, is the same word in -Hebrew), an enthusiasm which Saul catches, to the surprise and scandal -of his townsmen, are evidently something quite different from the -village seer; they must have been outwardly very much like modern -Moslem dervishes. - -In the ninth century of the Syrian wars, these gregarious prophets -appear in many places; especially in the stories of Elisha they are -organized societies of devotees, living by themselves in colonies of -huts or cells under a superior--again very much like a dervish -order--and sometimes turning their religious zeal into political -channels, as when they incite Jehu to the revolt which overthrew the -house of Omri. - -Beside them are others who also bear the name prophet, but stand apart -from the order and often in opposition to it. Such a figure is Micaiah -son of Imlah, confronting the four hundred prophets whom Ahab got -together, and declaring their unanimity of inspiration to be the work -of a lying spirit sent from God to lure the king to his doom (1 Kings -22). Such a figure, above all as we have already seen, is Elijah, who, -solitary, champions Jehovah's right to the undivided allegiance of -Israel, or thunders the doom of the dynasty at the authors of Naboth's -judicial murder. It is in such men as these, rather than in the common -herd of prophets by profession, that the ethical prophets of the -eighth century have their forerunners. - -The moral conception of God had its roots far down in the religion of -Israel, as may be seen in the older (certainly preprophetic) strata -in Samuel, and better still in the patriarchal legends, which received -their present form in the same age; but after the establishment of the -kingdom it was crossed by the national idea. It was not till the -eighth century that the men came who thought through what the moral -idea of God involves, and had the courage to proclaim its -consequences, fatal though they might be to both state and church. -These prophets, beginning with Amos, not only preached a new doctrine, -they employed a new method. The message which they spoke to the -heedless, incredulous, or hostile ears of their contemporaries, they -also recorded, whether in the hope to reach through the written page a -larger audience, or to perpetuate their words to generations -following. Thus there begins a prophetic literature which is one of -the most characteristic features of the Old Testament. Four prophets -of the second half of the eighth century have given their names to -such prophetic books, Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, and Micah. Then, in the -latter part of the seventh century and the beginning of the sixth, -follow the little books of Zephaniah, Nahum, and Habbakuk, and the -great one of Jeremiah, whose younger contemporary in Babylonia is -Ezekiel. Haggai and Zechariah were instrumental in the rebuilding of -the temple in the reign of Darius I. In the discussion of these books -we shall not attempt a chronological disposition, but follow the order -of the English Bible. - - - - -CHAPTER XVI - -ISAIAH - - -The first of the prophetic books bears the name of Isaiah, a Judĉan -prophet, who dates his call "in the year that king Uzziah died," a -year which cannot be fixed with certainty, but was at all events not -very long before 734 B.C., and whose latest dated utterances are from -the time of Sennacherib's invasion in the year 701. His prophecies -thus range over a period of not far from forty years. He witnessed the -humbling of Israel by Tiglath-Pileser in 734, the fall of Samaria in -721, the Assyrian campaigns in the west in 720 and 711, and the -condign punishment Sennacherib inflicted on Judah in 701; and all -these events (of which we have historical knowledge from both Assyrian -and Jewish sources) are reflected in his prophecies. - -The book contains, however, much besides the prophecies of Isaiah in -the different periods of his long career. It has already been noted -that Isa. 36-39 are found also, with some variations, in 2 Kings -18-20, where they are an integral part of the narrative. That this -extract from Kings was copied into the Book of Isaiah is explained by -the fact that the prophet is a prominent figure in the story. It does -not stand in immediate connection with the prophecies of Isaiah -during the campaign of Sennacherib in cc. 28-33, from which it is -separated by several oracles of different character and date; and the -natural presumption is that this historical appendix was added at the -end of a roll, just as Jer. 52, also an extract from Kings (2 Kings -xxiv. 18-xxv. 21), is appended at the end of the roll of Jeremiah. - -In the present Book of Isaiah, cc. 36-39 are followed by another -prophetic book of considerable length (Isa. 40-66), which has no -title, and in which, from first to last, no prophet's name appears. -The theme which is announced in the first verses of this book and runs -through a large part of it is the approaching deliverance of the Jews -from the Babylonian captivity, their return to their own land, and the -restoration of Zion. - -In Isa. 1-35 certain larger divisions are at once apparent; cc. 1-12, -a collection of prophecies, chiefly, as appears from dates and other -indications, from the earlier years of Isaiah's ministry; cc. 13 to -23, a collection of oracles mainly against foreign nations; cc. 24-27, -previsions of a great judgment, in a peculiarly mysterious tone; cc. -28-33, chiefly from the time of Sennacherib, followed by c. 34, in -which God's fury is poured out on Edom, and c. 35, a prophecy of -restoration akin to cc. 40 ff. It is thus evident that the present -book is made up from several older collections of prophecies gathered -by different hands; the peculiar titles in cc. 13-23, for instance, -are most probably to be attributed to the editor of an independent -book of prophecies against the heathen. - -The same phenomenon appears on a smaller scale in Isa. 1-12. That -these chapters, at one stage in the history of the collections, formed -a roll by themselves is probable from the fact that they begin with a -grand overture (c. 1), in which the leading motives of Isaiah's -prophecy are heard, and close (c. 12) with a psalm of praise for the -messianic deliverance which is the subject of c. 11. But the order of -the prophecies is not chronological: the inaugural vision and Isaiah's -call to be a prophet stands, not at the beginning, as in Jeremiah and -Ezekiel, but in c. 6 (dated in the year of King Uzziah's death), while -the chapters that precede it (cc. 2 f.; 5), with what was once an -initial title (ii. 1), may confidently be assigned, on internal -grounds, to the reigns of Uzziah's successors. Chapters 7 and 8 (dated -under Ahaz) seem to have originally followed close on c. 6, as they do -now. Whatever may be the reason for this singular arrangement, it -seems evident that the compiler had several smaller groups or loose -leaves of oracles, which he put together for better preservation, -rather, perhaps, by affinity of subject than in order of time. - -This must have taken place at a comparatively late time, for not only -does his roll begin with a prophecy (Isa. i. 2-9) which vividly -depicts the devastation of Judah and the isolation of Jerusalem by -Sennacherib in 701 (perhaps the latest oracle of Isaiah preserved in -the book), but it contains passages (e.g. xi. 11-16) which bear all -the marks of a time several centuries after Isaiah's death; the psalm -in c. 12 is perhaps later still. Another indication that the -collection was made at a date remote from the age of the prophet is -the fragmentary character of several of the oracles in cc. 2-5. The -refrain verses here afford a certain clue; they show that prophecies -originally composed with much art in balanced strophes with closing -refrains came into the compiler's hands mutilated and dislocated. -Thus, v. 25 has the refrain of ix. 8-21; x. 4, while x. 1-3 is a "woe" -which has strayed away from v. 18 ff., and the refrain ii. 9, 11, 17 -recurs in v. 15. - -Fragmentary as many of these prophecies are, enough remains to show -that Isaiah had poetical genius as well as unequalled mastery of the -peculiar literary form of the Hebrew oracle. The parable of the -vineyard (Isa. v. 1-7), or the picture of the swift, resistless -advance of the Assyrian (v. 26-30), or the description of devastated -Judah (i. 2-8), or the oracle against Samaria (ix. 8-21), in the -authorized English Version illustrate in different ways the art with -which Isaiah handles this traditional form. - -The earlier prophecies of Isaiah, whether directed against Israel and -its allies or against Judah, are unsparing in their condemnation of -the political and social evils of the time, and predict the imminent -and irremediable ruin of both nations. This is revealed to Isaiah in -the vision which made him a prophet, in terms so drastic that the -closing words were piously erased by some late editor (so in the Greek -Bible), and a meaningless phrase put in their place in the curtailed -sentence by a still later hand (our Hebrew text). With this the tenor -of his utterances in cc. ii. 5-iii. 26; v. 1-30; ix. 8-x. 4, wholly -agrees. These unrelieved forebodings of doom led in later times not -only to excisions such as we have noted in vi. 13, but to -interpolations; hopeful pendants were attached to the prophet's gloomy -pictures, sometimes written for the purpose--a particularly -instructive example is iv. 2-6, after iii. 16-iv. 1--sometimes -borrowed from other prophetic contexts. To the latter class belongs -the famous messianic oracle, ix. 1-7, which is very imperfectly -connected (by changes in viii. 22) with the preceding climactic -denunciation of doom, the end of which is missing. If Isa. ix. 1-7 is -a prophecy by Isaiah, it can only belong to his latest years. - -One other feature of Isaiah's message must be signalized. His God -indignantly rejects the sacrifices and all the pompous worship which -are offered him in his temple in Jerusalem (Isa. i. 10-17). Men think -they can thus gain the favour of God and persuade him to overlook or -condone their sins against their fellows! Such worship is an insult -to God. So Amos a few years before had condemned the worship at Bethel -(Amos v. 21-25). So their successors repeat in no uncertain terms (see -Mic. vi. 6-8; Jer. 7, especially vss. 21-23). It is the fundamental -doctrine of prophecy: the will of God is wholly moral. For worship he -cares nothing at all; for justice, fairness, and goodness between man -and man he cares everything. Such a God is capable of destroying the -nation for the wrongs men do their fellow men; he is not capable of -being bribed by offerings, or flattered with psalms, or wheedled with -prayers. He will listen to no intercession (Jer. xv. 1 ff., after c. -14); nothing but complete reformation and reparation will he call -repentance--and there comes a pass where repentance is impossible. - -The book of prophecies against the heathen (Isa. 13-23) begins with -two remarkable chapters (xiii. 1-xiv. 23) declaring the imminent -destruction of Babylon by the Medes, whom the prophet sees already in -motion against the doomed city, and exulting over the descent of the -king of Babylon to hell, greeted by the taunts of the mighty of the -earth who were before him there. The two prophecies are connected by a -prediction of the deliverance of captive Israel, which will be -restored to its own land and rule over its oppressors (xiv. 1-4^a). -The situation is not that of Isaiah's time, in which Babylon was a -province of the Assyrian empire, and when, under Merodach Baladan, it -for a while reasserted its independence, seems to have sought an -alliance with Hezekiah against their common oppressor, Assyria (Isa. -39 = 2 Kings xx. 12 ff.). The Medes had been in league with the -Babylonians against Assyria until its fall in 606 B.C.; it was not -until the time of Cyrus that the Medes became a menace to Babylonia, -and only after Cyrus's conquest of Lydia (546 B.C.) that the turn of -Babylon was visibly come. On the other hand, the sack and ruin of -Babylon, pictured with vengeful satisfaction in Isa. 13, did not come -to pass at that time. The Persian armies, after a decisive battle in -northern Babylonia, entered the city in the autumn of 538 without -resistance. Babylonian inscriptions acclaim Cyrus as a deliverer, and -Babylon became one of the capitals of his great empire. On these -grounds the prophecy is generally thought to fall between 546 and 538 -B.C. - -It is immediately followed by a short oracle (Isa. xiv. 24-27) against -the Assyrians, quite in the tone of the prophecies of Isaiah in the -time of Sennacherib (701 B.C.), and by an enigmatical warning to the -inhabitants of the Philistine cities, said in the title to have come -"in the year that King Ahaz died." Another prophecy concerned with the -inhabitants of these cities, bearing Isaiah's name and definitely -dated (711 B.C.), is Isa. 20. Chapter 17, entitled "The Burden of -Damascus," is in fact chiefly against the kingdom of Israel, and -falls in line with prophecies of Isaiah in the time of the alliance of -the two kingdoms against Judah (ca. 736 B.C.); compare Isa. 7. In Isa. -xxii. 15-25 is a prophecy of Isaiah singular in the fact that it is -launched at an individual, the major domo of King Hezekiah. - -Besides these, the collection contains oracles against Moab (Isa. 15 -f.), Nubia (c. 18), Egypt (c. 19), another vision of the fall of -Babylon before the armies of Elam and Media (xxi. 1-10), but in a -different spirit from cc. 13-14, the Arabs (xxi. 11 f., 13-17), Tyre -(c. 23), and one with the mysterious (editorial) title "Burden of the -Valley of Vision" (xxii. 1-14). The last-named, in the form of a -vision, depicts a crisis in the history of Jerusalem, and condemns the -frivolous behaviour of its inhabitants on the eve of a siege or, as -some think, during the respite given by a temporary raising of a -siege. It was probably uttered by Isaiah at an early stage in -Hezekiah's revolt against Sennacherib (704 or 703 B.C.), before the -actual appearance of the Assyrian army. The oracle against Tyre (Isa. -xxiii. 1-14--what follows is a later supplement) seems more -appropriate to the thirteen years' siege by Nebuchadnezzar than to the -operations of Shalmanezer or of Sennacherib in Isaiah's days. - -Thus Isa. 13-23, like cc. 1-12, contains prophecies of Isaiah from -both the earliest and the latest period of his activity, intermingled -with others having a totally different historical horizon and dating -from a much later time, and to both additions have been made by -editors or scribes. A very interesting example of the latter -phenomenon is Isa. xix. 18 ff. The passage is, in all probability, -from the time of the Greek kingdoms of Egypt and Syria, the name of -the city in the Greek Bible, "City of Righteousness," referring to -Leontopolis, where a Jewish temple was erected about 170 B.C., with -high priests of the legitimate line exiled from Jerusalem. "City of -Destruction" (_heres_) in the Hebrew text is a hostile perversion, -possibly by way of another reading "City of the Sun" (_heres_). - -Each of the three large prophetic books has such a group of oracles -about gentile nations, Isa. 13-23; Jer. 46-51; Ezek. 25-32. They are -in part levelled at the immediate neighbours of Judah, in part against -the great powers, Babylon and Egypt. Many of them are in such general -terms--or, if they refer to specific events and situations, our -knowledge of the history is so incomplete--that it is peculiarly -difficult to fix their age. It was also a kind of prophecy which -peculiarly invited imitation. Under the foreign yoke the Jews wore for -so many centuries, it must often have been a relief of soul to repeat -what God was going to do to the heathen; the spirit of the author of -Jonah was not for everybody. Moreover, if there is any place in the -Old Testament where it would be easier than another for oracles of the -"false prophets" to slip in and be preserved, it is in these -collections; about the doom of the enemies of Israel they were as -orthodox and as emphatic as the best. It is not strange, therefore, -that there should be more than usual uncertainty about the origin of -these anathemas on the gentiles. - -Isaiah 24-27 contains a series of prophecies of judgment to come which -differ from others in the book in having no particular address. The -vision seems to widen to a judgment of the world, in which the earth -itself reels and sinks under the weight of men's sin, and the -celestial powers (the heavenly bodies, which are the tutelary deities -of the heathen) and the kings of the earth are cast into the pit and -shut up in prison, while the Lord of Hosts reigns gloriously in Zion. -In another passage God, with his great sword, punishes the leviathan, -the swift and winding serpent, and slays the great dragon in the sea. -The mythological eschatology of Judaism made much of such imagery, -which is itself doubtless of mythical ancestry. - -The diction and style of these chapters alone would suffice to acquit -Isaiah of responsibility for them; anything more unlike his writing -could not be imagined. The author, whosoever he was, riots in plays on -words, many of them, as is the fate of laborious punsters, forced or -far-fetched. As to the age of the chapters, apart from the language, -prophecy is here plainly making the transition to apocalypse with -those visionary revelations of the last judgment in which Jewish -invention was so fertile. This of itself points to a late time in the -post-exilic period. The historical allusions which have been scented -out in the chapters are too uncertain to reckon with; only, as in c. -19, the way in which Egypt and Assyria (or Syria) are conjoined seems -plainly to point to the divisions of Alexander's empire. - -In chapters 28-33 are brought together a number of oracles of Isaiah -from the years of Hezekiah's revolt and Sennacherib's punitive -expedition. These oracles are generally brief and pointed; they agree -in form and spirit with his prophecies in cc. 1-12 quite as closely as -the writing of an aging man ordinarily resembles that of his youth. In -xxviii. 1-4, indeed, an early prophecy against Samaria is made to -serve as text for a counterpart addressed to Jerusalem. - -Mingled with these is a series of passages which foretell the -destruction of the foe and the miraculous escape of Judah from -imminent ruin, or, taking higher flight, picture the golden age to -come. To the former class belong, for example, xxx. 27-33; xxxi. 4-9; -to the latter, xxix. 18-24; xxx. 18-26; xxxii. 1-8, 16-20; while c. 33 -partakes of both characters. That Isaiah predicted the deliverance of -Jerusalem in the last extremity is reported also in Kings, and need -not be questioned (see also Isa. x. 5-14; xiv. 24-27). Most of the -prophecies of the golden age are, however, alien to their context, and -the unmediated transition from the unsparing predictions of judgment -to these messianic idylls makes them suspicious. It is not to be -believed that the prophet thus took the sting out of his most pungent -oracles, but the position of the passages in question can have no -other intention. If, then, these are utterances of Isaiah at all, they -cannot have been spoken in their present connection. Some of them, at -least, are much more likely by other hands. This is true most -evidently of c. 33, which was probably once the end of this little -book of prophecies from the time of Sennacherib (Isa. 28-33). - -Isaiah 34 is a prophecy against all the nations, which at once -concentrates itself upon Edom, and is remarkable for its rancour, in -which, as in other respects, it resembles cc. 13 f. The supernatural -features of the judgment remind us also of Isa. 27: it is too little -that the people are annihilated, its very land is turned into an -uninhabitable waste, and, as by some prodigious volcanic convulsion, -its dust becomes brimstone and its soil burning pitch. This is the -Lord's vengeance for the wrong of Zion. The cause of this unusual -passion is known from other prophets (see Obad. vss. 10-12; Ezek. xxv. -12-14; c. 35): in the life and death struggle against Nebuchadnezzar, -the Edomites, Judah's next neighbours and near kin, had been on the -side of the Babylonians, and were the chief gainers by the ruin of -Judah, occupying permanently the whole south of the country to a line -north of Hebron, making good in this way the part of their own old -territory which had been taken by the Nabatĉans. The injury was -lasting and the hatred durable, but the flaming passion of Isa. 34 -would incline us to think that it was written while the grief was -still fresh. The pendant to this, Isa. 35, a prophecy of the return of -the dispersion and restoration of Zion, is quite in the manner of Isa. -40 ff., and not improbably by the same author. - -Of Isa. 36-39 (2 Kings 18-20) account has already been given (see -above, pp. 112 f.). - -There remains the anonymous prophetic book, Isa. 40-66, which not only -has no title, but in which--in striking contrast to the frequency with -which Isaiah's name occurs in the earlier chapters of the book--no -prophet's name appears. - -It begins with the announcement that the Jews have now been -sufficiently punished for their sins; their guilt has been expiated by -suffering. The hour of national restoration is at hand. God has -already called the deliverer, who will bring low the pride of Babylon -and set free captive Israel; by his edict Jerusalem shall be rebuilt -and the temple restored. The Jews, not only from Babylonia but from -the wide and distant lands of their dispersion, shall flock back to -their own country, the cities of Judah shall be repeopled, and Zion -shall be too strait for its inhabitants. The deliverer is Cyrus (Isa. -xliv. 28; xlv. 1), who is called God's friend, his anointed one -(messiah); the victories he has already gained have been won in the -might of Jehovah, who, all unknown to him, girds him for the battle, -and will go before him to new conquests. - -The prophet's prediction was met with incredulity; the power of -Babylon seemed invincible, the resurrection of the dead nation -impossible. Impossible, maybe, to men, but not to the Almighty God, -the creator of heaven and earth, the sovereign ruler of the nations! -As surely as the words of former prophets have come true, so signally -shall these foretellings be fulfilled. For history is the unfolding of -God's plan from the beginning, which he reveals by chapters to his -servants the prophets. - -That this prophecy was delivered by Isaiah of Jerusalem, a century -before the fall of Judah and a century and a half before the time of -Cyrus, would never have entered anybody's head had these chapters not -been appended to a roll which bore at its beginning the name of Isaiah -and contained many oracles of the eighth-century prophet. But this -physical fact, which may be due to no intention more profound than a -desire to economize writing material, cannot count against the -conclusive internal evidence; background and foreground in Isa. 40 ff. -are not merely totally different from those of the prophecies of -Isaiah and his contemporaries, they are alike inconceivable in his -age. Nor is the fact that the Jews in New Testament times, including -the New Testament writers, quoted these chapters as Isaiah and -believed him the author of them, prove anything except that such was -the opinion of the Jews in that age. - -The historical situation in Isa. 40 ff. would of itself be conclusive -against Isaiah's authorship; but it is not the only proof of the -contrary. The author of these chapters has not inappropriately been -called the theologian among the prophets. His idea of God is -conspicuously more advanced than that of the prophets of the eighth -century; it lies in the same line with the monotheism of Deuteronomy -and Jeremiah, but lies beyond them. And it is characteristic that, in -contrast to the older prophets, this one reasons about it. He argues -the omnipotence of God in history from his omnipotence in creation, -and makes large use of the evidence from the fulfilment of prophecy to -prove that Jehovah is the only God; he can predict because he -foreordains and brings to pass. With him begins the polemic, not -against the worship of heathen gods, but against their existence. What -the heathen bow down to are naught but helpless, senseless idols, the -work of their own hands. He is fond of inviting his readers to an -image-maker's shop to see how a god is made (see, e.g., Isa. xliv. -9-20). Such are the impotent gods that the Babylonians expect to save -them out of the hands of the creator of the world! - -The style of Isa. 40 ff. is not less decisive. Translation necessarily -in large measure effaces the differences, but even in translation a -comparison of two passages on similar themes such as Isa. x. 5-19 and -Isa. 47 may perhaps give some impression of them. The style of Isaiah -and his contemporaries--Amos, Hosea, Micah--is concise and pregnant, -the sentences are short and have often an oracular ring. The author of -Isa. 40 ff. writes with a freer pen in flowing periods; he develops -his thought and his figures more at large; if he is obscure, it is -seldom from compression. Here again, Deuteronomy and Jeremiah, the -whole literature of the seventh century, is an intermediate stage. The -later author is a poet, as Isaiah is, but with other themes and in -other forms; compare, e.g., Isa. 5 with Isa. xlii. 1-9. In short, each -has a highly characteristic style, and the two are totally different. - -The historical situation, as it has been defined above, appears most -distinctly in Isa. 40-55. In the following chapters two passages were -long ago seen not to correspond to that situation, viz. lvi. 9-lvii. -13 and c. 65 (especially vss. 1-16), in which the vehement attack on -idolatrous and abominable rites practised by Jews under the prophet's -eyes was thought to indicate a pre-exilic origin. It was a serious -error, however, to conceive that the so-called exile cured all the -Jews once and for all of every inclination to heathenism; the history -of the Seleucid period sufficiently proves the contrary. There is -nothing in the chapters inconsistent with the view, now generally -entertained, that these flaming denunciations were delivered in -Palestine in the Persian or the Greek period; and there is no warrant -for assuming that they were specifically addressed to the half-heathen -population of the old territory of Israel, still less to the so-called -Samaritan sect, that is, the worshippers at the rival temple on -Gerizim. - -Other chapters (Isa. lvii. 14-21; 60; 61 f.) resemble in spirit and -manner the prophecies in Isa. 40-55, but are more probably by later -writers under the influence of those prophecies than by their author. -Their optimism contrasts with the depressed tone of lviii. 1-lix. -15^a, in which the sense of sin is borne in on the community by the -delay in the coming of the good times. In lix. 15^b-21, and lxiii. 1-6 -God's fury is poured out on foreign nations, in the latter -specifically on Edom; lxiii. 7-lxiv. 12 is a cry for God's -intervention in dire distress (see lxiii. 18; lxiv. 10 f., devastation -of Judah, burning of the temple); c. 66 contains diverse elements, -consolation to Jerusalem of the school of Isa. 40-45, and censures of -abominable rites (lxvi. 3 f., 17 ff.). - -Isaiah 56-66 is, therefore, generally regarded as an appendix to the -book of consolation, cc. 40-55, containing very diverse elements. - -It would be nothing strange if alien prophecies and editorial -expansions were found in Isa. 40-55 also, and displacements are -probably in more than one passage. The question of authorship is of -peculiar interest in the case of three prophecies which have for their -subject the mission and suffering of the "Servant of Jehovah," Isa. -xlii. 1-9; xlix. 1-13; lii. 13-liii. 12, which are thought by some to -be taken wholly or in part from an older prophet, by others to be -later insertions. The reasons for ascribing the "Servant" passages to -a different author do not seem decisive. - -The Book of Isaiah is thus a great collection of prophecies of various -ages, from the middle of the eighth century B.C. down perhaps to the -third, with some minor additions of even later date. - - - - -CHAPTER XVII - -JEREMIAH - - -Jeremiah dates his call to the arduous mission of prophet in the -thirteenth year of King Josiah (626 B.C.), and he lived till after the -fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C., so that, like his predecessor Isaiah a -century earlier, his career spans a period of about forty years in a -time of great events. Only five years after he began to prophesy, -Josiah reformed religion in Judah on the new model of the law-book -discovered by Hilkiah (Deuteronomy; see above, pp. 62 f.). Jeremiah, -scion of a priestly family native in Anathoth, a few miles north of -Jerusalem, which very likely traced its descent from Abiathar, David's -priest, whom Solomon deposed in favour of Zadok, was therefore one of -those priests of the high places who were hit hardest by the -suppression of the local sanctuaries. That his townsmen of Anathoth -sought his life (Jer. xi. 18 ff.) has been attributed to their -indignation that Jeremiah should dare to preach Josiah's "covenant" to -them (see Jer. xi. 1-17). Whatever hopes he may have entertained at -first, Jeremiah was not long in seeing that the reform had cleaned -only the outside of the cup and the platter, while men fortified their -consciences behind the "covenant" against an investigation of the -inside. In 608 B.C. Josiah fell in battle at Megiddo against the -Egyptian king Necho. After a brief vassalage to Egypt, Judah came -under the Babylonian yoke. Jeremiah saw all this; saw, too, Jerusalem -twice taken by the armies of Nebuchadnezzar (597, 586 B.C.), the -temple burned and the walls razed; and was at last forced to accompany -the refugees to Egypt after the murder of Gedaliah. - -Early in the reign of Jehoiakim, Jeremiah delivered himself of a -fulminant oracle in the gate of the temple (Jer. vii. 1-15, cf. c. -26), in which he declared that the Jews' faith in the temple as the -palladium of the city was a delusion; unless they altogether amended -their ways, God would make the temple a ruin like the ancient -sanctuary at Shiloh. Priests, prophets, and people clamoured with one -voice for the blasphemer's death, but he hurled back at them a -reiteration of his warning. The intervention of some of the magnates -saved his life; but another prophet who lacked such influential -protection was extradited from Egypt and put to death. - -Under these circumstances Jeremiah took another way of reaching the -public (see Jer. 36). He dictated to Baruch the prophecies which he -had uttered from the beginning of his mission to that time, and sent -Baruch to read the roll in the temple at the fast in the ninth month -in the fifth year of Jehoiakim (603 B.C.). Some of the nobles had -Baruch give them a private reading, and then carried the book to the -king, first giving Baruch the friendly advice to put himself and -Jeremiah out of harm's way. The king, as he read the roll, cut off the -pages, and burned them on the brazier in his chamber. Jeremiah -thereupon dictated to the faithful Baruch another roll containing all -the prophecies that were in the first, "and there were added besides -unto them many like words." We may be sure that the second edition -would have been even less agreeable reading to Jehoiakim than the -first. One of the additional words is indeed preserved in Jer. xxxvi. -29-31. The chapter is of peculiar interest, because it is an -account--the only one in the Old Testament--of the origin of a -prophetic book. We see the prophet reproducing, doubtless from memory, -the content of oracles uttered in the course of the preceding twenty -years or more, and enlarging the collection for a second edition. It -is a fair conjecture that this second roll furnished to our Book of -Jeremiah most, if not all, the prophecies prior to the fifth year of -Jehoiakim; but it is certain that the roll itself is not incorporated -as such in the present book. There are also several prophecies from -later years of Jehoiakim, and many from the reign of the last king, -Zedekiah, especially from the time of his revolt and the siege of -Jerusalem by the Babylonians. - -A distinctive feature of the Book of Jeremiah is the presence of -passages of considerable extent derived from a biographical source. -From this comes the account of the making and reading of the collected -volume of prophecies in the fourth and fifth years of Jehoiakim of -which we have already spoken (Jer. 36), and particularly the narrative -of Jeremiah's fortunes during the last siege of Jerusalem and -afterward, including the flight to Egypt and his experiences with the -refugees there, covering thus three or four years beginning with 588 -(Jer. 37-44). To the same source it is natural to ascribe c. 26, -relating to the circumstances and consequences of the prophecy -delivered in the temple at the beginning of Jehoiakim's reign (c. 7); -c. 28 (collision with the "false prophet" Hananiah, in the beginning -of the reign of Zedekiah); c. 29 (letter to the Jews in Babylonia, -about the same time); and parts of cc. 32, 34, and 35. - -There is good reason to believe that the author of this biography was -Baruch, who not only stood in intimate relations with Jeremiah before -the fall of Jerusalem, but accompanied him to Egypt (Jer. xliii. 6). -It is consequently a historical source of the best possible kind. For -the first half of Jeremiah's career this source fails us; and, as we -have seen, it is continuous only from the last years of Zedekiah. It -is possible that Baruch's association with Jeremiah began in the time -of Jehoiakim, and his narrative may have commenced there. - -Unfortunately this life of Jeremiah has not been preserved complete or -intact. The prophecies contained in it led later compilers to -introduce other oracles which seemed appropriate to the context, and -to supplement the words of Jeremiah by edifying compositions of their -own. Their aim, it must constantly be borne in mind, was not to -produce a critical edition of the prophecies of Jeremiah, but to make -a book effective to impress the truths and motives of religion on -their own contemporaries, and with changing times and situations to -keep the book, so to speak, up to date. If the words of an old -prophet suggested to them a good moral, they wrote it out for him, -without dreaming that they were doing either him or morality a wrong, -or thinking how much trouble they were making for future historical -students. It is exactly the same procedure and the same motive which -meets us in innumerable places in the Pentateuch and Historical Books. -To stigmatize such interpolations as literary fraud is absurd. These -additions are often recognizable by their prosaic preachiness or by -their composite imitativeness. - -Of one kind of prediction the Jews of later centuries could not have -enough, the prophecies of deliverance from the foreign yoke and the -better time to follow. They not only cherished the hopeful words of -former prophets and wrote variations on their themes, but gave -expression to their faith and their ideals in their own way. That they -often took their inspiration from Isa. 40 ff. is natural. In Jeremiah -such promises of a happier future are accumulated in cc. 30-33, which -contain, with some oracles of Jeremiah, pieces of various authorship -and age, some of them such pendants to gloomy pictures as we have -found numerous in Isaiah (e.g. Jer. xxx. 1 ff. to vss. 12-15), others -more independent compositions. - -These stand interspersed among the extracts from Baruch's life of -Jeremiah. In the first half of the book (Jer. 1-25) there is no such -history for a framework. It will be observed here that the prophet -commonly introduces his message in personal form, "The word of Jehovah -came to me, saying," or "Then Jehovah said to me," or the like. -Sometimes an oracle begins, as in c. 18, "The words which came to -Jeremiah," as a kind of title, while in the sequel the prophet speaks -in the first person. Dates are infrequent in this part of the book, -and if a chronological order was observed in Baruch's roll, it has -been broken up in the present arrangement. Internal evidence does not -always suffice to fix the age of the utterances, the less because some -of the early oracles have obviously been adapted to a later situation. -This is peculiarly evident in cc. 1-6. In these chapters are several -prophecies from the years when the wild horsemen from the Scythian -steppes were overrunning western Asia and striking terror into the -stoutest hearts by their barbarous appearance and fierce manners. -Jeremiah saw in them the scourge of God (see e.g. Jer. iv. 5-8, -27-31), the day of doom was come! It was, indeed, such a vision of -doom that first met his gaze, when God made him a prophet (Jer. i. 13 -ff.). But in the present shape of these chapters the enemy out of the -north which menaces ruin is not the wild Scythian hordes, but the -serried armies of Babylon. It is not at all improbable that this -change of horizon was made by Jeremiah himself, when at the beginning -of Jehoiakim's reign the Scythian flood had run off, and, by the -overthrow of Nineveh and Nebuchadnezzar's defeat of Pharaoh Necho on -the Euphrates, the new Babylonian empire had become the impending fate -of Syria and Palestine. - -Among the prophecies of Jeremiah in this part of the book also are -introduced pieces, larger or smaller, which are the product of later -generations; two conspicuous examples are Jer. ix. 23-34; x. 1-16 (x. -17 is the immediate continuation of ix. 22), and xvii. 19-27. - -Jeremiah's experience in the pursuit of his calling was a hard one. -His Cassandra forebodings gained him the enmity of all, and hostility -grew to bitter hatred as the dire fulfilment stared them in the face. -His countrymen in Anathoth plotted his death; the prophecy in the -temple all but cost him his life, and was an end, for the time at -least, of public appearances; the coming of his collected oracles into -Jehoiakim's hands drove him and the scribe into hiding. During the -last siege, he first was kept in arrest in a private house, then cast -into an empty cistern, where he would have perished but for the -friendliness of a negro eunuch; then confined in the court of the -guard till the taking of the city; released by the Babylonians, his -counsel to the refugees not to flee to Egypt was badly received, and -he was constrained to accompany them. In Egypt, again denouncing and -predicting ill, he disappears; Jewish legend says, killed by his -exasperated countrymen. - -But these outward perils and pains were not all he had to bear for -being a prophet. In anguish of soul he suffered twice the tragedy of -his people, in foresight and in fact--suffered as only a man of -sensitive spirit and unflinching will can suffer. That needs no -commentary; but there is another element we do not so easily conceive: -Jeremiah believed that the word of God he had to utter was not merely -a prediction, but the effectual cause, of the ruin of Judah (see Jer. -i. 9 f.). It is not strange that the task God had laid on him seemed -too heavy to be borne. He feels himself a man of contention to the -whole earth. He remonstrates, he reproaches God for having misled him, -he resolves never again to speak in the name of the Lord; but there is -within him as it were a burning fire shut up in his bones, he cannot -hold in (Jer. xx. 7-18; see also xv. 10 f., 15-18; xii. 1-6). These -"confessions," as they have been called, are of the greatest interest; -they are a revelation of the prophet's soul such as has no counterpart -in the Old Testament, and, with Baruch's simple story, bring him as a -man nearer to us than any of the other prophets. - -In the Hebrew (and therefore in the English) Bible, the last chapters -of the book (Jer. 46-51) contain a collection of prophecies against -foreign nations, to which is appended (c. 52) an extract from the Book -of Kings (2 Kings xxiv. 18-xxv. 21), describing the taking of -Jerusalem by the Babylonian army in 586 B.C. In the Greek Bible the -oracles against the foreign nations come in between Jer. xxv. 13 and -vs. 15, but in an altogether different order. They evidently formed a -little book by themselves, which in one recension of the Book of -Jeremiah were appended to the volume of his prophecies, in another -were inserted in the middle of it as the corresponding collections of -foreign oracles are placed in Ezek. 25-32 and Isa. 13-23. The question -of the original place and disposition of these prophecies is of -importance only for the relation of the two forms of the book to each -other, and need not be pursued here. - -It is very doubtful whether Jeremiah had any hand whatever in these -chapters. The prolix prophecy against Babylon (Jer. 50-51) is a purely -literary exercise, for which contributions have been levied right and -left, and was written at a time when Babylon had long ceased to be of -historical importance. Others of the prophecies borrow from earlier -prophets generously. An examination, by the aid of the marginal -references in the Revised Version (Oxford and Cambridge edition, -1898), of the appropriations and reminiscences will give a profitable -notion of this literary imitation of prophecy. - -The different order of the prophecies is not the only, nor the most -important, difference between the Hebrew and the Greek Jeremiah. -Besides a great number of variant readings of the ordinary kind, the -oldest Greek version is much shorter than the Hebrew; it has been -reckoned that in the neighbourhood of 2700 words in the latter have -nothing corresponding to them in the translation. Some part of this -may be due to abridgment by the translators, to which the repetitions -in parts of Jeremiah--chiefly secondary parts--invited; but when all -allowance is made for this, it remains that the Hebrew copies from -which the translation was made had a much briefer text than the -Palestinian Hebrew in our hands, and it is probable that the greater -part of this difference, which is chiefly in comparative verbosity, is -due to padding with stock phrases and turns of thought in the -Palestinian text. In some instances oracles or tags to oracles which -on other grounds are recognized as late additions to our text had not -got into that of the Greek translators. - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII - -EZEKIEL - - -Ezekiel was one of the priests of Jerusalem who was carried off to -Babylonia with King Jehoiachin in the deportation of 597 B.C. Those -who were thus deported were the upper classes, including, of course, -the royal family and the court and the aristocracy of the priesthood, -and skilled artisans, particularly the smiths (armorers). Having thus -removed the natural leaders of the rebellious people, Nebuchadnezzar -made Zedekiah, an uncle of Jehoiachin, king in his stead and gave -Judah another trial. The eight or ten thousand Jews with their -families who were removed to Babylonia were colonized at different -points, Ezekiel repeatedly mentions the river Chebar, that is, -probably, the grand canal in the vicinity of Nippur. The patricians in -exile thought very poorly of the new lords who had stepped into their -shoes in Jerusalem, and they flattered themselves that events would -soon take such a turn that they would return to Judĉa and to power. -They had prophets and diviners among them who encouraged them in this -expectation. When Zedekiah revolted and the Babylonian armies a second -time besieged Jerusalem, their faith in the inviolability of Zion, -confirmed, rather than shaken, by the outcome of things in 597 B.C., -when Jehoiachin surrendered and the holy city took no harm, made them -refuse hearing to Ezekiel's prediction of ruin; they may even have -dreamed that Nebuchadnezzar would find out his mistake and restore to -Judah its legitimate rulers, chastened by experience, and pack -Zedekiah and his advisers into exile in their place. - -Against this vain and superstitious optimism Ezekiel had to contend -until the disastrous issue made a rude end of all their dreams and -threw the exiles into the depths of hopelessness: Bel had triumphed -over Jehovah, and it was all over with the nation. Thenceforth -Ezekiel's task was to save them from despair by the assurance that God -still had a purpose to fulfil with them, and that, in his own time, -when they had been thoroughly purged from their old sins and filled -with a new spirit, he would restore them to their own land and bring -to life again the dead nation. - -These two periods of the prophet's mission sharply divide the Book of -Ezekiel. To the day when the word came to him that the Babylonian -armies had invested Jerusalem (Ezek. 24) he combats delusion; from the -arrival of the tidings of the fall of the city (xxxiii. 21 ff.) he -combats despair. The first part is all menace, the second is full of -promise. Numerous dated oracles serve as landmarks, especially in the -first part. - -Between the two, in the two years of suspense, when about his own -people the prophet is dumb, is placed the group of prophecies against -foreign nations (cc. 25-32), beginning with oracles against the -neighbours of Judah who held true to Nebuchadnezzar in this crisis and -had their reward at Judah's cost--Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites, and -Philistines. These are followed by long predictions of the ruin of -Tyre, over whose calamity the prophet exults more loudly than the -grievance of Jerusalem (Ezek. xxvi. 2) seems to justify. -Nebuchadnezzar did in fact besiege Tyre for thirteen years (585-572 -B.C.), and doubtless inflicted upon it great losses; but the island -city, with its command of the sea, he could not take. Ezekiel himself, -in a remarkable passage which is perhaps his latest word in the book, -admits that his predictions of the capture of Tyre (xxvi. 7-14) had -not been fulfilled--Nebuchadnezzar had had to raise the long and -ineffectual siege--but he promises that Jehovah will reward him for -these fruitless labours in the Lord's service by giving him Egypt -instead (xxix. 17-21). The animosity against Egypt which finds -expression in the predictions of the Babylonian subjugation of that -country is more easily explained. Egypt had been the evil genius of -Judah, instigating rebellion against the Babylonian suzerainty, and -promising armed aid which always failed in the decisive hour; it was -meet that it should taste the cup of humiliation itself. In c. 32 the -descent of Egypt to the hell of fallen nations is vividly depicted; a -similar picture of the descent of the Babylonian king in Isa. 14 has -already been noted. Not improbably Babylonian notions of the nether -world may have influenced the imagery of both, as a myth of paradise -seems to have suggested the imagery of Tyre in Eden (xxviii. 12 ff.). -Outside this group is an oracle against Edom (c. 35), and the great -prophecy of the irruption of Gog and his hordes and their fate (cc. -38 f.). - -A conspicuous feature of the Book of Ezekiel are the extended visions -and the elaborated symbolical actions. In the inaugural vision (Ezek. -i.-iii. 15), for instance, God appears, a veritable _deus ex machina_, -on a high seat in a curious motor car made up of animated wheels and -winged monsters. In a later vision (c. 10) he sees God leave the -doomed temple in Jerusalem and mount this cherubim car, in which he is -whirled away through the air to the east; and in the great vision of -the new temple in the golden age God returns to his abode in the same -conveyance (c. 43). Striking examples of symbolical actions may be -found in Ezek. 4, and in xii. 1-20. They are of such an extraordinary -character as to raise the question whether they were really enacted -before the eyes of the people or only described in discourse. - -Ezekiel's visions are sometimes ecstatic states, in which he is -instantaneously translated from place to place. At the end of the -inaugural vision, "the spirit" lifted him up and took him away, -setting him down in amazement among the colonists at Tell-Abib. In -viii. 1 ff., as he sat in his own house in the midst of a company of -the elders of Judah, the spirit, which is described as a strange -luminous creature, took him up by the hair of his head and wafted him -"in the visions of God" to Jerusalem, where his conductor showed him -all the idolatrous cults and the abominable mysteries that were -practised in the temple under the very eyes of "the glory of the God -of Israel" (c. 8); after seeing God take his flight from the -desecrated sanctuary, the prophet is translated by the spirit to -Chaldĉa again. Another such vision in ecstasy is the famous scene in -the valley of dry bones (Ezek. 37). In such cases it is impossible to -say how much is actually the experience of the visionary, how much -literary form. - -In the great vision of the restoration, cc. 40-48, which also is -introduced as an ecstasy with the translation of the prophet to -Palestine, we may be pretty sure that the element of conscious -composition predominates. The chapters contain a programme for the -coming age when all the twelve tribes, gathered together from exile -and dispersion, shall reoccupy the holy land, with a new, geometrical -division of the territory, with a new plan for the city of Jerusalem, -a new constitution for the state, a new temple after the old model, a -reorganized ministry of religion, and a reformed worship. The ruling -idea which runs through all is to make impossible those sins against -the holiness of God, his land, his house, his people, which had been -the cause of former ruin. - -The Book of Ezekiel seems to have been arranged and published by the -author, and though some derangements and repetitions may be observed, -it has not been much meddled with by later editors, and, to whatever -reason it may be attributed, exhibits none of the phenomena of -compilation and amplification which we have found in Isaiah and -Jeremiah. The Hebrew text, however, has suffered more than most books -in transmission, and has reached us in an unusually corrupt state. The -author has a style of his own, which can rise to eloquence (as in the -oracles against Tyre), but is generally pedestrian and sometimes -clumsy. He has plenty of imagination, not always regulated by taste or -restrained by decency. His drastic figures of the unfaithfulness of -Israel and Judah are often unfit to translate. - - - - -CHAPTER XIX - -DANIEL - - -In the Hebrew Bible the Book of Daniel stands, not as in our Bible -among the Prophets, after Ezekiel, but among the miscellaneous books -in the third division, the "Scriptures." Various reasons have been -suggested for this, but by far the most probable is that at the time -when Daniel became current, in the second century B.C., the Prophets -were already a definite group of writings with a traditional use in -the readings of the Synagogue, to which a new book could not well be -added. - -The Book of Daniel consists of two parts, stories about Daniel and his -three comrades (cc. 1-6), and visions of Daniel (cc. 7-12); in the -latter Daniel reports his visions in the first person as Ezekiel -habitually does, and it was only natural that he should be taken for -the author of the book. - -According to the introduction to the first story, Daniel and his three -friends, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, were Jewish youths of high -birth who were carried captive to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar in the -first deportation (which is erroneously dated in the third year of -Jehoiakim). One story (Dan. 1) tells how these youths contrived to -avoid all danger of eating unclean food, and how God blessed them in -body and mind for their scrupulousness in observance of the dietary -laws; another (c. 3), how the three were saved from Nebuchadnezzar's -overheated furnace, into which they were thrown for refusing to -worship the idol; a third (c. 6), how Daniel was cast into the lions' -den for praying to his God despite the edict of Darius. These -miraculous deliverances constrain the heathen kings publicly to -acknowledge that the God of the Jews is the greatest of gods. The same -acknowledgment is drawn from Nebuchadnezzar when Daniel recalls his -forgotten dream and interprets it, after all the diviners of Babylon -had failed (c. 2); he alone is able to decipher and explain for -Belshazzar the handwriting on the wall (c. 5). The stories of -Nebuchadnezzar's madness (c. 2) and of Belshazzar's feast (c. 5) teach -also how God punishes kings who in their pride of power exalt -themselves before him, or in their arrogance profane his holy things. - -All of them thus magnify the God of the Jews as in power and wisdom -above all other gods, and two of the most striking of them have for -their theme the deliverance from mortal peril of men who stood -faithful to their religion against the king's commandment. These -obvious motives, as we shall presently see, have a bearing on the age -of the stories. - -In the second part of the book are four visions, or revelations, which -stand in chronological order (according to the author's chronology): -c. 7 in the first year of Belshazzar; c. 8 in his third year; c. 9 in -the first year of "Darius son of Xerxes, of the race of the -Medes"--not properly a vision, but a revelation by Gabriel; and cc. -10-12 in the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia. By the side of these -must be put Nebuchadnezzar's dream in Dan. ii. 28-45 (second year of -Nebuchadnezzar), which, in its four-empire scheme, corresponds to -Daniel's vision in c. 7. The interpretations which Daniel gives to -Nebuchadnezzar or the angel gives to Daniel, though sometimes -surrounded with an impressive air of mystery, give all the necessary -clues to the understanding of the visions, and obscure allusions are -often made plain by a more explicit parallel. - -Under fantastic and varied imagery, they unroll the history of the -empires which succeed one another in the dominion of the world, from -the Babylonian (Dan. 2 and 7), or the Medo-Persian (c. 8), or Persian -(cc. 10-12)--that is from the assumed standpoint of Daniel--through -the dominion of Alexander and the kingdoms into which his empire was -broken up, ending always with the reign of Antiochus IV. (175-164 -B.C.). The goal in them all is the destruction of the heathen power -and the establishment of the eternal kingdom of the holy people of the -Most High, otherwise, the Jews. - -The simplest form of this scheme is Nebuchadnezzar's dream in Dan. 2. -The image with head of gold, breast and arms of silver, belly and -thighs of brass, legs of iron, and feet part of iron and part of clay, -stands for four empires in a scale of deterioration, like the four -ages of Hesiod, beginning with the Babylonian, represented by -Nebuchadnezzar himself. This is followed by an inferior kingdom, and -that by a third universal empire; the destructive strength of the -fourth is figured by iron which shatters all that it smites; the feet -and toes signify a divided kingdom, in part strong as iron, in part -brittle as pottery. The stone which smote the image on the feet and -broke them to pieces, whereupon the whole image collapsed into dust -and was whirled away by the wind, while the stone grew to a great -mountain and filled all the earth, is the kingdom which the God of -heaven shall establish in those days, "which shall never be destroyed, -nor shall the sovereignty thereof be left to another people, but it -shall break in pieces and annihilate all those empires, and it shall -stand forever." - -The image thus represents the rule of the heathen as one world-empire, -the dominion being exercised successively by four kingdoms and by the -divisions of the fourth; in the destruction of these last the heathen -world-empire is forever annihilated, and the eternal kingdom of God -subdues and rules the whole earth. What is said about the second and -third kingdoms is too general to identify them; the iron strength and -destructiveness of the fourth, and its divisions with their mingled -strength and weakness, naturally suggest Alexander and his successors, -and this impression is strengthened by the one specific trait in the -whole picture; the vain effort to make iron and wet clay combine -signifies, we are told, an equally futile attempt to bind the divided -kingdoms together by intermarriages (Dan. ii. 43). We know from the -historians that attempts to ally the kingdoms of the Ptolemies in -Egypt and the Seleucids in Syria by dynastic marriages were repeatedly -made in vain, and the author of Daniel himself, in c. 11, refers to -these alliances and their disastrous failure in plain terms. - -The vision of Daniel in c. 7 brings in the four empires under the -symbol of four monstrous beasts. The fourth, more terrible and more -destructive than the others, has ten horns ("out of this kingdom ten -kings shall arise," vs. 24); another horn, "with the eyes of a man and -a boastful mouth," arises which roots out three of the ten. Daniel -sees how he makes war on the "holy men" (i.e. the Jews) and prevails -over them (vs. 21); the interpreting angel describes in more detail -the crimes of the last king: he will utter speeches against the -Highest, and wear out the holy men of the Most High, and try to change -(religious) seasons and law (religion). God's people will be delivered -into his power till the expiration of three and a half years (cf. xii. -7). Then the proud king and his kingdom will be annihilated and the -universal and eternal empire of the Jews established. - -Still more definite is the description of the doings of the "little -horn" which springs up on the head of the great he-goat in the vision -of c. 8. Here the interpreter becomes explicit: the he-goat is by name -the Macedonian empire. The little horn is a king who shall arise in -the latter time of the divided kingdoms of Alexander's successors. -This king magnifies himself against the chief of the heavenly host, -casts down his sanctuary, takes away his daily burnt-offerings, and -destroys the holy people; and is then himself suddenly "broken without -hand." In the further explanation given to Daniel in ix. 26 ff., the -cessation of the daily sacrifice is to last half a week (of years), -i.e. three and a half years; the profanation of the sanctuary and -suppression of the sacrifices and the persecution of the Jews occur -again in xi. 31 ff. (cf. xii. 5-12). In connection with this we hear -of setting up of a "desolating (or appalling) abomination," in the -temple. The common use of "abomination" (loathsome thing) for idols or -other objects of heathen worship leaves no doubt that some such object -is meant here: the king not only stopped the worship of the God of the -Jews in his own temple, but established in its place a heathen cult. -It is, indeed, not improbable that the words translated "appalling -abomination" are an intentional distortion of the proper name of the -heathen god Baal Shamaim, i.e. Jupiter. - -The definiteness of all this proves that the author is not creating an -imaginary monster in whom all the sins of the heathen rulers against -the God of Heaven and his people are accumulated, but describing a -historical figure. Nor is there the smallest room for question whose -portrait he is painting: every feature of it belongs to Antiochus IV., -Epiphanes (Manifest God, the title means, which Antiochian wits -perverted to Epimanes, Manifest Madman), who in 168 B.C. took -possession of the temple in Jerusalem, suppressed the worship of its -God, erected an altar of Jupiter on the great altar of burnt offering, -and inaugurated heathen sacrifices. Not only that, but he forbade -circumcision, the observance of the sabbath, and the possession of -copies of the scriptures, and commanded that Jews should certify their -abjuration of their own religion by sacrificing to his gods. Those who -ignored or defied his decrees were persecuted; many of them put to -death. This attempt to extirpate the Jewish religion and forcibly -heathenize the people provoked a revolt led by Judas Maccabĉus and his -brothers, who three years later recovered the temple, purged it, and -restored the sacrifices. - -If there could be any doubt about the identification, it would be -removed by Dan. 11, which, as was recognized by Porphyry in the third -century of our era, contains a minute history of the relations of the -Ptolemies and Seleucids, their intermarriages and their wars, with -increasing detail, down to the Egyptian campaigns of Antiochus -Epiphanes--mentioning, for instance, the rebuff he received from the -Roman envoy (Popillius Laenas), and in the sequel of this his -desecration of the temple in Jerusalem and persecution of the -law-abiding Jews--and there the history ends. - -All this is supposed to be revealed to Daniel in the days of -Nebuchadnezzar and under later Babylonian and Median kings down to the -first year of Cyrus, that is, according to the historical chronology, -about three hundred and seventy-five years before the event. Such -visionary panoramas form a recognized genus of Jewish literature, and -they are regularly unrolled to some man of God in the remote or -remotest past. In the second and first centuries before our era a -great variety of such visions were attributed to Enoch, others to -Noah; revelations to Seth the son of Adam were once popular, and Adam -himself had some. Another class, like Daniel, bore the names of men of -the exile; Baruch is the putative father of several such revelations; -one of the most notable of the kind is the apocalypse of Ezra, which -stands in the Apocrypha in our Bible as Second Esdras. - -The age of such apocalypses is determined, not by the date assigned to -the imaginary seer, but by the actual standpoint of the author as -disclosed in the visions. In Daniel the historical panorama is -unrolled every time to the reign of Antiochus IV., and there stops. -The writer had witnessed the desecration of the temple and the -persecution of the Jews for their religion, he had seen the first -small successes of the Maccabees, but the recovery of the temple and -the restoration of sacrifice had not yet occurred. The death of -Antiochus is circumstantially predicted, but in a place and manner -very remote from the reality (Dan. xi. 45). The visions of Daniel -fall, therefore, between December 168 B.C., the date of the -desecration of the temple, and December 165, the restoration. The -motives of the stories also (see above, p. 178 f.) are most -appropriate to the situation under Antiochus. It is possible that they -are adaptations of older tales, but there is no reason to think that -they are of high antiquity. The Greek Bible has three additional -stories about Daniel (Susanna and the Elders, Bel, and the Dragon) -which stand in our Bibles among the Apocrypha. - -One peculiarity of the Book of Daniel remains for brief mention. Like -Ezra, it is in two languages: Dan. i. 1-ii. 4 is in Hebrew, from ii. 4 -b to the end of c. 7 in Aramaic, and from the beginning of c. 8 the -rest is in Hebrew again. The Aramaic begins appropriately where the -Chaldĉans (diviners) are introduced speaking in what the author -evidently conceives to be the language of the country; the text does -not, however, revert to Hebrew when this conference is over, but holds -on, not only through all the rest of the stories, but through the -first vision (c. 7). A motive for just this distribution of the two -tongues is not discoverable; in the chapter of accidents are various -possibilities which offset one another. As in Ezra--though there are -some differences between the two books--the Aramaic is of a kind which -was vernacular in Palestine in the last centuries before our era. - - - - -CHAPTER XX - -MINOR PROPHETS - - -The Minor Prophets--so called not in depreciation, but because their -books are smaller than those of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel--form in -the Jewish Bible one book, in which are brought together oracles in -the name of various prophets from the eighth century B.C. (Amos, -Hosea) to the fifth (Haggai, Zechariah), and one anonymous book -(Malachi). As in the collections which bear in their titles the names -of Isaiah and Jeremiah, so in the collection of the Twelve, prophecies -have been attributed, by error or conjecture or accident, to prophets -to whom they do not belong, and additions and alterations have been -made by compilers or editors. The extent of this alien matter differs -in different books; Hosea, for example, seems to contain little of it, -while in Micah it is considerable. - - -HOSEA.--In our Bibles, in which the Minor Prophets stand and are -counted individually, the first is Hosea. This position, which it has -also in the Hebrew Bible, may have been given the book, partly on -account of its age, partly on account of its length; but it might also -claim it by reason of its worth, for Hosea is one of the greatest of -the prophets, not in Minor company alone, but in the canon. No other -contributed so much, through his own words and through his great -successors, Jeremiah and the Deuteronomists, to deepen and -spiritualize the conception of religion. - -Hosea was an Israelite who began to prophesy to his countrymen in the -reign of Jeroboam II., probably about 750 B.C., and after Jeroboam's -death witnessed at least the beginning of that procession of -assassinations and revolutions through which the kingdom hurried to -meet its fate; but it does not appear from his book that he lived to -see the invasion of Tiglath-Pileser and the loss of Gilead and Galilee -in 734 B.C. in which his own predictions of impending doom had so -signal a verification. Their complete fulfilment came in 721, when -Sargon made an end forever of the kingdom of Israel, and deported many -of the people of Samaria to remote quarters of his empire. - -The Book of Hosea opens with chapters out of the prophet's experience -with his unfaithful wife, in which he sees a counterpart and symbol of -God's experience with Israel. This discovery of this significance in -the tragedy of his life is what made him a prophet. He saw then that -it was for this he had been led to marry a woman who turned out a -gross adulteress. When he drove her from his house, when later he -bought her out of the servitude into which she had sunk, and by -seclusion and a discipline at once firm and kind tried to win her back -by love to virtue, that, too, was an apologue of God's dealing with -his people (see specially Hos. i. 2-9; iii. 1-5). He is the first, -apparently, to use the metaphor adultery, or fornication, for -religious defection. The oracle, ii. 2-23, translates it into its -historical terms and discloses Hosea's construction of the religious -history of Israel. The root of Israel's apostasy was the belief that -the gods of the soil of Canaan, the baals, gave the corn and the wine -and the oil which in reality its own God, Jehovah, bestowed. Therefore -he will take away all these, which she deems the gift of the baals, -the wages of her prostitution, and will lead the people into the -desert of exile. But he will be with them there to comfort and -encourage, and Israel will return to its first love as in the early -days when it was alone with God in the desert of the exodus. Then the -old relation will be restored, never to be broken, and the gifts in -the new betrothal are uprightness and justice and charity and kindness -of heart and faithfulness and the knowledge of God (Hosea's word for -religion). That will be the golden age! (See Hos. ii. 18-23.) - -When the Jew says his _Shema_ or the Christian his Great Commandment, -"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all -thy soul and with all thy might," it is Hosea's great thought he is -repeating. Hosea interprets God's dealing with his people by his faith -in God's inextinguishable love. Outraged love may smite harder than -offended righteousness, but its blows are remedial, not retributive or -expiatory; its aim not to satisfy justice, but to recover the erring. -The exile, which for Amos is the final vindication of God's -righteousness in the death of the sinful nation, is for Hosea a -chastisement which leads to repentance and restoration. He is -therefore the author of that ideal of a golden age of godliness and -uprightness and happiness, beyond the impending judgment or the -present oppression, which is one of the leading motives of the -so-called messianic prophecy. - -The rest of the book (cc. 4-14) consists of a collection of oracles, -without titles, and often without obvious boundaries. They contain an -appalling picture of the sins of the nation as a whole and of all -classes of society; kings and princes, priests and prophets and -people--all are corrupt. The theme of the whole may be read in Hos. -iv. 1 f.: "There is no truth, nor charity, nor knowledge of God -(religion) in the land; naught but swearing and breaking faith and -murder and theft and adultery." Therefore ruin yawns before the -nation. Yet God will not destroy utterly; all the pathos of the divine -love finds words in such passages as xi. 8 ff., "How can I give thee -up, Ephraim?" or xiv. 1 ff., "O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God." - -This book of a prophet of the northern kingdom has come down to us -through Judĉan hands; the title, with its list of Judĉan kings -(exactly the same as in the title of Isaiah), is doubtless due to a -Jewish editor, and we are not surprised to find in the text itself -Jewish touches, such as the words "and David their king" in iii. 5, or -i. 11, but these are not numerous nor important. The text of Hosea is, -however, unusually corrupt. The prophet's style is very difficult, and -scribes did as they commonly do with a difficult text, they made -mechanical mistakes because they did not understand and false -emendations because they thought they understood what they did not. - - -JOEL.--Joel was probably put between Hosea and Amos because the -editors of the Book of the Twelve thought that he was one of the -earlier prophets, and, chiefly because of its position, this opinion -has been general until recent times. In the book itself there are -neither names nor identifiable historical allusions by which its age -can be determined. The whole situation, however, is that of the -so-called post-exilic times. - -The occasion of the prophecy with which the book begins was a -portentous plague of locusts, whose invasion and ravages are described -in Joel 1-2 in highly poetical imagery. Locusts and drought together -have so devastated the land that both men and beasts are perishing, -and--the last touch of the extremity--the obligatory daily offerings -in the temple have been cut off. The prophet calls to fasting and -supplication; perhaps God may be entreated to have mercy on them (ii. -12-17). God had pity on his people; the following oracle (ii. 18-27) -promises relief and everlasting prosperity. The visitation seems to -the prophet an omen of the dread "Day of the Lord." He sees the -nations gather beneath the walls of Jerusalem (in the valley with the -ominous name, Jehoshaphat, "Jehovah judges") for the last onset, to be -annihilated by the intervention of God. Then the golden age will be -ushered in. - -The heads of the people are priests and elders; of king and princes -there is no word. The Judah and Jerusalem which the prophet addresses -are the religious community which assembles in the temple; people and -congregation are the same thing. This one observation takes Joel out -of the company of Amos and Hosea and puts him by the side of Malachi. -All the other features of the book confirm this date. Assyrians or -Babylonians, without whom no picture of the Day of the Lord in the -pre-exilic prophets would be complete, are not here; Israel has -disappeared. - -The author has read much prophetic literature; reminiscences in -thought and phrase meet us at every turn. The heathen in the Valley of -Jehoshaphat are Ezekiel's hordes of Gog (Ezek. 38 f.); the fountain -that flows from the house of the Lord is a modest counterpart of the -river that sweetens the Dead Sea (Ezek. 47). The thumb-prints of -editorial hands have been thought to betray themselves in several -places, and some students would give a larger range to this -observation. The additions, if such they are, are not far remote in -time from the original book, and reflect the same religious -conceptions. - - -AMOS.--A dramatic scene in Amos vii. 10-17 describes the appearance of -Amos at Bethel on a high festival, with his presages of swift and -utter ruin for Israel (cf. vii. 1-9). That his hearers greeted the -message with incredulity can well be believed, for under Jeroboam II. -Israel was at the very culmination of its power and prosperity. The -chief priest of Bethel was not minded to let such speech pass in his -diocese; as scornfully as Creon dismisses the prophet Teiresias in the -Antigone, he bids Amos be gone: "O Seer, be off, flee to the land of -Judah; make thy living there, and there do thy prophesying. But -prophesy no more at Bethel, for it is a royal temple and a residence -city." Spurning the contemptuous insinuation, Amos answers: "No -prophet am I, and no member of the prophetic order, but a herdsman am -I and a ripener of sycamore figs. Jehovah took me from following the -flock, and bade me, Go prophesy against my people Israel." -Incidentally we see in how low esteem the professional prophet stood, -that the priest should make a taunt of the name and the prophet -indignantly repel it. - -The priest followed up his warning by a report to the king, and we may -safely conclude that Amos prophesied no more at Bethel. Perhaps it was -the rude end of his mission that prompted him to collect his oracles -into a book, the earliest example of such a collection, as a witness -to his own generation and to that which should see the fulfilment. - -The title, this part of which may well be original, describes Amos as -a shepherd from Tekoa, in the wilderness of Judah. Beyond the brief -scene at Bethel nothing more is told of him in the book or out of it. -But the book is his monument. - -It is one of the easiest of the prophetic books to understand and one -of the best preserved. Chapters 1 and 2 contain a series of brief -oracles, on the same plan, against the neighbours of Israel, the -Syrians of Damascus, the Philistines, Phoenicians, Edomites, -Ammonites, Moabites, Judĉans, leading up to a longer indictment of -Israel and denunciation of God's judgment upon it. This is followed by -prophecies against Israel (cc. 3-6), which seem to be formally divided -into three parts by the introductory formula, "Hear this word" (iii. -1; iv. 1; v. 1), but by subject would naturally fall into a larger -number of oracles. Chapter 7 begins with three visions, the delivery -of which at Bethel may have provoked Amaziah's interference (vii. -10-17); c. 8 again opens with a vision, in which the basket of summer -fruit _(kais)_ is to the prophet a symbol of the coming end -_(k[=e]s)_ of Israel; in c. 9 Amos sees the Lord standing beside the -altar and pronouncing the word of destruction and inescapable doom -(ix. 1-8^a), from which an awkward transition (ix. 8^b-10) carries us -to a prediction of the restoration of David's kingdom and the -prosperity of the golden age. - -The doom which Amos sees impending over Israel is visited upon it in -retribution for the wrongs which men inflict upon their fellows, the -oppression of the poor by the rich, the small man by the great; the -injustice, often in the forms of law, by which men are deprived of -property and liberty; the luxury, aping foreign modes, which is not -only corrupting in itself, but is the chief motive of injustice and -oppression and fraud. The very prosperity of the nation was its ruin. - -With all this, Israel is very religious; it acknowledges the success -in war and the profit of commerce as the gift of the national God and -evidence of his favour, and does not grudge him his share even of -ill-gotten gains. Amos's God has a conscience--that was a new idea -about gods!--and abhors such religion; he hates their festivals, -refuses their sacrifices, spurns their hymns of praise. "But let -justice roll down like floods, and right like an unfailing stream." -That is the only worship he owns. - -The standard of right is not one thing in Israel and another among the -heathen: Amos summons the Philistines and the Egyptians to behold -with amazement and horror the doings in Samaria. In the oracles with -which the book opens, he pronounces the judgment of God on the peoples -neighbour to Israel, not solely because they have wronged Israel, as -in so many of the prophecies against the nations, but because they -have violated the principles of humanity. It is the first assertion in -the Old Testament that there is such a thing as an international -morality. Amos is the first in the succession of ethical prophets, the -author, so far as we know, of a new idea of religion. It is deeply -significant that he and Hosea are contemporaries; hardly more than ten -years can lie between Amos's appearance at Bethel and the earliest of -Hosea's prophecies against the house of Jehu. The God of Amos is the -apotheosis of right, the conscience of the world that can neither be -corrupted nor sophisticated; the God of Hosea was born in the heart of -a man whose love the grossest wrong could not quench. Retribution is -the divinity of the one, redemption of the other. - -Amos's conception was the first to take hold; the earlier prophecies -of Isaiah against Judah are wholly in that mood. Hosea had to wait a -century before his greater thought found a fruitful soil in Jeremiah -and the Deuteronomists. - -The predictions of judgment in Amos are so sweeping and ultimate that -later readers found the message incomplete. Especially the last -oracle (ix. 1 ff.) was an ill-omened close. Consequently, a messianic -pendant was attached to it (ix. 11-15) by a Judĉan editor, and an -imperfect juncture made by the introduction of vs. 8^b (which flatly -contradicts the first half verse) and 9^b (no grain shall fall to the -ground) perhaps displacing some words of the original. - -It seems that some imitative pieces have been inserted also in c. 1; -the prophecy against Judah in ii. 4 f. with its deuteronomic sins, -falls out of the scheme and is generally recognized as editorial. -Slight retouches elsewhere (e.g. iv. 13; v. 8 f.; ix. 6) need not -detain us. In general the book has suffered little from the improvers, -and the text is in relatively good preservation. - - -OBADIAH.--The single chapter of Obadiah, the shortest of the Old -Testament books, is a prophecy against the Edomites, toward whom, as -we have repeatedly seen, the Jews cherished an implacable animosity -from the time of the fall of Jerusalem. Obadiah vss. 1-9 has close -parallels in Jer. xlix. 7-22 (cf. Obad. vss. 1-4 with Jer. xlix. -14-16; Obad. vs. 5 f., Jer. xlix. 9 f.; Obad. vs. 8, Jer. xlix. 7). -The question which is the borrower has been differently answered. -Obadiah vss. 15-21, in which Edom gets its judgment in the Day of the -Lord on the nations, is probably later than vss. 1-14, but the whole -is post-exilic. - - -JONAH.--The Book of Jonah has already been discussed along with the -stories of Esther and Ruth. - - -MICAH.--The prediction of Micah, the Morashtite, that Zion should be -plowed as a field and Jerusalem be a heap of ruins and the temple hill -become like forest shrines (Mic. iii. 2), is quoted under his name in -Jer. xxvi. 18--the only example of such a prophetic quotation in the -Old Testament. The author, a resident of Moresheth-Gath in the Judĉan -Lowland, is said in the title to have prophesied in the days of -Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, which is the editor's way of saying that -he was a younger contemporary of Isaiah. The reign of Hezekiah is -attested by the tradition in Jeremiah. It is probable that only cc. -1-3 (with perhaps some dubious possibilities in the following -chapters) can be attributed to Micah. - -The book opens with an oracle against Samaria (Mic. i. 2-8). Samaria -fell in 721 B.C., while the sequel (vs. 9 ff.) portrays the imminent -peril of Judah, presumably in the time of Sennacherib (701 B.C.). The -case seems to be similar to Isa. xxviii. 1 ff.: the fate of Samaria, -though it is already fact, is represented prophetically for a closer -parallel to the following. Verses 10-16 are little more than a string -of ominous puns on the names of towns in the author's Lowland, which -in translation lose what little point they have. The second chapter -gives the cause of the woe much as in Amos or Isaiah, but perhaps with -local emphasis on the wrongs the capitalists of the great city inflict -on the peasant proprietors. His forebodings and censures are not well -received, men bid him stop his preaching, it is a different sort of -prophet they like (ii. 6-11). "If a man, walking in wind and -falsehood, should lie, 'I will preach to thee of wine and drink,' he -will be the preacher for this people." Micah has more to say, but not -better, about the demagogue prophets in the following oracle (iii. -5-7). The predictions of disaster in ii. 1-11 have their point blunted -in vs. 12 f. in the way the editors of the prophetic books so often do -it. - -Chapter 3 returns to condemnation, which turns at last on the heads of -the rulers "who build up Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity," -and ends with the prediction of the total destruction of the city -which has already been quoted. - -Then the unexpected follows, in the prophecy that Jerusalem shall -become the religious centre of the earth, to which all nations flow, -and the law of God the universal arbiter in an age of universal peace -(Mic. iv. 1-5). Verses 1-3 are found also, in no more suitable -context, in Isa. ii. 2-4. They belong to neither Isaiah nor Micah. For -the rest, Mic. 4-5 and cc. 6-7 contain a number of pieces of diverse -age and origin. Chapters iv. 6-v. 1 are as a whole of good omen, yet -after the promise of restoration in iv. 8, Jerusalem is suddenly in -desperate straits; exile awaits its people, and only beyond the exile -(the words "thou shalt come even unto Babylon" may be a gloss, but the -meaning is not essentially changed) redemption waits (iv. 9 f.). In -iv. 11-13, again, many nations gather against Zion, but it crushes -them like sheaves on the threshing floor. There follows (v. 2-9, -10-15) a messianic prophecy, in which an allusion to Isa. vii. 14 -appears. - -No less strangely assorted are the oracles in Mic. 6-7, of which there -are four: vi. 1-8; vi. 9-16; vii. 1-6; vii. 7-20. The first of these -contains the quintessence of the prophetic conception of religion: God -does not demand holocausts and costly offerings in expiation of sin; -nor the supreme expiation which the prophets and the laws of the -seventh century so often reject and condemn: "Shall I give my -first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of -my soul? He hath showed thee, O man. What is good and what doth God -require of thee, but to do justice and love mercy and walk humbly with -thy God?" - -Trenchant condemnations of the sins of the times fill vi. 9-16 and -vii. 1-6, the former of which, at least, is pre-exilic; while the book -closes in the situation and spirit of Isa. 40 ff. Thus the Book of -Micah, like that of his contemporary Isaiah, has been a depository for -prophecies differing in age by several centuries. Perhaps the book -once stood at the end of a roll, and was therefore the natural place -to add stray and nameless pieces, as happened later to the Book of -Zechariah at the end of the volume of the Minor Prophets. - - -NAHUM.--In the three larger prophetic books we have found groups of -oracles against foreign nations, some relatively old, many late and -literary variations on given motives--it was evidently a grateful -theme. In Nahum we have a whole book occupied with the impending fall -of Nineveh and the Assyrian empire, which had so long and so brutally -tyrannized over all western Asia. Now its hour has struck, and the -prophet triumphs over the fate of the old lion, who "rent in pieces to -satisfy his whelps and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his -dens with prey and his lairs with ravin." His imagination revels in -the terrors of the onslaught, the horrors of the sack, which he -depicts with unsurpassed vividness and great poetic power. It is the -judgment of the Lord, long deferred, but sure and final (Nah. 1). - -In Nah. iii. 8-10 the fate of the Egyptian Thebes is adduced as an -historic example: all her power could not save her, and it shall fare -no better with Nineveh. The reference is probably to the capture of -Thebes by Assurbanipal in 661 B.C. Nineveh itself fell about 606 B.C. -under an attack of enemies from the north (Medes or Scythians), and -was destroyed never to be restored. With it the Assyrians disappear -from history. The prophecy of Nahum was probably delivered shortly -before this event, though a date twenty years earlier, when, according -to Herodotus, Nineveh barely escaped from a similar onset by Cyaxares, -is not strictly impossible. - -It is thought by many scholars that the first chapter (with which ii. -2 must go) is a later composition, a poem, much deranged, originally -in acrostic form. - - -HABAKKUK.--The Book of Habakkuk predicts that Jehovah is about to -raise up the fierce Chaldĉan nation, which marches through the breadth -of the earth to occupy habitations not belonging to it, which scoffs -at kings and has dynasts in derision, laughing at all fortresses, -against which it casts up a mound and takes them (Hab. i. 5-11). Such -a prophecy would be timely in the last years of the seventh century: -the Chaldĉan, or New Babylonian, kingdom dates its independence from -625, and is hardly likely to have attracted much attention in the West -before the fall of Nineveh in 606 B.C. and the defeat of Pharaoh Necho -on the Euphrates in 605 B.C. - -The prophecy, which does not specifically threaten Judah, intrudes -between i. 4 and i. 12 ff., where the plaint of vss. 2-4 is continued, -so that vss. 5-11 are at least misplaced. This complaint is of the -oppression of "the righteous" (Judah) by "the wicked" (heathen, i. -13-17). From his watch tower the prophet sees a vision of a distant -time, which he is bidden record, and of whose ultimate fulfilment he -is assured (ii. 1-3). What follows is a series of invectives which the -nations he has gathered under his robber rule shall heap upon the -fallen oppressor, "the man who was greedy as hell, insatiable as -death." - -The date of the prophecy depends on the identification of this tyrant -of the nations. If it is Babylon, the oracle must be considered later -than i. 5-11, which greets the rise of the Babylonian power to execute -God's judgment on the world. An ingenious solution of the difficulty -has been proposed, viz., to transfer i. 5-11 from c. 1 to a place -after ii. 4, and see in it the contents of the vision spoken of in ii. -3: the Babylonians would then be the ministers of God's avenging -justice on the Assyrian robbers of the world, and the whole might have -been uttered about 615 B.C. All parts of these chapters abound in -reminiscences of the eighth-century prophets; the resemblances to -Jeremiah may be explained by the contemporaneousness of the authors. - -Habakkuk 3, entitled "A Prayer by Habakkuk the Prophet," with a -musical direction following, as in the Psalms, is in fact a psalm, and -the presence of the musical directions, implying liturgical use, -suggests that it once stood in a hymn book like the Psalter. It is a -fine ode, by an author well read in the classic literature of his -nation. The theophany (iii. 2 ff.) is indebted to Exod. xxxiii. 2 ff. -and Judg. v. 4 ff. The ode belongs with the Psalms of the Persian -period. It is imitated in Ps. 77. The title ascribing it to Habakkuk -the prophet is of no greater authority than the ascription Pss. -146-148 in the Greek Bible to Haggai and Zechariah. - - -ZEPHANIAH.--The pedigree of Zephaniah is carried back to his -great-great-grandfather, Hezekiah. As such genealogical proper names -have seldom more than three terms, it has been conjectured that the -particular reason for adducing two extra generations here was that the -prophet boasted royal blood--Hezekiah was the king of that name. The -thing is possible, though the generations are somewhat rapid; the -parallel royal line counts four. It would be a romantic touch if the -prophet was a great-grand-nephew of Manasseh, and a second cousin of -Josiah, of the manners and morals of whose courts he has so bad an -opinion. - -The title says that he prophesied in the reign of Josiah, and with -this the tenor of a large part of the book agrees. Like the earliest -prophecies of Jeremiah (Jer. 1-6) Zephaniah's Day of the Lord is -inspired by the irruption of the Scythian hordes which threatened to -engulf the civilized nations of western Asia in a common ruin, as the -Mongol and Turkish hordes, pouring out of the same cradle of the -commissioned races, the scourges of God, did successively in later -ages. For Judah it is the day of reckoning for the sins which made the -reign of Manasseh a by-word with prophets and historians, and which -went on unrestrained through the short years of his successor and the -minority of Josiah down to the reforms of his eighteenth year. Nowhere -is the state of things in that three quarters of a century more -clearly exposed than in the first oracle of Zephaniah. - -The second chapter holds out the possibility that repentance may still -save Judah; the wave of invasion has taken, as we know from historical -sources it did, the way by the coast, bringing calamity on the -Philistine cities. It surged on to the very frontier of Egypt, where -it was stayed, more likely by the payment of a great indemnity than by -force of arms, and rolled back whence it came. Zephaniah sees the -storm break over Assyria, and predicts the total destruction of the -proud city of Nineveh which had so long said in her heart, "I, and -none beside me." Several verses in this chapter are suspected of being -later amplifications, viz. ii. 7^a (Judah profits by the ruin of the -Philistine plain; vs. 7^b connects directly with vs. 6), and -especially the oracles against Moab and Ammon, which accuse them of -their enmity to Judah in the time of Nebuchadnezzar, a generation -after Zephaniah. - -The first oracle in Zeph. 3 is incomplete; the original conclusion, a -sentence of doom upon Judah, the only imaginable sequel to vss. 1-7, -is supplanted by the inconsequent pouring out of God's fury on the -nations, whereupon the heathen are converted, the dispersion returns, -and, purified and chastened the remnant of Judah enjoys a modest -golden age (iii. 8-13). The book closes in a more jubilant salutation -of the good time coming (iii. 14-20). - -Thus in Zephaniah, as in so many other prophetic books, all turns out -well in the end; but as in most of the others, the happy endings are -an afterthought of later generations for whom the judgment was in the -past but the golden age had not yet come. - - -HAGGAI.--Haggai dates his first revelation to the very day of the -month--a new fashion which he and his contemporary Zechariah have--the -first day of the sixth month (of the Jewish calendar) in the second -year of Darius (Hystaspis), that is, 520 B.C. He has the word of the -Lord for Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah, and Joshua, the chief -priest, that it is high time to rebuild the temple; the lean years -they have been having are due to God's displeasure that he is thus -neglected. The civil and religious heads of the community stir up the -people and the work begins; again the exact date is given. - -Three other oracles follow, all in the same year. The first of these -(ii. 1-9) encourages Zerubbabel and the people to more zeal by the -prediction that the great crisis of history is at hand: yet a little -while and the Lord will shake the heavens and the earth; he will shake -all the nations, and the treasures of all the nations shall flow to -his temple (cf. Isa. lx. 9 ff.), and God will fill the house with his -glory. The third (ii. 20-23), to Zerubbabel, foretells the overthrow -and destruction of the kingdoms of the nations; and, in prudently -veiled phrase--since such great expectations might have ill -consequences if they reached Persian ears--the restoration of -Zerubbabel to the throne of his fathers, fulfilling the messianic -predictions of earlier prophets. The intervening oracle (ii. 10-19) is -another spur to zeal in rebuilding the temple. - -The immediate restoration of Jewish nationality which Haggai and -Zechariah so confidently foretold was not merely the expression of a -general faith or the result of studies in their predecessors. For in -reality God was shaking the nations; in particular the Persian empire, -newly made master of the world, was shaken to its foundations by the -usurpation of the pretended Smerdis, the death of Cambyses, the -conspiracy of the nobles against Smerdis, and the elevation of Darius -to the throne. In the years when the Jewish prophets were making their -predictions, Darius was confronted by formidable rebellions in every -quarter of the empire except the west. It might well appear to Haggai -that the armies of the nations were falling every one by the sword of -his fellow. - -In the end Darius put down all opposition and welded the empire -together more strongly than ever; the brief dream of Jewish -independence under a Davidic prince and the brighter vision of the -golden age faded. - - -ZECHARIAH.--Zechariah's first oracle is dated in the month after that -in which Haggai's first was delivered. It is a brief exhortation to -his countrymen to repent, and not neglect the warnings of the prophets -as their fathers had done, to their sorrow when the predicted -judgments overtook them (Zech. i. 1-6). Then follow, in i. 7-vi. 15, -under the common date (second year of Darius, 11th month, 24th day), a -series of eight visions, the meaning of which is interpreted to the -prophet by an angel. They symbolize the shattering of the power of the -nations; the rebuilding of the temple and city, and the golden age to -follow; the removal of the sin of Judah; the recognition of the -Messiah (Zerubbabel); the harmony of prince and priest. - -At the end of this group of visions is a bit of history of high -interest. A crown was made of gold and silver brought by some -representatives of the Babylonian Jews, and set by the prophet on the -head of Zerubbabel, who was saluted as "the Scion," i.e., the Messiah -(Jer. xxiii. 5), with the prediction that he should rebuild the -temple, assume majesty, and sit and rule upon his throne. The -coronation, it need hardly be said, was in the secrecy of a private -house, and is to be regarded as a symbolical act; the Babylonian -envoys kept the crown as a memento. But its significance is -unmistakable. - -The prediction was not fulfilled. Whatever became of Zerubbabel--he -disappears with this scene--he never wore a real crown nor sat upon -the throne of his fathers. This has led to more than one change in the -text, which, however, as in many other cases, were not sufficiently -thorough-going to pass unnoticed. First, the crown is once made -plural, "crowns," as though the intention was to crown both the prince -and the priest; when it comes to the coronation, however, only Joshua, -the high priest, receives the honour (vi. 11). But vss. 12, 13^a, -which are left untouched, can refer only to Zerubbabel. Verse 13^b -originally read, "and [Joshua] shall be priest _at his right hand_ (so -the Greek Bible, instead of "on his throne"), and there shall be -harmony between the two." In vs. 14 there is only one crown. - -In Zech. 7 the question is asked of the prophet by some pilgrims from -Bethel, whether, now that the temple was rebuilding, they should -continue to keep the fast for the burning of the temple in the fifth -month; his response, that what God wants of them is not fasting but -justice, charity, compassion, that none should oppress his neighbour -nor devise evil against him, is quite in the spirit of the earlier -prophets to whom he appeals. - -He goes on, in c. 8, to picture the coming golden age, when the fasts -shall all be turned into cheerful feasts, a prophecy which is one of -the finest of its kind in the Old Testament and a fitting crown to the -book. - -The prophecies of Zechariah (cc. 1-8) are definitely dated; they -spring out of a definite historical and religious situation which is -everywhere apparent and consistent. Not so the chapters which follow -(cc. 9-14). The titles (ix. 1; xii. 1) have a different form -("Burdens"), the situations which give their background to the oracles -are wholly unlike that which stands out so clearly in Haggai and -Zechariah; the character of the prophecies, with their affected -obscurity, easily penetrable, doubtless, to contemporaries, but -impenetrable to us who have not the historical key, and their -apocalyptic eschatology, are in strong contrast to the manner of -Zechariah; the evidence of diction confirms that of situation and -content. - -It has, therefore, long been recognized that none of these prophecies -can be by the author of Zech. 1-8: they are anonymous oracles which -have been appended at the close of his book or of the Book of the -Minor Prophets. They are not all by the same author: cc. 12-14 -contain two pictures (xiii. 1-xiii. 6; xiv. 1-21) of the final onset -of the heathen on Jerusalem, their destruction, and the golden age of -pious prosperity that ensues, variations of Ezekiel's original in the -great prophecy of Gog (Ezek. 38-39) which gave the scheme for all -subsequent revelations on the last times. A notable difference between -the two pictures is that in Zech. 12 the heathen are destroyed by the -clans of Judah, who deliver Jerusalem; while in c. 14 Jerusalem is -taken by the heathen and subjected to all the horrors of a sack, half -of its inhabitants being carried into slavery, before Jehovah himself, -descending on the Mount of Olives, fights against the nations and -cleaves the mount itself in twain. - -In cc. xii. 1-xiii. 6 concrete features of the author's time are -probably discernible, in the fact, for instance, that Judah (that is -the inhabitants of the other towns and the country) besieges Jerusalem -in company with the neighbouring heathen peoples, and in the striking -animosity displayed toward the prophets, who are in the same -condemnation with the idols and arouse much intenser feeling (xii. -2-6). Our ignorance of the internal history of the Jewish community -for two or three centuries is, however, so complete that these -allusions furnish us no clue. - -In Zech. 9-11 also there are two sections, viz. ix. 1-xi. 3 and xi. -4-17 + xiii. 7-9. The age of these can be fixed with greater -confidence by the external historical situation. The heathen power -the overthrow of which ushers in the golden age is named, in ix. 13, -the Greeks. Egypt and Syria ("Assyria"), that is, the kingdoms of the -Ptolemies and the Seleucids, shall be brought low (x. 11). "The land -of Hadrach," to which the first oracle is directed, is in all -probability the region of Antioch, the Seleucid capital. The bad -"shepherds" of cc. 11; xiii. 7-9, who are over the flock of God, are -very good likenesses of the Jewish high priests of the Greek time, -though it is impossible to identify the concrete historical persons -and events of c. 11. Taking all together, we shall not go amiss in -ascribing these to the early part of the third century B.C.--say -between the year 200, when Judĉa came under Seleucid rule and the -religious persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes and the Maccabĉan revolt, -to neither of which is there any allusion in the chapters. Chapters -12-14 may perhaps be put in the century before. - - -MALACHI.--A third appendix to the Book of Zechariah is the anonymous -book which we call Malachi. The earliest title, "The Burden of the -Word of the Lord against Israel," is word for word the same as that in -Zech. xii. 1 (cf. ix. 1), and doubtless was prefixed by the same -editor. Subsequently, perhaps to give the book an independent status -and thus round out the number of the Minor Prophets to twelve, the -words "by 'My Messenger'" (Heb. _malaki_; iii. 1 f.) were added. -Jewish tradition in later times identified this messenger with Ezra. -In the versions the word was naturally taken for a proper name. - -The book consists of two parts, Mal. i. 2-ii. 9, which from i. 6 on is -addressed to the priests, and ii. 10-iv. 3, to the people at large. -The priests treat the worship in the temple with professional -disrespect, under which lurks an equally professional scepticism. Any -kind of blemished or diseased victim is good enough--the prophet -invites them to make such a scurvy gift to the governor! The perpetual -routine of sacred services they find tiresome. They are no less -negligent in their other great function as the religious teachers and -guides of the people. The _Tora_, that is, the revealed will of God, -is committed to them, and they, degenerate successors of the faithful -priests in the good old times, have not only themselves abandoned the -right way, but have caused many to fall by their false instructions. -They have earned the contempt in which men hold them. The curse of God -is on them. - -One of the most notable words in the Bible stands in this indignant -denunciation (Mal. i. 11 f.). Jehovah's own priests in his own temple -treat his worship with contempt; he refuses their offerings: "For from -the rising of the sun to the setting, my name is great among the -nations, and in every place pure sacrifices are burnt to my name among -the nations, saith Jehovah of Hosts; but _ye_ profane it by thinking -that the table of Jehovah may be polluted and his food despised." That -the sacrifices of the heathen may be "pure" sacrifices, though not -according to the Mosaic rite, because all true worship is the worship -of the true God, is a conception quite unparalleled in the Old -Testament. The author's polemic against the priests of Jerusalem has -doubtless made him say more than he would have stood by as a dogmatic -statement; more, indeed, than any church has ever been ready to -acknowledge, but it was fitting that it should be said, for it is the -final consequence of the ethical conception of religion of which the -Hebrew prophets from Amos on are the exponents. - -Of the remaining oracles, one (Mal. iii. 6-12) urges to the honest -consecration of the tithes (dues to the temple); another (ii. 10-16), -as commonly interpreted, condemns the marriages with heathen women -which so disturbed the soul of Nehemiah and Ezra, and especially the -divorce of native wives to take foreign ones; but the language should -perhaps rather be taken as figurative for foreign worship. The two -remaining prophecies (ii. 17-iii. 5; iii. 13-iv. 3) are addressed to -such as thought that God did not trouble himself about men's affairs: -the long threatened day of doom gave no sign of coming, nor was the -promised reward of serving God bestowed. The prophet declares that the -Day will come, sudden and terrible, and the ungodly will get their -deserts. The last verses (iv. 4-6) are not improbably an addition by -an editorial hand. - - - - -CHAPTER XXI - -PSALMS. LAMENTATIONS - - -The Book of Psalms counts one hundred and fifty hymns, and this -evidently by design, for the Greek Version, which sometimes unites in -one what are two psalms in the Hebrew and divides one Hebrew psalm -into two, comes out with the same number. It is divided into five -books, as is indicated in the Revised English Version, vis. Book I., -Pss. 1-41; Book II., Pss. 42-72; Book III., Pss. 73-89; Book IV., Pss. -90-106; Book V., Pss. 107-150, each book ending with a liturgical -doxology. The rabbis were probably right in the opinion that this -fivefold division was made in imitation of the five books of the -Pentateuch, but in some cases, as we shall see, the limits correspond -to those of older separate books. The psalter has not inaptly been -called the hymn book of the second temple. We learn from Jewish -tradition that certain psalms were used in the liturgy of the -Herodian temple on certain days or at certain seasons, and to many of -them musical or liturgical directions are prefixed and interludes are -noted ("Selah"), from which, apart from tradition, such a use would be -inferred. It is evident from the familiarity with the Psalms which is -shown in the New Testament and in contemporary Jewish writings, both -Greek and Hebrew, that, like our hymn books, the Psalter was largely -used for private devotion and edification. - -The poems contained in the Psalter are from different ages and -authors, and of widely diverse religious worth and poetical -excellence. Some of them are unsurpassed in the religious literature -of the world; others are the tedious production of authors who, like -so many hymnists of all climes, were neither born nor made poets. -Thanks to the translators, such pieces are a great deal better, so far -as expression goes, in the Authorized English Version or in Luther's, -than the original. - -A modern hymn book is seldom, if ever, a fresh compilation from the -sources; it is habitually made up from collections already in use, -with the addition, perhaps, of the editor's gleanings from the -sources, or of recent poems. The names of the collections thus used -may be given, and the names of the authors--often taken along without -verification. Editors of hymn books have also generally allowed -themselves great liberties with the text of hymns, altering them to -suit their own taste or the religious and theological idiosyncrasies -of their sect; abridging, transposing, expanding, without scruple; and -only in very modern times has a tardily awakened literary conscience -constrained them to give notice of such changes. In this way mediĉval -Catholic poets are made to sing good Protestant songs, or Calvinists -and Methodists to drop their shibboleths and express themselves in a -manner acceptable to Unitarians. The familiar hymn, - - "O for a thousand tongues to sing my dear Redeemer's praise," - -has been adapted to Buddhist use as, - - "O for a thousand tongues to sing my holy Buddha's praise, - The glories of my teacher great, the triumphs of his grace," - -with similar changes throughout, and if we did not know the Christian -hymn, we might take the author for a good Shin-shu Buddhist, though an -indifferent poet. - -The editors of the Psalter proceeded in the same way, and the older -recollections on which they worked can in part be recognized. It is -observed that Books II. and III. of the Psalter (Pss. 42-89), or, more -exactly, Pss. 42-83, must once have formed a collection by themselves, -whose editor was averse to the use of the proper name Jehovah, and -accordingly altered the text of the hymns where this name occurred by -substituting the appellative God (Elohim), giving rise to such strange -expressions as "O God, my God." Thus Ps. 53 is the same with Ps. 14, -but wherever Jehovah stands in Ps. 14, "God" takes its place in Ps. -53; Ps. 70 is merely an extract from Ps. 40 (vss. 13-17) with the same -change. In the latter, however, copyists, influenced by the parallel -passage, have restored "Jehovah" in one (Greek) or two (Hebrew) -places, as they have done in other of these psalms. This occurrence of -the same hymn in two parts of the Psalter, of which another instance -is Ps. 108 (made up of parts of two psalms in the elohistic book, -lvii. 7-11, and lx. 5-12), is itself presumptive evidence that these -parts once existed separately. At the time when the musical directions -were prefixed to the psalms, the last two books (Pss. 90-150) seem not -to have been included in the temple hymn book; for these directions, -scattered through Pss. 1-89, are lacking from that point on, -notwithstanding the fact that a larger proportion of the psalms in -Pss. 90-150 were manifestly composed for public worship than in Pss. -1-89. - -The titles of Psalms give the names of other collections from which -individual psalms were taken. Thus twelve psalms, Pss. 42, 44-49, 84, -85, 87, 88, are hymns or songs of the Korahites, and eleven, Pss. 50, -73-83, of Asaph, who were according to the Chronicler--a good -authority on the worship of his time--families, or hereditary guilds, -of temple musicians, and seem, in this capacity, to have had special -hymn books containing psalms which they sang, and which may also have -been composed by members of the guild. The fact that the Korahite and -Asaphite psalms are not scattered through the present Psalter, but -appear in groups, and only in the elohistic hymn book (Pss. 42-89), -confirms this view. When they were incorporated in the collection, the -source was indicated by prefixing the name of the guild book to the -individual psalms. - -Another group of fifteen psalms (Pss. 120-134) bear in their titles, -"The Song of the Ascents," a phrase which, by the irregularity of its -form, shows that it was transferred mechanically from the title of the -collection ("The Songs of the Ascents") to the individual poems. The -ancient interpretation makes the "ascents" the fifteen steps, or -ascending platforms, on which the levitical orchestra stood at the -festival of the water-drawing on the evening after the first day of -Tabernacles (hence the Authorized Version, Song of Degrees, i.e. -Steps). We need not discuss the question; that these psalms constitute -a liturgical unit selected for a specific ceremony is plain. - -A considerable number of psalms have loosely prefixed to them the -words Hallelu Jah (Praise ye Jah), which in the Hebrew text are -frequently found at the end, having been erroneously carried back from -the beginning of a following psalm. When this displacement (which is -later than the Greek translation) is corrected, the Hallelujah psalms -are 105-107, 111-118, 135, 136, 146-150. Here also a liturgical -collection is naturally inferred. Jewish tradition informs us about -the use of the "Hallel" (Pss. 113-118) and the "Great Hallel" (Ps. -136) at the festivals, and the name Hallel is also sometimes given to -Pss. 146-148. Both the Hallels and the Songs of Degrees, it will be -observed, are in the last of the three parts of the Psalter (Pss. -90-150). - -Of greater interest is the large collection of psalms which bear -individually the name of David. This name is found in the titles of -all the psalms in Book I. (Pss. 1-41), except Pss. 1 and 2, 10 -(properly a part of 9, as in the Greek Bible), and 33 (in the Greek -Bible Davidic); further, in Book II., two groups, Pss. 51-65, 68-70, -and thereafter, scattering, Pss. 86, 101, 103, 108-110, 122, 124, 131, -133, 138-145--73 psalms in all, or almost half the Psalter. -Manuscripts of the Greek Bible add a varying number of others, and -other versions do the same. - -In the light of the phenomena we have already observed, we may -confidently infer that there was once a collection of religious lyrics -bearing some such title as "Hymns of David." So long as this book had -a separate existence, the name would naturally not be repeated at the -head of the individual poems in it; such repetition became necessary, -however, when psalms from this book were taken up into a larger hymn -book containing not only psalms from the Korahite and Asaphite -collections but many anonymous hymns; just as the name of Charles -Wesley would be attached to one of his hymns only when it was taken -out of his own volume and included in a composite hymn book. By good -fortune we have the colophon of this Davidic Psalter in Ps. lxxii. 20, -in the words of a scribe: "The Prayers (an older name for Psalms) of -David son of Jesse are finished," that is, the roll containing them is -copied to the end--a very common Oriental form of colophon. Curiously -enough, the hymn to which this note is annexed is said in its title to -be by Solomon, to whom Ps. 127 (one of the Songs of Degrees) is -similarly attributed. In both cases the ground of the ascription is -plain: the editor thought that Ps. cxxvii. 1 referred to the building -of the temple, while the prayer for wisdom with which Ps. 72 begins -suggested to him Solomon's dream, 1 Kings 3. - -From this Davidic hymn book came what is now the first book of the -Psalter entire, except Ps. 1 and probably 2; further the groups in -Book II. (51-65, 68-70, with 72), which probably stood immediately -after Ps. 41. For it will be noted that the second (elohistic) part of -the present Psalter (Pss. 42-89) is made up of Korahite, Asaphite, and -Davidic psalms, and that in their present position the Davidic -psalms, say Pss. 51-72, are thrust into the otherwise solid group of -Asaphite hymns Pss. 50 ... 73-83. Further, the transposition of the -Davidic psalms to the beginning of the book would bring the hymns of -the guilds together. The elohistic recension does not extend -consistently beyond Ps. 83; and Pss. 84-89 (Korahite) may therefore be -regarded as a supplementary extract from the guild book. - -The titles of several of the Davidic psalms specify the occasion and -circumstances in which the poem was composed; these historical notes -are especially numerous in the group Pss. 51-72 (see Pss. 51, 52, 54, -56, 57, 59, 60, 63), but occur also in the First Book (Pss. 3, 7, 18, -34), and in Ps. 142 (cf. Ps. 57). The incidents referred to are, with -one exception, all narrated in the Books of Samuel. There is no reason -to imagine that the editor had any tradition about the origin of these -particular poems, much less authentic information on the subject. -Precisely as in the ascription of Pss. 72 and 127 to Solomon, he -combined what he took to be allusions to a historical situation in the -poems with the history as he read it. Psalm 51, for example, is a -confession of deep sinfulness, and seems to specify blood-guilt (vs. -14). When had David reason to express himself in this manner? Clearly -after his adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah. It is a -very familiar procedure. Modern commentators have made many similar -guesses, but nobody attaches any authority to them. - -Whether the scattered Davidic psalms in the last part of the Psalter -(Pss. 90-150) are a gleaning from the Davidic hymn book of poems which -had not been included by previous editors or come from some other -source is uncertain; the latter is the more probable hypothesis. - -The Psalter, in the form in which we have it, is one of the latest -books in the Old Testament, for it contains poems in which the -religious persecution of Antiochus IV. and the Maccabĉan struggle are -clearly reflected, and very likely events still further down in the -second century B.C. This was shown by an acute critic at the beginning -of the fifth century A.D., and in the Reformation century John Calvin -rightly referred Pss. 44 and 74 to the Maccabĉan times, and admitted -the same possibility for Ps. 79. All these are from the Korahite and -Asaphite collections included in the elohistic hymn book, which itself -is not the youngest of the sources of our Psalter. - -Numerous other psalms are, with greater or less probability, assigned -to the same age; thus, Ps. 149, where the saints, with the high -praises of God in their mouths and a two-edged sword in their hands, -execute judgment on the heathen, is singularly apt to the Maccabĉan -victories. Psalm 110 ("Davidic") most naturally is understood as one -of the Asmonĉan princes, since in them alone priesthood and royalty -were united. - -There are, however, other and more conclusive criteria than references -to historical events or persons. The religious situation in the Jewish -community reflected in very many of the psalms is that of the Persian -and Greek period, not that of the days of the kingdom. The strife of -parties or of classes, on one side the righteous, the pious, the poor, -for whom the psalmists speak, on the other, the wicked, the ungodly, -the rich and the great; here those whose delight is in the law of God -(religion), there those who contemn it and pursue evil ways regardless -of its precepts and prohibitions, is a new condition, not in the -behaviour of the wicked, but in the self-consciousness of the pious, -who feel themselves a distinct class and are evidently crystallizing -into a party or a sect. - -The religious conceptions and the conception of religion are drawn -chiefly from Jeremiah and the Deuteronomists, and from Isaiah 40 ff., -but on the subjective side of religion, piety, the best of the psalms -represent a more advanced stage than the prophets of the seventh and -sixth centuries. The hopes of the future of God's people and of the -world run with the prophets of the Persian period and the contemporary -anonymous and editorial additions to the older prophetic books. That -the long rehearsals of the ancient history like Pss. 78, 105, 106, or -eulogies of the law such as Ps. 119, or litanies of the fashion of -Ps. 136, belong to a stage in the history of the liturgy such as -rouses the enthusiasm of the Chronicler is also apparent. The evidence -of language tends the same way. Fine hymns were written even at a late -time; but on a large part of the psalms the decadence has set its -mark. - -Such is the impression the Psalter makes as a whole, and it indicates -that not only is the existing collection late, but that most of the -hymns in it were comparatively modern when they were brought together. -This is what would be expected in a hymn book, which for devotional -even more than for liturgical use, needs to express and nurture the -type of piety prevalent in its own time and circle. Protestant hymn -books fifty years ago, outside the Anglican communion, had hardly any -hymns in them more than a couple of hundred years old, except -versified translations of the psalms, modernized and Christianized in -the operation. - -It would be going much beyond the evidence to say there were no psalms -in the Psalter that were composed in the days of the kingdom; there -may be a considerable number. But the proof that any particular psalm -came from that period is difficult and seldom very convincing. This is -true even of the psalms which speak of the king; for, aside from the -impossibility of deciding in some instances whether a reigning king is -meant or the king of the good time coming (Messiah), a foreign king -may sometimes be in mind (Ps. 45 is so interpreted by many), or an -Asmonĉan king. - - -LAMENTATIONS.--The fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. is the subject of -five poems of considerable length which together make the Book of -Lamentations. The mistaken opinion that the prophet Jeremiah was the -author caused this book to be put immediately after Jeremiah in the -Christian Bible, with an introduction explicitly attributing the -poems, or the first of them, to the prophet. In the Hebrew Bible the -book stands among the miscellaneous Scriptures. The first four poems -are in the Hebrew elegiac metre, the verse used for dirges, the -characteristic of which is that each line is divided by a cĉsura into -unequal parts, oftenest in the ratio of three to two, as in Amos v. 1. - - Fállen no móre to ríse | is Ísrael's dáughter! - Próstrate to éarth she líes, | nó one to líft her. - -In Lamentations 1-4 this is combined with an alphabetic acrostic. In -cc. 1 and 2 the poem consists of twenty-two tiercets, the first line -of each beginning with a letter of the alphabet in order; c. 4, of as -many couplets; while in c. 3 each line of the tiercet begins with the -proper letter. Chapter 5 is neither alphabetic nor in elegiac metre. -The alphabetic artifice is not uncommon with Hebrew poets, the most -elaborate example being Ps. 119, where in stanzas of seven verses -each line of the stanza begins with A, B, G, D, and so on. - -The five Lamentations differ considerably in character and poetic -merit. Chapters 2 and 4 are distinctly superior to the rest, and -describe the agony of Jerusalem in vivid and moving images; peculiarly -direct and poignant is c. 5; while c. 3 has more the character of a -psalm. - -The poems are not all by the same author. Those which seem to stand -nearest to the catastrophe (cc. 2 and 4 at least) were probably -written no very long time after it; the others perhaps in the -following generation. There is nothing in them that would lead us to -think of Jeremiah as the author. Perhaps the statement of the -Chronicler that Jeremiah made a dirge for King Josiah which was -written among the Lamentations, and recited in later times by the -professional singers of dirges, may imply that he ascribed one of the -poems to the prophet. At any rate, it became "tradition," and has -chiefly contributed to get Jeremiah the injurious reputation of the -weeping prophet. - - - - -CHAPTER XXII - -PROVERBS - - -The Book of Proverbs bears the title "The Proverbs of Solomon son of -David, King of Israel." Other titles scattered through the book prove -that it is made up of several collections of proverbs which once -circulated independently. Thus Prov. 10 begins, "The Proverbs of -Solomon"; xxii. 17-21 is an introduction inviting the reader to give -attention to "Sayings of Sages," and dwelling on the profit of so -doing; xxiv. 23, "These also are by the Sages"; xxv. 1, "These also -are Proverbs of Solomon which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah -edited"; xxx. 1, "The Sayings of Agur son of Jakeh"; xxxi. 1, "The -sayings of Lemuel King of Massa (?), which his mother taught him"; -finally, xxxi. 10-31 is an anonymous alphabetic poem in praise of the -good housewife. - -The inference of diverse origin drawn from these titles is confirmed -by diversity of character and form, and by the repetition of proverbs -in the different sections, especially in Prov. x. 1-xxii. 16 and cc. -25-29; on the other hand, the similarity of all parts of the book in -thought and expression indicates that there is among them no wide -difference in time. The theme of the book is "wisdom," by which is -meant primarily a practical wisdom in the conduct of individual life -under the social, political, and economic conditions of the time. The -end is a prosperous and happy life, and the motive is enlightened -self-interest. Experience shows that morality conduces to prosperity -and happiness, and immoral and unsocial actions to the opposite. To -inculcate this truth and to apply it is the aim of the wise, who make -this knowledge the foundation of virtue and of well-being. - -Their instruction is not given in the form of a philosophical ethic, -with a discussion of the nature of the highest good and of the -principles and motives of conduct, but in sententious maxims, or -aphorisms, sometimes grouped upon a central theme, often without any -thread of connection. Religion is affirmed by the most reflective of -these authors to be the first principle of wisdom (Prov. i. 7; ix. 10; -cf. xv. 33), but there is no appeal to a divine law or to the -conscience of the individual; the maxims are based on observation and -experience. The opposite of wisdom is folly; it is an unintelligent -selfishness which ignores the consequences of its course, and sooner -or later involves itself in loss or ruin. For ruin is the end of -persistent folly as happiness is the fruit of wisdom. This is the -order of the world; God's ordering, no doubt, but working itself out -by natural law. Wise men and fools are two permanent classes of men, -divided by as hard a line as in the Stoic ethics is drawn between the -virtuous man and the rest of mankind. The authors know no degrees of -wisdom; they recognize different kinds of folly, but no difference in -fools. - -The pictures of society they draw are chiefly of city life, with its -temptations and vices, and they closely resemble those which Jesus the -son of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) paints about 200 B.C. Monotheism is -taken for granted; among the many follies the sages condemn, the folly -of polytheism and idolatry does not appear. The national particularism -of the Jewish religion is nowhere in evidence; the cultus is hardly -referred to, except to say that the sacrifice of the wicked is an -abomination, or that justice is more acceptable to the Lord than -sacrifice. - -These features are doubtless due in part to the distinctive tendencies -of the moralists, but they also reflect the times. We find them in -Job, in Sirach, and in Ecclesiastes, other products of Jewish "Wisdom" -which date from the later Persian or Greek period; and we have every -reason to believe that this peculiar development, of which we have no -trace earlier, was characteristic of that age. With this the evidence -of language accords. - -Of the several parts of the book, Prov. x. 1-xxii. 16 seem to be the -oldest, and may be from the Persian period; the following chapters are -later. So also is Prov. 1-9, which may well have been written under -Ptolemaic rule (say 320-200 B.C.), when the Jews enjoyed times of -peace and prosperity. The latter author treats his topics more -sustainedly, though without logical disposition or connection, in a -warm and friendly tone such as an experienced elder might use toward a -youth. The style is easy and flowing, and sometimes rises to poetic -inspiration. The personifications of wisdom and folly in c. 9 give a -good example of his manner. A more philosophical mind is recognized in -c. 8, with its personification of the divine wisdom, first of God's -creations, the skilled artificer who was by his side at the making of -the world, rejoicing in God's habitable earth and the sons of men who -people it. Here the author comes near the conceptions of the Greek -"Wisdom of Solomon," and prepares the way for the theological -hypostases of Wisdom and the divine Reason and Word (Logos). - -Even among the aphorisms of the older collections, there are few that -have the stamp of true popular proverbs, the wisdom of the generations -finding the pregnant phrase in the mouth of the people; they are, what -indeed they profess to be, maxims of the sages, fashioned with -conscious art for a didactic end. And these sages seem to have been, -like the Greek sophists, professional teachers of the youth of the -well-to-do classes. - -That the bulk of this wisdom, when compilation of it came to be made, -should have been labelled Solomonic, is explained by Solomon's fame -for wisdom, which is the subject of numerous anecdotes in the -historical books (see 1 Kings iii. 4-15, with the examples, ibid. vs. -16-28; 1 Kings x. 1-14, etc.), coupled with the explicit statement -that he "spake three thousand proverbs," not to mention his songs and -his expeditions into natural history (1 Kings iv. 29-34). In later -times Solomon's fame for wisdom was not that of an ethical philosopher -but of an adept in magic. It is almost a pity to take away from -Solomon the urgent warnings against women in which the Proverbs -abound; they have in his mouth such a mordant irony. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIII - -JOB - - -The Book of Job is the greatest work of Hebrew literature that has -come down to us, and one of the great poetical works of the world's -literature. In the form of a colloquy between Job and his friends, in -which at last God intervenes, it discusses the gravest problem of -theodicy, How can the suffering of a good man be reconciled with the -moral government of God? - -In a prose introduction the reader is apprised of the true cause of -Job's sufferings, of which the parties to the colloquy are, of course, -ignorant: they are a trial of his uprightness, more specifically, of -his disinterested virtue. In this "prologue in heaven," Satan insists -that Job's exemplary virtue is no wonder, since God rewards him so -well for it, and God, who has full faith in the patriarch, gives Satan -permission to test him. In an hour all his wealth is swept away and -his children perish, but Job bows submissive to God's will. Then he -himself is smitten with a loathsome and distressful ailment which was -regarded as in a peculiar sense the stroke of God, his wife bids him -"bless" God (a euphemism for "curse") and die; but he rebukes her: -"What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not -receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips." His three -friends come to bemoan him and to comfort him, but the sight of his -misery makes them dumb; they sit down with him in silence for seven -days. So far the prologue. - -On this scene the poem opens: Job's long suppressed grief breaks out -in bitter words; he curses the day of his birth, he envies the dead -who are at rest. The eldest of the three friends answers him, and so -the colloquy begins. The structure of the poem is symmetrical. Each -friend speaks in turn and to each Job replies. The cycle is thrice -repeated (cc. 4-14; 15-21; 22-26), but, at least in the present text, -the third round is incomplete--Zophar has no speech. The friends being -apparently convinced that it is useless to argue with him, Job -soliloquizes (cc. 27-31), contrasting his former prosperity with his -present adversity, and again protesting his good conscience before God -and men. - -Now a new disputant comes on the scene, whose name does not appear -among the dramatis personĉ, the youthful Elihu; a short prose -introduction tells us who he is, and why he intrudes. He is incensed -at them all; at Job for justifying himself at God's expense, at the -friends for not having found arguments to put him down. For his part, -he is so full of words that he cannot hold in. He delivers himself, -accordingly, of four speeches (cc. 32 f.; 34; 35; 36), to which Job -vouchsafes no reply. - -Suddenly God, whom Job had alternately challenged and implored to -appear, answers him out of the whirlwind (cc. 38-41); with Job's -confession of his presumption in speaking of things he understood not -(xlii. 1-6), the poem ends. - -In the prose epilogue God condemns the three friends, whom he pardons -at Job's prayer; and the trial over, God, in poetical justice, -restores Job to a prosperity greater than the first. - -In the argument, the three friends and Elihu maintain throughout the -view of divine retribution which was plainly the orthodoxy of the -author's time: God rewards piety and virtue with prosperity and -requites sin with adversity. This law is grounded in the righteousness -of God; it is inconceivable that he should act otherwise. -Consequently if a man is overwhelmed by calamity, as Job is, the only -explanation their religion can allow is that he is a great sinner; any -other interpretation would impugn the justice of God or bring into -question the existence of a divine providence. They recognize, indeed, -that in sending suffering God may design through chastisement or by -way of warning to bring the sinner to repentance and amendment; they -admit that suffering may be a trial of man's faith. They present the -matter to Job thus, especially in their earlier speeches; but the -character of Job's replies convinces them that neither of these is his -case, and they come at last to outspoken accusation. - -Job denies their insinuations and their charges. He has done nothing -to deserve such a fate; if they insist on calling this God's justice, -he will say straight in God's face that he is an almighty tyrant, who -unjustly destroys an innocent man. If God slay him for it, he will not -belie his conscious rectitude. - -The argument goes round and round, takes this or that turn, grows -hotter as it proceeds, but does not get beyond this deadlock. The -author's motive so far is clear: he means to controvert the dogma that -all suffering, or at least extraordinary suffering, is retributive, -and to show in the instance of Job how this doctrine may drive a godly -man to the denial of God's justice altogether. With remarkable -psychological insight, however, he makes Job not only cling to the -belief that God is more just than his dealings with him show, but -makes this faith grow in even steps with his passionate charges of -injustice. He appeals from the injustice of God to the just God who -some day will have to justify him. - -The author meant to refute the doctrine that God's providence is -exhaustively explained by distributive justice. Had he his own -solution of the problem of theodicy to put in the place of that cruel -dogma? Job, we have seen, finds no solution. In the speeches of -Jehovah, where dramatic fitness would lead us to look for the author's -solution if he had one, there is no refutation of Job's charges, no -response to his pleadings. The speeches are splendid, but the gist of -them is that God's ways are inscrutable. If man cannot comprehend -God's operations in nature, what folly, what presumption, to pretend -to fathom his dealings in providence! In that Job acquiesces for the -soul of man. Let his sufferings be a mystery, he can submit and trust; -call them punitive, and he revolts against the injustice. That is the -end to which the author would bring his readers. Some one has said -that there is nothing about which men are usually so sure as about the -character of God, and nothing they are so ready to do as to interpret -his dealings by his character--especially his dealings with others. -Such were Job's friends. And from this point of view we have no -difficulty in understanding, what has stumbled some critics, how -they, with their zeal for God's character--that is, for their orthodox -conception of it--come off in the epilogue with so smart a rebuke, -while Job, whose words seemed to them sheer blasphemy, is praised for -saying what was right about God. - -The theme of the Book of Job is one which exercised the greatest of -the Greek tragic poets, and it is treated with an Ĉschylean grandeur; -in conception and execution it declares the genius of its author. It -has not come into our hands altogether as it left his, and certain -parts of the poem are generally recognized as additions by other pens. - -The most considerable of these are the speeches of Elihu (cc. 32-36). -It has already been noted that Elihu's name is not in the prologue, he -comes in with a bit of a prologue of his own (xxxii. 1-5); and when -the three friends are rebuked in the epilogue, he, who surely deserved -the same condemnation, is ignored. All his speeches, provocative -enough, draw no reply from Job. When, at the end of Elihu's discourse, -God answers out of the whirlwind (xxxviii. 1 ff.), "Who is this that -darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge," it is to Job he -addresses himself, not Elihu; and the appearance of God is naturally -taken as the response to Job's challenge in xxxi. 35, "O that I had -one to hear me," etc., just before Elihu breaks in. All these signs -indicate that Elihu is an intruder. This inference is borne out by -the arguments so pretentiously announced. They are in the main -variations on the themes in the preceding speeches of the friends, -with a certain evident predilection for the idea that suffering is a -warning. It would seem that another poet thought, as he makes Elihu -boast, that he could improve on the arguments of the friends. The -unbiassed reader, without depreciating the poetical merit of the -speeches, will be likely to differ with him. - -The eulogy of the divine wisdom (Job 28) is a very fine poem, in the -vein of Prov. 8, of which it is probably not independent, but it is, -to say the least, inappropriate in the mouth of Job at this point in -the debate. The description of ancient mining is particularly -noteworthy. In the speeches of God, the long descriptions of the -hippopotamus and the crocodile (xl. 15-xli. 34) are not without reason -suspected of being purple patches, and in putting them in some damage -has been done to the margins. It has been questioned whether the prose -prologue and epilogue really belong with the poem; but it would not be -intelligible without them. - -In Ezek. xiv. 14, 20 the name of Job occurs with Noah and Daniel as -exemplary righteous men, who, if they were alive, could nevertheless -not save the wicked city of Jerusalem from its doom; but whether the -story Ezekiel knew about Job had any resemblance to the prologue of -our book, no one can tell. It may very well be that there was a prose -book of Job (in which, possibly, the friends played the opposite rôle -from that given them in the poem), and that the poet took from it the -incidents and setting that he needed; but about that also nothing can -be known. - -The age of the book is determined chiefly by the problem with which it -deals. The doctrine of individual retribution is the application to -the individual of the prophetic teaching about God's dealing with the -nation; it appears in a peculiarly crude and hard form in Ezekiel at -the moment of the break up of the nation. It was furthered by the -teaching of the sages, as in Proverbs, about the connection between -prosperity and happiness and virtue. Experience contradicted the -dogma, and so the problem of theodicy arose--arose in a peculiarly -difficult form, because all that befell a man was attributed to the -immediate act of God, who was not relieved of any part of his -responsibility by talk of second causes and natural laws, and because -the sphere of retribution was limited to this life, with no relief in -the possible compensations of another. - -This is the problem of Job, and of itself suffices to put the book in -what is called the post-exilic age. It belongs to the literature of -Jewish Wisdom, with Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. The latter book, one of -the latest certainly in the Old Testament, is much concerned with the -same conflict of dogma with experience, though in a very different -spirit. Job may be a work of the fifth century B.C., or perhaps of -the fourth. The language would incline us to the earlier date. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIV - -ECCLESIASTES. SONG OF SONGS - - -Two singular books remain, about the inspiration of both of which the -straitest sect of the Pharisees in the first century of our era had -grave difficulties, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs. Both are -attributed to Solomon, the Song by title, Ecclesiastes by implication -in the book itself, and doubtless the supposed authorship had much to -do with finally securing the two books a place in the Jewish Bible. - - -ECCLESIASTES.--The title of Ecclesiastes runs, "The words of Koheleth -the son of David, king in Jerusalem," under which pseudonym no one but -Solomon can be meant; see also Eccl. i. 12, and especially ii. 1-11. -In the body of the book, Koheleth is regularly used as a proper name; -it is apparently coined for the nonce. Like many pseudonyms in other -literatures, it is probably a mystification, piquant to the author's -contemporaries but impenetrable to us. That it means "Preacher"--an -ancient guess--is highly improbable; but even if the meaning were -transparent, there is no more reason for translating a fictitious -proper name than a real one. - -The theme of this symphony of pessimism is stridently announced in the -first notes of the overture: "Vanity of vanities, vanity of vanities! -Everything is vanity." The world and its happenings, man and his -strivings, pleasure, pain, wisdom, folly, good and evil--all is -utterly empty; existence has no meaning and no worth. All is chance -and change, in which things endlessly go round and round, but plan, -purpose, progress is nowhere to be seen. And as all have one lot, even -this senseless and inconstant fortune, so death sooner or later -overtakes all alike and ends the strange play without plot we call -human life. - -Of a divine providence directed to any end or by any principle, of a -justice above which requites men according to their deeds, long years -and happiness to the wise and good, adversity and premature death to -the wicked and foolish, Koheleth, looking on the world of things as -they are with searching eyes, discovers no sign. Of another world and -an immortal soul, with which some of his contemporaries consoled -themselves, he, keeping his thinking within the bounds of experience, -knows nothing. Man dies as the beast dies, the same vital breath is in -them both, all are of dust and turn to dust again; nor has man any -advantage over the beast, they all have the same end (iii. 19-21; ix. -4-6). There is consolation in this thought, when the misery of the -world weighs too heavy on the heart. The dead are better off than the -living, but happier still it would be never to be born to see the -evils that are under the sun (iv. 2 f.). - -When we look the facts squarely in the face, the only counsel of -wisdom is to make the most of what capricious fortune gives us in its -friendly moods, to enjoy the pleasures life offers while we can, with -abandon, but without excess. For the "too much" is always evil, even -too much wisdom and virtue! "Be not over righteous nor put on too much -wisdom, why shouldest thou die before thy time?" (vii. 16 f.). - -The author's religion makes God somehow the cause of what happens -under the sun, the evil and the good. In one place he seems to express -the belief that all that God does is fine and opportune, if man could -only understand it; but God has denied man the intelligence to -penetrate the secret of his ways. So there is nothing better for man -to do than to be merry, and have a good time while he is alive! - -It is easy to imagine what scandal all this gave to pious souls, and -it was very natural that orthodox editors should try to neutralize -Koheleth's scepticism and his epicurean counsels by notes in an -opposite sense. A modern editor would have put his protests into -footnotes, as for example to Gibbon's famous chapters on the spread of -Christianity; an ancient editor, having no footnotes, put his -incontinently into the text. - -To these editorial improvements belong the last verses (Eccl. xii. 13 -f.), with its conclusion, "Fear God and keep his commandments, for -this is the business of every man; for God will bring every deed into -the judgment on all secrets, whether it be good or bad." The judgment -after death is evidently meant. The warning against many books and -much reading in xii. 12 is also a gloss, while xii. 9-11 appears to be -written by an earlier editor of the book, commending it to reading and -study. In the body of the book, also, several verses are obviously -introduced to give an orthodox twist to the author's very heterodox -utterances. - -That Ecclesiastes belongs to the latest stratum of Hebrew Biblical -literature is evident from both its matter and its style; but there is -nothing in it by which its age can be exactly fixed. - - -SONG OF SONGS.--A verse already quoted (1 Kings iv. 32) tells that, -besides three thousand proverbs, Solomon composed a thousand and five -songs. We shall probably not err in assuming that this verse was in -the mind of the editor who prefixed the title "The Song of Songs (that -is, the very best of songs), by Solomon." There is nothing in the -book to indicate that Solomon was the author or that the poet meant -his productions to be attributed to him. - -The one theme of the book, running through many variations, is the -love of man and woman, passionate and sensuous. In the second century -of our era its songs were warbled at banquets or wedding feasts, a -profane abuse on which a scandalized rabbi denounced damnation. In the -first century it was, in spite of Solomon's name, no Holy Scripture -for the straitest sect, and was not finally admitted to the canon, we -may be pretty sure, until an allegorical sense had been discovered in -it, or rather imposed on it: it sang, under the figure of wedded love, -of the relation of the Lord to Israel. The Fathers took over all the -allegory, only making the lover Christ, the beloved the Church (as -still in the running titles of the Authorized Version), or the soul. -The mediĉval church saw in the bride the Virgin Mary. The allegorical -interpretation was a necessary corollary of the dogmatic assumption -that the canon of inspired scripture could contain nothing but books -of religious instruction and edification. Allegorical love -poetry--usually the love of God and the soul--is not uncommon in -mystical sects or circles of various creeds; and the ultra-spiritual -poets often revel in an ultra-sensual imagery of passion and fruition; -but nothing in the Song of Songs suggests such an origin, nor have we -knowledge of a Jewish mysticism of this erotic type in the centuries -from which it must come. - -The literary criticism of the last century chiefly spent itself in -endeavours to discover in the book a lyric drama with a moral -tendency, on some such theme as the triumph of pure love over lust. -Great ingenuity was expended in dividing the text into regular acts -and scenes and assigning the speeches to the leading actors and the -chorus. In its simplest form there were but two actors, the virtuous -village maiden and the harem-jaded Solomon; a more plausible scheme -gave the girl a rustic lover, which added much to the piquancy of the -scenes with Solomon, and to the _dénouement_, in which the king, -foiled by the maiden's constancy, confesses virtue triumphant, and -sends her back to her shepherd swain. More recent supporters of the -dramatic hypothesis have modified this scheme in a way to remove some -of its plainest difficulties, but have complicated it in proportion. - -Other interpreters take the book for a collection of love songs, or, -more specifically, of wedding songs, such as are sung to-day at -village weddings in Syria and Palestine. A certain dramatic quality in -the songs, and their relation to successive stages of the festivities, -would give the appearance of a progressive action which has been urged -for the dramatic theory. The Syrian peasant to-day, in the region of -Damascus, is for his bride-week in song and salutation a king or -prince; a sledge on the village threshing-floor is his throne, and the -bride is queen. Through the week the royal pair are honoured by the -villagers with songs and dances. If in the Hebrew songs the -bridegroom-king is sometimes called Solomon, it is because Solomon was -the richest and most splendid of kings. This view of the nature of the -book is simpler and more probable. The several poems are not -distinguished by titles, and there is room for difference of opinion -about the divisions; but this is a small difficulty compared with the -partition into roles in the supposed play. - -The songs are fine examples of popular poetry, with traditional -subjects, forms, and imagery. Nothing requires us to suppose that they -are the production of one poet; we may think of them rather as an -anthology of love songs, not necessarily all composed for wedding -festivities, but all appropriate for use on such occasions. - -The language of the songs proves that they belong to a very late -period in Hebrew literature, though the type is doubtless old enough. -Such popular poetry has no motive for preserving or imitating -archaism, as hymn writers do, but modernizes itself from generation to -generation. The wedding songs of old Israel may have been like enough -to these in character, but they were in another speech. - -It was a fortunate misunderstanding that has preserved them; but the -accidental preservation of these few pages emphasizes the loss of -almost every other vestige of Hebrew secular poetry. - - - - -BIBLIOGRAPHY - - -1. =General.=--SMITH, W. ROBERTSON. _The Old Testament in the Jewish -Church._ 1892.--These lectures, first published in 1881, were meant to -give to laymen an account of the problems and methods of criticism. -They are a remarkably lucid exposition of the subject, and may still -be read with profit as a general introduction to criticism. - -2. =The Canon.=--RYLE, H. E. _The Canon of the Old Testament._ 1892; -2nd ed. 1895.--A history of the growth of the Old Testament rather -than a history of the canon. In that growth there were, according to -the author, three stages; in the first, which began with the -ratification of Deuteronomy in 621 B.C., the Law (Pentateuch) was the -only recognized collection of Sacred Scripture; in the second the Law -and the Prophets; and in the third the Law, the Prophets, and the -"Writings." The latter part of the volume, which treats of the history -of the canon in the usual meaning of the term, is a convenient but not -very accurate compilation. - -The article "Canon" (of the Old Testament) in the _Encyclopaedia -Biblica_, by Karl Budde, and the article "Old Testament Canon" in -Hastings' _Dictionary of the Bible_, by F. H. Woods, are concise -presentations of generally accepted opinions by competent scholars. - -3. =Literature of the Old Testament.=--DRIVER, S. R. _Introduction to -the Literature of the Old Testament._ 6th ed., revised, 1897. A volume -of the _International Theological Library_, designed primarily for -ministers and students of theology. The technical matter (lists of -Hebrew words and the like) is, however, set off from the body of the -text, and the work can therefore be used with profit by laymen for -purposes of study. The synopses of the contents of Biblical books will -be found helpful. The author is a scholar of conservative temper and -cautious about accepting new or radical theories. - -CORNILL, CARL. _Introduction to the Canonical Books of the Old -Testament._ Translated by G. H. Box. New York. 1907.--Originally one -of a German series of theological handbooks, this volume is on a -smaller scale than Driver's and goes less into details which are of -interest only to the professional student. The author's criticism is -much less conservative than Driver's and more original. - -KENT, C. F. _The Student's Old Testament._ 1904-1910.--I. _Narratives -of the Beginnings of Hebrew History_, 1904; II. _Israel's Historical -and Biographical Narratives_, 1905; III. _The Sermons, Epistles, and -Apocalypses of Israel's Prophets_, 1910; IV. _Israel's Law and Legal -Precedents_, 1907. (Two volumes on the Poetical Books will complete -the series.) The sources of the Pentateuch and the Historical Books -are separated, and where the narratives are parallel they are printed -in parallel columns with headings indicating their origin. The -analysis is also set out in tabular form, and maps and chronological -charts are added. The oracles of the prophets are arranged, so far as -possible, in chronological order, additions and interpolations being -set in smaller type. The author is an experienced teacher and -book-maker, and has a fine talent for exposition. - -CARPENTER, J. ESTLIN, and HARFORD-BATTERSBY, G. _The Hexateuch -according to the Revised Version._ 2 vols. 1900.--The first volume -(separately reprinted, 1902) contains an excellent history of -criticism, and develops fully and very clearly the evidence for the -prevailing theory concerning the sources and composition of the -Hexateuch. Tabular appendices exhibit the linguistic evidence in a -form which makes it available, as far as possible, to the reader who -does not know Hebrew; they also give a synopsis of the laws and -institutions, and an analysis and conspectus of the several codes. The -second volume presents in the text of the Revised Version the analysis -of the Pentateuch and Joshua in an extremely ingenious typographical -scheme. - -The articles on the Books of the Old Testament, from Genesis to Judges -inclusive, in the _Encyclopaedia Biblica_, by the author of the -present volume, may be referred to for a fuller statement of the -reasons for his views and a more detailed analysis. The article -"Historical Literature" in the same Encyclopaedia gives a -comprehensive survey of the Hebrew historiography from its beginnings -down to the time of Josephus. The article on "Prophecy and Prophets" -in Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible, by A. B. Davidson, though not -dealing primarily with critical questions, may be strongly commended, -and the article on "Psalms," by W. T. Davison, in the same volume, is -good. An excellent article on "Proverbs" in the _Encyclopaedia -Biblica_ should also be mentioned. - - - - -INDEX - - - Abomination, Dan. 8, 186 - - Acrostics, 229 f. - - Alexander and successors in Dan., 185 f. - - Allegory, in Song of Songs, 247 - - Amos, Book, 196 ff. - - Annals, royal and temple, 100 - - Antiochus Epiphanes, 186, 187 f. - - Apocalypses, character of, 188 - ----age, how determined, 188 - - Apocrypha, older use of the name, 18 - ----Jerome, 17 f. - ----Luther, 21 f. - ----_See_ Canon - - Aramaic, in Ezra, 130 - ----in Daniel, 189 f. - - Asa, king, 123 - - Assyria, Greek kingdom (Syria), 155, 215 - - Astruc, analysis of Genesis, 32 - - Athanasius, 16 - - Augustine, 19 f. - - - Baal, Tyrian, 111 - - Baals and Astartes, 83, 192 - - Babylon, destruction, prophesied, 152 - ----taken by Cyrus, 153 - - Babylonian myths in Genesis, 43 f. - - Baruch, scribe of Jeremiah, 166 f., 168 - - Bible, Jewish, _see_ Old Testament - - - Calvin, on Maccabĉan Psalms, 226 - - Canaan, conquest, in Jos., 77 f., 88 f. - - Canon, Jewish, formation of, 11 - ----of Greek-speaking Jews, 13 - ----Jewish, in Church Fathers, 14 ff. - ----of Greek Church, 13 ff. - ----Latin Church, 17 ff. - ----Syrian churches, 20 - ----in the Middle Ages, 20 - ----the Reformation, 21 - ----Reformed churches, 22 - ----Council of Trent, 23 - ----_See_ also Apocrypha - - Chaldĉans, in Hab., 205 - ----in Dan., 189 - - Cherubim car, 178 - - Chron.--Ezra--Neh., one book 118 - - Chronicles, Book, 118 ff. - ----sources, 124 f. - ----genealogies, 119 - ----historical value, 124 - - Chronology in Judg., 82 - ----in Kings, 101 - - Commandments, Ten, 49 f. - - Criticism, historical, 25 f. - ----of Pentateuch, 31 ff. - - Cyrus, edict of, 128 - ----deliverer, messiah, 160 - - - Daniel, Book, 180 ff. - ----two languages in, 189 - ----Nebuchadnezzar's dream, 183 f. - ----the four beasts, _c. 7_, 184 f. - ----ram and he-goat, _c. 8_, 185 - ----Seleucids and Ptolemies, _c. 11_, 187 f. - ----age of the book, 188 - - Darius Hystaspis, 209 f. - - David, history, 96 f., 109 - ----Psalms of, 223 - - Day of the Lord, in Zeph., 207 - ----in Joel, 195 - ----in Mal., 217 f. - - Deborah, Song of, 89 - - Decalogue, 49 f. - - Deluge, Babylonian myth, 43 f. - - Deuterocanonic Books, 24 - - D (Deuteronomy, Deuteronomist), 35, 84 - - Deuteronomists, historians, 84 - ----_See_ also Jos., Judg., Kings - - Deuteronomy, 58 ff. - ----programme of a reform, 62 - ----age of the book, 64 f. - - Dragon of the sea, 156 - - - E (Elohist), 35 - ----characteristics, 39 ff. - ----origin, 41 - ----age, 67 f. - ----Horeb constitution in, 50 - ----in Jos. _1-12_, 75 ff. - ----in Judg., 86 - - Ecclesiastes, Book, 243 ff. - - Ecclesiastes, interpolations, 246 f. - ----age, 246 - ----inspiration, 8 ff., 245 - - Ecclesiastical Books, 17, 24 - - Ecclesiasticus, in the Church, 15 f. - - Eden, Garden in, 43 - - Eden, Prince of Tyre in, 177 - - Edom, prophecies against, 158 f., 177, 197, 199 - ----Obad., 200 - - Egypt, Ezekiel's prophecy, 177 - - Eli, a judge, 90 - - Elihu, in Job, 240 f. - - Elijah, 110 f., 145 - - Elisha, 112 f. - - Esther, Book, 135 ff. - ----mythical interpretation, 137 - ----age, 138, 139 f. - ----inspiration, 8, 138 - ----additions in Greek, 138 - - Exile, theory of the return, 122 - - Exodus, Book, 47 f. - - Ezekiel, Book, 174 ff. - ----against foreign nations (_cc. 25-32_), 176 f. - ----state of the text, 180 - - Ezra, 129 ff. - ----Priests' Code, 56 f. - ----two languages in, 130 - - Ezra and Neh., sequel of Chron., 118 - ----contents, 128 ff. - ----sources, 131 f. - ----historical value, 133 - ----derangement, 132 (_cf._ 128-131) - - - Fast, the true, 212 - - Feasts, agricultural, 69 - - Fool, in Proverbs, 232 f. - - Foreign nations, oracles against, 142, 152 ff., 158 f., 171 f., - 176 ff., 195, 197, 200, 204 f., 206, 214 f. - - - Genesis, Book, 33 ff. - - Gerizim, temple on, 121 - - God, national idea, 146 - ----moral idea, 145 - ----in J, 37 f. - ----in E, 39 f. - ----in P, 47 - ----in Amos, 198 f. - ----in Hosea, 193, 199 - ----in Deuteronomy, 59 f. - ----in Isaiah _40-66_, 161 - - Gog and his hordes, 178, 200 - ----echo in Zech., 214 - - Golden age, prophecies of, 151, 157, 158, 169 ff., 176, 179, - 193, 198 f., 213 f. - - Golden calves, 104 - - Gospels, inspiration of, 10 - - Greek versions of O. T., 11 - - Greeks, kingdom doomed, 215 - - - Habakkuk, Book, 205 ff. - - Hadrach, 215 - - Haggai, Book, 209 - - Heavenly bodies, judgment on, 156 - - Hezekiah, king, 114 f. - - High places, 65 f., 95, 103, 117 - ----untouched by good kings, 107 - ----Hezekiah's measures, 114 f. - ----Josiah, 61 f., 116 - - Historical literature, 98 ff. - ----oldest, 99 _cf._ 96 f. - - History, religious lessons, 104 - - Holiness, Law of, Lev. _17-26_, 54 f. - - Horeb, Mount of God, 48 - - Hosea, Book, 190 ff. - - - Idolatry, satire on, 161 - - Idols, _see_ Golden Calves, Serpent - - Immortality, denied in Eccles., 244 - - Inspiration, cessation of, 10 - ----of Eccles. and Cant., 8 ff. - ---of Gospels, 10 - - Isaiah, prophet, 115, 147 - ----genius of, 150 - ----earlier utterances, 150 - ----rejection of sacrifice, 151 - - Isaiah, Book, 147 ff. - ----main divisions, 147 f. - ----_cc. 1-12_, 149 f. - ----_cc. 13-23_, 152 ff. - ----_cc. 24-27_, 156 f. - ----_cc. 28-33_, 157 f. - ----_cc. 34-35_, 158 f. - ----_cc. 36-39_, 147 - ----_cc. 40-66_, 159 ff. - - - J and E, characteristics of, 35 ff. - ----in Gen., common tradition, 40 f. - ----diversity of tradition, 70 - ----combined in one book (J E), 71 - ----in Jos., 78 - ----in Judg., 85 - - J (Jahvist), 35 - - J, literary quality, 36 - ----in Gen. _1-11_, two strands, 41 f. - ----anthropomorphism, 37 f., 42 - ----religious element, 37 ff. - ----origin, 41 - ----age, 67 f. - ----fundamental law in, 50 f. - ----in Jos., 74 ff. - ----in Judg., 86 - ----in Sam., 99 - - Jehoash, king of Israel, 113 - - Jehoiakim, king, 165 - - Jehu, king, 112, 118 - - Jeremiah, prophet, 164 - ----his hard lot, 171 f. - ----"confessions," 172 - ----not author of Lam., 230 - - Jeremiah, Book, 164 ff. - ----later additions, 168 f., 171, 173 - ----Hebrew and Greek texts, 172 f. - - Jericho, taking of, 75 f. - - Jeroboam I., 104, 108 - - Jeroboam II., 114 - - Jerome, 17, 18 - - Jerusalem, two sieges, 117 f., 174 - ----in Chron., 121 - - Joash, king of Judah, 113 - - Job, mention of in Ezek., 241 - - Job, Book, 235 ff. - ----prologue and epilogue, 241 - ----structure of the poem, 236 f. - ----purpose of author, 239 f. - ----age, 242 f. - ----later additions, 240 ff. - - Joel, Book, 194 ff. - - Jonah, Book, 140 ff. - - Joshua, Book, 73 ff. - - Josiah, king, 116 - ----his reforms, 62 - ----reaction, 103 f. - - Judas Maccabĉus, 187 - - Judges, Book, 81 ff. - ----stories of deliverance, 84 ff. - ----interpretation of history, 81, 83 - ----original close of the Book, 91 - - Judgment, last, in Isa. _24-27_, 156 f. - - Julius Africanus, 15 - - - Kadesh, 70 - - Kingdom, founding, two accounts, 92 - ----division of, 108 - - Kings, Books, 100 ff. - ----2 Kings _18-20_ = Isa. _36-39_, 114 - - Koheleth, the name, 243 - - - Lamentations, Book, 229 ff. - - Latin Bible, 17 - - Laws, given at Sinai, 49 - ----Ezra's, ratification of, 130 - - Legends, rise of, 98 - - Leviathan, 156 - - Levites, choice of, in Num., 55 f. - ----in Chron., 123 - - Leviticus, Book, 52 ff. - - Little Horn, Dan. 8, 185 - - Love, principle of religion in Hos., 192 f. - - - Malachi, Book, 215 f. - - Manasseh, king, his sins, 104 - - Medes, 152 - - Merodach Baladan, 116, 153 - - Messianic prophecy, _see_ Golden Age - - Micah, Book, 201 ff. - - Micaiah ben Imlah, 112, 145 - - Midrash, of Kings, 124, 127 - - Minor Prophets, 190 ff. - - Mixed marriages, 129, 130, 217 - - Myths, Babylonian, in Gen., 177 f. - - Moloch, 104 - - Monotheism, in Deut., 59 - ----in Isa. _40-66_, 161 - - - Naboth's vineyard, 111 - - Nahum, Book, 204 f. - - Nehemiah, mission to Jerusalem, 129 f. - ----Memoirs, 129, 131, 183 - ----Book, 118, 128 ff. - - New Year, 48 - - Nineveh, prophecy against, Zeph., 208 - ----Nah., 204 f. - - Numbers, Book, 55 ff. - - - Obadiah, Book, 200 - - Old Testament, the name, 7 - ----Jewish, divisions, 8 - ----order of books, 8 - ----sacred scriptures, 25 - ----a national literature, 26 ff. - ----literary quality, 28 f. - - Omri, king, 109 f. - - Origen, 16 - - - P (Priestly authors), 35 f. - ----Origins of Religious Institutions, 44 f. - ----in Gen., contents, 45 ff. - ----diction and style, 46 - ----conception of God, 47 - ----the revelation at Sinai, 51 - ----age of the laws in, 66 f. - ----age and origin of P, 56 f., 65 f. - ----united with J E D, 72 - ----in Jos., 78 - - Passover, 48 - - Patriarchs, in J and E, 35 ff. - - Pentateuch, 29 ff. - ----the law of Moses, 31 - ----names of the books, 29 - ----contents, 29-31 - ----beginnings of criticism, 32 ff. - ----main sources, 33 ff. - ----method of the author, 72 f. - ----composition, 65 ff. - ----age of, as a whole, 72 f. - ----_See_ under the several Books, also, J, E, D, P. - - Peoples of the land, 122 - - Porphyry, 187 - - Priesthood, in Chron., 121, 122 f. - - Priests' Code, 56 f., 130, 134 - - Priests and levites, cities, in Jos., 78 - - Priests, invective in Mal., 216 - - Primeval History, sources, 41 - ----ultimate sources, 42 f. - - Prophets, Former and Latter, 8 - ----in old Israel, 144 f. - ----societies, or orders of, 145 f. - ----popular, 202 f. - ----bad repute of, 196, 214 - ----ninth century, 110 ff. - ----eighth century, 146 f., 190, 199 - - Proverbs, Book, 231 ff. - - Providence, scepticism in Eccles., 243, 244 - - Psalms, Book, 218 ff. - ----older hymn books, 220 - ----liturgical and devotional use, 218 f. - ----titles, 219 - ----Elohistic book (Ps. _42-82_), 220, 224 - ----Davidic, 223, 224, 225, 226 - ----Asaphite and Korahite, 221, 224 - ----Songs of Ascents, Hallels, 222 - ----Maccabĉan, 226 f. - ----age of the Book, 223 ff. - ----religious conceptions, 227 f. - - Purim, 139 - - - Religion, idea of, in Hos., 191 f. - ----in Deut. 59 - ----in Mic., 203 - ----in Isa. _40-66_, 161 f. - ----in Proverbs, 232 - ----true, among the heathen, 216 - - Restoration, in Ezek., 179 - ----in Isa., 148 ff. - ----_See_ Golden Age - - Retribution, orthodoxy of Job's friends, 237 - - Ruth, Book, 139 ff. - - - Sacrifice, patriarchal, 51 f. - ----ritual laws, in Lev. _1-7_, 52 - ----prophetic rejection, 151 f., 198 - - Samaria, Omri's new capital, 110 - ----fall of, 114 - - Samaritan sect, in Jewish eyes, 122 - - Samuel, last of the judges, 90 f. - - Samuel, Books, 91 ff. - - Sanballat, 130 - - "Scriptures," class of sacred books, 8 - ----disputed, 9 - - Scythians, 170 f., 207 - - Seers, 144 - - Sennacherib, siege of Jerusalem, 115 - - Septuagint, _see_ Greek Version - - Serpent, idol, in temple, 114 f. - - Servant of Jehovah, in Isa., _40_ ff., 164 - - Sheol, imagery, 152, 156, 177 f. - - Shishak, invasion by, 109 - - Siloam tunnel, 116 - - Sinai, 48 - - Sirach, Book, _see_ Ecclesiasticus - - Scepticism, 217 - - Solomon, 97 - ----character of his reign, 100 - ----his wealth and wisdom, 105 - ----reputation for wisdom, 234 - ----Proverbs ascribed to, 234 f. - ----Eccles. ascribed to, 243 - ----Psalms ascribed to, 223 f. - - Song of Deborah, 89 - - Song of Songs, 246 ff. - ----allegorized, 247 - ----age, 249 - ----inspiration, 8, 247 - - Story books, Jewish, 134 ff. - - Suffering of the good, in Job, 237 ff. - - Susanna and the Elders, 15, 189. - - Symbolical actions in Ezek., 178 - - Syria ("Assyria"), 155, 215 - - Syriac Bible, contents of O. T., 20 - - Syrian wars, 110 - - - Tabernacle, in P, 51 - - Temple, dedication of, 106 - ----abode of Jehovah, 103 - ----no protection to the city, 166 - ----rebuilding of, 209 - - Theodicy, in Job, 237 ff., 242 - - Tyre, prophecy against, Ezek., 176 - - - Uncanonical books, Hebrew and Greek, 12 - ----_See_ also Apocrypha - - - Valley of dry bones, 179 - - Visions, in prophets, 149, 178, 183 ff., 197, 211 - - - Wedding songs, 248 - - Wisdom, in Proverbs, 232 - ----personified, 233 - ----divine, in Job _28_, 241 f. - - Worship, prophetic attitude, 151 f. - ----_See_ Sacrifice - - - Zechariah, Book, 211 ff. - - Zech., _9-11, 12-14_, age, 214, 215 - - Zedekiah, king, 175 f. - - Zephaniah, Book, 207 ff. - - Zerubbabel, Messianic hopes, 210 f. - - -THE LONDON AND NORWICH PRESS, LIMITED, LONDON AND NORWICH - - - - - The - Home University - Library - of Modern - Knowledge - - - _A Comprehensive Series of New - and Specially Written Books_ - - - EDITORS: - - PROF. GILBERT MURRAY, D.Litt., LL.D., F.B.A. - HERBERT FISHER, LL.D., F.B.A. - PROF. J. ARTHUR THOMSON, M.A. - PROF. WM. T. BREWSTER, M.A. - - 1/-net - in cloth - - 256 Pages - - 2/6 net - in leather - - - - -_History and Geography_ - - _3. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION_ - - By HILAIRE BELLOC, M.A. (With Maps.) "It is coloured with - all the militancy of the author's temperament."--_Daily - News._ - - _4. HISTORY OF WAR AND PEACE_ - - By G. H. PERRIS. The Rt. Hon. JAMES BRYCE writes: "I have - read it with much interest and pleasure, admiring the skill - with which you have managed to compress so many facts and - views into so small a volume." - - _8. POLAR EXPLORATION_ - - By Dr W. S. BRUCE, F.R.S.E., Leader of the "Scotia" - Expedition. (With Maps.) "A very freshly written and - interesting narrative."--_The Times._ - - _12. THE OPENING-UP OF AFRICA_ - - By Sir H. H. JOHNSTON, G.C.M.G., F.Z.S. (With Maps.) "The - Home University Library is much enriched by this excellent - work."--_Daily Mail._ - - _13. MEDIĈVAL EUROPE_ - - By H. W. C. DAVIS, M.A. (With Maps.) "One more illustration - of the fact that it takes a complete master of the subject - to write briefly upon it."--_Manchester Guardian._ - - _14. THE PAPACY & MODERN TIMES (1303-1870)_ - - By WILLIAM BARRY, D.D. "Dr Barry has a wide range of - knowledge and an artist's power of selection."--_Manchester - Guardian._ - - _23. HISTORY OF OUR TIME (1885-1911)_ - - By G. P. GOOCH, M.A. "Mr Gooch contrives to breathe vitality - into his story, and to give us the flesh as well as the - bones of recent happenings."--_Observer._ - - _25. THE CIVILISATION OF CHINA_ - - By H. A. GILES, LL.D., Professor of Chinese at Cambridge. - "In all the mass of facts, Professor Giles never becomes - dull. He is always ready with a ghost story or a street - adventure for the reader's recreation."--_Spectator._ - - _29. THE DAWN OF HISTORY_ - - By J. L. MYRES, M.A., F.S.A., Wykeham Professor of Ancient - History, Oxford. "There is not a page in it that is not - suggestive."--_Manchester Guardian._ - - _33. THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND_ - - _A Study in Political Evolution_ - - By Prof. A. F. POLLARD, M.A. With a Chronological Table. "It - takes its place at once among the authoritative works on - English history."--_Observer._ - - _34. CANADA_ - - By A. G. BRADLEY. "The volume makes an immediate appeal to - the man who wants to know something vivid and true about - Canada."--_Canadian Gazette._ - - _37. PEOPLES & PROBLEMS OF INDIA_ - - By Sir T. W. HOLDERNESS, K.C.S.I., Permanent Under-Secretary - of State of the India Office. "Just the book which newspaper - readers require to-day, and a marvel of - comprehensiveness."--_Pall Mall Gazette._ - - _42. ROME_ - - By W. WARDE FOWLER, M.A. "A masterly sketch of Roman - character and of what it did for the world."--_The - Spectator._ - - _48. THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR_ - - By F. L. PAXSON, Professor of American History, Wisconsin - University. (With Maps.) "A stirring study."--_The - Guardian._ - - _51. WARFARE IN BRITAIN_ - - By HILAIRE BELLOC, M.A. "Rich in suggestion for the - historical student."--_Edinburgh Evening News._ - - _55. MASTER MARINERS_ - - By J. R. SPEARS. "A continuous story of shipping progress - and adventure.... It reads like a romance."--_Glasgow - Herald._ - - _61. NAPOLEON_ - - By HERBERT FISHER, LL.D., F.B.A., Vice-Chancellor of - Sheffield University. (With Maps.) The story of the great - Bonaparte's youth, his career, and his downfall, with some - sayings of Napoleon, a genealogy, and a bibliography. - - _66. THE NAVY AND SEA POWER_ - - By DAVID HANNAY. The author traces the growth of naval power - from early times, and discusses its principles and effects - upon the history of the Western world. - - _71. GERMANY OF TO-DAY_ - - By CHARLES TOWER. "It would be difficult to name any better - summary."--_Daily News._ - - _82. PREHISTORIC BRITAIN_ - - By ROBERT MUNRO, M.A., M.D., LL.D., F.R.S.E. (Illustrated.) - - - - -_Literature and Art_ - - _2. SHAKESPEARE_ - - By JOHN MASEFIELD. "The book is a joy. We have had - half-a-dozen more learned books on Shakespeare in the last - few years, but not one so wise."--_Manchester Guardian._ - - _27. ENGLISH LITERATURE: MODERN_ - - By G. H. MAIR, M.A. "Altogether a fresh and individual - book."--_Observer._ - - _35. LANDMARKS IN FRENCH LITERATURE_ - - By G. L. STRACHEY. "It is difficult to imagine how a better - account of French Literature could be given in 250 small - pages."--_The Times._ - - _39. ARCHITECTURE_ - - By Prof. W. R. LETHABY. (Over forty Illustrations.) "Popular - guide-books to architecture are, as a rule, not worth much. - This volume is a welcome exception."--_Building News._ - "Delightfully bright reading."--_Christian World._ - - _43. ENGLISH LITERATURE: MEDIĈVAL_ - - By Prof. W. P. KER, M.A. "Prof. Ker, one of the soundest - scholars in English we have, is the very man to put an - outline of English Mediĉval Literature before the - uninstructed public. His knowledge and taste are - unimpeachable, and his style is effective, simple, yet never - dry."--_The Athenĉum._ - - _45. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE_ - - By L. PEARSALL SMITH, M.A. "A wholly fascinating study of - the different streams that went to the making of the great - river of the English speech."--_Daily News._ - - _52. GREAT WRITERS OF AMERICA_ - - By Prof. J. ERSKINE and Prof. W. P. TRENT. "An admirable - summary, from Franklin to Mark Twain, enlivened by a dry - humour."--_Athenĉum._ - - _63. PAINTERS AND PAINTING_ - - By Sir FREDERICK WEDMORE. (With 16 half-tone illustrations.) - From the Primitives to the Impressionists. - - _64. DR JOHNSON AND HIS CIRCLE_ - - By JOHN BAILEY, M.A. "A most delightful essay."--_Christian - World._ - - _65. THE LITERATURE OF GERMANY_ - - By Professor J. G. ROBERTSON, M.A., Ph.D. "Under the - author's skilful treatment the subject shows life and - continuity."--_Athenĉum._ - - _70. THE VICTORIAN AGE IN LITERATURE_ - - By G. K. CHESTERTON. "The book is everywhere immensely - alive, and no one will put it down without a sense of having - taken a tonic or received a series of electric - shocks."--_The Times._ - - _73. THE WRITING OF ENGLISH_ - - By W. T. BREWSTER, A.M., Professor of English in Columbia - University. "Sensible in its teaching, and not over-rigidly - conventional in its manner."--_Manchester Guardian._ - - _75. ANCIENT ART AND RITUAL_ - - By JANE E. HARRISON, LL.D., D.Litt. "Charming in style and - learned in manner."--_Daily News._ - - _76. EURIPIDES AND HIS AGE_ - - By GILBERT MURRAY, D.Litt., LL.D., F.B.A., Regius Professor - of Greek at Oxford. "A beautiful piece of work.... Just in - the fulness of time, and exactly in the right place.... - Euripides has come into his own."--_The Nation._ - - - - -_Science_ - - _7. MODERN GEOGRAPHY_ - - By Dr MARION NEWBIGIN. (Illustrated.) "Geography, again: - what a dull, tedious study that was wont to be!... But Miss - Marion Newbigin invests its dry bones with the flesh and - blood of romantic interest."--_Daily Telegraph._ - - _9. THE EVOLUTION OF PLANTS_ - - By Dr D. H. SCOTT, M.A., F.R.S., late Hon. Keeper of the - Jodrell Laboratory, Kew. (Fully illustrated.) "The - information is as trustworthy as first-hand knowledge can - make it.... Dr Scott's candid and familiar style makes the - difficult subject both fascinating and easy."--_Gardeners' - Chronicle._ - - _17. HEALTH AND DISEASE_ - - By W. LESLIE MACKENZIE, M.D., Local Government Board, - Edinburgh. "Dr Mackenzie adds to a thorough grasp of the - problems an illuminating style, and an arresting manner of - treating a subject often dull and sometimes - unsavoury."--_Economist._ - - _18. INTRODUCTION TO MATHEMATICS_ - - By A. N. WHITEHEAD, Sc.D., F.R.S. (With Diagrams.) "Mr - Whitehead has discharged with conspicuous success the task - he is so exceptionally qualified to undertake. For he is one - of our great authorities upon the foundations of the - science."--_Westminster Gazette._ - - _19. THE ANIMAL WORLD_ - - By Professor F. W. GAMBLE, D.Sc., F.R.S. With Introduction - by Sir Oliver Lodge. (Many Illustrations.) "A delightful and - instructive epitome of animal (and vegetable) life.... A - fascinating and suggestive survey."--_Morning Post._ - - _20. EVOLUTION_ - - By Professor J. ARTHUR THOMSON and Professor PATRICK GEDDES. - "A many-coloured and romantic panorama, opening up, like no - other book we know, a rational vision of - world-development."--_Belfast News-Letter._ - - _22. CRIME AND INSANITY_ - - By Dr C. A. MERCIER. "Furnishes much valuable information - from one occupying the highest position among medico-legal - psychologists."--_Asylum News._ - - _28. PSYCHICAL RESEARCH_ - - By Sir W. F. BARRETT, F.R.S., Professor of Physics, Royal - College of Science, Dublin, 1873-1910. "What he has to say - on thought-reading, hypnotism, telepathy, crystal-vision, - spiritualism, divinings, and so on, will be read with - avidity."--_Dundee Courier._ - - _31. ASTRONOMY_ - - By A. R. HINKS, M.A., Chief Assistant, Cambridge - Observatory. "Original in thought, eclectic in substance, - and critical in treatment.... No better little book is - available."--_School World._ - - _32. INTRODUCTION TO SCIENCE_ - - By J. ARTHUR THOMSON, M.A., Regius Professor of Natural - History, Aberdeen University. "Professor Thomson's - delightful literary style is well known; and here he - discourses freshly and easily on the methods of science and - its relations with philosophy, art, religion, and practical - life."--_Aberdeen Journal._ - - _36. CLIMATE AND WEATHER_ - - By Prof. H. N. DICKSON, D.Sc.Oxon., M.A., F.R.S.E., - President of the Royal Meteorological Society. (With - Diagrams.) "The author has succeeded in presenting in a very - lucid and agreeable manner the causes of the movements of - the atmosphere and of the more stable winds."--_Manchester - Guardian._ - - _41. ANTHROPOLOGY_ - - By R. R. MARETT, M.A., Reader in Social Anthropology in - Oxford University. "An absolutely perfect handbook, so clear - that a child could understand it, so fascinating and human - that it beats fiction 'to a frazzle.'"--_Morning Leader._ - - _44. THE PRINCIPLES OF PHYSIOLOGY_ - - By Prof. J. G. MCKENDRICK, M.D. "It is a delightful and - wonderfully comprehensive handling of a subject which, while - of importance to all, does not readily lend itself to - untechnical explanation.... Upon every page of it is stamped - the impress of a creative imagination."--_Glasgow Herald._ - - _46. MATTER AND ENERGY_ - - By F. SODDY, M.A., F.R.S. "Prof. Soddy has successfully - accomplished the very difficult task of making physics of - absorbing interest on popular lines."--_Nature._ - - _49. PSYCHOLOGY, THE STUDY OF BEHAVIOUR_ - - By Prof. W. MCDOUGALL, F.R.S., M.B. "A happy example of the - non-technical handling of an unwieldy science, suggesting - rather than dogmatising. It should whet appetites for deeper - study."--_Christian World._ - - _53. THE MAKING OF THE EARTH_ - - By Prof. J. W. GREGORY, F.R.S. (With 38 Maps and Figures.) - "A fascinating little volume.... Among the many good things - contained in the series this takes a high place."--_The - Athenĉum._ - - _57. THE HUMAN BODY_ - - By A. KEITH, M.D., LL.D., Conservator of Museum and - Hunterian Professor, Royal College of Surgeons. - (Illustrated.) "It literally makes the 'dry bones' to live. - It will certainly take a high place among the classics of - popular science."--_Manchester Guardian._ - - _58. ELECTRICITY_ - - By GISBERT KAPP, D.Eng., Professor of Electrical Engineering - in the University of Birmingham. (Illustrated.) "It will be - appreciated greatly by learners and by the great number of - amateurs who are interested in what is one of the most - fascinating of scientific studies."--_Glasgow Herald._ - - _62. THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF LIFE_ - - By Dr BENJAMIN MOORE, Professor of Bio-Chemistry, University - College, Liverpool. "Stimulating, learned, - lucid."--_Liverpool Courier._ - - _67. CHEMISTRY_ - - By RAPHAEL MELDOLA, F.R.S., Professor of Chemistry in - Finsbury Technical College, London. Presents clearly, - without the detail demanded by the expert, the way in which - chemical science has developed, and the stage it has - reached. - - _72. PLANT LIFE_ - - By Prof. J. B. FARMER, D.Sc., F.R.S. (Illustrated.) - "Professor Farmer has contrived to convey all the most vital - facts of plant physiology, and also to present a good many - of the chief problems which confront investigators to-day in - the realms of morphology and of heredity."--_Morning Post._ - - _78. THE OCEAN_ - - A General Account of the Science of the Sea. By Sir JOHN - MURRAY, K.C.B., F.R.S. (Illus.) "A life's experience is - crowded into this volume. A very useful feature is the ten - pages of illustrations and coloured maps at the - end."--_Gloucester Journal._ - - _79. NERVES_ - - By Prof. D. FRASER HARRIS, M.D., D.Sc. (Illustrated.) A - description, in non-technical language, of the nervous - system, its intricate mechanism and the strange phenomena of - energy and fatigue, with some practical reflections. - - - - - _Philosophy and Religion_ - - _15. MOHAMMEDANISM_ - - By Prof. D. S. MARGOLIOUTH, M.A., D.Litt. "This generous - shilling's worth of wisdom.... A delicate, humorous, and - most responsible tractate by an illuminative - professor."--_Daily Mail._ - - _40. THE PROBLEMS OF PHILOSOPHY_ - - By the Hon. BERTRAND RUSSELL, F.R.S. "A book that the 'man - in the street' will recognise at once to be a boon.... - Consistently lucid and non-technical - throughout."--_Christian World._ - - _47. BUDDHISM_ - - By Mrs RHYS DAVIDS, M.A. "The author presents very - attractively as well as very learnedly the philosophy of - Buddhism as the greatest scholars of the day interpret - it."--_Daily News._ - - _50. NONCONFORMITY: Its ORIGIN and PROGRESS_ - - By Principal _W. B. Selbie_, M.A. "The historical part is - brilliant in its insight, clarity, and proportion; and in - the later chapters Dr Selbie proves himself to be an ideal - exponent of sound and moderate views."--_Christian World._ - - _54. ETHICS_ - - By G. E. MOORE, M.A., Lecturer in Moral Science in Cambridge - University. "A very lucid though closely reasoned outline of - the logic of good conduct."--_Christian World._ - - _56. THE MAKING OF THE NEW TESTAMENT_ - - By Prof. B. W. BACON, LL.D., D.D. "Professor Bacon has - boldly, and wisely, taken his own line, and has produced, as - a result, an extraordinarily vivid, stimulating, and lucid - book."--_Manchester Guardian._ - - _60. MISSIONS: THEIR RISE and DEVELOPMENT_ - - By Mrs CREIGHTON. "Very interestingly done.... Its style is - simple, direct, unhackneyed, and should find appreciation - where a more fervently pious style of writing - repels."--_Methodist Recorder._ - - _68. COMPARATIVE RELIGION_ - - By Prof. J. ESTLIN CARPENTER, D.Litt., Principal of - Manchester College, Oxford. "Puts into the reader's hand a - wealth of learning and independent thought."--_Christian - World._ - - _74. A HISTORY OF FREEDOM OF THOUGHT_ - - By J. B. BURY, Litt.D., LL.D., Regius Professor of Modern - History at Cambridge. "A little masterpiece, which every - thinking man will enjoy."--_The Observer._ - - _84. LITERATURE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT_ - - By Prof. GEORGE MOORE, D.D., LL.D., of Harvard. A detailed - examination of the books of the Old Testament in the light - of the most recent research. - - - - -_Social Science_ - - _1. PARLIAMENT_ - - Its History, Constitution, and Practice. By Sir COURTENAY P. - ILBERT, G.C.B., K.C.S.I., Clerk of the House of Commons. - "The best book on the history and practice of the House of - Commons since Bagehot's 'Constitution.'"--_Yorkshire Post._ - - _5. THE STOCK EXCHANGE_ - - By F. W. HIRST, Editor of "The Economist." "To an - unfinancial mind must be a revelation.... The book is as - clear, vigorous, and sane as Bagehot's 'Lombard Street,' - than which there is no higher compliment."--_Morning - Leader._ - - _6. IRISH NATIONALITY_ - - By Mrs J. R. GREEN. "As glowing as it is learned. No book - could be more timely."--_Daily News._ - - _10. THE SOCIALIST MOVEMENT_ - - By J. RAMSAY MACDONALD, M.P. "Admirably adapted for the - purpose of exposition."--_The Times._ - - _11. CONSERVATISM_ - - By LORD HUGH CECIL, M.A., M.P. "One of those great little - books which seldom appear more than once in a - generation."--_Morning Post._ - - _16. THE SCIENCE OF WEALTH_ - - By J. A. HOBSON, M.A. "Mr J. A. Hobson holds an unique - position among living economists.... Original, reasonable, - and illuminating."--_The Nation._ - - _21. LIBERALISM_ - - By L. T. HOBHOUSE, M.A., Professor of Sociology in the - University of London. "A book of rare quality.... We have - nothing but praise for the rapid and masterly summaries of - the arguments from first principles which form a large part - of this book."--_Westminster Gazette._ - - _24. THE EVOLUTION OF INDUSTRY_ - - By D. H. MACGREGOR, M.A., Professor of Political Economy in - the University of Leeds. "A volume so dispassionate in terms - may be read with profit by all interested in the present - state of unrest."--_Aberdeen Journal._ - - _26. AGRICULTURE_ - - By Prof. W. SOMERVILLE, F.L.S. "It makes the results of - laboratory work at the University accessible to the - practical farmer."--_Athenĉum._ - - _30. ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH LAW_ - - By W. M. GELDART, M.A., B.C.L., Vinerian Professor of - English Law at Oxford. "Contains a very clear account of the - elementary principles underlying the rules of English - Law."--_Scots Law Times._ - - _38. THE SCHOOL: An Introduction to the Study of Education._ - - By J. J. FINDLAY, M.A., Ph.D., Professor of Education in - Manchester University. "An amazingly comprehensive - volume.... It is a remarkable performance, distinguished in - its crisp, striking phraseology as well as its inclusiveness - of subject-matter."--_Morning Post._ - - _59. ELEMENTS OF POLITICAL ECONOMY_ - - By S. J. CHAPMAN, M.A., Professor of Political Economy in - Manchester University. "Its importance is not to be measured - by its price. Probably the best recent critical exposition - of the analytical method in economic science."--_Glasgow - Herald._ - - _69. THE NEWSPAPER_ - - By G. BINNEY DIBBLEE, M.A. (Illustrated.) The best account - extant of the organisation of the newspaper press, at home - and abroad. - - _77. SHELLEY, GODWIN, AND THEIR CIRCLE_ - - By H. N. BRAILSFORD, M.A. "Mr Brailsford sketches vividly - the influence of the French Revolution on Shelley's and - Godwin's England; and the charm and strength of his style - make his book an authentic contribution to - literature."--_The Bookman._ - - _80. CO-PARTNERSHIP AND PROFIT-SHARING_ - - By ANEURIN WILLIAMS, M.A.--"A judicious but enthusiastic - history, with much interesting speculation on the future of - Co-partnership."--_Christian World._ - - _81. PROBLEMS OF VILLAGE LIFE_ - - By E. N. BENNETT, M.A. Discusses the leading aspects of the - British land problem, including housing, small holdings, - rural credit, and the minimum wage. - - _83. COMMON-SENSE IN LAW_ - - By Prof. P. VINOGRADOFF, D.C.L. - - _85. UNEMPLOYMENT_ - - By Prof. A. C. PIGOU, M.A. - - - - -IN PREPARATION - - _ANCIENT EGYPT._ By F. LL. GRIFFITH, M.A. - _THE ANCIENT EAST._ By D. G. HOGARTH, M.A., F.B.A. - _A SHORT HISTORY OF EUROPE._ By HERBERT FISHER, LL.D. - _THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE._ By NORMAN H. BAYNES. - _THE REFORMATION._ By President LINDSAY, LL.D. - _A SHORT HISTORY OF RUSSIA._ By Prof. MILYOUKOV. - _MODERN TURKEY._ By D. G. HOGARTH, M.A. - _FRANCE OF TO-DAY._ By ALBERT THOMAS. - _HISTORY OF SCOTLAND._ By Prof. R. S. RAIT, M.A. - _LATIN AMERICA._ By Prof. W. R. SHEPHERD. - _HISTORY AND LITERATURE OF SPAIN._ By J. FITZMAURICE-KELLY, F.B.A., - Litt. D. - _LATIN LITERATURE._ By Prof. J. S. PHILLIMORE. - _THE RENAISSANCE._ By Miss EDITH SICHEL. - _ITALIAN ART OF THE RENAISSANCE._ By ROGER E. FRY. - _LITERARY TASTE._ By THOMAS SECCOMBE. - _CHAUCER AND HIS TIME._ By Miss G. E. HADOW. - _WILLIAM MORRIS AND HIS CIRCLE._ By A. CLUTTON BROCK. - _SCANDINAVIAN HISTORY & LITERATURE._ By T. C. SNOW. - _THE MINERAL WORLD._ By Sir T. H. HOLLAND, K.C.I.E., D.Sc. - _SEX._ By Prof. J. A. THOMSON and Prof. PATRICK GEDDES. - _THE GROWTH OF EUROPE._ By Prof. GRENVILLE COLE. - _BETWEEN THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS._ By Canon R. H. CHARLES, D.D. - _A HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY._ By CLEMENT WEBB, M.A. - _POLITICAL THOUGHT IN ENGLAND: From Bacon to Locke._ By G. P. GOOCH, M.A. - _POLITICAL THOUGHT IN ENGLAND: From Bentham to J. S. Mill._ By Prof. - W. L. DAVIDSON. - _POLITICAL THOUGHT IN ENGLAND: From Herbert Spencer to To-day._ By - ERNEST BARKER, M.A. - _THE CRIMINAL AND THE COMMUNITY._ By Viscount ST. CYRES. - _THE CIVIL SERVICE._ By GRAHAM WALLAS, M.A. - _THE SOCIAL SETTLEMENT._ By JANE ADDAMS and R. A. WOODS. - _GREAT INVENTIONS._ By Prof. J. L. MYRES, M.A., F.S.A. - _TOWN PLANNING._ By RAYMOND UNWIN. - - - London: WILLIAMS AND NORGATE - - _And of all Bookshops and Bookstalls._ - - - * * * * * - -Transcriber's note: - -Minor typographical errors and inconsistencies have been silently -normalized except for the following: - -Page 27: "eighth century and Judah in the beginning of the sixth". -"of" has been added. - -Page 100: "saying much more that the facts warrant". "that" has been -changed to "than". - -Page 139: "the festiva of Purim". "festiva" has been changed to -"festival". - -Page 224: "the editor thought that Ps. cxxv i. 1 referred to the -building of the temple". "cxxv i" has been changed to "cxxvii" which -according to the context appears to be intended. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Literature of the Old Testament, by -George Foot Moore - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITERATURE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT *** - -***** This file should be named 40173-8.txt or 40173-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/0/1/7/40173/ - -Produced by Delphine Lettau, Julia Neufeld and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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